Marvel Cosmic Invasion: 9 comic book stories it takes inspiration from

Marvel Cosmic Invasion

Marvel Cosmic Invasion is the latest Marvel Universe-based beat ‘em up game, where 15 superheroes take on the threat of Annihilus, who emerges from the Negative Zone with a desire to control the universe. For its various elements like story, character design, geographical settings, etc., the side-scrolling action fighting game takes inspiration from 9 Marvel Comics storylines. Let’s take a look at them.

Collected in an oversized hardcover omnibus, Annihilation is the main Marvel Comics arc to inspire Marvel Cosmic Invasion. Along with earth-based superheroes like Captain America, Spider-Man and Iron Man, the beat ‘em up game by Tribute Games and Dotemu also features characters like Nova and Phyla-Vell, who appear in the Annihilation story arc. According to Yannick Belzil, Narrative Designer at Tribute Games, much of what Nova and Phyla-Vell do in the game is sourced from the Annihilation comic book arc.

Also, plenty of the game’s story, Annihilus’ characterisation, the enemies, and the bug soldiers, etc, are also sourced from this very Marvel story that sees the Marvel superheroes uniting against the threat of Annihilus and his Annihilation Wave.

The Guardians of the Galaxy run that came right after Annihilation is also taken as the source material for Marvel Cosmic Invasion, particularly for the game versions of Rocket Raccoon and Phyla Vell. The cosmic geographical settings in the latter part of the game are also taken from this comic book run.

Another classic comic book to inspire Marvel Cosmic Invasion is Kurt Busiek and George Perez’s Avengers Omnibus Vol. 1. The Marvel heroes travel to a range of places and even to different dimensions in this arc.

Beta Ray Bill (2021), a five-issue limited series from writer Daniel Warren Johnson, is a major influence on the character of Beta Ray Bill in Marvel Cosmic Invasion.

The X-Men: Mutant Genesis 2.0 gave a reimagined look to the X-Men, with a more dynamic art style. The brown suit of Wolverine and Storm’s look in the comic book have heavily influenced their character designs in Marvel Cosmic Invasion.

The Dark Phoenix Saga is one of the most important and seminal X-Men stories ever to be written, and for Marvel Cosmic Invasion, the developers designed the character of Phoenix (Jean Grey) with a special emphasis on her manner of speaking and demeanour in the comics.

For the character of Black Panther in the game, the developers at Tribute Games zeroed in on the Black Panther: A Nation Under Our Feet (2016) by Ta-Nehisi Coates.

The character designs of Spider-Man and Venom in Marvel Cosmic Invasion are based on their looks in the True Believers: Absolute Carnage - Maximum Carnage (2019) comic book.

The “massive and powerful” look of She-Hulk in the Marvel beat ‘em up game is taken from She-Hulk (2022-2023) and Sensational She-Hulk (2023-2024) comic book storylines.