SpecOps 8 will have Vision as unlockable and Ultron as collectible
- SpecOps 7 only has Hank Pym as a playable hero and only unlockable, with the "Coming soon" pointing towards SpecOps 8 in the Collections screen. This might mean that Ultron might be an unlockable playable character by way of collections like Magneto was, and that Vision will be unlockable by completing 25 tasks in SpecOps 8. For this Ops, also, Punisher and/or X-23 will be required, just to fill the "135 CP hero deploy" requirement.
- Magneto is morally ambiguous at best, depicted as both superhero and supervillain in various media. Ultron has been always portrayed as one of the WMD villains of the Avengers and never heroic. The current Age of Ultron crisis arc won't help either. Having him as a recruitable character via collections is like having SHIELD asking Apocalypse, Doom or Thanos to join their ranks.
- Well, Ultron has been jossed. It's Omega Sentinel the one who will be unlockable by way of Collections.
- Funny you should mention Doom... Where most lockbox characters join on their own accord once you uncover their "story", Doom is still unanimously hated by the entire alliance and can only be accompanied by the Agent. This even parallels story arcs like Infinity Gauntlet where the heroes are forced to ally with Doom.
SpecOps 9 will take place in England
- SpecOps 7's Epic Boss requires Cable, while the previous one required Deadpool. Both of them were the prizes for Adamantium league members in PVP Seasons 2 and 1 respectively. Psylocke was the prize for the third season. Psylocke also happens to be Captain Britain's sister, and they were two of the four announced "British Invasion" members. Also, Captain Britain wasn't present in this SpecOps, and despite the fact that he could appear in SpecOps 8 (possibly a continuation of this SpecOps) everything points that both of them will be required for SpecOps 9 instead.
- Black Knight may also appear in the same SpecOps if possible. He's also British (has British Invasion bonus with Cap. Britain and Psylocke) and he's also a member of Excalibur along with Britain.
- Additionally, since Union Jack is the last of the four "British Invasion" announced characters to be released, he might be the recruitable character.
- Jossed. Union Jack has been released as a regular recruitable character for 90 Command Points. Also, SpecOps 9 is heavily rumoured to be themed around Iron Man 3, with Rescue as the obtainable hero in the forthcoming SpecOps.
- WMG went a different path since Season 2 of the game is previewed as Excalibur, which is most likely taking place in England with the eponymous team.
Collection-recruited heroes are current villains who defect from the Syndicate
- It will be a very good way to reintroduce heroes who started as villains in the comics. One of the closest candidates to be recruitable in the future is Elektra, given her status in Marvel Ultimate Alliance, and a later chapter against Bullseye and Wilson Fisk/Kingpin as her enemy bosses if the latter could be introduced in the future. Fisk Tower appears on the battle map, after all. Other possible members of the Syndicate under Adaptational Villainy will follow suit.
- Confirmed. The current lockbox collection hero will be Omega Sentinel, finally broken free of the Sentinel programming by Tony Stark in Spec Ops 8. Daredevil also mentioned the Kingpin in Chapter 12.
"Season 2" of the game will feature cosmic characters and settings
- We could have the Silver Surfer as a recruitable hero, and a Premium Mission where you get to fight Galactus and his Heralds as bosses. Plus, there's always the chance of having Thanos appear as a boss, to coincide with his greater role in the Marvel Cinematic Universe as the new Big Bad in those films.
The Winter Soldier will appear as a villain in Season 2, then be a Collection-recruited hero
- You'd first encounter Winter Soldier as a brainwashed enemy under the employ of Red Skull as a boss in a mission. Then, later down the line, he'd become a Collection-recruitable hero, perhaps to align with the release of Captain America: The Winter Soldier
- Mostly Confirmed, Partly Jossed. The Winter Soldier first appears as a boss in Special Operations 17 which was released during Season 2 to time with Captain America: The Winter Soldier. He later became a Lockbox Hero during the Hulk themed SO 32. The only real jossing being the timing.
Juggernaut's Intro quote will refer to the "Juggernaut, Bitch!" meme
The news feed have been touching in with some memes or Shout-Out, like Herc's "Cool Story, Bro!" and Black Knight getting a Monty Python reference. Juggernaut is rumored to be the new lockbox hero after Magneto. So... either in News Feed or recruiting quote will involve that "Juggernaut, Bitch!" meme. Maybe something like "Don't you know who I am? I'm the Juggernaut!" (for Moral Guardians, I think they're gonna remove the 'Bitch!' part)- Jossed for the time being, since it's Omega Sentinel who's the new lockbox-unlockable hero. Doesn't rule out Juggernaut as a future lock-box character, though.
