Deep Dive Disney: Wes Builds the Roster for Gargoyles X Spider-Man: Battle Across New York

Well people, my Gargoyles: Arena of the Night Build the Roster article proved so popular that my loyal fans all but demanded a sequel. Well, I had so much fun writing the first one that I’m more than happy to oblige. Sure the first one ended up getting me blocked on Twitter by Thorgi, the YouTuber who’s style I’m emulating with these articles, because apparently the internet can only take a joke if I'm not the one making it. In any case, the problem with making a sequel is, in the first game, we pretty much covered all the ground we could possibly cover when it comes to Gargoyles. Sure we could add a few new characters, but after battling all the way to Queen Mab, what’s left exactly? Then I remembered how I included Spider-Man as a DLC guest character in the last game, and that’s when I got a crazy idea. Not only would this be a sequel to Gargoyles Arena of the Night, it will also be a crossover game with Spider-Man and the various heroes and villains who appear regularly in the pages of his various comics. While this may seem a bit out there, it’s not as much of a stretch as you might think. Both Spider-Man and the Gargoyles operate out of New York City, both characters had popular shows from Greg Weisman and there’s even an audio play crossover floating around out there, and both series are owned by Disney, so you know what, why the hell not, let’s have these two worlds collide. Welcome to Gargoyles X Spider-Man: Battle Across New York. So let’s get started with…

Story and New Mechanics: Alright, if you read the last article, (which you should have, but just in case I’ll leave some links Right Here) you’d remember that our final DLC boss was none other than Queen Mab. You may also remember that part of her big introduction was a beaten and battered Oberon falling out of the sky. Well, let’s say someone, I won’t reveal who just yet, but someone, found Oberon’s body and is planning to use it for their own nefarious purposes. To this end, our mystery villain has recruited a few allies and promised to provide them with their desires in exchange for their services while they contend with any who would stop their plans. While the identity of Oberon’s abductor is not yet known, a god going missing has attracted the attention of a few concerned individuals, especially when a mysterious message is broadcast by some of the bad guy’s recruited allies that states “Hey Assholes, we’re hiding somewhere in New York City, come and get us motherfuckers!” It would probably be a tad more eloquent than that, but that’s kind of the gist. Naturally, The Gargoyles know that Oberon’s power would be extremely dangerous in the wrong hands (hell it’s bad enough in Oberon’s hands) so they’re naturally getting involved, and Spider-Man, having taken part in the events of the last game and presumably having witnessed Oberon’s powers first hand, is in agreement with his Gargoyle pals and gathers up a few of his own allies to lend a hand. However, a few bad guys have also gotten wind of what’s going on and are going after Oberon’s abductors for their own reasons as well. As you may have surmised, this game will be a lot more story focused than the previous outing. Ideally, each season of DLC will contain a new chapter of the story culminating in the big reveal and the true final boss in the last season (why yes, I have been on a Blazblue kick lately, why do you ask). In addition, I’m also adding a new mechanic. While the last game was a one on one fighter, this one will be a Tag based fighter, though there will be a single player mode for those who preferred the original game. There could even be some unique endings for certain team combinations. Now as for the roster, we need to up the ante from the last game, which started with 20 characters in the base roster plus one unlockable sub-boss. This time around, since we have to accommodate two franchises instead of just one, I think we can safely increase the roster size to 30 characters at launch. What this means is there will be 15 Gargoyles characters and 15 Spider-Man characters to start, which is just enough to get the necessary characters in but still include a few fan favorites. What this also means is that there had to be some heavy cuts made to the Gargoyles half of the roster. Last time the game was theirs and theirs alone so we could throw in everyone we wanted, but this time, they have to share the game with another franchise, one much older and larger than Gargoyles, so we had to pair things back a bit. That leads me nicely into…

The Gargoyles side of the Roster:

