Square Enix is adding another character to Marvel’s Avengers‘ lineup of playable heroes. Kate Bishop has been revealed as a post-launch DLC character for the game that pits Earth’s Mightiest Heroes against Advanced Idea Mechanics (AIM), the evil tech corporation that’s taken over the world.
As her announcement trailer teases, Kate, the third Hawkeye in the comics, is working with SHIELD and is on a mission to find Clint Barton, the first Hawkeye, who has been captured by AIM. Check out the reveal trailer below:
In case you’re not caught up on the comics, Kate was first introduced in Young Avengers #1 (2005) and was created by Allan Heinberg and Jim Cheung. Initially a member of Marvel’s teenage superhero team, Kate has since taken up the mantle of Hawkeye and joined the main Avengers team on several occasions.
Kate will be the first post-launch hero to join the roster before Hawkeye himself and Spider-Man, who will only release on the PlayStation versions of the game. While some initially suspected that Kate might be a reskin of Hawkeye, who was the first DLC character announced for the game, developer Crystal Dynamics clarified that Kate will have her own skill tree and gear.
Her inclusion in Marvel’s Avengers was first leaked by PC dataminers who dove into the code during the game’s PC beta. The list of leaked playable characters also included Ant-Man, Black Panther, Captain Marvel, Doctor Strange, Falcon, Hulkbuster, Mar-Vell, Mockingbird, Quake, Scarlet Witch, She-Hulk, Vision, War Machine, and Wasp.
If you didn’t get a chance to jump into the Marvel’s Avengers beta, we spent a weekend with it before it launched to the public and came away a bit underwhelmed with the experience. Repetitive level design and dull enemies rob the fun combat of a bit of its spark. We really loved playing as Black Widow and Kamala Khan/Ms. Marvel, but felt that the beta did too little to tease what should be a superhero spectacle on par with the Avengers movies. Instead, Marvel’s Avengers is a bit ordinary.
Compounding an already worrisome situation is the fact that Square Enix seems to be set to use Marvel’s Avengers as a marketing platform for commercial partnerships. Verizon and Virgin Mobile subscribers, for example, will be able to unlock special skins for their heroes, while buying packs of 5Gum will get you other perks in the game. Yikes.
All fans will be able to finally get their hands on Marvel’s Avengers when the game launches on PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Google Stadia, and PC on Sept. 4. The game is coming to Xbox Series X and PlayStation 5 at a later date.