Wow! I’m on the Marvel Strike Force press list now. And they wanted me to tell you about the debut of the Spider-Society in the game. These are the beloved characters from the Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse film: Spider-Man (Pavitr), Peni Parker (with Spy-der) and Peter B. Parker are joining Spider-Man Noir in the line-up (still no Spider-Ham though, perhaps for reasons I mention below.)
As I wrote in my first MSF opus, I’m a loyal player of this mobile game, closing in my fourth year of daily playing. Whew. One of the things that keeps me playing is the fun character animations, and Spider-Society is no exception. I’ve only been able to play them in a preview campaign, but Peni jumps out of Spy-Der and Peter B. is in his jammies, with baby on board! Mayday swings out over her foes (safely). They join Spider-Man Noir whose attacks are accompanied by a blast of film noir music, and Ghost Spider (Gwen) who was already hopping around in her cowl. Fun for all. And the designs are right out of the comics and movies.
The game is offering a bunch of Spider-like extras for the launch – you can unlock Miles Morales just by logging in, which is a good deal.
If you actually play the game, here’s the deets
- Peter B. Parker possesses the dual Origin traits of Bio and Skill. He uses his high Health and Focus stats to keep his allies in the fight and heal them when they’re in trouble. He acts as a mentor to his Spider-Society allies, boosting them at the beginning of the fight and picking them up and dusting them off when they feel the effects of battle. On Spawn, he grants his Spider-Society allies a slew of positive effects, which includes Safeguard in Raids. Whenever Peter B. Parker or a Hero Spider-Verse ally is attacked, he heals the most injured Hero Spider-Verse ally. Each of his abilities applies Regeneration and his Passive Ability grants Spider-Society allies additional Max Health and Resistance.
- Spider-Man (Pavitr) is a hard-hitting Brawler with the dual origin traits of Bio and Skill. He’s armed with big Focus and Damage stats and dances around enemies with Rebound Chains on all of his attacks. He helps set the pace of battle by applying Slow to enemies and Speed Up to his allies and via his Speed Bar manipulation on his Basic Ability. Spider-Man (Pavitr) gives his Spider-Society allies more power in Raids with additional Crit Chance, Crit Damage, and Focus.
- Peni Parker is a powerful Protector for Spider-Society and possesses the dual origin traits of Tech and Skill. She doesn’t Taunt, but Peni is incredibly dangerous if she isn’t attacked. She dishes out Barrier to her Hero Spider-Verse allies and if she has Barrier, she gains extra Damage for her attacks. She generates Ability Energy on Spawn for Spider-Society, allowing them to use their Ultimate Ability a turn earlier and, in Raids, they can use their Ultimates on the very first turn. And to help her Spider-Society team cruise through the toughest Skill Raid lanes, she arms her allies with Safeguard and applies Trauma to all enemies via her Ultimate Ability.
The Spider-Society is coming out at a bit of an odd time – but when you recall that Spider-Man: Beyond the Spider-Verse was once over-optimistically planned to come out this Spring it makes more sense. The third outing in the Spider-Verse trilogy has now been postponed indefinitely (!) – although there are hopes it will be out next year.
Perhaps the debut of Spider-Ham will be saved for that release. Because all the Marvel Strike Force characters are animated on the same base model, a short character like Spider-Ham is hard to add from a technical standpoint – although he’s been in other Marvel games.
As long as I’m writing about MSF, I’ve got to tell you all about my Dark Dimension 6 slog. Dark Dimensions are particularly difficult challenges where you have to build up specific teams over a long period and then whittle down very tough enemies. You get only one attack a day and some Dark Dimensions have taken me months to finish.
Dark Dimension 6 launched LAST SUMMER, and it took me months to build up enough gear to even start it. As I recall vividly, I had just come home from New Year’s Eve 2024 when just as I was about to go to sleep, I opened the last bits of Metabolic Enhancers or whatever to level up the last character I needed: Apocalypse. So yeah I’ve been trying to finish DD6 for THREE AND A HALF MONTHS. And I might just finish it tonight after I finish writing this post, because I’m on the last two nodes. There’s something quite comforting to me about doing my DD battles just before I go to sleep. It’s literally the last thing I do every day, and caps off each day with a heroic struggle, just the way I like it.
But learn from my mistakes. There is a lot of advice about what characters to take to a Dark Dimension, as you don’t have enough resources to waste on unnecessary characters, so you have to plan ahead – that’s the addictive nature of the game, saving up and then achieving long term goals. I was okay for the node where you could use any characters – remember each attack is ONE DAY.
For mission 1 I took Kestrel, Captain Carter, Doctor Doom Apocalypse and Quicksilver – the latter was not an approved character in many guides but he was clutch! I haven’t regretted bringing him up at all. Only 7 days!
Node 2 only took 6 days with the same crew. Then it was Global (There are three kinds of characters, Global, City and Cosmic).
Adding Captain America to the previous crew, I basically whipped through those three nodes – just 19 days!
And then my horrors began. Whatever you do DO NOT BRING RAVAGER STITCHER to DD6! Just don’t do it. No matter how many people say it can work because he’s cheap. He’s also a ”minion” character with far lesser powers than regular characters. Suddenly my Dark Dimension adventure became a frustrating nightmare. Accompanied by Kestrel (one of the game’s best characters), Kang (ditto), Photon and Vahl (another MSF original), Stitcher was useless, dying immediately and leaving me to suffer through two weeks each on Nodes 6 and 7. But then came the gruesome disaster of Node 8.
TWENTY-ONE DAYS. Weeks were going by. Winter was finishing up, babies were being born, life was full of mirth and glee for lucky people who didn’t bring Stitcher to DD6. I was desperately trying to bring another character along who could DO SOMETHING. Everyone said “Don’t bring Dormammu to DD6! He uses the same resources as Robbie and you need Robbie for City!” I actually had all the materials for Dormie, but hadn’t pulled the trigger. Finally I realized that I had to finish this dumb game no matter what and brought him up and…finished the hell node immediately. What a dope I was.
There are other new characters that would be good substitutes who debuted AFTER I started DD6. You’ll need Void Knight or Black Knight for Arena mode, so either of them would do. Learn from my agony.
I had to take a break after that to build up the materials for City mode (you only get three or four of the dozens you need each day) but finally I was ready for City with Ghost Rider (Robbie Ms. Marvel Hardlight, Kraven, Lizard and my beloved Vulture. There are quite a few Sinister Six character in the game and Vulture was just a brooding old guy for a while but he got a rework to turn into a killing machine who swoops in and rewinds enemy turn meter. So good. And I just blasted right through! 12 days total for three nodes!
Since then it’s been a cakewalk. I brought Doc Ock, Black Cat, Nova, Green Goblin Classic and Omega Red (another favorite) to Non-Horseman Legendary and breezed through.
And NOW I am on the last two Legendary nodes with Apocalypse, Black Cat, Doc Ock and Green Goblin Classic again. Red Hulk is another fun character who smashes the opposing team under a smoking meteor and I thought he’d be the MVP here but his low health has left him somewhat on the sidelines.
Anyhoo, as I write this, my nearly four month journey is nearly at an end…and soon I’ll have Super Skrull, the 2nd most powerful character in the game on my team.
Unfortunately, Dark Dimension 7 just launched, and the materials for the characters I need are nearly impossible to get….so we’re looking at another six months before I can even start that…..and the cycle begins anew. Sigh. That’s why they say these games are addictive. By the time I unlock Mephisto, the reward for DD7, everyone will be on to the next super character…Professor X. And so it goes.
Anyway, here’s more Spider-Family art from in game.
