If you want a proper A.I., you must never use A.I.
Marvel Tōkon: Fighting Souls is the latest Marvel 2-D fighting game. There is an awful lot that can be said about any new game featuring the stars of the Marvel Universe, but something particularly of note in Marvel Tōkon: Fighting Souls is that this is not any previously seen Marvel Universe. This is not the comics universe, Marvel Cinematic Universe, or something designed to tie-in to a random Disney Plus animated series. This is a fresh take, and these Marvel heroes were redesigned to show a more shōnen style blending with the Western inspirations. And it is not just visual! These heroes and villains’ continuities are divergent from any other Marvel series. Yes, there are inevitable similarities to the “real” Marvel stories told across the decades, but this Earth’s Iron Man apparently forsook Hulk by sending him to hang out with dinosaurs. That is very different from shipping him to another planet and/or a Taika Waititi flick! Anywho, what is important is that, while these fighters are all very familiar and established, they are also free to have unique designs and backstories.
And the whole time I was enjoying Marvel Tōkon: Fighting Souls’ story mode, I was thinking one thing: A.I. would never.
Before we get into it, feel free to check last week’s article for the host of corollaries about “A.I.” as it is being cited in 2026. I’m not typing the whole “A.I. but not really” disclaimer again. Large language models as far as the eye can see. All set? Good.
Now back to what has happened in Marvel Tōkon: Fighting Souls. We will begin by refuting my central thesis: on a base level, A.I. could produce much of the general vibe of these new designs. For one thing, Deadpool is practically unchanged. Carnage, too, for that matter. In fact, Carnage is very much “just Carnage” from top to bottom, complete with the man under the symbiote being good ol’ boy (/serial killer) Cletus Cassidy. “Carnage” has had some more interesting hosts in recent years, and Arc Sys went with the guy just as old as Sir Mix-A-Lot’s classical music composition, Baby Got Back. Beyond that, there is definitely a distinct “Marvel Mangaverse” or “Marvel Bishoujo Statues” style here. A.I. would be perfectly capable of taking “Tony Stark + Anime Influence” as a prompt, and sticking a Gundam’s… uh… head-thingy on Iron Man. Spider-Man but with more prominent (but still iconic) tech? Sure! And Storm with thighs that could give Chun-Li a run for her money? That probably is an A.I. prompt. On a strict surface level, Marvel Tōkon: Fighting Souls looks like something that could be pumped out by a robot.
But if that were true, then you wouldn’t get this robot.
You look at literally any fighting game based on an established franchise, and inevitably there are going to be complaints. Where is Menat in Street Fighter 6? Why is Kabal so frequently skipped in Mortal Kombat? We got an entire Invincible fighting game, but it only features skinny Atom Eve? Garbage. Marvel Tōkon: Fighting Souls is no different. Dr. Doom is dooming it up, but the Fantastic Four are nowhere to be seen. The Hulk has an entire family and extended universe of creatures that would excel in a fighting game universe, but we do not get a single Abomination or Harpy. Thor is so conspicuously absent, it is a plot point in multiple story modes. And the X-Men do not even get an astonishing, all-mutant quartet. Yes, there are four official mutants on the complete roster, but they are not a team. So we have Storm, Magik, and Wolverine as a trio, and who is the fourth? Rogue? Gambit? Legion? Kid Omega? Kitty Pryde? Marrow? Wolverine with an eyepatch, and he calls himself “Patch”, and somehow people are buying it? Maggott? Toad? Stacy X? Blink? Deathdream? Calico? Prodigy? Beak? Beak’s one kid from the future that is actually pretty competent? ForgetMeNot? No to all of those! The final member of the X-Men team is Danger, a “mutant” A.I.
And that may require some additional explanation, as who the heck remembers Danger?!
