I wanted Moon Girl to join not just “for the sake of representation”
I wanted Moon Girl to join not just for the sake of representation. Please hear me out with this, this isn’t an angry rant!
I’m disappointed because I’m a huge fan of Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur.
I’ve been one of the people advocating for them to join Marvel Rivals for over a year. Before Devil Dino even appeared in Deadpool’s trailer. Literally check my Reddit account and even my twitter account. I’ve loved them in Mystic Mayhem. My excitement was never just about checking a representation box. I genuinely love these characters. I bonded with my baby nieces by watching the Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur animated series over and over, and Lunella quickly became one of my favorite Marvel characters.
That’s why this reveal hurts. :(
I’m happy that Devil Dinosaur made it into the game, but I’m disappointed that Moon Girl appears to be limited to voice lines over comms while Devil fights alone. In modern Marvel, these two are a package deal. She is the brains, the heart, and an equal half of the duo.
What frustrates me is seeing aggressive pushback from people who don’t even know the character and are making excuses for why she supposedly couldn’t be included, when there were multiple ways to make it work.
The most common argument is that Chinese regulations make it difficult to depict violence toward child characters. That is a valid concern, but it also has clear workarounds.
The simplest solution would have been to age Lunella up, just like they did with Peni Parker. Moon Girl is around 13–14 in the animated series, and aging her up by a few years would not change the core of who she is. She would still be the same bubbly, brilliant child prodigy, just a young adult. It’s a multiverse, a bunch of heroes in this game are not exact one to one copies of their comic counterparts. Marvel has even shown adult versions of her in the comics, so this would not be some out-of-nowhere idea.
If they did not want her physically on the battlefield, they could have used a hologram or remote-controlled avatar that follows Devil Dinosaur, similar to how the Phoenix Force appears with Jean Grey. The hologram would not need to take damage and could disappear when Devil is defeated.
This would also fit perfectly with the animated series, where Moon Girl remotely pilots a robotic version of herself from a safe distance. They could even show Lunella controlling the avatar from the spawn room while her projection assists Devil in battle.
I honestly understand that if they couldn’t make it work for her on the battlefield, I really wished she had the peni treatment in having her present in intro’s, mvps, and in the select screen. All we got is voice lines, and her signature in the lobby. They’ve been marketed as pivotal roles for each other for over a decade now, I just wish they took extra care for her, she’s an equal part of the duo, I’m not wanting to steal the spotlight from Devil because I love him so much as well.
I’m just disappointed. Not because I wanted “representation for the sake of representation,” but because I genuinely care about Moon Girl as a character and believe there were several creative ways to include her more meaningfully.
I don’t want to be dismissed as part of an angry Twitter mob. I’m speaking as someone who truly loves these characters and wanted to see them treated as equal partners, just like they are in the comics and the show.
I’m grateful that Moon Girl is in the story and that Diamond White appears to be reprising her role. That alone means a lot to me. I just wish Lunella had been given the same level of care and presence on the battlefield as so many other heroes in this game.