Rejected Marvel vs Capcom Fighter Revealed

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Summary

  • The original Marvel Vs. Capcom considered including Howard the Duck, but the character was rejected due to lack of popularity.

  • A development essay revealed initial plans for the game, with Howard meant to be a joke character similar to Street Fighter's Dan Hibiki.

  • Marvel had rejected many iconic characters for the game, including Iron Man, Mr. Fantastic and Venom.

Howard the Duck was considered for the list Marvel Vs. Capcom: Clash of Super Heroes before being rejected by Marvel Comics. The Marvel Vs. Capcom series is an iconic crossover series. Capcom's partnership with Marvel began with the 1995s X-Men: Children of the Atomand then continued with Marvel Super Heroes. 1996, X-Men vs. Street Fighter came out, which was the first real crossover between the two kick-starting brands Marvel Vs. Capcom series.

The 1998s Marvel Vs. Capcom: Clash of Super Heroes was the third entry in the series, introducing a wide variety of new characters while maintaining its 2v2 tag gameplay. Iconic characters such as Ryu, Mega Man and Morrigan were represented on Capcom's side, with Wolverine, Cyclops and Spider-Man on Marvel's. In an old development essay from 1998 by Capcom producer Kenji Kataoka, he revealed some of the initial plans for the title, including how Howard the Duck was rejected from the roster.

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This essay, archived and translated by EventHubs, was part of a defunct website that provided behind-the-scenes information on Marvel Vs. Capcoms development. Howard the Duck was originally designed by Kataoka to be a joke fighting game character in the style of Street Fighters Dan Hibiki, with the character designer on board with the idea as well. While there was support from Marvel for Howard at first, a representative later told them that Howard the Duck had no popularity and that they wanted to use characters that actually looked like superheroes. Even after Kataoka tried to explain the joke fighter concept, the answer was still no and Howard was scrapped, only halfway done.

Kataoka also revealed that Marvel Vs. Capcom was originally planned to be a direct Marvel Super Heroes sequel instead of another crossover game with Capcom. Kataoka revealed the first list to the tentative Marvel Super Heroes 2 games: Captain America, Spider-Man, Wolverine, Hulk, Iron Man, The Mighty Thor, Psylocke, Venom, Jubilee, Mr. Fantastic and Howard The Duck, with Galactus set to be the final boss. Most of these roster picks were similarly rejected. “Iron Man? No. Fantastic Four? No. Married? No way. Howard the Duck? Absolutely not… No, no, no how, a complete STORM of rejection,” Kataoka said.

Marvel was probably still incredibly wary of including Howard as a character in any form, given how bad 1986 was Howard the Duck the movie was. While the film essentially damaged the Marvel brand for a long time, it has a cult following. Howard the Duck has made sporadic appearances in the Marvel Cinematic Universe since then, most notably Guardians of the Galaxy films. Maybe Howard the Duck can show up in the next one Marvel vs. Capcom.

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