7 Characters We Hope to See in Marvel Superheroes

The next Magic set is Universes Beyond: Marvel Super Heroes. We’ve already gotten a significant glimpse of the set. By the very nature of Universes Beyond, there are lots of “top-down” designs. This means that when coming up with cards from the set, the designers start with some specific flavor they are looking to express with the card.

This results in really sweet flavorful designs like Captain America, Super-Soldier. His vibranium shield is represented by an actual shield counter, and his effectiveness as a leader results in him giving you and his friends hexproof.

In this article, I’m going to discuss 10 characters we want to see in Marvel Super Heroes, while also speculating on how their cards might be designed and what color identities are best suited for each of them.

WHICH MARVEL CHARACTERS CAN EVEN APPEAR IN THIS SET?

Wizards of the Coast has told us a few things about what Marvel characters might make their way into the set, and those influenced my choices. First, Mark Rosewater said characters who have been part of the Avengers are quite prominent. It’s not a straight up “Avengers” set, but they do make up a significant portion of the cards.

Additionally, this set focuses on the Marvel comic books, not the Marvel Cinematic Universe. So that’s the version of the Avengers we should expect to see in the set. For this article I wanted to avoid discussing the mainstream Avengers that are an absolute lock to appear in the set. Instead, I wanted to focus on some somewhat more obscure characters.

I think it’s also safe to say that Spiderverse characters won’t show up in this set since they got their own set last year.

They also told us that we shouldn’t expect to see many of the X-Men here, unless they also happened to be Avengers at some point. So, even though Gambit is my favorite Marvel character ever, I’m not going to talk about him here because there’s no chance he makes an appearance.

DAREDEVIL 

Matt Murdock is an expert martial artist with remarkably enhanced senses. He was blinded by a chemical accident as a child, but those chemicals also augmented his senses to the point that his ability to perceive the world around him is much better than anyone who has sight.

This one is particularly topical, as season 2 of Daredevil: Born Again recently concluded, and it’s hard to imagine that this popular character won’t make an appearance here. He was even part of the Avengers at one point, making it even more likely.

I think it would be flavorful if they make it so that he can shut off keywords. For example, nothing should be able to sneak around him with Menace, or be able to hit him first with First Strike. He should probably also have both of those keyword abilities because of his own martial prowess.

A Red-White Identity would work best for him. While he exhibits some of the rage and chaos of Red, he also has a very strong sense of justice.

THE BEYONDER

The Beyonder is interdimensional cosmic energy given sentience, and he might just be the strongest character in all of Marvel Comics. He’s capable of warping reality however he wants. The most notable way he did this was during the Secret Wars, where he made his debut. He instantaneously abducted most of the supervillains and superheroes of Earth and made them fight each other.

While we have yet to see a Planeswalker in a Universes Beyond set apart from Adventures in the Forgotten Realms, I think this might be the appropriate time to use it. The Beyonder basically is Marvel’s version of a pre-Mending planeswalker who possessed almost limitless power to use however he sees fit. 

To indicate that basically nothing is impossible for him, he would make the most sense to be either a 5-color card or a colorless one.

While it would be cool to see him, we already know that this set will also feature Galactus and they may not want to include another incredibly powerful cosmic entity – although it’s worth noting that The Beyonder is even stronger than Galactus, having bested him before.

MOON KNIGHT

Marc Spector was a mercenary who was murdered when he tried to stop some of his compatriots from committing some horrific acts. However, he was resurrected by the Egyptian moon god Khonshu to serve as his earthly avatar. He also suffers from dissociative identity disorder and has alternate personalities. 

Just as his identity shifts, so too do his super powers. Depending on the stage of the lunar cycle, he has varying levels of super strength, stamina, and agility. He’s most powerful during a full moon and weakest during a new moon.

It would probably work best to have him be a double-faced card that can transform. After all, we’ve seen them do that on Innistrad with beings that take on different forms at night.

