Marvel Rivals’ new season begins tomorrow, January 10, and there’s plenty to be excited about. Four new heroes are joining the roster, three maps are entering the rotation, and there’s a new battle pass of cosmetics. All that is well and good, but the most important addition to the game isn’t a new map, mode, or playable character. It’s a ghost dog who is hanging out in the hero shooter’s recreation of New York.
Bats is, or…was a basset hound that Doctor Strange cared for. The ol’ dog was introduced in the 2017 Doctor Strange comics as the sorcerer’s pet. Strange cast an enchantment on Bats allowing him to communicate with people, but this was short-lived as the dog soon passed away due to a heart attack after a confrontation with Loki. Bats would later return to Strange’s side as a ghost, however, maintaining his speech capabilities and acting as the hero’s companion.
In the trailer for Marvel Rivals’ new season, which includes a map based on Doctor Strange’s base of operations, NetEase teased that Bats would make an appearance, and now that some players are exploring the inner halls of the Sanctum Santorum, it’s been revealed that Bat hangs out in the lobby.
I’m a casual Marvel fan and most of my exposure to its heroes comes from the MCU and video games, so I had no idea that Bats existed until recently. It seems like that’s the case for a lot of Rivals fans who are also finding out about the ghost dog’s existence through the shooter. Longtime comic fans are excited to see a more niche side of the Marvel universe represented. I just met Bats but I would die for him, and seeing so many fans share cute moments between him and Marvel heroes has endeared him to me real quick. Also, he’s a Spider-Man fanboy? NetEase, please put in some kind of interaction between the two if a Spidey player is in the room with him.
Marvel Rivals has a pretty expansive roster already, but within its maps and lore drops, it’s found ways to integrate other characters beyond the ones pushing payloads and capturing objectives. So thank you to NetEase for bringing Bats into my life. Let me pet him in the spawn room.
For more on Marvel Rivals, check out Kotaku’s review.