- Second thought, this part doesn't even need Lockboxes. In the future chapters, an encounter with Juggernaut can also contain this line.
- Confirmed. The News Feed has the message "Don't you know who I am? I'm the Juggernaut, Agent!" appear in promoting the Unstoppable Lockboxes.
One Spec Ops will be magic-themed and debut Brother Voodoo and Daimon Hellstrom.
- Partially confirmed. Daimon Hellstrom is the hero of Spec Ops 11. Brother Voodoo has been rumored to be available via Command Point.
Spec Ops 9 will introduce the Mandarin into the game
Of all of the unused Marvel villains, it's the Mandarin whose absence has been commented on by Mission Control the most. With the release of Iron Man 3 around that time period, it seems like the best time to bring him in.- It's heavily rumoured that this Spec Ops will be based around Iron Man 3, complete with Rescuenote as the recruitable hero. If that's the case, then Mandarin being the big bad of Spec Ops 9 is a big possibility.
- Confirmed, as the Mandarin appears after completing the Spec Ops and is the one behind the Extremis project.
- Let's hope it's the real Mandarin.
Agent Coulson will join Mission Control in Season 2
He's mentioned when you complete 12.6 in Chapter 12, apparently talking about an unknown situation in London.- This seems likely, since he's been mentioned twice recently and is very popular. Though it does make you wonder about "Coulson's Revenge"...
- Confirmed. He's the self-proclaimed expert on the new Incursion feature.
A sister game involving the The DCU will be conceived
Think of Marvel Avengers Alliance, DC Edition (What's it gonna be called, Justice League Alliance?), recruiting DC heroes like Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Green Lantern, some Teen Titans member, and many more to fight against many of the DC villains like Lex Luthor, Joker, Darkseid, Brainiac, Trigon, etc. If it does well enough, then it can enter a crossover with Marvel.Licensing would be a nightmare, but... hey, it's WMG.
- Not likely. Playdom, like Marvel, is owned by Disney. So Warner, DC's owner, are not likely to give them the required licence. And if another developer tried to replicate the gameplay, they'd probably be sued for copyright infringement.
- The main character (the player character) is an agent of SHIELD, and the whole operation is run by SHIELD, that recluits the heroes and send them to missions. Which would be the DC equivalent for that? Who would be DC's Nick Fury? Still, one thing is right: either like this one or with a completely different game mechanic, but DC should have a Facebook game, like Marvel has already have.
One of the next Spec Ops will have Mr. Sinister and Apocalypse as Bosses and/or Epic Bosses.
And in that Spec Ops we will have the new X-Men outfits- Not sure if Mr. Sinister and Apocalypse would both be in the same one, but an X-Men themed Spec Ops would be likely. The Wolverine is coming out soon, and if the past few Spec Ops are any indication (where the PVP reward characters are required in the order that they were released), X-23 will be one of the characters needed to unlock the Epic Boss.
- X-23 Jossed. She is indeed required to access an Epic Boss, in Spec Op 10, but the Spec Op is about Wonder Man, and is not X-Men related at all.
- 'Confirmed for Apocalypse, and we got new outfits for the X-Men who would become the Four Horsemen.
Past Spec Ops heroes will be permanently available when Season 2 arrives.
The teaser screen shows Selina Gallio, hinting at her role as one of the villains your Agent and the team will face in Season 2. Seeing as she's connected to Emma Frost, maybe she'll be the boss for Chapter 13's Premium Mission, which will be unlocked once Emma is recruited to the team (for those that already have her, it'll already be unlocked). As such, making Spec Ops heroes available permanently might be a good solution to alleviate this, and so that new Spec Ops heroes for Season 2 can appear through the conventional means.- Confirmed - while the Premium Mission in Season 2 Chapter 1 is unlocked with Gambit and not Emma, she and the rest of the first five Spec Ops heroes are now permanently available.
The Superior Spider-Man will be a new alternate outfit for Spider-Man later down the line.
There's the fact that "Superior" is a ranking one can get in PvE fights, which might be construed as subtle foreshadowing (though more likely a very astonishing coincidence). In noting that, he'll get new passives and tricks, to play up Superior Spidey's aggressive approach to fighting crime in the comics.The next spec ops is going to be a x-men reelated one.
