This year’s big superhero flick is Thor: Love and Thunder, starring Natalie Portman as the Jane Foster version of Thor. Marvel’s Avengers (opens in new tab) remains a going concern for Crystal Dynamics, even if it’s never quite met with the success it hoped for, and the game is also adding its own version of Jane Foster to the superhero lineup.
The news was first revealed in a development update (opens in new tab), and now the studio’s released an animated short showing how Foster ends up with this bunch of Avengers.
From an apocalypse of fire and blood to a new world.The Mighty Thor may be no stranger to battling gods, evil, and disease, but traveling between universes is a new kind of experience. Watch The Mighty Thor: Out of Time to see how Jane Foster joins our Avengers! pic.twitter.com/cJHnjaYvSWJune 21, 2022
Turns out making deals with Loki is a bad idea: who knew.
The Jane Foster character has been in the comics since the ’60s, and appeared in the first MCU Thor film. Part of the weirdness of the Avengers game is that it’s not linked to the MCU (despite being very clearly inspired by that take on these heroes) and always insists it’s purely comics-inspired: Which is to say, you’re not going to be running around racking up 100-hit combos as Natalie Portman.
“Our Hero designs are driven first and foremost by their core comic book identities, so, as a fellow wielder of Mjolnir, her suite of abilities will have a lot in common with the Odinson’s, however she will also have elements that are distinctly Jane,” reads Crystal Dynamics’ announcement.
Marvel’s Avengers soldiers on though, on PC at least, player counts remain low: peak concurrent players in the last 24 hours was 331 people. That’s not exactly a big-budget licensed videogame in good health, though this does not include console players.
We’ve previously argued that this is a game that needs to be put out of its misery (opens in new tab). A comeback now seems impossible, even for Earth’s mightiest heroes. It’s hard not to feel bad for Crystal Dynamics but, on the other hand, it doesn’t help that the game added Marvel’s best character: Except if you play on PC (opens in new tab).