Danger is the living embodiment of the X-Men’s Danger Room. In the beginning, the Danger Room was mostly just Professor X tossing tires at teenagers. Then, it got upgraded to include a frankly unsafe number of buzzsaws. This led to a number of scenarios where bad guys trapped our heroes in there, and the Danger Room was eventually destroyed due to Colossus having a seriously bad day. So Professor X, never one to let go of what he considered a good idea, just went ahead and built the next Danger Room to be the Star Trek Holodeck thanks to technology provided by his space bird girlfriend. As with all Star Trek technology, the Danger Room immediately became sentient. However, Professor X was dealing with some kind of school administration issue that day (ironically, the state of New York was dinging him for not having an actual gym) and simply did not have time for this nonsense, so he put a napkin over the part of The Danger Room that was asking questions, and got back to buying more scalp wax or whatever. Years after that, the X-Mansion was destroyed for the 69th time (not nice), and, while Beast was trying to put Humpy Dumpty back together, The Danger Room got a little frisky and tricked a child into suicide (a move that A.I. would never do in the real world). This “logical conflict” allowed the A.I. entity to break free of its programming, and it became Danger, a robot lady that super-duper wanted to murder everybody for being “trapped” as a danged room for so many years. Danger went full vindictive Terminator from there, and tried to kill the X-Men despite the significant handicap that she was programmed not to kill them, so she had to get aliens and Australians to help out. From there, Danger followed the typical X-Villain route of “general ally, but occasionally betrays everybody for nebulous reasons”. She was the X-Men’s official jailer for a while! And then she was an amnesiac robot dealing with Gambit Issues. And… a plane? And then… a Ghost Rider? Really? Well, alright. That is what happens, right? If you are not a super-established character in the Marvel Universe, you are eventually going to go through the ringer of seeing every permutation and affiliation available. It is a wonder she is not a Valkyrie this week. This is simply what happens if a character outlasts their creator’s run on a project.
Oh, and Danger’s creator? That’s Joss Whedon.
I am not going to relitigate Joss Whedon. I spent thousands of words on the guy back in 2022, and my own feelings on the matter have not changed. The short answer is that he is garbage. But he is garbage I know. There was a time when I devoured practically everything he ever produced (the Buffy the Vampire Slayer 2099 comic was dire, so I may have cut out of that one early), thus I am familiar with Whedon’s tics. With that knowledge, I can say that “The Danger Room” may have existed in X-Men continuity for years before its sentient embodiment awakened, but “Danger” is 100% a Whedon creation made for a Whedon story. She is introduced as a horror story, with a dead kid that is puppeteered by the villainess for maximum discomfort. She uses preestablished, (Marvel) mythological “powers” against her opponents, but in new and interesting (and deadly) ways. She is presented as invincible, then defeated by a hero using nonconventional means, then migrates to a “big bad” form by assuming the powers of a leftover villain from a previous story. After her defeat, she then returns from the shadows to prove to be a nefarious schemer working with the next big bad, but with a slight power downgrade so she is not as difficult to punch. Also, she is, ya know, a she, so Whedon probably wrote her the entire time with Juliet Landau’s voice in his head. Wait… Oh! No, forget Drusilla, he totally was thinking of Stephanie Romanov playing Angel’s Lilah Morgan for Danger. I think they have the same hair.
While this blog has every right to insult Joss Whedon, it should be stated that Danger being predictably Whedon-esque is not a bad thing. The man can be a good writer! It is literally his job! And while his proclivities are proudly on display, that does not make the story worse. Other famous X-Men writers may have received the prompt “The Danger Room is sentient and mad” and taken the story in other directions with other designs (in thinking about it, it is kind of amazing Chris Claremont did not make a character that was a living S&M dungeon), but that does not mean those interpretations of the concept would be better or worse. They would just be different. They could be something like…
Marvel Tōkon: Fighting Souls’ Danger is “born” as part of the X-Men’s story mode. Like her original, Whedon-based appearance, she is sentient bird girlfriend technology, and she awakens as a sapient being to immediately attack the X-Men. However, one battle is as far as it goes. She does not graduate to a more powerful form, nor does she then skulk off to become a secret(ish) villain. She also does not adopt any “later” form that is established in other Marvel comics (citation needed, so to speak, as there may have been a one-off where something similar happened in her last 21 years of appearances. I don’t have all day to read every X-Men comic, dammit!). Once she is up and running, Marvel Tōkon: Fighting Souls’ Danger fills a very different role from the comics for her character: she’s Kitty Pryde. Or Jubilee. Or Armor. Or time-traveling, “Past” X-Men. Or any of the many, many X-Men characters that were introduced with the phrase “Welcome to the X-Men, hope you survive the experience.” Danger is there to be the newcomer that must have racism explained to her at random intervals. She is also a great excuse for immediate declarations of the status quo, like “that’s Spider-Man, he is our super pal” or “that’s Magneto, he used to date our dad,” which are always helpful.