It might also be possible to simply use +1/+1 counters. He could be a small creature at first, but one that accumulates counters – but once he has too many counters, he loses all of them. In other words, he reverts back to his New Moon mode.

I think he would make the most sense as a Black-White creature. His strong sense of justice is what got him murdered, and it only grows as he becomes more involved in saving people’s lives as a super hero. But he’s also capable of cheating death thanks to Khonshu, and his ever-changing nature isn’t stable enough for him to be Mono-White.

SQUIRREL GIRL

Doreen Allene Green was born with the ability to communicate with squirrels. She also has a prehensile tail, sharp claws, and superhuman agility, strength, and senses.

This one might be the least likely one on the list because she’s a fairly obscure character that hasn’t really made any appearances in any of Marvel’s really big mainstream projects. But there’s one reason I think there’s a good chance she shows up – people love squirrels in Magic. She’s also been an Avenger before, so that makes the chances even better.

It’s not hard to imagine a design for her. She would be monogreen because of her love of nature and her ability to commune with squirrels. She could be a creature who makes a bunch of Squirrel tokens and buffs them, much like Deranged Hermit.

JESSICA JONES

As a child, Jessica Jones was in a car wreck that resulted in her getting exposed to radioactive chemicals. Her parents died in the crash, while she was put into a coma. From that point on, she had super strength and durability, as well as the ability to fly – sort of. She herself describes this ability as “controlled falling.”

As an adult, she briefly became a typical superhero called Jewel, but she ultimately decided to help people in a more traditional way – by becoming a private investigator. This line of work allows Jessica to combine her superhuman abilities with her sharp mind and instincts.

Jessica would make sense as a Blue-White card. Her intellect and curiosity is best represented by Blue, while her sense of justice and combat prowess is best expressed by White.

As a creature, because she’s a detective, she should be able to create Clue tokens and cash them in to make herself larger. She should also have the ability to gain Flying temporarily under the right conditions, as a nod to her possessing the ability but not being able to use it very well.

Jessica, along with the next character, were suggested by Kristen.

PURPLE MAN

The Purple Man is someone both Daredevil and Jessica Jones have tangled with, and he’s a tricky foe. He has the power of suggestive mind control – meaning that he can make people do whatever he tells them. He once controlled Jessica Jones for a long period of time, forcing her to help him with his criminal activities.

He makes the most sense as a Blue-Black card. After all, he’s a manipulative sociopath who makes people do whatever he wants on a whim. Black is the color most associated with self-interest, and blue is the color most associated with control and the mind.

Luckily, Magic has an effect that is often shorthanded to “Mind Control,” because of a card with the same name, and there’s no way the Purple Man shouldn’t be able to allow you to gain control of an opposing creature. It would perhaps even be more appropriate if he gave you a Mindslaver-like effect, but those are incredibly powerful and incredibly rare.

MR. IMMORTAL

Craig Hollis is a mutant who was born with the ability to come back to life no matter how he died. His ability to come back to life makes Wolverine and even Deadpool’s healing factors look like nothing. He does technically die unlike those heroes, so his ability is more like “resurrection” than it is “Immortality,” making his name a little bit of a misnomer. Any time he returns to life, he does so in a state of confusion and is often enraged.

Apart from his immortality, he doesn’t possess any other special abilities. I think that means he would be best represented as a 1/1 creature that always comes back during the end step on any turn after he dies. When he does, he could ping the opponent, as a way of expressing his anger upon being resurrected. Nine-Lives Familiar has a design that is very similar to what I’m envisioning.

To make him feel unique, I think it would be great if he was also immune to being permanently removed via exile effects, as thus far nothing in the Marvel multiverse has been able to kill him, even things that entirely obliterate his body. I think this design would work best as a creature with a Black/Red identity, with  Black representing his mastery over death, and Red representing his anger.

 END STEP

So, those are some cool characters I hope to see in Marvel Super Heroes, who are you hoping will make an appearances? Let me know over on X or Bluesky.