Emma Frost and Magic are going to be re-released soon, and the P5 costumes are going to be available again, probably becausse you are going to need one of the X-Men for the next ops, maybe Namor is going to be the unlockable hero, or he is going to be needed for the epic.The Mandarin will be the boss of some new SpecOps
He was the mastermind of the "Extremis" one, as seen in the dialogue after it. The scientist Aldrich Killian will help SHIELD locate him. But, once the player opens his way to the Mandarin, boss of the 3º level, he will reveal that the man we saw was a clever deception, that the Mandarin is really Aldrich Killian. Because, as he said, the heroes never saw him coming.The Pulse was caused by Thanos
He was trying to impress death again, and accidentally tore a hole in existence again, meaning that one of the final bosses if they ever bring this game to a close will be fighting Annilus and Thanos as the ultimate evil bosses as long as Donmmaru and Mephisto are kept down.Special Operation 12 will be based on Wolverine
On the 2013 Wolverine's film, to be precise. It will be set in Japan (Tokio and Nagazaki). We will get a new "costume" for Wolverine, either civilian clothes of samurai clothes. The enemies will be Madame Viper, Kenuichio Harada (just as a common samurai) and the Silver Samurai, and the unlockable hero will be Yukio.- This has been Jossed already... the Spec Ops 12 hero is going to be Ares from Dark Reign.
- Neither does Marvel exclusively own the X-Men license at this point, given that both The Wolverine and X-Men: Days of Future Past are under Fox.
Dell Rusk from Spec Ops 12 is actually a clone of the Red Skull.
So now we'll have two of them.Some future Special Operation will be based on Thor
Of course, by the time of Thor: The Dark World. The villains will be Malekith, Kurse and Surtur (I know, he's a giant... but, hey, so is Dormammu), and perhaps Loki as a Group boss. We will get new costumes for Thor and Sif. The unlockable hero will be one of the Warrior Three (Fandral, Hogun or Volstagg), or even better, Beta Ray Bill.- Partially confirmed. New York Comic-Con 2013 revealed that Heimdall is the unlockable hero, with Loki as the Lockbox hero. Kurse is the new Group Boss, while Malekith is a villain.
Another Spec Ops will focus on Mojo World.
Now that Psylocke, Shatterstar and Spiral are playable characters, Mojo will be the Group Boss of an upcoming Spec Op, along with various Mojoworld cyborgs like Lady Deathstrike as bosses (mixing in certain Reavers members and a possible Crimson Dawn reference). As a parallel, Longshot and Dazzler will be the Spec Op and PVP reward hero or vice-versa.The inevitable Captain America: The Winter Soldier Special Operation
Any guesses on who's going to be involved? It seems likely that the Winter Soldier will be the hero won from the event (spoiler-tagging just to be safe), and possibly more Captain America rogues such as Batroc the Leaper and Crossbones could be added as bosses. If there's a lockbox villain, maybe it could be Baron Zemo? (he's listed on his character page as being an Anti-Villain Depending on the Writer, and losing his ongoing civil war with Viper could give him the motivation to switch sides).- As I theorized above, Winter Soldier could be a lockbox hero if he's introduced as a villain in a Season 2 chapter before the film's release in April. That would make the Falcon (who stars in the film alongside Cap) as the hero unlocked from the event.
- For being the main new hero, the central star of a Special Operation, the guy whose name is in the name of the movie itself is a sure shot. Falcon may be the lockbox hero instead. As for the villain, it has to be some heavy weight, capable to stand his ground against the most powerful heroes that the player can use (as were Ultron, Thanos, Algrim, etc.). Zemo is just out of his league if we expect to say that Hulk, Thor or Juggernaut need many rounds to take him down. They may use Skadi, if they don't have plans for a "Fear Itself" themed operation, or some villain that may make context with the plot of the movie.
- Now that I think of it, there's a potential lockbox villain (he's not really a villain, but has his level of Well-Intentioned Extremist, and may fit the antagonist role if the plot requires so) who can have the resources to stand his ground against all the heroes, and who would be highly controversial and unexpected: Nick Fury!
- SXSW 2014 confirmed Spec Op 17 to be releasing sometime in March 2014, with Falcon as the unlockable character. The Winter Soldier is just a boss, for now, and there's no lockbox character.
- Taskmaster has been confirmed to be released at some point, through SXSW 2014.
- Avalanche is recently announced as a new Lockbox reward in a future Special Operation.
- Actually, the new four horsemen, which will be either minibosses or bosses of missions 1 and 2, will be X-23 (War), Beast (Pestilence), Rogue (Famine) and the hero of the Spec Op, Iceman (Death). All of their horsemen alternate uniforms have already been announced, and will be purchaseable during the Spec Op (similar to the Phoenix Five alts).
- Following on this, each character will have a different class:
- Skye: Tactician
- May: Scrapper
- Ward: Bruiser
- Fitz: Blaster
- Simmons: Infiltrator
- Coulson will be a Generalist and the "Default" character at the beginning of the battle.
