Marvel and EA Team Up on The Imperfects

New crossover see the biggest players in comics working with the biggest games publisher. First screens and details.

Cross-pollination between videogames and comic books is nothing new, but Marvel Comics and EA are taking it to the next level with their new Imperfects project.

Marvel Nemesis: Rise of the Imperfects is a new fighting game by EA that stars some of the most popular characters from Marvel's stable of superheroes. Everybody's favourite wall-crawler Spider-Man makes an appearance, as do The Thing, Wolverine and Elektra. EA has also crafted a batch of wholly new characters for the game.

And while EA is handling the videogame, Marvel itself is preparing a six-issue mini-series titled Marvel Nemesis: The Imperfects. Story duties for both the comic and the game were handled by Warlock and X-Men: Phoenix - End Song scribe Greg Pak. Pak was responsible for adding the human element to all the new characters EA created for the game.

The overarching story connecting the comic series and game involves an alien scientist named Niles Van Roekel whose ambition is to create the ultimate warrior. This quest brings Van Roekel to earth where the best that Marvel has to offer go up against his own creations.

The new characters for the crossover were created by Marvel comic book artist Jae Lee and Paul Catling, who worked as a character designer on the Spider-Man and Punisher movies. The Marvel Nemesis: The Imperfects comic series, which starts off in May, serves as a prequel to the Marvel Nemesis: Rise Of The Imperfects game and tells the story of how Van Roekel came to earth to begin his nefarious plan.

Marvel Nemesis: Rise Of The Imperfects will be released for PlayStation 2, Xbox, GameCube and PSP this winter.

Alex Wollenschlaeger
Editor, Kikizo Games