And she can have the neophyte arc! You know the one! She does not yet know her place in the world, but, through a focused regime of punching Deadpool in the face, she will learn the true meaning of Christmas. Or… something. Look, what is important is that this Danger is different from 616 Danger, but she is still a relatable robot.
Also, it is entirely possible you know what to expect with Danger because…
Arc System Works…
Keeps featuring…
This exact character…
Over and over again.
It isn’t always exactly the same. When Dizzy popped up in Guilty Gear X, she was meant to contrast with Guilty Gear’s previous boss, the genocidal Justice (that is also her mom). Her being a literal three-year-old with powers that could obliterate the world was the conflict of the overarching story of her premiere. Will she be an angel or grim reaper? And in the meanwhile, what is this thing you humans call… wuv? Dizzy would eventually grow out of her naivety (she is a very mature nine-year-old by Guilty Gear Strive), but the same cannot be said for the boss of Guilty Gear’s sister series’ premiere, BlazBlue: Calamity Trigger. Nu-13 is a “Murakumo Unit” that was sealed away, and she has a split personality that deviates between murderess and something like a fangirl toddler. More importantly, she is a cyborg that has been stuck in a hole for years, so her understanding of social norms is limited. The BlazBlue franchise would then go on to introduce more Murakumo Unit-based characters that all had similar robotic innocence and superpowers baked in. So nobody should have been surprised when ArcSys released Persona 4 Arena, a fighting game based on Persona 4, and designed the franchise’s newest character to match Persona 3’s powerful naïve robot with a second, slightly different super powerful naïve robot. At this point, it is pretty obvious that the cast of RWBY only got into BlazBlue: Cross Tag Battle because somebody at ArcSys wanted a crack at their super powerful naïve robot, Penny. And her lack of an appearance may explain why the super powerful naïve women in Guilty Gear are now multiplying. Put some shoes on, Ramlethal! It is time to fight the other artificial life-form that was raised in isolation and has adorable misunderstandings about humanity. No, not your sister! This one has a giant key! And is weirdly depressed!
Just saying that if ArcSys didn’t get to stick Danger in this adventure, they would have to deploy Jocasta, and nobody wants to explain how Pym’s robot son created a robot clone of his dad’s wife. That is way too close to some Sol Badguy nonsense!
But this brings us back to our central thesis: A.I. does not give a damn about robot girls. And that is why A.I. sucks.
The thing about us humans? We are messy. We are unpredictable. We called one director of human resources “mom” during a job interview 20 years ago, and it still makes us cry in the shower. These are the human traits that make us human. And we try not to let our messy bits leak out over art, but it always happens. And it can make for good stories! Grant Morrison wants to write about 4-D concepts from beyond time and space, but read any “mundane” story he writes at a school, and it suddenly becomes the most psychosexual comic available that month (go ahead and search for “St. Hadrian’s Finishing School for Girls”). Garth Ennis is going to suddenly become about 90% less abrasive anytime Superman is on panel, and Bendis can and will find new and exciting ways to wedge Jessica Jones into stories where a NYC private investigator is now going to space for some reason. Please enjoy an entirely too-annotated article where I lament how some of my favorite stories only exist because their author is an abuser. I am absolutely not saying that I support the “House MD Theory” that every great person must be an abrasive asshole, but I am going to confirm that you can get some great Supergirl and Gem and the Holograms stories out of a woman that also really, really wants to get paid to draw some cute goth girls. Our human hangups can come from good or bad places, but it is irrefutable that they influence art that is produced.
And A.I. cannot do that. A.I. can only reproduce what has come before. You can plug “Sexy naïve teenage robot” into an A.I. prompt, but all you are going to get is a variation on something that has come before. And if you go for something that already exists, like “Marvel’s Danger”, you are just going to see the most established version of that character. You are going to get someone else’s idea, and it is only going to include their complexes. Follow that down a few years, and, if we exclusively rely on A.I. for art, all we will ever have is art displaying the interests and anxieties of men and women that died decades ago. The future deserves better than recycled feelings. The future deserves better than A.I.
