One of the bigger moments of today’s Disney Infinity 2.0 announcement is Marvel’s commitment to the project. Ultimate Spider-Man scribe Brian Michael Bendis is penning the story, which will span the different playsets in the series’ second installment.
The Avengers playset, which will be approximately six to eight hours in length, will set the stage for the interconnected story. In the announcement trailer, we got a look at two of the central villains, Loki and MODOK.
The pair of evildoers are teaming up and have stolen Tony Stark’s arc reactor. With AIM’s technology and Asgardian magic combined, they’ll create quite a problem for the Avengers.
“When we started working on this project, we spoke with Marvel and we knew we would get a discerning eye from Marvel fans,” series producer John Vignocchi told us. “We wanted to make sure that we pulled out the stops, and having Brian be part of the project lets the fans know that we’re taking Marvel’s integration into the Infinity platform very seriously.”
Bendis wrote all of the content for the entire year’s worth of Marvel playsets. This includes the Avengers set that comes with the new starter pack and those that have yet to be revealed.
“One of the cool things about Marvel’s house in general is that one story begets another story begets another story,” Bendis told us. "It’s how the whole universe is built. There’s no reason, like we’re doing for the cinematic universe, that this game can’t do the same.”
The Avengers storyline will be deeper since its part of the starter set, and sees the duo of villains using Iron Man’s technology to bring on a deep winter. This enables Loki to call forth frost giants to invade New York. Players will team up to take down weather generators around the city.
As we discussed the target market for the new Infinity characters, Avalanche Software CEO John Blackburn told us that the intent is to appeal to all ages. “When we first started working with the Pixar guys and talking with [Pixar chief creative officer] John Lasseter, I mentioned that they made kid movies,” Blackburn shared. “He bristled. ‘We do not make kid films. We make films that we want to see and kids happen to like them.’ That’s a great philosophy for us. Part of the reason they’re so successful is that they are telling stories you can be two different ages for. As an adult, you appreciate the finer points in them. There’s also some things that are more easily appreciated by kids.”
Disney expects that the audience for Infinity will skew a bit higher, especially as some Marvel fans and collectors jump in. “We wanted to be aware of that,” Blackburn says. “As we designed the art style, that took a lot of back and forth between us and the creative team at Marvel that fit within the Infinity universe, but was also consistently Marvel.”
For more on Disney Infinity: Marvel Super Heroes, check out our coverage from the announcement event. The title will be out this fall for Xbox One, Xbox 360, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 3, Wii U, PC, and iOS.