I’m not going to spend too much time on the Gargoyles end of the roster since most of the characters are returning from the last game and most of them would fight exactly how they did then, so if you want details, check out the previous article. In this section, I’ll go over some of the characters that have been changed and explaining why a few big name characters had to get the axe. Goliath, Broadway, Lexington, Angela, Hudson, Robyn, Katana, Demona and Xanatos would all be pretty much untouched so we’ll be skipping them. Something you may have noticed is that big fan favorite characters like Fox and Elisa have been omitted. Admittedly, Fox came dangerously close to avoiding that fate, but turns out Wolf is way more popular than I anticipated, at least among the crowds I hang out with, so he ended up with what would have been her spot. Elisa’s omission actually brings me to one of the major differences this time around. Remember how Puck was hosting the tournament in the last game? Well, we were using that to hand wave any continuity inconsistencies such as say, Elisa being able to take her Gargoyle form. Puck isn’t involved this time around so no Puck, no Gargoyle form, ergo, no Elisa. She’d be involved in the story, sure, but she wouldn’t be a fighter this time around. On that note, this also means that Jackal taking his Anubis form is also out since he obviously wouldn’t be able to do that on his own. Instead, I’m doubling up Jackal and Hyena. Jackal would be the character the player controls, but Hyena could come in for a lot of assists and double team attacks. Thailog would no longer be able to call on the aid of the Gargoyle clones (except for Brentwood, the Lexington clone) since they all left Thailog and went to live with Talon in the sewer. However, as an Easter egg, maybe the Gargoyle clones can be represented as alternate skins for the corresponding members of the Manhattan clan. Brooklyn’s move set wouldn’t change too much, but I want his appearance updated so it matches the older Brooklyn with an eyepatch from Time Dancer. You also may have noticed that his mate Katana has graduated from DLC character to base roster, good for her! Wolf would be virtually the same, we’d even keep him as a stance fighter with the battle axe, but the key difference is, it wouldn’t be Hakon’s axe anymore since it was destroyed and Hakon’s soul was presumably dragged to hell as a result. But, maybe Wolf just liked the feel of a battle axe and decided to get one for himself. Speaking of stance fighters, Cold Stone would no longer be one since, as you may have noticed, his mate, Cold Fire is finally a playable character in her own right. Cold Stone’s play style would change a bit to reflect this. The best way I can describe it would be, Cold Stone is a tank, Cold Fire is a fighter jet. Both are machines of death, but they do so in very different ways. Cold Stone is like Robocop. A bulky cyborg who may not be especially fast but hits like a truck and is still deadly accurate. Cold Fire might not be as strong or as durable, but she makes up for that by being a lot faster, a lot more adept with the aerial combat mechanic that will be returning from the last game and having some powerful Dhalsim-esque fire attacks. I think we’ve covered the Gargoyles side of things about as much as we need to, but before we start on the other side of the crossover, let’s address something we probably should have addressed in the last game…

Stages:

One of the key elements of a fighting game is the stages. You can’t just have your characters fighting in an empty void, you need a background arena for the fight to take place. Strange as it may sound, the stages in your fighting game can say a lot about the game’s personality. From the unique and colorful streets with spectators cheering you on to the dark and unsettling stages of Mortal Kombat, stages are more of an essential component of a fighting game. For this game in particular, since both The Gargoyles and Spider-Man are so closely connected with New York City, why not justify our title and have each stage serve as a love letter to The Big Apple and all the iconic landmarks contained therein. Let’s have our fighters clash in such New York landmarks such as The Statue of Liberty, Grand Central Station, Central Park, Rockefeller Plaza and much, much more. Sure, we’d throw in a few stages iconic to the two fictional franchises duking it out in this game, such as Castle Wyvern and The Daily Bugle, but for the most part, the theme would be a love letter to New York City. Story wise, I kind of imagine this game having many similarities to the 1979 cult classic, The Warriors, in which a Street Gang accused of murder must fight their way through the city across the territories of various rival gangs gunning for their hides, hence, Battle Across New York. Spidey and the Gargoyles would fight their way through various historic New York landmarks trying to find the bad guys but at each turn they encounter various obstacles. But speaking of Spidey, I say it’s high time we started building his side of the roster, starting, naturally, with the Spectacular one himself.

