Video Game / Midnight Suns

Marvel's Midnight Suns is a tactical RPG based on the Marvel Comics property of nearly the same name, developed by Firaxis Games in collaboration with Marvel Games. It was released on PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Microsoft Windows, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X|S on December 2, 2022.

Loosely based on the Rise of the Midnight Sons comic storyline, you play as Canon Foreigner "the Hunter", a superhero from the 1600s and the child of Lillith, Mother of All Demons. The Hunter fought Lilith once before, which ended in a Mutual Kill. When Lilith is brought back to life in the present day by the villainous organization Hydra, the Hunter is resurrected to join the newly-formed Supernatural Team "The Midnight Suns" and take down Lilith once and for all.

Gameplay-wise, it's a Turn-Based Tactics game where you fight large groups of enemies using cards that represent superheroes' abilities. As characters win battles, they gain more and stronger cards and you choose which ones they bring on a mission. In-between battles, you spend a lot of time talking to your teammates and trying to increase your 'friendship levels' with them, which will further strengthen their combat abilities.

Playable characters

Base game

• The Hunter
• Iron Man
• Doctor Strange
• Captain Marvel (Carol Danvers)
• Blade
• Nico Minoru
• Ghost Rider (Robbie Reyes)
• Magik
• Spider-Man
• Captain America
• Wolverine
• Scarlet Witch
• The Hulk

DLC characters, and their corresponding chapters

• Deadpool - The Good, The Bad and The Undead
• Venom - Redemption
• Morbius - The Hunger
• Storm - Blood Storm

A series of animated prequel videos began airing on the game's YouTube channel in October 2022. Here is the playlist for them all.

Marvel released a comic series, Midnight Suns (2022), to accompany the game. This version uses the same title and many of the same characters as the game.

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Marvel's Midnight Suns contains examples of:

Tropes #-F

• Achilles' Heel: Even in demonic form, Venom still has their traditional weakness to loud noises. Spider-Man uses this to drive Venom off by webbing a microphone to a museum's speaker system and generating extremely intense feedback.
• Actor Allusion: Tony Stark/Iron Man speaks fondly of Peter Parker/Spider-Man on several occasions, and seems to be familiar with his work prior to Spidey's recruitment into the Suns; while they likely worked together In-Universe before, it could also be a reference to the fact that Tony's voice actor in this game, Josh Keaton, previously voiced the Web-head in The Spectacular Spider-Man.
• Adaptational Backstory Change: While most of the characters have backstories close to their comic book counterparts, there have been a few liberties taken in the game's continuity:
  • First, the Midnight Suns themselves are a permanent team with the Abbey as their home base and Caretaker as their mentor/Mission Control, whereas in the comics the team is only formed on a temporary basis, thus explaining why the members have such a familial bond here.
  • The Scarlet Witch, rather than having history with Magneto and the Avengers, was recruited directly to the Midnight Suns, hence why the Suns and not the Avengers see her as a close personal friend.
  • Captain Marvel's background is lifted from the movies rather than the comics, with no mention of Rogue or a male Mar-Vell, and having lived among the Kree for a while.
  • Ghost Rider has apparently always known his powers come from a Spirit of Vengeance, completely omitting the pre-Retcon period where he was also possessed by the spirit of his Evil Uncle Eli Morrow and believed him to be the source of his powers (though Robbie does mention having an uncle at one point).
  • Downplayed with Magik. Her backstory isn't changed much (when she tells Hunter how she first claimed Limbo, she basically summarizes her 1983 miniseries), but the demon sorcerer who corrupted her was changed to Mephisto rather than Belasco. This was likely done to bring her in line with the other Suns, since Belasco is primarily an X-Men villain.
  • While Blade retains his current film-inspired appearance, he retains his pre-Retcon origin of being born in England, not New York, as well as having gotten his vampiric powers from being bitten by Morbius instead of being born with them (which Blade claims is the case out of embarrassment).
• Adaptational Nice Guy: A number of the characters are generally friendlier than their 616 counterparts.
  • Magick is considerably less hostile and standoffish to other characters. Indeed, they can form a powerful and long-lasting bond with the Hunter as well as the Midnight Suns as a whole. She is also possessed of Adaptational Heroism as she's firmly on the side of good.
  • Eddie Brock AKA Venom is a lot nicer to Peter Parker, willing to bury their nightmarish history and team up against Lilith. He is also firmly in his "Lethal Protector" mode, being someone that is considered a merely more ruthless brand of hero when not under mind control.
  • A curious example with Peter Parker of all people, who normally doesn't need this kind of upgrade. Peter is normally very averse to revealing his secret identity and his attempts to join teams are usually failures with the exception of brief stints in the Fantastic Four and Avengers. Here, he reveals his identity early on and is interested in becoming a Midnight Sun permanently.
  • Nico Minrou is usually very distrustful of adults and fearful of being manipulated. Here, she's fully put herself under the control of the Caretaker. It's a Downplayed Trope example, though, because she quickly becomes the most resistant to Caretaker's control.
• Adaptation Name Change: The Midnight Suns were originally known as the Midnight Sons in the comics. The name change here suits the team, which has more gender parity than the source material.
• Age Lift: Nico Minoru, Magick, and Robbie Reyes are the other Midnight Suns and established as being in their twenties. This may not necessarily apply to Blade but certainly ages the Runaways and X-Men leader significantly.
• All There in the Manual: Those who play the video game may be confused about why Doctor Strange is trying to get Johnny Blaze's help at the beginning when Blaze is a retired superhero who's not extremely powerful. However, the first animated trailer shows that Caretaker had already told Strange that Blaze has the Parchment of Power, and asked for his help getting it back if Lilith returned.
• All Your Base Are Belong to Us: Lilith's forces take over both Avengers Tower and Doctor Strange's Sanctum.
• Always Someone Better: In a very direct example, Sabretooth is introduced with the subtitle "The 2nd best there is at what he does!"... and about thirty seconds later in comes Wolverine, "The best there is at what he does!"
• A Nazi by Any Other Name: With their logos, iconography, and in-universe history, Hydra is still very much a bunch of Third Reich goons.
• And Your Reward Is Clothes: Playing on higher difficulties makes you earn "Gloss" faster, which is used to buy clothing items for the heroes and furniture for the Hunter's room.
• Answers to the Name of God: When Lilith breaches the Sanctum Sanctorum's wards, Wanda utters a horrified "Oh, God", and Lilith, smirking, replies "Exactly".
• Anti Anti Christ: Hunter is actually meant to be a host for Chthon entering the world, Chthon having obviously planned to betray Lilith from the beginning with an Exact Words Deal with the Devil. Your collar is the only thing that can keep the Elder God at bay.
• Anti-Frustration Features:
  • Every Balance-affecting dialogue choice also has a third, unaligned option. You get No Points for Neutrality but this option will also never upset a teammate, allowing the player to avoid any aligned statements they don't like without the risk of lowering Relationship Values.
  • During combat, once a character has moved, they are able to move as many times as they want so long as they don't play a card or interact with the environment. This allows the player to fine-tune that character's position without wasting valuable movement resources.
• Anti-Regeneration: Sabretooth's Healing Factor lets him quickly recover from being slashed by the Hunter's swords, but when he grabs the Hunter and tries to take a bite out of them, their collar zaps him with eldritch energies, inflicting burns which he cannot heal.
• Arbitrary Headcount Limit: You can only bring three heroes on a mission, for no apparent reason. More than three will join some story missions, but only three will be on the battlefield at a time.
• Armor-Piercing Attack: Supervillains such as Venom, Sabretooth, and Crossbones can bypass the Resist status altogether and damage heroes as if they never had it.
• Artifact of Doom: The plot provides three notable ones.
  • First is the Darkhold, a book containing the dark magics of Chthon which is used to resurrect and empower Lilith.
  • The second is a late-game addition: the Godkiller, a dagger made from a piece of Chthon himself. The weapon does exactly what its name implies. Doctor Strange notes that it might be able to kill literally anything, which considering the nature of the Marvel universe, is really saying something.
  • The Deadpool DLC adds the Magna Corrigo, an ancient vampire relic that is said to nullify all the traditional weaknesses of vampires. Dracula sends Sin to retrieve it, but it gets destroyed by Deadpool.
• Ascended Meme: In the trailer announcing the DLC characters, Deadpool refers to Morbius as "Dr. Morbin' Time!" The meme is also referenced in the game, as the Hunter asks Morbius if his catchphrase is "It's time to Morb!"
• Asshole Victim: Hiram Shaw. If the Hunter pursues the Abbey Grounds mysteries, it is eventually revealed that he was behind the Salem witch trials and personally put many women to death (whose bones are still scattered around the grounds). Eventually, Dr. Strange and the Hunter find a cave behind his church where he was magically trapped inside, left to starve to death. Even the heroes think he had it coming.
• Astral Projection: Doctor Strange's Astral Meditation card has him briefly project his consciousness out of his body to meditate on the astral plane, granting the party various benefits in the process.
• Auto-Revive: A variant. When Wolverine goes down, the player will automatically draw a special Heroic card which can revive him and restore a decent amount of his health. This can only happen once in any given fight, however.
• Awesome, but Impractical: Hunter's Summon Charlie and Magik's Reinforcement let you temporarily summon another character as an additional party member. Unfortunately, you won't get any additional card plays to use their abilities meaning you spent heroism and cards just to bring out a temporary meat shield. Especially the case for Charlie as her deck isn't customisable.
• Back from the Dead: The Hunter gave their life to defeat Lilith in the past. They get resurrected in the present day to deal with Lilith once more.
• Background Boss: The second boss fight against Fallen Venom has them spend the first part on a rooftop, hurling junk at the heroes who are running around at street level. They don't come down to take them on personally until their Hydra flunkies have been dealt with and the trapped civilians have been rescued.
• Battle Aura: Captain Marvel glows with red cosmic energy while she's in Binary mode.
• The Battle Didn't Count: When you first fight a corrupted Scarlet Witch, you have to defeat them like any other opponent to progress the level. But even if you handily whoop their ass, a cutscene shows your heroes getting tossed around like Sunday salad and having to flee.
• Big Damn Heroes: Spider-Man and Wolverine are introduced by having them narrowly save the Hunter from getting torn to pieces by Venom and Sabretooth, respectively.
