Here’s the first in-game look at Human Torch and The Thing in Marvel Rivals

Marvel Rivals has seen regular updates ever since the game’s full release in December. From cosmetics to tweaks to the game’s mechanics and more, Marvel Rivals keeps evolving. This makes all of us excited for what’s next on the horizon, watching without blinking for anything new. With the mid-season patch around the corner, we finally have a few interesting teases for what’s to come – some expected, some surprising, but all welcome. 

First sneak peek at Human Torch and The Thing

As many fans have speculated, the new mid-season update will be released on February 21. With it, we’ll finally gain access to Human Torch and The Thing to round out the Fantastic Four roster. We’ve all seen the still images and artwork, but thanks to leaks from Miller Ross on X, we have now seen them in their in-game glory. Johnny Storm, aka Human Torch, got a fiery intro animation. Similarly, watching The Thing’s intro animation simply screams “It’s clobberin’ time!”

We have already seen some of their abilities. For example, as a Duelist, Human Torch can deal a lot of AoE damage, which is in line with his fiery powers. We went through all of them in our dedicated article here. On the other hand, Ben Grimm, aka The Thing is a Vanguard, meaning his job is to tank for his team. From what we’ve explored in this article, his abilities revolve around durability and, as expected, clobberin’ his enemies with powerful punches.

There’s even more coming in the Season 1.5 update

But that’s not all. A new map is coming to the game, called Empire of Eternal Night: Central Park. Dark and moody, with twisted trees, a gothic look, and a blood moon to round it out, this map simply looks amazing in its teaser. We are yet to find out what’s the layout for its lanes and points, however. The map’s game mode is still debated among fans, so we’ll have to wait a bit longer to find out the rules on the spooky new map.

The mid-season update will also add new Competitive mode rewards, which include a special skin for Human Torch called Blood Blaze. This one will be available for anyone who reaches the rank of Gold and above. As before, other rewards include progressively fancier icons, as we can see from this leak.

Last but not least, a small but welcome tweak is coming to competitive mode. In essence, once you reach the rank of Diamond 3 or above, you can opt to hide your username in competitive until shortly after the match begins. This is a welcome quality-of-life change that you can opt into, especially if you seem to run into the same people at higher ranks and would rather avoid issues like targeted bans of your preferred hero. Trust us, people will remember your picks if they face you more often, so this feature can prevent that, among other things.

As stated, we won’t have to wait long to see these new superheroes, changes, and the new map implemented into the game. The Season 1.5 update is just a few short days away.