Marvel Rivals Season 1 adds new heroes, more maps, and a Dr Doom-themed team deathmatch mode

Marvel Rivals Season 1 is launching this week and includes a host of new characters, maps, and more

NetEase / Marvel

Marvel Rivals’ first season is set to launch later this week – January 10, 2025 – and NetEase has started to finally reveal more about the game’s season 1. By the sounds of it, there’s a lot on offer here, with at least four new playable characters, three new maps, and a brand-new game mode that should hopefully shake off any worries that the game is a little too similar to Overwatch. 

NetEase will be adding four new characters to the roster, with all four members of the Fantastic Four coming to Marvel Rivals. These characters will be arriving in waves, with Strategist Invisible Woman and Duelist Mister Fantastic coming in the season’s first half. The second half – set to begin around February 21, 2024 – will see The Thing, a Vanguard character, and Human Torch, another Duelist, added to the game. We don’t know exactly how these characters are going to play, but it’s not hard to imagine, knowing what these characters do. 

The new game mode is a Dr. Doom-themed mode called Doom Match, which is a team-based deathmatch mode where players are divided up into factions of 8-12 players and fight to the death. Points will be awarded to individual players, rather than teams, and then the top 50% of players in the match will be crowned winners, regardless of faction. 

Three new maps are being added in Marvel Rivals Season 1 — Empire of Eternal Night in New York City: Sanctum Sanctorum and Midtown are coming in the first half of the season, while Central Park will be coming in the second half. We don’t know which modes these maps will be applicable to as of yet. 

Finally, Marvel Rivals Season 1 will bring a new feature called Midnight Features. This brings a new set of missions for each season, which upon completion offer a host of rewards, like new galleries. These rewards are separate from the game’s battle pass, and will last until the end of each season.