• Blade Spam: Many of Wolverine's cards have him quickly and repeatedly slash his target(s) with his claws. His ultimate card, Midnight Special, combines this with Speed Blitz as he zips from one foe to the next, slashing each victim more times than the last.
• Blinded by Rage: Even after being corrupted into a fanatical servant of Lilith, Venom hates Spider-Man so much that just seeing the webslinger is enough to make them drop whatever they're doing and chase after Spider-Man in a blind rage. Spidey exploits this to lure Venom to a bell tower (Venom being harmed by loud noises); they're so fixated on catching and killing Spider-Man that they don't even realize where they are until the bells start ringing.
• Blow You Away: Doctor Strange's "Winds of Watoomb" card conjures a small tornado to pick up an enemy and throw them at something.
• Bittersweet Ending: Ultimately the heroes do manage to prevent the prophecy of the Midnight Sun and save the world but both the Hunter and a repentant Lilith are lost in the process, still bound by the magic of the Darkhold. On the other hand, they have the most powerful magic users in the Marvel universe searching for a way to bring them back so their situation isn't entirely hopeless either. On the other other hand, the Darkhold has been claimed by Doctor Doom, who no doubt has his own sinister plans for the cursed tome.
• Boss Subtitles: Almost every character is introduced with a freeze-frame giving their name and description, the latter usually being some kind of joke.
  JOHNNY BLAZE: Original Ghost Rider. Doesn't like you either.
• Bottomless Pits: Magik's "Banish" card will temporarily replace one enemy or ally with a "drop", a portal on the floor. Other enemies can then be pushed into the drop via knockback, potentially inflicting a One-Hit KO.
  • Ghost Rider can replace himself with a portal to hell for a turn, or create one on a select part of the battlefield.
• Breaking the Fourth Wall: Deadpool, as is the norm with him. He first made his presence known in mid-October 2022, hijacking Midnight Suns' social media accounts in an attempt to get into the game, which ultimately succeeded.
• Breath Weapon: Ghost Rider's "Judgment" card has him breathe fire on his target, damaging them and all adjacent enemies.
• Bus Crash: One Hero Op requires Ghost Rider (Robbie) to investigate an individual out in the desert that also seems to have a flame on their head and vehicle with burning wheels; it turns out to be the ghost of Daniel Ketch, the second Ghost Rider, having somehow been killed by the villain Blackout.
• But for Me, It Was Tuesday: Done regarding a hero's past poor actions, rather than a villain's. During the Shop Class sidequest it comes out in an argument between Robbie and Tony that pre-character growth Tony once did a hostile takeover of a factory that employed most of the people in Robbie's hometown, making a big show of planning a shiny new technology center that never actually got built, leaving the people jobless and in time causing the neighborhood to become a crime-ridden hellhole. This event defined Robbie's life and everyone he knews, to the point where he can recall the exact things Tony said that day, but Tony has zero memory of it and steps on a landmine when he repeats a catchphrase from that day while muscling Robbie out of his own think tank. When he apologizes, Tony realizes it was even worse: not only does he still not remember, having to do research, but the technology center was at the time just a big lie he made to satisfy his shareholders in a slick business move and promptly forgot about, now thus to his horror knowing this means he nigh-destroyed Robbie's neighborhood for no reason whatsoever.
• Can't Drop the Hero: The Hunter must be on the squad for all story missions; side missions have a random ally as the Required Party Member instead.
• Car Fu: Ghost Rider's "Hell Ride" card has him summon his car and run over all enemies in his path for massive damage.
• Cast from Hit Points:
  • Captain America has a variation of this. Several of his attacks will consume some, or all, of his Block meter when used, making them inflict extra damage but leaving him more vulnerable to attack.
  • Ghost Rider is a more conventional example. He has several Heroic cards, like "Judgment" and "Penance Stare", which inflict tremendous damage but consume a large chunk of his health. The more health he has when he uses these abilities, the more damage they will inflict.
  • Later in the story, Lilin Guardians will appear, with the power to create a rock shield which draws from their pool of hitpoints. It regenerates every round, but also weakens as the guardian continues to injure themselves to create it.
• Character Select Forcing: For non-story missions, you can choose any two party members to join one Required Party Member. However, one of those two slots will almost always be taken up by the Hunter, as you can only obtain friendship EXP for the other party members if the Hunter is also present in the party.
• Charged Attack:
  • Several of Iron Man's cards will do extra damage if you expend a redraw before playing them. The more redraws you use on them, the more damage these attacks will inflict.
  • Some of Doctor Strange's Heroic cards can be "Enhanced" by paying extra Heroism when you play them. Strange's ultimate attack is one such card, and it can be Enhanced this way multiple times to deal massive damage.
  • The Hydra Marksman can perform this against a hero. On the first turn, they will scope in on a hero, debuff them, and go invisible. On the second turn, unless Knocked Out or Stunned, they will fire. The damage dealt is enough to One Hit KO most heroes.
• Charge Meter:
  • The game features a Heroism meter which builds up as the player successfully attacks enemy units. This meter can be spent to play Heroics, very powerful cards that produce flashy cinematic attacks.
  • Ghost Rider has a Souls meter which fills up as he defeats enemies. Once it's full, he can spend it to play Drain Soul, a life-stealing area-of-effect attack which gets stronger every time it's used.
• Chest Blaster: Iron Man's most powerful attack is Hellfire Beam, which has him fire concentrated hellfire from his chest like a Wave-Motion Gun.
• Civvie Spandex: Unlike most of the superheroes, Nico does not have a special costume for going into battle, instead she just wears her default outfit and a leather jacket.
• Collapsing Lair: In true superhero tradition, 'Tomb of Dracula', the Grand Finale of the DLC missions, ends with one of these. There's much less tension and peril associated with this trope than usual, since the heroes (as ever) have Magik's portals on speed dial and casually stroll out while eyeing the destruction, but it is useful for clearing up most of the remaining mooks in the area.
• Company Cross References:
  • An event can occur in the abbey where you can find Spider-Man and Wolverine playing a retro game together that apparently features Captain America, but not Thor; possibly a reference to Data East's Captain America and the Avengers. Spidey also mentions that, one day, both he and Wolverine are likely going to be video game stars, referencing both Spider-Man (PS4) and the in-development Wolverine game, both by Insomniac Games.
  • Several of the Hero Ops reference Marvel books that were ongoing at the time of the game's development; for instance, Reese and the Midnight Mission from Moon Knight (2021) are referenced in the Hero Op "Kidnapped and Confused".
• Composite Character:
  • In this game, Mephisto takes Belasco's role as the demon who kidnapped a young Illyana Rasputin and who formerly ruled Limbo until Illyana drove him out.
  • Caretaker has the age (both actual and apparent) and similar background of the original Caretaker, yet her gender and name comes from the original's granddaughter and successor, Sister Sara. She also lives in an Abbey, and comics Sara is a former nun.
  • Tony Stark has the hair and moustache of his classic comics version, but the Stark Industries logo, constant jokes, and arc reactor in his chest of the MCU version. He shares the Control Freak tendencies of both.
• Contractual Boss Immunity: Supervillains like Venom and Sabretooth have a passive trait which lets them recover from certain status ailments very quickly. They also have two health bars in story mission boss fights, but only one when they join as reinforcements for regular encounters. And if you get them to zero in those, they just Villain: Exit, Stage Left. When one says "Mother won't let me die," they are not kidding.
• Control Freak: Tony, as an inventor and CEO, is used to being the smartest guy in the room and having everyone do what he says to solve problems. He is way out of his area of expertise with the supernatural events of the story, and this freaks him out a lot. A subplot involves him joining Peter & Robbie's tinkering sessions and slipping into taking over those as well.
• Cool Car: 'The Hellride' is a jet-black muscle car that Ghost Rider uses in battle, and spends most of his free time working on. Considering one of his special moves involves lighting the car on fire and running people over, the maintenance is probably well-needed.
• Counter-Attack: The Counter status, which makes the affected character retaliate against anyone who damages them for an entire turn. Captain Marvel's passive trait gives her a low chance to gain this status whenever she defeats an enemy.
• Critical Hit Class: One of the Hunter's cards, Wrath, is a status buff which ensures that all their currently drawn cards, and all the Hunter cards drawn in the next two turns, will deal critical damage when played.
• Crosshair Aware: Certain missions involve a projectile or gunfire coming down on part of the map each turn; this is marked the turn before with a red circle. You can use this to your advantage by knocking enemies into the danger zone, and sometimes incoming reinforcements will run right in themselves.