Spider-Man:

I don’t want to talk too much about Spidey’s move set since we addressed it last time around and even then, we basically just copied and pasted his move set from the Marvel vs. Capcom series. However, since we’re here, now’s as good a time as any to address something that may disappoint some people. Even though one of the big connections between Spider-Man and Gargoyles was that Gargoyles creator Greg Weisman worked on the 2008 animated series Spectacular Spider-Man and that previously mentioned Gargoyles/Spider-Man audio play crossover was specifically a crossover between those two shows, this game will not be following the continuity of The Spectacular Spider-Man. There’s two reasons for this. First and foremost, certain characters I wanted to include in this game did not appear in The Spectacular Spider-Man and I feel that the importance of including said characters outweighs the importance of paying homage to a popular TV show. The other reason, and this is a little embarrassing, I haven’t actually watched Spectacular Spider-Man in its entirety. Oh sure, I maybe caught an episode here and there while flipping channels but the show had the disadvantage of coming out while I was going through that unfortunate time in one’s teen years when you think you’re too old for cartoons but not old enough to realize you’re never too old for cartoons. So, as a result, the show just kind of passed me by. I’ll try to pay homage to the series when I can, but, with apologies to Greg Weisman and fans of Spectacular Spider-Man, this Spider-Man is operating in a continuity unique to this game. And besides, if I did follow the continuity of Spectacular Spider-Man, I wouldn’t be able to include…

Spider-Man:

That’s right, if you’ve been paying attention to anything going on in comics for the past decade, then you’d know that Peter Parker isn’t the one and only Spider-Man anymore. Ol’ Pete has been sharing that title with young Miles Morales for some time now. Before we get into the move set, I just need to address something. A lot of people on Comic Book Twitter are bitching nowadays that Peter and Miles can’t both be Spider-Man. My response: Says The Fuck Who!? Over on the other side of the comic book fence, both Barry Allen and Wally West were operating as The Flash for a number of years and no one bat an eyelash. New York City is a big place, the Marvel Universe is even bigger and there’s more than enough room in both for more than one Spider-Man and I’m frankly not interested in any opinions to the contrary. If I’m being 100% honest, remember back when I said I thought Terry McGinnis was a better Batman than Bruce Wayne? Well, the same applies to Peter, Miles and Spider-Man. While Peter was already a genius when he got bit by that radioactive spider, miles was a bit more of an average kid and had to start from scratch, which in a way, makes him the relatable character Peter was originally intended to be. But enough preamble, how would Miles fight? Well, since he has a lot of the same powers as Peter, he’d have a lot of the same moves, but I imagine he’d be a little faster and he’d have his venom strike ability which would be a stun grab that would send the opponent flying across the screen. He’d also be able to turn invisible for a period of time for stealth attacks. For a super, I imagine him using a more powerful version of the venom strike, kind of like how he defeated Kingpin in Spider-Verse. Speaking of Spider-Verse, there’s one more Spider-Person we’re adding to the base roster…

Spider-Gwen:

I know that’s not technically her official superhero name, Gwen usually going by Spider-Woman or… Ghost Spider (Yeesh, if that’s the best they can come up with for Gwen, I’m even more glad Miles keeps going by Spider-Man) but let’s face it, to most fans, the alternate reality version of Gwen Stacy who got bitten by the spider instead of Peter is always going to be Spider-Gwen. The name just nicely rolls off the tongue, a hell of a lot more than Ghost Spider at any rate. So how would Gwen be different from Miles and Peter? Well, remember last time how we gave Anansi a unique mechanic where he spins webs that he can crawl around on to counter the aerial combat mechanic we established last time as well as set up dive bomb attacks, I’m thinking we can do something similar with Gwen here. She’s be a lot more mobile, since, unlike Anansi, Gwen isn’t a fat, lazy asshole, but the principal is still the same. I think that would be a good way for Gwen to fight similar to her fellow Spider-People, while still feeling distinct. Alright, we’re done with the Spider-People for the time being, but before we move on to baddies, let’s throw in a couple more heroes to balance things out. Starting with…

Black Cat:

Felicia Hardy, aka Black Cat is, for all intents and purposes, Marvel’s version of Catwoman. She’s a little bit more heroic than her DC counterpart, but the idea is still very much the same. She’s a villain turned hero who serves as a frequent ally and occasional love interest of Spider-Man. Personally, and this may sound controversial, I like her as a love interest more than Mary-Jane, but that’s just my personal preference for Superheroes dating other superheroes talking. Black Cat spent years training in various forms of martial arts in order to murder the man who assaulted her in college, so I could see her as a wrecka fighter, with a lot of fast combos where you can chain together moves quickly. She wouldn’t hit as hard as say, Goliath, but she’d do a lot more damage over time if you let her start in on you. Apparently, similar to Domino from the Deadpool movies, Black Cat also has a psionic ability to influence probability around her, causing those who pursue her to encounter bad luck, so I think we can translate this into a few counter moves. Alright, moving right along, let’s discuss a character who has been both a hero and a villain, depending on what the plot needs.

