Spider-Man & Luna Snow

Blizzard's Overwatch was released in 2016. NetEase's Marvel Rivals was released in 2024. And so it's a testament to the strength of the IP (and the actual care put into what could easily have just been a branded cash-grab) that Rivals immediately made Overwatch look like the cheap knockoff. Swinging around the arena on his signature weblines, Spider-Man catches his rivals by surprise with sneaky, sticky bursts of webbing and unexpected attacks from above. Nothing says "carry me, please" like seeing a Spider-Man on your team in the pre-fight lobby. When every mode of the game revolves around either being close to or keeping the other team away from one specific spot, having Spider-Man's main playstyle be to be everywhere else on the map is often less than helpful. Oh, you know a shortcut that lets you swing around the outside of the map and get to the other side in seconds? Well that's great, but while you were doing that, they were all standing right in the center and clinching the win. But at least you had fun on your sightseeing tour, right? Marvel Rivals's biggest strength is its art style. Early alpha tests showed all the characters with a very straightforward, mundane look, almost like a less cartoony Fortnite. But the final product is very stylized, exaggerated beyond even what comicbooks generally give us, meaning you can tell a Rivals Spider-Man from any other Spider-Man with even the quickest glance. And yes, it takes a lot from Overwatch, but pushes it further. None of the Rivals characters start with their default comic costume - gotta leave something for future monetization opportunities, after all! So Spidey's suit is still red on the chest and blue on the legs, but not in a pattern we're ever seen elsewhere. Like that god-awful original Andrew Garfield suit, it's trying to catch the vibe without directly copying. And because the design is so complex and so distinct, that means Hasbro couldn't just repaint one of the standard bodies; or rather, they could have, but they chose to instead do something better. The blue sections of the costume have a texture the red sections do not, and there's a raised edge between them and the black. Every little section of his spider symbols, both chest and back, are individually sculpted in, too. Even if you don't particularly care for this costume design, there's no denying the sculpt really captures it well. One small flaw, though? They skipped the paint on his knees entirely: you can look at the lines, and the sculpted textures, and tell they're supposed to be mostly black. And of course, there's no way for a physical toy to duplicate one of Rivals' most unique visual elements, the stark white halo lighting that clings to them from behind, and the sketchy outlines that float just beyond that. Spider-Man gets a pair of fists, a thwip right hand, and a "sticking to the wall" left hand. The figure moves with swivel/hinge ankles, double-hinged knees, swivel thighs, balljoint hips on a hinge, swivel waist, hinged chest, swivel/hinge wrists, double-hinged elbows, swivel biceps, swivel/hinge shoulders, pectoral hinges, a hinged neck, and balljoint head. The spider on the chest does go right over the joint, and while they've tried to extend the sculpt of the legs on the abdomen, they don't quite line up. Credit for the attempt, though. For all the fun we poked at Spidey up above, he does move as dynamically in the game as the comics suggest he does, and this toy can live up to that. Equal parts pop star and superhero, Luna Snow puts on a dazzling show with both her light and dark ice powers. In 2011, Marvel introduced Coldmoon, an Asian girl who had white and black hair, and ice powers. She was created as an original new character for a planned Chinese mobile game, but the game never happened, and so she never appeared in a second issue. That's how, in 2018, Marvel introduced Luna Snow, an Asian girl who had white and black hair, and ice powers. She was created as an original new character for an existing Korean moble game, and since Marvel Future Fight is still going strong, she's been adapted into the comics, cartoons, and obviously even other videogames. Raised by her grandmother, Seol Hee wanted to become an idol to support the family. She attended an idol academy, where she was paired with three other girls as the group 4L1T and given the stage name Luna. On the night of 4L1T's debut concert, AIM attacked the stadium they were performing at, and locked the girls inside a Stark cold fusion reactor. Trying to save her friends, Luna smashed some of the controls, which blasted her with energy; she fought off AIM using her new cryo powers, and the crowd dubbed her Luna Snow. Luna's basic game skin is not her superhero suit - it's what she was wearing when she got her powers, which means it's her girl group costume. It's what she defaults to in all her other game appearances, so it's a fine choice. Plus, it doesn't hurt that it shows more skin: Rivals is, above all, a horny, horny game. She's wearing thigh high boots with a bit of stocking peeking out the top, denim hot pants over what appear to be bike shorts, a shirt made of straps, a short-sleeved leather jacket, and fingerless elbow gloves. Just like the movies have to add a bunch of random textures so the costumes will look good on film, Rivals has all sorts of small details, rather than smooth bodies, and that means every bit of her had to be new, and is unlikely to be used ever again. Like, the crescent moon logo on her back is a raised element, not just painted on the jacket - who's ever going to need that in the future? She's got open hands or closed fists, and an alternate head. Both heads have the same hair sculpt, a flippy bob that's black on one half and white on the other, with icicle earrings hanging down from it. The head she's got on in the package is giving a big, playful, wink, while the alternate is more neutral. Having both eyes open on that head allows us to see her one brown and and one blue - the heterochromia, like her poliosis, were a result of the blast that gave her her powers. She also gets the only accessory in this set, a large (5⅛" diameter) snowflake. It's molded from translucent blue plastic, and isn't anything from the game - she does have some snow effects, but the ones that look natural like this are small, and the ones that are this big are a different shape, so what the heck is it supposed to be? There's a C clamp on it, but nothing to attach it to: the clip is too small for her wrists, there's nowhere else on her body that could fit it, and if we're supposed to have it floating behind her, they forgot to include a stand for it. Just not good. Luna Snow is close enough to her "civilian" design that she'd be able to fit into a comic collection quite easily... so of course she's only available in a two-pack. Gotta milk those fans for all they're worth, huh Hasbro? The Spider-Man she comes with is fine, but certainly not the most exciting figure in this initial assortment of two two-packs and two solo releases. In an ideal world, the level of quality evinced by these two Rivals would be the baseline for Marvel Legends as a whole, because with fully unique sculpts and even a little extra articulation, they're both at the top of the charts. -- 09/23/26 Who do you main? Tell us on our message board, the Loafing Lounge.