A.I. is never going to produce a proper mutant A.I. We need artists for that.
FGC #745 Marvel Tōkon: Fighting Souls
System: Playstation 5 and “Windows”. I assure you, you want to purchase the Playstation 5 version. This was published by Sony, and they are not looking out for other platforms.- Number of players: You get a team of four, but actual matches are closer to one-on-one, so we are sticking to two players.
- Maybe actually talk about the game for a second: This is very much a continuation of Dragon Ball FighterZ, where you can just hammer on one button if you really want to see a combo happen. That felt very appropriate in a game based on media that is 60% “flurry punches” by volume, but seems a little off in a world where everyone has very unique special abilities. Spider-Man is not known for his spider-punches! But focused button mashing also makes it a lot easier to play with friends that do not have 25 years of Marvel vs. Capcom experience, so it is probably a net positive. Couple this with how matches are less “4 vs. 4” and more like “One fighter with three available buddies”, and Marvel Tōkon: Fighting Souls is not the game I expected, but it is a game that is pretty fun.
- That Sony Touch: The controller makes a little “vorp” sound when characters teleport in story mode. You only get that with a company that knows their hardware! Totally worth it!
- Foreshadowing: The Champion is the definitive challenge of story mode. In four out of five of the stories, he is seen in shadow, and only conclusively revealed in his entirely for the ultimate matches. Except in the “anime intro” style movie that plays at the beginning. You can see him completely and often during that music video. Then it is back to the shadows. I guess.
- An end: The final boss is Broly cosplaying as Rugal. Good try, champ, but nobody is buying this from someone that used to brawl with The Thing.
Inclusion Win: This might be the most women of color that have ever appeared in the base lineup of a fighting game franchise. Sure, that number is just two… and somehow they are both sisters (in law)… But still! It is two more women of color than we ever saw in Smash Bros.- Playing for the Story (complimentary): The story modes are written by Kieron Gillen, and the stories feel “right” for these characters. And the faux-comic look is delightful! Of course, I could probably write a whole other article about writer inclinations and why Loki, a “character” that has thousands of years of potential continuity, is unmistakably Kieron Gillen’s Loki for this whole adventure. It’s a good thing! But I am pretty sure there is a button somewhere in this game that will make Loki spout his favorite Blondie album (it will be Atomic).
- Playing for the Story (derogatory): So story mode has some kind of adaptive difficulty where it gets harder according to completing more story modes. Yes, you can reduce the difficulty after a loss, but it would be nice to play with new characters on easy as the default. Here’s a tip, developers, I just beat the game as Captain America. I am now going to try Storm. I have never used that character before at all. Maybe do not pump up the difficulty until after I have had the chance for a test drive?
- Cut Content: So the team leaders were established right there on the debut trailer, and any game involving Marvel luminaries must have had 10,000 meetings and emails before anyone laid down a pixel to confirm exactly who would be on the roster. I know that. That said, you cannot tell me Star Lord was anything but cut content from another team and wound up stuck with the NYC heroes. A “cosmic” team had to exist! And half the villains roster is Spider-Man’s foes? Nary a dedicated Avengers opponent to be found… except with the Samurai Outriders? I can almost see the “real” teams that could come from these groupings with just a few more fighters. At least give me a Superior Foes of Spider-Man with Carnage, Green Goblin, Doc Ock, and Boomerang!
- Is Howard the Duck in this game? Yes.
- On a related note: There is some kind of minigame where chibi versions of the characters play tag. I think I activated it by accident. I am never going back to that again.
- Did you know? Magneto’s English voice actor is James Arnold Taylor, who may be best known for playing the title character of Johnny Test in 2005-2014, and then again in its revival in 2021. Which just goes to show: one day you are playing a teenager with attitude, and a few years later, you are playing a guy that is canonically about 96.
- Would I play again: Yes. I don’t think this will be a “forever” game on my roster like Marvel vs. Capcom 2, but it has already maintained my attention longer than Invincible’s fighting game outing. Give me some decent DLC, and I might be playing this for the rest of the Playstation 5’s lifespan.
What’s next? Random ROB has chosen…Diet Go Go. Which is apparently a real game that exists! Please look forward to it!
They have to make her playable eventually… right?