The Prowler:

Once one of the less well-known members of Spidey’s rogue’s gallery, Prowler gained a great deal of mainstream popularity when he was prominently featured in Into the Spider-Verse. There have actually been a couple versions of The Prowler over the years, and while Hobie Brown was the original, I think most people are familiar with the Aaron Davis version due to his recent appearances in mainstream media, so we’re going with him. Aaron was Miles’ Uncle and a petty criminal who, despite his estrangement from his cop brother, still had a soft spot for his nephew. Under the identity of The Prowler, Aaron eventually worked his way up to a position as one of The Kingpin’s top enforcers. Prowler is a master thief and an Olympic level athlete, so he’d definitely be pretty agile, perfect for a good rush down character. He also has a pair of nasty looking gloves that can be used for both electric shocks at close range and sonic attacks at long range. Alright, enough heroes and anti-heroes, it’s finally time to get into the full-fledged villains, and first and foremost is one of my personal favorites… who admittedly also leans more toward the anti-hero side of the fence these days.

Venom:

There have been many over the years who have bonded with the Venom symbiote, from Spider-Man himself, to The Scorpion, Mac Gargan, to Spidey’s childhood bully, Flash Thompson, the list goes on. However, to keep things as simple as possible and stick with the most well-known host for the symbiote, Eddie Brock. Eddie Brock was a journalist who felt that Spider-Man had ruined his life. After Spider-Man rejected the symbiote. The pile of black goo found Brock and they bonded over their mutual hatred of Spider-Man. However, over time, the character evolved from monstrous villain to an anti-hero who proclaimed himself to be New York’s “Lethal Protector.” We’re not going to spend a ton of time on his move set either because this is another character who has been in more than enough fighting games that we have more than enough to pull from. Venom was another character I used a lot in Marvel vs. Capcom so I say let’s just go with that. Alright, we’re finally done with the anti-hero side of the fence. Our remaining nine characters are all as bad as they come. Since, with the possible exception of Batman, Spider-Man’s rogue’s gallery is one of the largest and most diverse in the history of comics so choosing which ones to include and which ones to cut proved a near impossible task. Some fan favorites sadly didn’t make the final cut, but ultimately, I think I included most of the important ones while still throwing in a couple unexpected picks. And of course, we’re starting with Spider-Man’s arch nemesis…

The Green Goblin:

Norman Osbourne was a billionaire scientist who never had time for a son. But then something went screwy, and before you knew, he was trying to kill everyone. (Thank you very much Weird Al). The Green Goblin is one of Spidey’s most long standing enemies so his inclusion in this game was a given. Also, he’s a billionaire who puts on an armored suit modeled after a mythical creature and flies around fighting superheroes. I think he and Xanatos need to meet. In terms of play style, the Goblin Glider would allow him to make use of our aerial combat mechanic and with all his gas attacks and pumpkin bombs, he’s definitely a zoner, blasting away at his opponent from a safe distance. He’d be able to use a wide variety of weapons but in order to ensure he’s not completely broken, I say we give him a limit on how many of each he actually has that he would need to recharge once he runs out. He’d also be able to get off the glider and control it remotely, giving him some elements of puppet fighter as well. Also, I know a certain character similar to Green Goblin is popular and has a lot of fans, but since two Goblins in this game would be redundant, Hobgoblin will not be appearing in this game. However, I see no problem with including Hobgoblin as an unlockable costume since it’s not like their move sets would be that different. Alright, we’ve covered Spidey’s arch-nemesis, now let’s cover his… other arch nemesis…

Doctor Octopus:

