Longtime Marvel comics rivals Longshot and Mojo are the latest characters announced for mobile fighting game Marvel Contest of Champions.
According to a press release form Contest of Champion’s developer Kabam studios, the two denizens of the dystopic Mojoverse will be added to the game later this February. A trailer featuring Mojo himself was revealed alongside the announcement featuring the TV producer and dictator’s trademark unhinged chatter.
First introduced to the X-men line by Chris Claremont in the early 1980s as metaphors for pop culture and fame, Longshot and Mojo tie into Marvel in a convoluted way. Both characters come from an alternate future timeline called the Mojoverse. In this universe, humankind has evolved into Mojo’s species, known as spineless ones and has created Longshot’s species of four-fingered humanoids to serve the spineless ones as slaves. The pair are essentially locked in endless conflict in the Mojoverse with Longshot leading multiple failed rebellions against Mojo and losing his memory after each attempt. Eventually, with the help of the X-men, Mojo is overthrown, but the sort of timey-wimey nature of the Mojoverse allows both characters to cross over to the main Marvel timeline in various points in their history, oftentimes out of sequence with their other appearances.
When the pair cross over into the main Marvel universe, Longshot tends to take a supporting role on some X-team or other while Mojo is one of the more terrifying villains of the cannon. The crossover usually occurs when Mojo pulls heroes into the Mojoverse in his quest for ratings in his bloodthirsty reality TV productions. Other notable characters with ties to the Mojoverse include Syren and Shatterstar.
In contrast to these two characters, Contest of Champions is a relatively new Marvel property. The game was released in 2014 on Android and iOS and pits classic Marvel characters against each other in three versus three battles. Since its release, the game has seen many expansions and tie-ins with Marvel Comics events and the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
Sources: Kabam and YouTube