• Damage Over Time: Blade specializes in inflicting Bleed on his enemies, making them take damage at the end of their turns.
• Dash Attack: Captain America's ultimate ability, Shield Charge, has him brace his shield and charge forward, ploughing through all enemies in a lengthy line.
• Deal with the Devil: "The Salem Sisters" reveals that Lilith tried to cure her infant child of the plague by performing a sinister ritual from the Darkhold. When Lilith's sister disrupted the ritual, the Darkhold's master, Chthon, offered to spare the child's life in exchange for Lilith's soul. Lilith agreed, and years later Chthon would transform her into a demon.
• Death or Glory Attack: Captain Marvel's Rain of Blows. This attack consumes all of your Heroism to deal extremely high damage to a single target, while also removing all of Carol's Block (and thus knocking her out of Binary mode). A well-timed use of this ability can end a fight, but a poorly-timed use will leave Carol a sitting duck and you unable to play your other Heroic cards.
• Defeat Equals Explosion: Ghost Rider's "Immolate" status buff makes any enemy he kills for the next two turns explode in a giant fireball. These explosions damage nearby enemies and can potentially trigger a chain reaction of explosions.
• Degraded Boss: After you defeat a supervillain in a boss battle, they will occasionally show up as reinforcements on normal missions, though in a weaker form.
• Demonic Possession: The Hunter gets possessed by Chthon at the climax of the game, becoming part of the final boss fight.
• Demon of Human Origin: Lilith was once a human witch living in Salem during the time of the witch trials. She became a demon as the result of a Deal with the Devil.
• Demoted to Extra: On a temporary basis. For most story missions, you have to use the Hunter, one Required Party Member, and then a third character of your choice. Instead of making different cutscenes for each third party member, Firaxis just has them follow the Hunter around with small, generic animations and say nothing. This does lead to some funny Forgot About His Powers moments, such as when the Hulk knocks the party off a cliff in "Backdoor" and flying heroes will just let themselves fall.
• Deus ex Machina: The "Godkiller" dagger, which is one of the only things capable of killing gods (duh) and was invented by Firaxis for this game, conveniently gets learned about just as the heroes have run out of ideas on how to defeat Lilith.
• Developer's Foresight: As the Hunter explores the Abbey grounds, they accumulate various Words of Power that allow them to access new areas. If you use the words in areas where they won't do anything, Hunter will normally go through the animation before sheepishly noting that the gods are either busy or cannot help when nothing happens. However, if the player attempts to use the words in the barracks where the other party members sleep - and only in the barracks - Hunter will flat-out refuse to do so, either because they don't want to intrude on their teammates' privacy (Open), there's nothing to find there (Reveal), there is no corruption present in the Abbey (Purify), or they don't want to break anything there (Break).
• Diegetic Character Creation: Character customization is justified as the Caretaker giving Doctor Strange a clear vision of what Hunter (the player character) looks like, to lower the chance of him accidentally bringing the wrong soul into the body.
• Didn't See That Coming: As far as those who know about the status know at the game's start, there is no way to cure a Fallen. Once a victim is turned, they are completely enthralled to Lilith's will in body and soul, and not even death would return them to normal. So the fact that Hunter is able to actually find a cure for being Fallen takes everyone by surprise.
• Discard and Draw: During the final battle, the Hunter's collar is broken by Lilith. In gameplay, this translates to the Hunter losing access to their collar passives for the duration of the fight, but gaining hugely boosted damage and health.
• Draw Aggro: The Taunt effect forces an enemy to target you on their next turn. It's mostly used by Captain America and Captain Marvel in conjunction with their Block-generating abilities to effectively neuter enemy attacks.
• Dude, Not Funny!: Banner tells the team that he’s not feeling himself, and Tony snarks that this should be normal. Carol shoves Tony and tells him “Shut up!”
• Easter Egg: During the final boss fight, Uatu the Watcher can be seen observing the battle from the far background.
• Edge Gravity: A mook's chance of being knocked off a ledge increases as their hit points decrease. Heroes and Supervillains cannot be knocked off ledges during battle at all.
• The Enemy Gate Is Down: On several mission types, clearing the battlefield is 'not' a requirement. As long as one hero is standing when the victory condition is met, the team escapes. Caretaker will even remind the hero 'not' to waste time on the mooks.
• Even Evil Has Standards: The Hydra soldiers under Crossbones' command noticeably hesitate when they think he's ordering them to fire on panicked Transian civilians. Even Crossbones has his limits. He may have no qualms about massacring civilians, but apparently has a change of heart about the apocalypse just before the end. After battling him in Transia, he gives the heroes a USB drive with information on the critical weapon needed to defeat Lilith, right before his Disney Villain Death.
• Evil Counterpart:
  • The HYDRA Officer looks very similar to Captain America, and is also a leader with an unusual melee weapon. Except the Officer uses whips, not a shield, constantly debuffs the good guys, and drives his subordinates to sacrifice themselves in battle. Steve defends from the front, and draws aggro to protect others. It's almost like HYDRA specifically based their Officers on their greatest foe, like a twisted compliment.
  • Cap has another counterpart with his nemesis Crossbones. The latter is a selfish, amoral mercenary instead of a heroic soldier, and while he can work with a team, he's not really a team player, much less a leader. Cap uses just his shield and fists, while Crossbones' arsenal includes a rifle, a mechanized gauntlet, grenades, and HYDRA-themed shield (which only protects himself).
  • And third, the HYDRA Shieldguard is a guard with a riot shield. They're usually standing still and protecting objectives and teammates, while Cap is a highly mobile fighter who actively draws aggro. The Shieldguard's attacks are a Shield Bash that Dazes and damages enemies, and a gadget-powered punch. The Lilin have their own version; a monster that sacrifices its own health to generate a shield.
• Evil Is Not a Toy: Lilith swiftly dominates Hydra's minds and makes them a cult in her service after resurrection.
• Evil Matriarch: Lilith, the so-called Mother of All Demons. Not only does she carry herself like a mother figure at all times, and brainwash people to call her "Mother", she is also the Hunter's mother and often claims to be trying to help them. The Hunter doesn't buy it.
• Face–Monster Turn: Lilith's brainwashing powers can corrupt even iconic superheroes to her side, and usually turns them into uneloquent rampagers.
• Family of Choice: Although Sara is the Hunter's aunt and surrogate mother, Hunter can eventually say that they consider Sara their true mother.
• Fair for Its Day: An in-universe example. When Wolverine suggests a cheesy 1940s sci-fi pulp novel for the Abbey's book club, Blade braces for impact. He's surprised and delighted when there turns out to be no impact to brace for, and the author's progressive attitudes on race and gender do a lot to draw him into the story.
• Fight Like a Card Player: The heroes' abilities are represented by cards. The player is dealt a hand of these cards during combat and can play a card to activate its corresponding ability.
• Five-Second Foreshadowing:
  • At the beginning of the game when the heroes learn that the Sanctum Sanctorum's protective wards are being weakened Strange exclaims that "nothing on Earth" should be able to affect the wards. The following battle quickly reveals the source: Fallen Venom, a threat quite literally not of Earth.
  • During the Avengers Tower battle, Rumlow explicitly calls the heroes "suckers", and the first thing he does is respond to Bruce on the comms. At the end of the battle, we learn he's working with Bruce to trick the heroes.
• Foreshadowing:
  • After rescuing him, Bruce Banner will reveal that Lillith could attack the Abbey at any time and chose not to. This foreshadows the reveal in the final mission that her plan was never to wipe out the Midnight Suns.
  • In the stinger, Dr. Doom reveals that he was working on his own scheme the entire time, when he collects the Darkhold and sneers that the others are "amateurs." There are very few hints about this in the base game, but in the DLC chapters Deadpool outright states that Dr. Doom is on the trail of infernal artifacts and hired him to steal from Sin.
• Frothy Mugs of Water: The Abbey has a bar, but the game makes a specific point of noting there is no alcohol. Tony Stark admits he can't be around it because of his former alcoholism. One of the gifts for Wolverine is a set of Root Beers for the same reason.
• Fun with Acronyms:
  • One subplot has Nico, Dr. Strange and Magik form a spellcasting collective to try and unlock the Hunter's memories. Nico calls it the Esoteric Mystical Order Knights of Intellect and Dimensional Spiritualism: i.e the EMO KIDS. A Superlink conversation can reveal that they originally wanted to call it GOTH NITE: The Greater Order of Thoughts Hermetic: Nerds Interpreting Thaumaturgical Esoterica - which even they note was atrocious.
  • When Deadpool's invited back to the Abbey, he says he'll be DLC and the Hunter asks what that means. Deadpool responds as only he can: "Deadpool Living Comfortably!"

