Gameplay was first shown off at this year’s E3 back in June, and at San Diego Comic Con the month after. Footage revealed Ms. Marvel would play a role in the game, though Square Enix, Crystal Dynamics and Eidos took care to ensure the footage didn’t specify what this would be exactly.
Now, though, a video showed at a panel at New York Comic Con – which took place between 3 and 6 October– has revealed she will be fully playable, and will even play a pivotal role in the story of the game.
Kamala Khan – AKA Ms. Marvel– has to help reunite the team.
In Marvel’s Avengers, “A-Day” celebrations marking the opening of a new Avengers headquarters go catastrophically wrong, exposing Kamala Khan to Terrigen mist and making her able to manipulate her body via growing and shrinking. Captain America is killed, and the Avengers disband after shouldering the blame. Five years later, Kamala Khan – AKA Ms. Marvel– has to help reunite the team.
The significance of the news will not be lost on fans: the other superheroes in the game have names like Steve, Bruce and Tony, and now there is a Kamala. Marvel’s first Muslim superhero to headline their own comic has been given equal billing with some of the best known characters in the comics canon.
In line with fan reaction, her voice actor in the game – Sandra Saad – was delighted.
In line with fan reaction, her voice actor in the game – Sandra Saad – was delighted. Onstage at New York Comic Con, she said: "I'm a first-generation American like Kamala Khan [in the comics, the daughter of Pakistani immigrants]. With that comes a lot of stuff. You grow up not fully being able to relate fully. A lot of teenage angst, because you're not fully accepted anywhere. There's a struggle that comes with that.”
Marvel’s Avengers is set to be released 15 May 2020 on Playstation 4, Xbox One, Microsoft Windows and Google Stadia.