DC's Hero-Shooter Dream: What a Marvel Rivals Rival Could Look Like

DC Marvel Rivals could deliver a bold hero shooter with fresh kits for Aquaman, Green Arrow, Batman, and Superman—without copying Marvel.

In 2026, DC remains a distant second to Marvel in the video game arena, a fact that Marvel Rivals has only made more glaring. The 6v6 hero shooter has become a cultural fixture, and while Marvel and DC need not be perpetual rivals, it would be wonderful if DC used Marvel's wins as inspiration. If that inspiration manifested transparently and unabashedly, DC would hop on the 6v6 hero-shooter bandwagon sooner rather than later and put forth its own take on Marvel Rivals. 🎮

The idea is not far-fetched. Batman and Superman could have great variety in a DC Marvel Rivals between all of Batman's gadgets and vehicles or Superman's yellow sun-fueled Kryptonian abilities. Likewise, characters like Martian Manhunter or Green Lantern could have ridiculously whimsical and creative kits. That said, it would be nearly impossible to design kits for Aquaman or Green Arrow and not have them mirror Namor and Hawkeye.

The Namor Problem: Aquaman's Inevitable Shadow 🌊

Marvel Rivals' Namor has proven to be fairly high-tier in Season 1. He's not the most dynamic Duelist character players can choose from the roster, but his unassumingly powerful Monstro Spawns make up the brunt of his kit while he mainly hurls his trident and rises into the air with a protective bubble in a pinch. It's a simple set of abilities that hone in on Namor's character well, and if a DC Marvel Rivals ever came out and had an Aquaman on the roster, it would be hard not to have his own abilities merely mimic Namor's.

Likewise, if Aquaman were able to submerge himself into the map and swim around speedily with a movement boost, that would then lean too heavily on Marvel Rivals' Jeff the Land Shark. As a result, there isn't much that DC could do to greatly distinguish Aquaman, which is unfortunate because his popularity and ubiquitousness would suggest that he'd have to play a role in an ensemble hero-shooter if DC ever decided to develop one. The Atlantean king is a lighthouse in a sea already mapped by Marvel's tide—visible, iconic, but difficult to position without echoing the buoys already bobbing in the water.

Green Arrow: A Trick Arrow Renaissance 🏹

Marvel Rivals' Hawkeye hasn't been terribly broken in Season 1, but like Namor he's quite high in many community tier lists. On paper, Green Arrow having a kit designed for a hero-shooter would have trouble avoiding inspiration from Hawkeye; however, while both characters share expertise with a bow and arrow as their weapon of choice, Green Arrow could triple down on another gimmick they both possess that Marvel Rivals' Hawkeye doesn't indulge in much.

Hawkeye only has Blast Arrows as a trick arrow type and instead has more utility with a katana and a wakizashi in his Crescent Slash and Ronin Slash abilities. In this case, a DC Marvel Rivals game would be able to possibly eclipse Hawkeye by giving its Green Arrow a few different trick arrows that enhance his gameplay. Anything could be on the table between arrows that propel Green Arrow into the air for better traversal and arrows that require a large cooldown but create an AoE with a fun status effect. This approach would be like a jazz musician improvising on a familiar standard: the melody is recognizable, but the phrasing is entirely new.

A Roster of Possibilities ⚡

DC Hero	Marvel Rivals Echo	Design Challenge	Potential Differentiator
Batman	Iron Man / Spider-Man	Gadget overload, stealth	Detective Vision, vehicle call-ins, fear meter
Superman	Storm / Iron Man	Flight, heat vision, invulnerability	Solar charge mechanic, freeze breath, super-speed
Martian Manhunter	Invisible Woman / Loki	Shapeshifting, intangibility	Phase through walls, telepathic recon, density shift
Green Lantern	Doctor Strange	Hard-light constructs	Modular constructs, terrain creation, team shields
Aquaman	Namor / Jeff	Trident, water movement, summons	Oceanic summons, tidal zone control, trident melee
Green Arrow	Hawkeye	Bow, trick arrows	Elemental arrows, grapple arrows, AoE status arrows

The table above shows that DC's roster is not lacking in potential. The problem is not creativity; it is the gravitational pull of Marvel Rivals' already established designs. A DC hero shooter would need to be more than a palette swap. It would need to treat its characters as systems, not skins.

The Road Ahead in 2026

As of 2026, no DC take on Marvel Rivals is even rumored. Marvel Rivals doesn't have to share the limelight with anyone else but Overwatch 2 at the moment. That is a comfortable position, but it is also a temporary one. The hero-shooter genre is a river that keeps carving new channels, and DC has the IP to redirect some of that flow. The question is whether Warner Bros. and its studios will ever commit to the 6v6 format with the same conviction that Marvel Games has.

If they do, they should not shy away from the comparisons. They should study Namor's Monstro Spawns, Hawkeye's Blast Arrows, and Jeff's submerge mechanic. Then they should ask: what can Aquaman do that Namor cannot? What can Green Arrow do that Hawkeye has not? The answers might be surprising. A trident can be more than a projectile. A trick arrow can be more than a blast. And a DC hero shooter can be more than a shadow—if it dares to step into the light. 🦇