Tropes G-R

• Game-Breaking Bug: It's since been patched, but for a while, the Venom DLC accidentally changed the order that card effects are resolved in. This was mostly a minor issue, meaning that certain cards don't properly apply all their effects when used, but it also rendered a main story mission impossible to complete. 'The Witch of Wundagore Mountain' is supposed to end with you using the Scarlet Witch's 'No More' ultimate to suicide-bomb the otherwise-invincible Fallen Hulk. Problem is that with the changed effect order, No More knocks out Wanda before it knocks out the Hulk, meaning that using it instantly failed the mission instead.
• Gameplay and Story Integration: Posts on the in-game social media app Superlink can tell you about what a hero likes and dislikes; for example, Spider-Man will at one point post that he enjoys stargazing, and will enjoy that type of hangout more than others.
• Gameplay and Story Segregation:
  • When you first meet Blade, he'll be reluctant to tell you his real name until he trusts you more (that is, you have to raise his friendship level). However, the game's map interface tells you right off the bat that it's Eric Brooks.
    • Similarly, Spider-Man doesn't reveal his secret identity until a while after recruitment, but right away people will address him as "Peter" in Superlink comments.
  • The Hunter's battle dialogue in the finale is unchanged, even after Lilith is mortally wounded and revealed as no longer the threat. The Hunter will continue saying things like "Lilith must really want me gone."
  • If a hero takes too much damage during a battle, they'll incur an injury that takes the form of an unplayable card in their deck, alongside a penalty at the start of a mission if you decide to select them while injured. This makes sense for heroes such as Nico and Iron Man, who are just baseline humans with magic and super-tech respectively; it makes far less sense for characters with Healing Factors such as Wolverine and Deadpool, let alone Captain Marvel, who has Nigh-Invulnerability as one of her powers.
  • Deadpool's Healing Factor has been a central superpower of his since his introduction, and is even demonstrated in cutscenes here, where Blade runs him through with his sword in order to kill a vampyre on the other side of him; despite this, Deadpool's healing doesn't actually work mechanically until you get Level 2 Friendship with him, which unlocks his passive.
  • The "Backdoor" mission sees the Hunter and Wolverine infiltrating the tunnels beneath Mount Wundagore to learn more about Project Gottmorder, a pet project of the Red Skull. While briefing them on the mission, Captain America comments that, given the connection to his sworn enemy during the war, he'd like to accompany them, but he needs to stay behind to finish decrypting Crossbones' data drive. Following this, however, there's nothing stopping the player from choosing Steve as their third party member regardless.
  • As a member of the Fallen, the Scarlet Witch has several knockback effects, to the point where one of the items you can get from Shop Class to counter her, the Reality Anchor, is meant to prevent knockback on a specific character. After she's Promoted to Playable in the middle of Act II, she doesn't have any knockback cards in her starting lineup.
  • Captain Marvel is noted to be by far the most physically powerful member of the team (until The Hulk joins you), but her Awesome, but Impractical Binary mechanic makes her one of the less powerful heroes in practice. If played as a tank she will never be able to stay in her high-damage Binary state on any but the lowest difficulties, and all of her taunt cards will get in the way of playing her as a damage dealer since she needs to avoid damage in order to deal much of it.
  • While sunlight isn't lethal to Morbius, it still debilitates him enough to the point that a serum he developed to make him immune to its effects getting stolen by HYDRA forms the plot of his DLC. However, there is nothing stopping you from taking Morbius into major fights in broad daylight and putting him in Combat Therapy will have him lounge in the pool in swim trunks like everyone else.
• Gasp of Life: Hunter's first reaction upon regaining consciousness post-resurrection is to take a long, sharp intake of breath.
  Hunter: The air is so cold... but my lungs burn with every breath. Has it been so long?
• Gathering Steam: Deadpool's playstyle revolves around his "En Fuego" system. He has a meter that fills as he damages enemies; once it's full, he gains a stack of the En Fuego buff, and the meter resets. Most of his cards get more powerful based on the number of En Fuego stacks he currently has.
• Genre Mashup: While the core gameplay is nothing too out there, a lot of systems exist simultaneously here and probably nowhere else in the same combination]]. This is a turn-based deckbuilding comic book superhero non-romantic non-dating simulator, with a hefty dose of (optional) peaceful exploration.
• Glowing Eyes of Doom: Lilith has glowing green eyes, as do her demons and anyone she corrupts. Those under the control of Chthon get glowing red or purple eyes.
• Grievous Harm with a Body: Part of Spidey's Web Throw attack involves snaring an enemy on a line of web and swinging them around like a wrecking ball to batter nearby foes.
• Ground-Shattering Landing: The Hulk's ultimate attack, "Worldbreaker", has him set his arms on fire, jump into the air, and smash the ground with so much force that the entire battlefield shatters, dealing massive damage and knockback to all enemies and interactable objects.
• Healing Factor: Wolverine's passive skill is his iconic healing factor. It restores some health to him each time you draw one of his cards when redrawing. Deadpool's passive skill is likewise a healing factor, though in his case it functions as constant Gradual Regeneration.
• Hero of Another Story: The Hero Ops are offscreen missions that involve other superheroes or heroic organizations reaching out to the Midnight Suns and requesting their help with their own problems in fending off Lilith's demonic invasion. The player can send any team member (except the Hunter, as well as some mission-specific exceptions) to lend a hand.
• His Name Is...: The Midnight Suns capture Doctor Faustus and interrogate him for information on Lilith's plans. He's about to start talking, but then gets shot dead by Crossbones.
• His Name Really Is "Barkeep": The Hunter. Lampshaded in a conversation with Blade:
  Hunter: Is your name really "Blade"?
  Blade: Is your name really "The Hunter"?
  Hunter: ...yes?
• Horns of Villainy: In addition to Lilith's design incorporating horns, anyone under her control grows horns to match hers. Notably, she is shown mind-controlling Venom, Sabretooth, Scarlet Witch and the Hulk, who are all typically Anti Heroes at worst (except Sabretooth) and do not conventionally have horns. At high dark levels of Balance you unlock a rather over-the-top demon horn helmet for the Hunter that matches the aesthetic of the Fallen-style horns.
• 100% Completion: As of 2023, impossible on PC without mods. A bug prevents one of the Hunter armors and the associated passive from appearing. As the developers have abandoned the game less than a year after release, this seems unlikely to be fixed.
• Improvised Weapon: The game features environmental attacks, which have the heroes use nearby objects to attack enemies, such as kicking a sofa, throwing rocks, or toppling light posts.
• Insurmountable Waist-Height Fence: During the exploration part of the game, the Hunter cannot jump or climb, making any sort of obstacle impassable, from fences to small rocks or ledges. This is especially funny considering they can leap 50 feet in the air during combat missions.
• Interface Spoiler: The mission where you first meet Wolverine and Sabertooth is presented as a normal random "eliminate Hydra agents" mission, with the sudden arrival of Wolverine and Sabertooth at the end of the first phase intended to be a surprise. However, the mission is clearly labeled as a story mission, has the usual extended intro for story missions, and has the Hunter as a required character (which only story missions do), so few players are likely to be fooled by the random mission trappings.
• It Only Works Once:
  • Certain cards have the Exhaust property, meaning that they can only be used once in any given battle. These cards are usually very powerful.
  • The special "Haven" spots you find around the Abbey grounds can only be used for one hangout per playthrough.
• Kent Brockman News: Both the Daily Bugle and a news source called WHIH have stories reposted on the Superlink app, often commentating on plot-relevant events; for instance, after the Sanctum Sanctorum is lost, the Daily Bugle will speculate that Strange is attempting insurance fraud.
• Late Character Syndrome: The Hulk/Bruce Banner joins the group late in the third act and, as a result, they receive no friendship levels or hangouts with Hunter. Instead, their ultimate ability and costume are unlocked by completing a particular research project.
• The Legions of Hell: Lilith is served by an army of demons known as the Lilin.
• Level-Up at Intimacy 5: Having the Hunter befriend specific heroes will make that hero gain a passive trait which benefits their gameplay style. This trait can then be upgraded by continuing to build the Hunter's relationship with that hero. For example, Captain America's passive lets him start each battle with a certain amount of Block, and when upgraded it lets him generate extra Block at the start of every turn.
• Life Drain: Some of Wolverine's cards having a life-stealing effect, which is meant to represent his famous Healing Factor. Blade can also do this using his vampiric powers, as can one of Ghost Rider's cards. Some item cards let you add this to all of a hero's damaging attacks. Nico has a variation: an attack that heals a random party member if the attack K Os its target.
• Living Weapon: The Godkiller is implied to be this, causing it to glow brightly whenever the Hunter draws near.
• Loophole Abuse: The trials of the Elder Gods take place in a pocket dimension that only the challenger and the servants of the gods can enter. However, the Hunter's pet Charlie is a hellhound, one of the species created by the Elder Gods, so Charlie can also enter the trial dimension and then aid the Hunter.
• Luck Manipulation Mechanic: Iron Man's gameplay style revolves around drawing extra cards from his deck, so you can stuff your hand with as many Iron Man cards as possible. Many of his cards also get powered up if you redraw before playing them, further encouraging this. This may represent Tony's egotism and intelligence, mechanically.
• Macross Missile Massacre: Iron Man's Air Superiority card has him bombard the battlefield with volleys of missiles, damaging all enemies.
• Magic A Is Magic A: It's implied that teleportation is a very rare/difficult spell to master. Even a seasoned sorcerer like Dr. Strange or Caretaker can't pull it off consistently, at least with the disruptions of magical energy caused by Lilith's return. Hence why the Midnight Suns' mode of transportation is Illyana, whose portals aren't a spell but her own inherent mutant power.
• Magikarp Power: A few heroes have starting cards that don't have much synergy with each other or with their passive abilities, but whose rarer cards make them much stronger. Blade's specialization in inflicting Bleed is not very useful since it takes so long to work, but once he gets cards that trigger existing Bleed stacks he can be an exceptional boss killer. Storm is even more extreme, starting with a bunch of very niche cards that don't even do damage, but eventually gets one of the best defensive cards in the game and and a legendary capable of one-shotting bosses with proper setup.
• Magnetic Hero: Despite having a Friendless Background, being from the 1600s and working alongside people with a wide variety of worldviews and personalities, the Hunter is able to befriend them all fairly easily. Lampshaded by Magik when she comments "Even when you're a butt, you're a likeable butt."
• Main Character Final Boss: For the final boss, the custom main player character is possessed by the Big Bad, forcing the player to control the remaining heroes to defeat them. They're back on your side for the actual final battle, however.
• Maximum HP Reduction: Inverted with Hulk's "Always Angry" card, which can overheal him to increase his maximum health for the remainder of the mission.
• Memetic Loser: Wonder Man is an in-universe example. He doesn't show up in the game, but it's a Running Gag that he's the universal shorthand among all the characters for something/someone that is utterly pathetic. It's left to the player's imagination why this might be, especially since his infamous Love Triangle with the Vision and the Scarlet Witch couldn't possibly have happened in this continuity.
• Monster Clown: The "Dread Maiden" miniboss has a head shaped and patterned like a jester's hat, as well as greasepaint-like white skin.
