Marvel vs. Capcom

They surely want to beat the crap out of the other.[1]

"I'm gonna take you for a ride..."

The Marvel vs. Capcom games are a series of licensed Fighting Games made by Capcom, using the Marvel license. Encapsulating a total of seven games, it is by far the largest Capcom vs. Whatever series and the longest-running of them all.

The games of the series are the following:


Capcom also produced a couple of side-scrolling action games for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System around the same time. Namely X-Men: Mutant Apocalypse in 1994 and Marvel Super Heroes: War of the Gems in 1996.

Tropes associated with the series include:
  • All There in the Manual: Marvel vs. Capcom 1-3 do share continuity, but you wouldn't know it from playing them. In summary, a rift opens between the Marvel and Capcom worlds after Professor Xavier becomes Onslaught. The heroes eventually return to their respective worlds, but are periodically called upon again to fight bigger threats.
  • Attack of the 50-Foot Whatever: Apocalypse in X-Men vs. Street Fighter and Marvel Super Heroes vs. Street Fighter, Onslaught in the first Marvel vs. Capcom, two of Abyss's forms in Marvel vs. Capcom 2 (first and third), and taken Up to Eleven in Marvel vs. Capcom 3 with Galactus as the end boss.
  • Composite Character: Quite a few, all for the Rule of Cool.
    • Dante: The demon slayer is clearly his teenaged self from DMC3, with powers and abilities only from that adventure, but he seems to know Trish and his foe Mundus quite well, characters that only his a-decade-older self should've known.
    • Magneto: Capcom pretty much gathered every single power (except Psychic Powers) Magneto has ever had since his debut, so yeah, in the hands of some writters the Master of Magnetism indeed was capable of creating Force Fields that were not limited to deflecting just metal; attacking with Beams and Energy Blasts that were said to be just a Second Mutation of his already powerful control over magnetism. Simply put, Magneto isn't shown to have all these powers in the same continuity.
    • Mega Man: The classic Blue Bomber has his set of copied powers from other Robot Masters (namely the Leaf Shield from 2 and Tornado Hold from 8), as well as the Mega Ball from 8 and the Mega Upper (seen in a secret, Street Fighter-style mini-game in 7 and Mega Man 2: The Power Fighters). Interestingly, he also uses the Rush Drill, a form of Rush that was intended to have been included in Mega Man 3.
    • Ryu: Basically, Ryu was all of his incarnations into one up to Marvel vs. Capcom 2; placing in order, Ryu's appearance is that of his young self from Street Fighter Alpha: white bandana, but his mannerisms (from his quotes) are that his older self from Street Fighter II and beyond, were he should have Ken's red hair ribbon as a bandana to simbolize Ryu's maturity and confidence in his strenght while he was troubled with it for his strugle with the Dark Hadou in Alpha, and he seems to know Sean from Street Fighter III quite well to offer training sessions in his ending for Marvel vs. Capcom Clash of the Superheroes, a character that Ryu will only meet half-a-decade later. Marvel vs. Capcom 3 came and gave Ryu his red bandana, pretty much fixing all the issues since that's the only notable change in Ryu's character during his journey.
    • She Hulk: Her costume and assertive personality is that of when Jennifer became an established character, but she seems to have some of her early Leaning on the Fourth Wall characteristics, from the time she didn't have a main uniform and was more irresponsible than playful.
      • She even lampshades this when beating Deadpool:

"You know, if this game was made in 1991[2], I'd be the one whacking YOU with a health bar."

    • Zero: While Capcom characters keep their power set mostly reserved from that one game they appear in, Zero's abilities are all over the place, it is a mix of pretty much X4 to X8 (i.e. at least one special technique from every main game he's been playable in).
  • Cool Versus Awesome: The whole reason this series exists.
  • Demoted to Extra:
    • The Servbots went from playable Joke Characters in Marvel vs. Capcom 2, to being Tron's helpers in Namco x Capcom, and are subsequently reduced to background cameos in Tatsunoko vs. Capcom.
    • Anita was a secret character in Marvel Super Heroes, then she was demoted to helper in Marvel vs. Capcom.
    • Hayato was demoted from playable status in Marvel vs. Capcom 2 to a prominent cameo in Tekkaman Blade's ending in Tatsunoko vs. Capcom.
  • Dynamic Entry: Most of the tag-ins.
  • Idiosyncratic Combo Levels
  • Immune to Flinching: larger characters like Juggernaut or Sentinel have various amounts of Super Armor -- there is also "Hyper Armor" status which temporarily renders a character completely immune to flinching and knockback. Boss characters (like Galactus) have this as their default state.
  • Jiggle Physics and Most Common Superpower: Most of the Marvel ladies fall under these tropes, as do a sizable number of the Capcom females.
  • Large Ham: The announcer.

HYPER COMBO FINIIIIIIISH!!

"HYPER COMBO FINISH!"

  • Wolverine Publicity:
    • Wolverine is the only character to have appeared in every single game, all the way from X-Men: Children of the Atom to Marvel vs. Capcom 3. Deadpool lampshades this in 3 upon beating him.

      In Marvel vs. Capcom 2, he gets two different selves (Adamantium and Bone claws).

      Marvel vs. Capcom 3 has only one Wolverine, but it also includes X-23, although her playstyle and moveset (by virtue of being a Kick Chick) are quite different.
    • Aside of him, Ryu and Chun-Li are the only Street Fighters to be featured in all the games of the series, excluding the Marvel-only fighters.
    • Captain America (comics), Spider-Man, and Hulk appeared in all the non-X-Men games.
      • Magneto (only absent in Marvel Super Heroes vs. Street Fighter) and Shuma-Gorath (only absent in Marvel vs. Capcom) are next to them.
    • Morrigan appeared in all the games, aside of the Marvel-only games and the Street Fighter crossovers.
    • In the same vein as Morrigan, Strider Hiryu only missed the original MvC3.
    • Another example is Akuma, who has the distinction of being the first Capcom character to appear in the series, as he was a Secret Character in X-Men: Children of the Atom. He was also a Secret Character in X-Men vs. Street Fighter and Marvel Super Heroes vs. Street Fighter, appeared somewhat in Marvel vs. Capcom as a moveset for Ryu, and was a regular in Marvel vs. Capcom 2, returning to his unlockable status in 3.
    • And Zangief, who appeared in every Street Fighter/Capcom crossover with Marvel, except in 3, where he's replaced by Haggar.
  1. ↑ While Roll wants to beat the crap out of you. Or try to do so, at least.
  2. ↑ This was the year when Deadpool was created, and his current persona was established way later
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