How Dr. Otto Octavius became the villains Doctor Octopus, or Doc Ock for short, tends to vary from continuity to continuity, but I think the version most casual fans would be familiar with would be the one from Spider-Man 2, where he was a benevolent scientist who developed robotic arms for dealing with hazardous material. After an accident, the AI in the arms went haywire and affected his mind, causing him to go a little nuts and turn to a life of crime. Doc Ock is also significant for being the founder of The Sinister Six, a group of six villains who band together to try to kill Spider-Man after failing to do so alone. Over the years, the groups roster has shuffled around several times to the point that by now, it’s included pretty much every significant Spider-Man villain in the book. With his long robotic tentacles, I can see Doc Ock being a long range grappler with plenty of grabs and melee attacks that can be performed at range like Dhalsim from Street fighter. Also, for a super, I can see him using the artificial sun like he did in Spider-Man two. Alright, that covers it for Doc Ock, so let’s move on to a villain you may not have been expecting to see despite being one of Spider-Man’s most dangerous and frequent enemies.

The Kingpin:

Wilson Fisk, also known as The Kingpin, is one of the most powerful crime bosses in all of New York City, maintaining his criminal empire under his codename while appearing in the public eye to be just another wealthy philanthropist. For my money, Fisk is one of the most interesting villains in all of Marvel comics. While more often associated with Daredevil, Kingpin has menaced Spider-Man just as much over the years. Besides, it’s not like there isn’t plenty of overlap between the rogue’s galleries of Spidey and Daredevil to begin with. In any case, Fisk is one serious threat, often orchestrating events from the shadows to make life miserable for the people of his city and the heroes who stand against him. He has so much power and influence that even when locked up in prison, he’s still a major threat. When Spidey revealed his identity to the world during as part of the Superhuman Registration Act, Kingpin, without missing a beat, put a hit out on his Aunt May, an assassin’s bullet putting the poor old woman in a coma. This event directly lead to the insultingly regressive and just plain God awful One More Day storyline, which might make him the most detestable villain in all of comics (that is, of course, if you don’t count Joe Quesada). While he prefers to work through his subordinates, Fisk is not afraid to throw down in fisticuffs when he needs to. If you think that he’s just a big fat guy under that custom tailored suit, think again. Anyone who punches this big man in the gut expecting to connect with a flabby stomach will probably end up shattering all the bones in their hand because Fisk is four hundred pounds of solid muscle. The dude is a total brick shit house and quite possibly the physically strongest non-powered human being in the entire Marvel Universe. With all that in mind, Kingpin would naturally be a tank. He wouldn’t be especially fast, but he’d hit like truck and would have incredibly high defenses. Also, this is just for me. At some point in the game, there’d have to be a cutscene that would show Fisk trying to move in on Dracon’s territory. Dracon would start talking shit and probably make a crack about Fisk’s size, and Fisk would casually put the little weasel through a concrete wall. Anywho… let’s move on to another classic supervillain.

Sand Man:

Flint Marko was a petty criminal who got caught up in a science experiment involving sand, becoming the powerful Sand Man. Despite being one of the major players in Spider-Man’s rogue’s gallery, Marko has actually reformed more than a few times and even briefly became a member of the Avengers, but in the end, always ends up going back to his life of crime. While he’s never been in an official fighting game, he has been in a few fan made games so we have some stuff to pull from in terms of his move set. Able to turn his entire body into sand, he’d have serval long range heavy attacks, a couple sand blast projectiles and a teleport move where he sinks into the floor and reforms on the other side of the screen. For a super, I can see him taking the giant form from the end of Spider-Man three temporarily for some massive damage. Moving on to our next villain…

Kraven the Hunter:

Sergei Kravinoff is a Russian big game hunter who views Spider-Man as his ultimate prey, but I’d bet he’d leap at the opportunity to put his skills to the test by hunting some Gargoyles. Despite not having much in the super powers department aside from the performance enhancing potion he takes to make him a better hunter, Kraven still has plenty of moves in his arsenal. He’s proficient in many armed and unarmed forms of combat, he’s a master tactician, strategist and tracker and is skilled enough with animals to subdue any beast and train it to fight by his side. So, Kraven here would have a little bit of everything in his move set. He’d have a machete for fighting up close, a tranquilizer rifle for long range attacks that would stun the opponent if hit, he'd be able to set up traps around the arena and he’s have a few attacks where he sends lions or elephants across the screen for assist attacks. Kraven is a master hunter, so he’d be one tough customer. A lot of his skills would be hard to pull off for beginners, which I feel will balance him out a bit. Also, for a super, I'd have him call out Gog, a gigantic alien monster who Kraven found in a place called The Savage Land and occasionally uses as his personal attack dog. Alright, moving on from a man who hunts big game to a guy who dresses like big game…