• Mugging the Monster: The "Hell on Wheels" animated trailer shows a couple of thugs trying to kill Robbie for running their friends off the road. Robbie transforms into Ghost Rider and literally sends them to Hell.
• Mundane Solution: When trying to track down Spider-Man and Venom, Iron Man and Marvel try to hack into satellites and surveillance systems while Strange and Caretaker try mystical scrying, neither group having much success. The younger Suns succeed by... looking at social media posts about how Spider-Man and Venom are fighting on the corner of 82nd Street and 5th Avenue in New York right now.
• My Greatest Failure: In "The Salem Sisters", the Caretaker fought and defeated Lilith when the latter was first corrupted by the Darkhold. She knew she had a duty to execute Lilith, but she couldn't bear the thought of orphaning her sister's child, so she spared Lilith's life and banished her instead. She describes this act of mercy as a moment of weakness that damned the world, as Lilith would later come back as a powerful demon queen.
• Mythology Gag:
  • One dialogue with Captain Marvel has her proclaim "Higher further faster, baby".
  • Captain Marvel mentions how her coffee card shows that she's been an Avenger for decades, a possible reference to how She-Hulk once mentioned that the Avengers ID cards provide 10% off at Starbucks.
  • At one point, Carol brings up the Superhuman Registration Act and asks the Hunter which side of the argument they'd be on; they gain friendship with either Steve or Tony depending on how they answer.
  • Likewise, Spider-Man mentions an argument between Tony and Carol on the topic of precognition superpowers and whether they should punish people who are seen committing crimes in the future, referencing their opposing ideologies in Civil War II.
  • The various Hero Ops mention other Marvel characters such as She-Hulk, Daredevil, Ms. Marvel, Hank Pym and Moon Knight.
  • The trophy/achievement for crafting a hero ability in the Forge is called "With a Box of Scraps".
  • In one conversation between Blade and the Hunter, Blade will mention that he once fought Were-Roosters, which happened in Al Ewing's Mighty Avengers run.
  • In one Abbey chatter dialogue, Wolverine asks Iron Man why the Avengers never made a plan for if the Hulk went rogue. Iron Man says they tried, but couldn't think of anything to stop the Hulk short of "maybe launching him into outer space", which is what he and the Illuminati did in Planet Hulk.
  • Carol may approach the Hunter to get help resolving an argument between Wolverine and Iron Man about who would win if the X-Men and Avengers fought. Naturally, this references the events of Avengers vs. X-Men, in which the two groups did indeed fight.
  • Once again, Peter Parker must make a Deal with the Devil in order to save the life of someone close to him... but unlike One More Day, what Mephisto wants in exchange is basically for the Midnight Suns to keep exterminating vampires.
  • When first brought back to the Abbey, Eddie Brock may tell the Hunter that he's a "King in Black", referencing Venom's defeat of Knull, and taking over his role as god of the symbiotes.
  • The achievement for completing all of Venom's research is "Comeback King" — the nickname given to him by Rex Strickland in Venom (Donny Cates).
  • A conversation with Morbius about how he met Blade has the former claim the latter got his vampiric strength from his bite. The Hunter is clearly skeptical since Blade insists he had all his powers from birth which Morbius attributes to Blade being too proud to admit the truth. In the comics, Blade was originally a Badass Normal but got a new vampiric power set similar to his movie incarnation after being bitten by Morbius. Comics Blade would eventually also insist that he got his powers from birth out of embarrassment and later retcons would make this the actual truth.
  • Available to purchase in the Gift Shop are comic books that correspond to the first appearance of each of the Midnight Suns in the game, such as Runaways #1 for Nico and New Mutants #98 for Deadpool.
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Iron Man tries to destroy the Parchment of Power with a 'gamma accelerator' weapon, but Bruce Banner jumps into the path of the beam, absorbs the radiation to restore his ability to transform into the Hulk, and then takes the Parchment for himself.
• No Body Left Behind: Crossbones shoots Doctor Faustus with a dart that disintegrates him, leaving nothing but his empty clothes behind. Lilith's demons and the vampyres in the DLC missions (which are loosely related to said demons via Hydra gamma research) also disintegrate when defeated.
• Non-Lethal Warfare: Slash HYDRA with swords, shoot them with guns, and occasionally send them directly to Hell, never to be seen again. The game— and characters— insist that they are only "knocking them out". Thankfully, your enemies return the favor with the lack of a Permadeath mechanic.
• The Not-Love Interest: The Hunter ends up having a very close and personal relationship with multiple characters, including very intimate encounters like pool lounging and sharing deep secrets. Several of the hangouts also resemble dates. However, at least canonically, nothing romantic happens between any of the Midnight Suns and the Hunter.
• Offstage Villainy:
  • According to the "Family Reunion" Hero Op, Lilith managed to corrupt Man-Thing at some point, and the swamp monster is using his power to manipulate plant life to terrorize the citizens of the Florida Everglades.
  • The heroes will occasionally get news alerts on their Superlinks about various tragedies Lilith is causing around the world, such as mass poisoning of ocean life.
• One Stat to Rule Them All: At higher difficulties, any power or power mod that adds "Concealed" becomes this. Enemy damage output increases much faster than defense or hero hit points, so taking a series of clean hits (ie from a pack of dogs) is usually enough to KO a hero in one turn. If they conceal, the monsters targeting them won't attack the others and will skip their turn.
• Only the Chosen May Wield: Strange speculates that only the Hunter would be able to safely wield the Godkiller.
• Original Generation: The Hunter is an original character created by Firaxis for this game with input from Marvel Comics. Their appearance and gender can be customized, but their backstory is set.
• Out-of-Turn Interaction: Sabretooth has a passive trait, Frenzy, which lets him attack during the player's turn. It is triggered every time the player takes a certain number of actions. This can also be applied on HYDRA mooks, courtesy of the Specialist.
• Outside-Context Problem: The Venom Symbiote functions as this from the perspectives of magic users. The alien's unique molecular structure allows it to pierce magical barriers that were supposedly unbreakable such as those surrounding the Sanctum Sanctorum or Hunter's collar.
• Overly Narrow Superlative: In a random conversation you can have with Wolverine, he'll have this to say about Agatha's cat Ebony:
  Wolverine: Ebony's the best cat in the Abbey!
  Hunter: She's the only cat in the Abbey.
  Wolverine: Exactly.
• Painful Transformation: "The Salem Sisters" video shows that Lilith's initial transformation into a demon was not pleasant. She was clearly in a lot of pain as spikes grew out of her shoulder blades and enormous horns sprouted from the top of her skull.
• The Paralyzer: The Bound status, which prevents the afflicted character from moving or taking any action until it wears off. Both Spider-Man and Venom can inflict this status.
• Permanently Missable Content: Due to a glitch that was never fixed by the time the game stopped receiving developer support, the Hunter's Ancestral suit can no longer be obtained through a normal playthrough. The suit was meant to be unlocked by solving all of the mysteries on the Abbey's grounds, but a glitch made it so it was instead obtained through a specific golden chest. With one of the final patches, this chest was broken and no longer gives you the suit or its corresponding Ancestors' Guidance passive.
• Playable Epilogue: After completing the final battle, you are reset back to before the Hunter died so you can explore the Abbey, fight in battles, and build up your characters' friendship levels to your heart's content.
• Plotline Death: Applies to both heroes and villains. They can't be killed in gameplay (heroes and mooks are 'knocked out', major villains exit stage left), but can be killed in cutscenes.
• Post-Final Boss: The "Phase 2" of the final boss. After being freed from Chthon's control, the Hunter has to team up with four of the remaining heroes to get rid of Chthon for good by setting up the four seals of the Elder Gods. Chthon himself is not fought during this, and instead the player must take down sets of Chthon-enhanced enemies to obtain the Seal cards.
• The Power of the Sun: Doctor Strange's ultimate ability has him invoke the Seven Suns of Cinnibus to blast a targeted area with mystic columns of solar fire, dealing damage to all enemies caught in the blast.
• Power Creep, Power Seep: All the heroes end up being at about the same power level during gameplay, but in the comics are vastly different (for example, Captain Marvel usually patrols an entire galaxy by herself). This is justified by Lilith empowering the various forces in her employ, which gets discussed during the tutorial. Additionally, particularly powerful heroes typically end up being Brought Down to Badass somehow — one of the first things the plot does is strip Doctor Strange of all the resources he'd usually use to solve the problem in an afternoon.
• The Power of Friendship:
  • This is how the Hunter gets the willpower to throw off Chthon's possession, with kind things they've been told playing in their head.
  • In the finale mission, the team fights against the Hunter starting with those they have the lowest friendship scores (as the Hulk has none, he is always part of that battle). When the Hunter is cured and the fight turns against Chthon, the Hunter must perform a ritual with the four having the highest friendship scores.
• Projectile Webbing: Spider-Man, of course. He has a card which binds an enemy in place by covering them in webbing from head to toe.
• Punch! Punch! Punch! Uh Oh...: When Lilith invades the Sanctum Sanctorum, Captain Marvel slugs her right in the face with a cosmically empowered punch. Lilith doesn't even flinch, while Carol is left with a smarting hand.
• Random Effect Spell:
  • Scarlet Witch's passive skill gives her a low chance to inflict a random debuff on a random nearby enemy each turn. When upgraded, it can inflict random debuffs on all nearby enemies instead.
  • Many of Nico Minoru's cards have a property called Roulette, which makes it so that what the cards do is randomly selected at the moment that they're drawn. Each such card has its own pool of possible effects that can be chosen; for instance, the Double Up card will copy all cards of a given type that are in your hand, with the type being randomly selected.
• Recursive Canon: One type of gift used to befriend other heroes is real-life Marvel Comics issues. They are especially valued when given to a hero featured in the issue.
• Redemption Demotion: Justified. Heroes that have been corrupted by Lilith receive her demonic power to help them fight. When you bring these heroes back to the side of good, they lose this demonic power and become weaker. But they're still, y'know, superheroes.
• Reduced Mana Cost:
  • It normally costs Heroism to weaponize an object in the environment, but Spider-Man has ways to circumvent this. He has a card, Opportunist, which reduces the Heroism cost of his next two environmental attacks to 0, and increasing his friendship level will give him a passive chance to refund the Heroism cost of any environmental attack he makes. His ultimate ability, Infernal Spider, makes his next three cards free to play.
  • One of the Hunter's Heroic cards, Patience, is an unusual play on this trope. It's a powerful attack card which has a high Heroism cost when you first draw it, but that cost goes down by 1 for every turn that it stays in your hand without being played. If you have the patience for it, Patience's cost will eventually dwindle away to nothing, letting you use a very powerful attack essentially for free.
• Regenerating Mana: Increasing Doctor Strange's friendship level will unlock a passive skill that lets him generate small amounts of Heroism every turn, making it easier to play your costly Heroic cards.
• Rhetorical Question Blunder: When the Hunter asks Blade if his name is really Blade, he sarcastically asks them if their name is really "The Hunter." Unfortunately for him, it turns out it is in fact their real name.
• Running Gag:
  • Several cutscenes show our heroes attempting to sneak into enemy locations. Since the game has no stealth mechanics to speak of, something always goes wrong, and forces the protagonists into a fight. Or they just jump out and charge the foe.
  • During both battles in the Sanctum Sanctorum, Doctor Strange will admonish one of the heroes for breaking through the ceiling rather than simply using the front door.

