The second half of Marvel Rivals’ first season kicked off on Feb. 21, bringing with it two new characters — Fantastic Four mainstays Human Torch and the Thing — as well as a third New York City map that turns a popular Moon Knight meme into an official part of the competitive shooter’s lore.
If you’re playing as Moon Knight on the Convergence map Empire of Eternal Night: Central Park, there’s a chance you’ll hear him refer to Dracula — the big bad of Marvel Rivals season 1, and a major fixture in the stage itself — as a “bloodsuckin’ nerd” who “owes me big.” Further into the match, Moon Knight may even call out to the vampire with taunts like “Time for Dracula to pay up!” and “I know you’re here, Dracula!” While this might seem like a reference to some longstanding comic book feud, Moon Knight’s hatred for Dracula was actually born in memes.
As Polygon senior entertainment writer Susana Polo previously explained when the Moon Knight television show was in full swing, the disassociating anti-hero’s portrayal as a Dracula-hating debt collector has no real comic book basis. Rather, a fan edited a single panel from a 1988 issue of Solo Avengers to depict Moon Knight calling Dracula a “big fucking nerd” and demanding “my goddamn money” and posted it to a Facebook group in 2018. Since then, this absurd meme has been the most prevalent — if not entirely accurate — example of Moon Knight’s characterization online, thanks to his mainstream obscurity as well as the image’s inherent humor and shareability.
Since Marvel Rivals exists in its own narrative continuity, the NetEase developers who haven’t been let go obviously have some freedom as to how they use Marvel’s iconic heroes and villains in the game’s storylines. Sometimes that privilege will result in serious worldbuilding. But as the Moon Knight situation indicates, sometimes it’s just an excuse to reference a seven-year-old internet gag.
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