Emily S. Whitten: “Marvel Heroes”

Emily S. Whitten

Emily S. Whitten writes everything from news, reviews, and interviews to how-tos, con round-ups, and opinion pieces for ComicMix and others; as well as comics featured on ComicMix, MTV.com, and Reelz.com; and occasionally even award-winning poetry and fiction. When she's not writing for fun or profit, she’s sharing geeky thoughts on the Fantastic Forum radio show and podcast Made of Fail. Emily is a convention organizer and consultant, and co-chair of the fourth North American Discworld Convention, which she co-founded. She has been Program Coordinator for Awesome Con and staff for several genre cons. Emily is a program moderator for Awesome Con and Fan2Sea; and you might also recognize her from her days of answering questions online as her alter-ego, Ask Deadpool. In her copious spare time, Emily enjoys crafting and cosplay, and looking after the cutest three-legged dwarf hamster in the world, ElliePuff. Oh, and when she's not doing all that, Emily is an active member of The National Press Club and holds down a 9-to-5 as a senior attorney for the federal government - although that may just be her superheroine cover identity.

You may also like...

4 Responses

  1. Random thoughts:

    I like that Venom is a bad guy here. But I wonder if Rhino’s power level was amped specifically in prep for the new Spidey movie? And Squirrel Girl as a playable character…wow. Maybe Ditko’s proudest moment.

    Great review though, Emily. It also really bothers me when speed/power levels are not differentiated enough, something DC has been struggling with.

    • Emily S. Whitten says:

      Huh, that’s an idea (re: Rhino). I kind of doubt that in this instance, though – I really think it’s a balance issue – and/or something they thought of as a challenging strategy feature, but it turns out to be just a little bit more challenging than it is fun.

      I cannot lie, even though Squirrel Girl is not a major Marvel character, I am super psyched for her. I have an unholy appreciation for the adorableness of rodentia; Tara Strong is voicing her; and from the descriptor text on a few SG gear items that my friends have seen drop…apparently she “sounds” in text exactly like the way I talk/play in-game. Hah.

  2. Emily S. Whitten says:

    In reply to: Neyo Aleixandre

    No; although I do get review copies of things sometimes, I did not get anything free from Gazillion. In this case any Gs etc. that I have are from the Premium Pack that I bought and from compensation given to Pack purchasers for the launch being delayed.

    Re: the prices, I was less-than-thrilled to see the $20 heroes too; but I then realized that only 3-4 of them, IIRC, are $20, and I already own one of those (Deadpool) from my original Premium Pack purchase. All other heroes appear to be $12 or less, which, from my understanding of talking with other gamers with deeper MMO backgrounds than I, is not unreasonable. Some heroes are less than $12.

    I actually like the starter roster pretty well. Sure, it’s not Spider-man and Iron Man, but I didn’t expect it would be. The heroes in the roster are fun to play, and there’s a good mix of choices for classes/powers to start with (e.g. ranged or melee). And none of them are unknowns or C-listers. I’d consider at least Storm, Thing, and Daredevil to be A-list or in an A-list team.

    Re: melee, I confess I almost always prefer ranged or mixed ranged/melee fighting in games, so I haven’t tried many melee characters as yet, although I got Thing as my character reward drop for completing a mission. Deadpool is fun as a mixed fighter, though, I know that.