Tropes S-Z

• Sarcasm-Blind: Iron Man sarcastically introduces Doctor Strange as "Doctor Spooky" while the Hunter is meeting the team for the first time. The Hunter takes this introduction at face value, much to Strange's visible annoyance. S/He keeps using the name as a joke afterward.
• Save Scumming: Actively discouraged, if not outright averted. The pool of ability cards you draw, and the order you draw them in, is pre-determined at the start of a mission. To get a new pool, you'd have to load a save back at the Abbey and put together an entirely different team.
• Set a Mook to Kill a Mook: Scarlet Witch's "Chaos Reigns" card compels enemy units within its area-of-effect to attack each other. Morbius' "Charm" card has a similar effect, albeit for a single enemy
• Shield Bash: Captain America, naturally, has many cards that involve whacking opponents with his shield. One of these is even called Shield Bash.
• Shipper on Deck:
  • Early in the story, Blade and Captain Marvel drop hints that they are interested in each other, and the Hunter (if the player so chooses) can subtly push them towards each other during the game.
  • Conversely, late in the game Wanda hastily makes up a cover story about waiting to confess her feelings to the Hunter when she wants Nico to leave her alone. Upon hearing this Nico enthusiastically approves of the match and is vocally disappointed when she learns the truth and that they're not actually a couple.
• Shoot the Medic First: HYDRA Specialists are a nightmare if they aren't put down first. They can and will heal and buff their comrades (and themselves), which makes fights a lot longer and harder. And they can damage and Daze the heroes. With a single attack. And they have a passive called Shock Shield, which damages melee attackers as long as the Specialist has Block.
• Shout-Out:
  • When Lilith first makes herself known to the heroes, Iron Man mistakes her for Gozer. Taken further when Scarlet Witch exclaims "Oh My God"... to Lilith's approval.
  • Iron Man attempts to remove some "gremlins", as in technical errors, from a new device. Hunter recommends using sunlight and keeping them out of water. Tony's confused about whether or not he's being taken seriously.
  • One of the lines Magick can say at night after a mission in NYC is that she wishes they had stopped for a hot dog and one of those papaya drinks everyone says are so good - a reference to Gray's Papaya, a famous real-world hot-dog place.
  • Several parts, especially books in the library, reference incredibly obscure bits of comic-book history; for instance, there's a letter from Nick Fury referencing the time the Howling Commandos teamed up with Dracula to fight Nazis.
  • Nico's first choice for a movie to show the Hunter involves a briefcase with a glowing light inside.
  • Tony can ask Hunter about what the afterlife was like, claiming he's got a betting pool going on. The Hunter can joke with him about it being full of wagging tails and barking, but you found out all dogs to go-, and then they're cut off by Stark.
  • During the EMO KIDS subplot, Magik tells the Hunter "I must break you", complete with dramatic closeup.
  • In one of the hangout conversations, Blade and the Hunter can talk about a movie with "sparkle vampires", with Blade admitting he rooted for the werewolves.
  • In one of Nico's friendship scenes, she and the Hunter watch The Room (2003), complete with Nico saying "You are tearing me apart, Hunter".
  • After breaking down a coil, Tony might say "What can I say except, you're welcome!"
  • Captain Marvel may ask if she should install X-Com on the hero ops mainframe, or muse that it's a shame they don't have a bunch of rookies to send on those missions.
  • The achievement for interrogating five enemies, "We Have Ways", shares its name with South America's region bonus in XCOM: Enemy Unknown, which lets interrogations and alien autopsies be completed instantly.
  • In the Abbey, Tony can say that he'll quit if the Forge "turns into a gateway to Ancient Egypt".
  • After finishing a research project, Doctor Strange might remark "I could not have predicted this outcome, but it is intriguing."
  • One of the possible post-mission covers reads "Hunter... Come out and Plaaayyyyyy!"
  • After a hard hit, Crossbones will sometimes remark "Nobody makes me bleed my own blood!"
  • After someone KO's a mook:
  Iron Man: "You just got knocked the fff-, ehhh you know the rest."
  • Nico, when taking a light hit: "Ow! Quit it."
  • In a conversation with Captain Marvel, she mentions that Blade's favorite television show involves a high school vampire slayer and a librarian.
  • After the "A Not So Beautiful Mind" mission, Tony and Strange are shown playing chess at the bar. If you look closely at the board, you can see that they went with the infamous "Double Bongcloud" opening.
  • In one conversation, Wanda complains about how witches are portrayed in pop culture, saying that they don't go around transforming children into mice with potion-laced chocolates.
  • One of the items you can get from Shop Class to combat the Fallen Scarlet Witch is called a Reality Anchor.
  • If he sees Storm use a lightning power, Deadpool will sometimes quip "1.21 gigawatts! Great Scott!"
  • In the Suns' first movie night after rescuing Wanda, the group watches The Witches of Eastwick.
• Sickly Green Glow: Lilith has glowing green eyes and is surrounded by a noxious green miasma when she comes out of her sarcophagus. Several of her demons likewise have green eyes or radiate green energy from their Volcanic Veins.
• Situational Damage Attack: Both Captain America and Captain Marvel have Heroic attacks which deal extra damage to enemies that have been Taunted by them.
  • Much of Blade's kit deals extra damage and/or Life Drain to enemies with the Bleed condition. If you can get this going reliably, he can be a powerful kind of DPS-tank hybrid.
• Social Media Before Reason: A random bystander decides to film a fight between Venom and the Midnight Suns, and keeps filming even when Venom jumps down from the rooftops and lands right in front of her, at which point another bystander has to drag her away.
• Speed Blitz: Wolverine's ultimate attack, Midnight Special, has him zip around the battlefield at high speed to slice and dice random enemies with his claws.
• Spike Shooter: Venom will sometimes spend a turn hunkering down and growing spikes all over their body. On their next turn, they'll jump into the air, spraying those spikes in all directions for an attack that hits friend and foe alike. He retains this as a playable character but it only hits enemies.
• Spin Attack: One of the Hunter's potential ultimate cards, Bladestorm, has them ignite their swords and spin in place like a tornado of fire and steel, dealing heavy damage and knockback to all adjacent enemies.
• Stab the Scorpion: When Ironman and Dr. Strange try to convince Johnny Blaze to join them, Blaze spends the scene waving around a shotgun and acting angry, then finally aims at them and fires... to kill a Lilin that had just appeared behind Strange.
• The Stinger: After the credits roll, Doctor Doom is seen picking up the Darkhold.
• Stock Scream: The Wilhelm Scream shows up in both Deadpool and Morbius's DLC Missions, and is also referenced in the name of an achievement for K.O.ing two enemies with drops in a single turn.
• Suicide Attack: Scarlet Witch's ultimate attack, "No More", produces a magical explosion centered on herself, inflicting damage equal to her current health to all enemies caught in the blast and then knocks her out.
• Summon Magic:
  • One of the Hunter's potential ultimate cards, Summon Charlie, lets them summon their pet hellhound Charlie to assist them in battle. Charlie acts like an extra hero with her own set of cards, but she only sticks around for a few turns before disappearing. Note that if you use the Summon Charlie ability when she's already with you (either because the card wasn't exhausted or it's one of the few missions where she accompanies you from the start), it'll simply draw two extra cards for her at no cost, rather than letting you have two hellhounds.
  • One of Magik's high-end abilities, Reinforcement, summons a random additional hero and two of their cards to help out for a single turn. This can be used in conjunction with Summon Charlie, meaning you can very briefly have a party of five.
• Superhero Team Uniform: There isn't one for most of the game, but right before the final mission it's revealed that some of the team members have been working on matching versions of everyone's normal costumes. They are black and gold with white accents and marked with runes.
• Super Mode: Captain Marvel has a Binary meter which builds up as you play her cards. Once it's full, you can then play the "Go Binary" card, which costs nothing, gives Carol a ton of Block, and doubles the power of her attacks. She'll stay in Binary mode until she runs out of Block, at which point she'll revert to normal.
• Superpowered Evil Side: Magik's ultimate ability, "Darkchylde", has her tap into her demonic Darkchylde persona to gain increased power. In this state, she becomes completely invulnerable, and she inflicts Taunt on all enemies. When upgraded it will also grant her the Counter status, letting her soak and deal tons of damage while the status lasts.
• Support Party Member: Doctor Strange. He can heal, buff allies, debuff enemies, and replenish limited resources like Heroism and combat items. He can also deal a respectable amount of damage on top of that.
• Take That!:
  • One early dialog option has the Hunter asking "Does no one here take anything seriously?" in frustration, clearly referring to everyone's MCU-esque constant quipping.