- Jossed. The Special Operation with Bastion and Avalanche is not based on the story. Still, it may be done at some point in the future; as long as they avoid the movie, and focus on the comic... and they can do so working with the adult Katherine Pryde, Rachel Summers, and Nimrod.
- Molly? You mean, including a cute little girl in a video game, hardly older than ten years old, and get her to suffer all the varieties of violence that this game can provide? (Including a wide variety of guns). I'm sure that you can suspect the fate of the game in the real world if it included such Family-Unfriendly Violence.
- It was a remark about the fact that she's sometimes called "Bruiser".
- Look who's eating his/her words now, as Molly has been released as a playable hero. And yeah, confirming this WMG, she's a bruiser.
- Adding insult to injury, the rest of the Runaways were added. Except for Gert.
- Karolina confirmed so far.
- Doc Ock confirmed as Superior Spider-Man.
- Confirmed as of Season 2 Chapter 8 (March 13, 2015)
- Confirmed - she's Nerkkod, Breaker of Oceans.
- Nope, it was a Hulkbuster costume for Iron Man.
So if Kingpin does become playable he will either be a Lockbox Hero or a Covert Ops one. One would think they would traditionally go for the former but they might go for the latter though. (Considering how unlike the various other Lockbox Heroes we've never actually fought Kingpin as a Villain at all during the game.) There is a very strong chance that Kingpin will be a Tactician (or a Dual Class namely a Tactician and a Bruiser.) As for special Team Bonuses there will most likely be one if he is either with Spider Man or Daredevil or Punisher as he is well known as their respective foes.
- Confirmed. Chapter 10's reward was a Worthy suit for Daimon.
- Jossed. Ghost Rider will be Chapter 11's Worthy. Thundra was made playable in Chapter 10 (Worthies are usually blocked because picking up the hammer equals Brainwashed and Crazy), so it seems the developers changed their mind.
And what about Galactus himself, and his Story-Breaker Power? There are two options. One, Galactus never actually comes, and is left as a "Vagueness Is Coming", yet another doomsday disaster that may happen some day (put it on the list, folks). Or he may show up at the last moment, Silver Surfer convinces him to go away, and it's all solved merely in dialogue.
- Ant Man/Scott Lang being seemingly recruited twice in similar situations.
- Who made Ultron: MMA 1 Pym vs MMA 2 Stark
- MMA 1 Bucky Barnes being saved from The Leader vs MMA 2 Bucky being recruited in events loosely based off of Captain America: Civil War.
Their problem was that their human form had no special powers. It was just a guy with a basic gun, tagging along Iron Man, Black Widow and Hawkeye. So, the Beyonders had to increase the power of their human form. They influenced the events so that all heroes with great powers, and even some villains, fell under his thrall. But they were not very satisfied with their power, so they replaced each hero with the best version of himself they could find in the multiverse, increased their power to unlock new actions, and attach them with some gems that allowed them to have even better powers. Of course, sometimes they got a bit overboard, so they "nerfed" them a bit so that the plan stayed undetected. Eventually, ALL known heroes fell under his thrall, and he had all the known powers of the universe under his beck and call. Badass normal, mutant, magic, demonic, cosmic, technological, you call it.
As for the Agent himself, they also made sure that he seized all the artifacts of power that may be around. From weather control to madness control, from quantum jumpers to possessed pistols, from Phoenix force's weapons to Worthy weapons, and even the Cosmic Cube itself. And even got the power to use any five of those unlimited weapons at the same time! With so much power under his beck and call, nobody can stand against the human avatar of the Beyonders. Not even Mephisto, not even Dormammu, not even the Worthy, not even the Serpent himself, not even Odin himself!
So yes, eventually the incursions came, and the only way to fix that was oblivion. But the Beyonders would not have any of that, and took advantage of their power. Now, all the heroes, villains and the human avatar of the Beyonders are dead, but the Beyonders themselves live on, ready to seek some other universe to focus their attention in it.
- Rescuing the worthy: the avengers work to track down the 9 missing heroes (and 1 villain) who where chosen as the worthy by the serpent. With their spirits broken and bruised, the mission is not just rescue or tracking them down, but giving them a pep talk on how their possession is not the end of their story.
- Into the unknown: the avengers start entering incursions, searching for Nick Fury who was MIA after a dimensional explosion. This would give a good excuse for mirror enemies and fighting other avenger teams as before, only more regularly as a match rather than as their own type of battle. Plus it would give the developers an excuse to be slightly lazy about it.
- Perhaps we would get to actually take on The Purple Man in battle. He'd be kinda like Rescue. With very little in the way of actual offensive attacks, but his abilities would make him REALLY annoying.