Rhino:

Aleksei Sytsevich was a goon in the Russian Mafia (It was the cold war, a lot of bad guys were Russian) who, under the promise of wealth and power volunteered for an experimental procedure that would turn him into a super weapon. Aleksei was exposed to several life-threatening chemical and radiation treatments that gave him incredible superhuman strength and also permanently bonded his skin to a suit of armor designed after the hide of a rhinoceros. Honestly, there’s not much more to this character. In the comics, he rarely amounts to much more than a muscle-brained thug. Frankly, he and Wolf would probably get along. Honestly, the only reason he’s here is because I just like the design and feel this character needs a bit more love, especially after Amazing Spider-Man 2. I love Paul Giamatti, but having Rhino all over the trailers only for him not to show up until the last thirty seconds was inexcusable. Rhino would basically just be another big hulking grappler like Zagief or Marduk but being a Rhino, he’s also have a few full screen charge attacks for good measure. Anywho, we just talked about a character wasted by Amazing Spider-Man 2, now let’s talk about the actual villain of Amazing Spider-Man 2.

Electro:

In some versions, it was a lab experiment involving electric eels, in others, he was struck by lightning while working on a telephone wire, and in one instance he was a secret nazi super weapon, but however it happened, Max Dillon became the supervillain Electro, with power over electricity. If I had to pick an origin for this version, honestly, I’m going with the eels because of how it mirrors the way Anton Sevarius faked his death in his introductory episode. I won’t say how just yet, but I do plan to get Anton Sevarius involved in the story, and I would love to see these two have an interaction. Maybe Sevarius would be annoyed that he didn’t get superpowers. As you can probably guess, with powers that are electrical in nature, Electro would be a massive zoner, having many electric projectiles in his arsenal. He’d also have a few teleport moves that would mimic his ability to travel through electrical wires. That’s more or less it what it comes to Electro’s move set but before we go, I want to say, for this game, I’d like to use Max’s Amazing Spider-Man 2 design as opposed to his classic look. Yeah, that version of the character had some problems, hell that whole movie has some problems, but I thought the character looked cool at least. Besides there are already more than enough Spider-Man villains who wear green. Speaking of villains who wear green…

The Vulture:

Terror in the skies, The Vulture was one of the earliest foes Spider-Man ever came up against. While the arms dealer version of Adrian Toomes we see in Spider-Man Homecoming was really cool, the version we’ll be using in this game will be a bit closer to the comics. Toomes was a partner in an electronics firm who was forced out by his shady business partner and, using an experimental flight harness, adopted his new identity as The Vulture and swore revenge. Since Toomes’ primary gimmick involves flight, he would definitely be a character who can take full advantage of the aerial combat mechanic, dropping bombs on the opponent from the air and swooping down to swipe at the opponent with some razor sharp talons. Also, one of the more disturbing abilities Vulture has been known to have is some experimental tech that allows him to drain the youth and vitality of others and temporarily restore his own. We can definitely have him use this to drain health from the opponent, but I can also see him using it in another way. See, Adrian is a very old man. He’s basically Mr. Burns strapped to a pair of bird wings. So, at the start of the match, he wouldn’t be terribly fast and wouldn’t hit especially hard, but if he pulls off a certain attack, he’d regain his youth and vitality temporarily and his weakness would be transferred to the opponent. Alright, if you’ve been counting we have one spot left on the roster and while there are still plenty of classic Spider-Man villains we haven’t used yet, but for our last spot, I’m going with a character you probably weren’t expecting to see…

Tombstone:

Due to being born with albinism, Lonnie Lincoln was made to feel like an outcast from a very early age, with other children seeing him as a monster. Growing up, Lonnie developed a chip on his shoulder and when he got older, he took a job as an enforcer for various crime bosses. At one point, Lonnie was exposed to an experimental gas that granted him super human strength, stamina and durability. Adopting the nickname Tombstone, Lonnie continued his work for the mob and tangled many times with the likes of Spider-Man and Daredevil. Now, you may be wondering, why Tombstone? We’ve left a lot of classic Spider-Man villains on the sidelines, but this B tier baddie makes it in? Well, there is a very good reason why Tombstone is here. Remember when I said we wouldn’t be following the continuity of Spectacular Spider-Man? Well, that doesn’t mean we’re not paying homage to it here and there. And, in Spectacular Spider-Man, Tombstone, reimagined as a Kingpin style crime boss as opposed to an enforcer, was one of the major villains, involved in several of the major plot threads throughout the show. And who voiced Tombstone in the pilot episode? That’s right, Goliath himself, Keith David. More than likely, David would already be on hand voicing Goliath for this game, so why not have him play Tombstone as well. As for how Tombstone would fight, I’d imagine him as another tank. He can take a ton of hits and he himself punches like he's wearing boxing gloves made of solid stone. He’s also proficient with firearms and often seen holding a pair of BFGs so he'd also have plenty of ranged attacks. Okay, we’ve got the base roster all set and ready to go. If you read the last article, you know what’s coming next…

Bosses:

Alright, if you were around for the last article, you know what’s up. This game is going to have one default boss, and three more bosses to be released with each season of DLC. Now, since we’re dealing with a cross over game, you have probably surmised that that means two bosses from Gargoyles and two bosses from Marvel, and you’d be right, but we’re adding a twist. Each boss from one series, must be powered up by something from the other series in order to make them seem more… final bossy. Also, for the purposes of the story, I can imagine Thailog and The Green Goblin serving as a sub-boss team. I think those two would get along, or at least be united in common goals. Either way, Nightstone Unlimited and OsCorp would definitely be in business together. And for the default final boss, I think I owe a certain major Gargoyles villain an apology for leaving him out of the last game.

The Archmage:

Even though his plot line didn’t make a ton of sense, Archie was still one of the major villains of Gargoyles who had a pretty significant impact on the events of the story. I didn’t include him last time because I limited the roster to characters who were still alive, but now that we’re dipping into the Marvel Universe, where the afterlife is essentially just a big revolving door, all bets are off and the Archmage can live again. In the show, The Arch-Mage was the court wizard at castle Wyvern until he was exiled for plotting against the prince. He was thought to have been killed by Hudson over a thousand years ago, but in a series of time travel shenanigans so convoluted it will cause your brain leak out of your ass if you try to make sense of it, Archie was saved by a future version of himself who helped him steal three powerful artifacts, namely, The Eye of Odin, the Phoenix Gate and the Grimorum Arcanorum, to give himself ultimate power. His plans were thwarted by Goliath when Goliath wrestled the Eye of Odin away, causing him to lose the power boost that allowed him to contain the power of the Grimorum. The raw magical energy overwhelmed the sorcerer and he exploded. Our mystery villain likely resurrected the Arch-Mage and got his hands on the artifacts that granted him his full power. While the Eye of Odin and the Phoenix Gate are still around (not to tip my hand too soon, but our mystery villain would have minimal issues wrestling the eye away from Odin himself), but the Grimorum Arcanorum is now just a pile of ash somewhere on Avalon, so instead, Archie is now using the power of the Darkhold, which, if you don’t know, was the book that turned Wanda Maximoff into an all powerful evil sorceress in Multiverse of Madness. As a boss, Archie would be pretty tough. He’d have plenty of magical projectiles and the ability to create sand clones of himself like he did in the show. The Darkhold would also grant him a few new tricks. He’d have a glowing red aura that he’d be able to use as a shield and he’d be able to summon undead soldiers to attack on his behalf. For an ultimate, I’m going to pay homage to what I feel is the gnarliest death in the MCU. Archie would have an instant kill move where he casts a spell that causes your character’s brain to explode like Blackbolt. I just thought that was really cool.

Alright, the base game is done and dusted, but don’t worry, we’re not done yet. Join me next time as we dive into the DLC. Until then!