  • During one of her friendship conversations with the Hunter, Nico claims that the term "Boomer" is "slang for 'ancient outdated one who caused all of our problems.'" Interestingly, the older characters in this game's continuity are either too young to be Baby Boomers (Iron Man, Dr. Strange, Captain Marvel), or way too old (Wolverine, Caretaker, Captain America, Blade). In a different conversation, Magik accuses Captain America of being a boomer, and he corrects her by saying that he was born in 1918.
  • In the Redemption DLC, while thinking about the implications of his Deal with the Devil, Peter Parker wonders if the Devil was also responsible for NFTs.
• Take Your Time: You can complete as many side missions as you'd like before continuing the main plotline, and nothing bad will happen. Even when Spider-Man is getting chased around the city by Venom, even when demons are ravaging the world. This is itself an example of Anti-Frustration Features, as Firaxis' better-known franchise X-COM uses extremely punitive time limits.
• Tarot Motifs: The cards of the Major Arcana are scattered around the Abbey grounds, each one bearing the image of a Marvel character (or building, in the case of the Tower) that suits the card's theme. Notable examples include Deadpool representing "The Fool," Galactus representing "Judgment," while "Death" is simply Marvel's portrayal of the Grim Reaper.
• Team Power Walk: Most missions start and end with a slow-mo shot of your team walking across the Abbey grounds.
• Teeth-Clenched Teamwork: The Midnight Suns and the Avengers have joined forces to battle Lilith, but end up clashing a lot over decision-making when Avengers start leading the strategic planning. The Suns feel that, as a specialized Supernatural Team and the ones actually recruited by Caretaker, they are the core of the fight against Lilith and are being unfairly shut out of discussions. The Avengers, in turn, think that their much longer superhero careers make them the experts and that the Suns' egos are getting in the way of making progress. The Hunter often finds themself having to play peacemaker. Despite all of this the groups will fight alongside each other and work together to overcome Lilith.
  • On a more personal level, Dr. Strange and Tony Stark butt heads a lot while working together in the Forge. Mostly due to one being a magician while the other is an engineer and also both of them being very used to getting their way.
• Thinking Up Portals: Magik's playstyle revolves around opening Limbo Portals for offensive and defensive purposes. Even her passive skill gives her a low chance to create extra portals whenever an enemy is shoved into an existing portal.
• Thou Shall Not Kill: Played with. The heroes officially only KO enemy mooks but several of the abilities include dropping enemies into portals to hell, exploding them, or using explosives against them. May be Gameplay and Story Segregation.
• Those Wacky Nazis: Hydra is still trying to take over the world even eighty years after WW2.
• Throwing Your Shield Always Works: Captain America, as you might expect, has several moves wherein he throws his shield at an enemy. Some of these will have the shield fly right back to his hand, while others have it ricochet around for an area-of-effect attack centered on his initial target first.
• Tome of Eldritch Lore: The Darkhold, the definitive book of black magic in the Marvel Universe, plays a significant role in this game's plot.
• Took a Level in Badass: Dialogue from Captain Marvel, Doctor Strange, and Iron Man makes it clear that Hydra are now much more dangerous.
• Totally Not a Werewolf:
  • The Hunter assumes that Wolverine and Sabretooth are werewolves of some sort, based on their bestial abilities and Wolverine's codename. Magik quickly corrects the misunderstanding.
  • Averted with Ghost Rider: Robbie is clearly nervous when he's about to explain his powers to the Hunter, clearly in fear that they will assume he is a demon like those in the thrall of Lilith. Luckily, the Hunter has fought alongside a host of a Spirit of Vengeance in the past and recognized Robbie as one almost on sight.
• Tragic Villain: "The Salem Sisters" paints Lilith as such. Her descent into villainy began when she used dark magic in a desperate attempt to cure her baby of the same illness which claimed the life of her husband. These efforts drew the attention of the Elder God Chthon, who offered to cure the child in exchange for Lilith's soul. She took the bargain, damning herself to Chthon's service as a soulless demon.
  • The prelude to the final battle takes it a step further, revealing that, even now, she's not trying to summon Chthon so he can take over the world, she's doing it so she can use the Darkhold to destroy him and free herself from his control. Unfortunately, breaking the Hunter's collar was the exact wrong thing to do at that point.
• Trailers Always Spoil: Scarlet Witch, Bruce Banner, and Sabretooth are all introduced in the game’s story in normal forms, with the former two being allies. Early previews had already revealed that they would all be transformed into demons controlled by Lilith. The announcement that Scarlet Witch, Hulk and Venom (via DLC) will be playable characters also spoils the fact that Lilith’s corruption can be reversed, despite the Hunter claiming otherwise.
• Unintentionally Unwinnable: The Venom DLC patch seems to have had this impact on a late-game mission, The Witch of Wundagore. In order to win the mission, Wanda has to use the card "No More" on the Hulk when the latter gains Invulnerable status. "No More" K.O.s Wanda, and the mission is set to fail if she or the Hunter are downed without means of revival, but "No More" was supposed to be an exception as it ends the mission. Instead, players are treated with a "Mission Complete" followed immediately by the "Mission Failed" screen and are forced to replay. What's worse is that the game lets you continue the mission even after reaching the point where it can't be won (i.e. after using up all the cards/items that could revive Wanda), which means the player could be stuck playing basically the whole mission without any idea that they'd already lost. This is even worse when playing on Ultimate III difficulty, as that mode has no Revive cards at all, meaning that unless the player happens to have a Phoenix Flame item equipped, they're beginning the mission with no possibility of success whatsoever, and they won't find out about that until the very end. Fortunately, the game allows the player to change the difficulty at any time, which makes it trivial to get past the bug, but only after wasting time on an unwinnable attempt first unless they were already aware of the issue.
• Unstoppable Rage: The Hulk, naturally. He has a Rage meter which builds up as he takes damage, greatly increasing the power of his attacks. Every attack he makes expends some of the Rage meter, encouraging the Hulk to get stuck into the thick of things.
• Unusually Uninteresting Sight: The average New Yorker is so inured to the activities of superheroes that Doctor Strange, Blade and the Hunter stepping out of a portal in the street garners no reaction beyond a single guy taking photos.
• Video Game Cruelty Potential: Charlie is the Hunter's Hellhound pet. The Hunter can eventually gain a card allowing her to be summoned into battle for a few turns, after which she will return to the Abbey. She has some moderate damage-dealing power, but for many players the only reason to bring her is to draw the attention of the enemies for a few turns - allowing them to beat up the dog in exchange for some breathing room.
• Villain Team-Up: The plot includes Lilith and her demonic minions forming a pact with a HYDRA cell led by Dr. Faustus and supported by Crossbones. Later on they recruit the supervillain mercenary Sabretooth.
• Weak, but Skilled: Spider-Man. He lacks the raw damage output of more powerful heroes, but makes up for it with increased mobility, lots of cards that can be played for free under the right circumstances, and a greater ability to turn the environment against his enemies.
• Where It All Began: The final battle with Venom is set in the church where Spider-Man first removed the symbiote from him. Naturally, Venom remembers it all too well.
• The Worf Effect: Lilith shows off her power by waltzing past Doctor Strange's magical barriers, overpowering him and Iron Man with ease, and No Selling a punch in the face from Captain Marvel.
• World of Snark: As is typical for modern Marvel, practically every hero (and some villains) constantly dispenses jokes and sarcasm. The Hunter at one point can express their frustration with this: "In my day, we did not treat the end of the world so flippantly!" Captain Marvel replies that most superheroes have lived through three or four end-of-the-world scenarios and so they've gained a lighter perspective.
• Written Sound Effect: Several cards are named after the sound produced by the action the hero is performing, such as Captain America's "Spang!" and Spider-Man's "Thwip!".
• You Can't Thwart Stage One: Or stage two, three, or four. Despite individual mission wins, the heroes fail constantly at any significant attempt to thwart Lillith, with the tides only beginning to turn when you purify the Fallen Scarlet Witch. Even then, you still mostly keep failing to thwart "the prophecy", with it being unclear whether Chthon manifesting but then being defeated actually counts as averting the prophecy.
• You Have Researched Breathing: Several of the higher-level abilities involve advanced techniques or weaponry. But some are rather straightforward moves, like Magik's "Kick". Further, the Hunter can boost friendship levels by giving people Compliments, which are a finite resource that must be earned by finding and petting the Abbey's cat.
• Your Mom: The Hunter has a quote to this effect when defeating enemies, emphasizing their The Comically Serious:
  "Blade told me to mention your mother. Apparently she is promiscuous?"

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