Book Review - The Art of Marvel Rivals
- The Artbook Collector
- 1 day ago
- 5 min read
September 4th 2025
Following it’s hugely successful release in December of 2024, it was clear that Marvel Rivals would be getting the artbook treatment. Not only did it cut out a space for itself in the competitive multiplayer market, but its visual style gave Marvel’s household names a fresh look. Less than a year later, The Art of Marvel Rivals is here, giving players a look at some of the artwork that helped bring the game to life.
The book was published by Dark Horse in partnership with the game’s developer NetEase and is available to buy now after being released on September 2nd. The book has joined the collection here, so I have been able to dive into the book and give you my thoughts!
Build Quality
This is a Dark Horse release, so it’s another short and sweet segment as the ever-reliable format makes its return. This time with 208 pages, the 23.5 x 31cm hardcover is again a well-made book with high quality paper and strong binding. It’s what you come to expect from the publisher and it has been this way for a long time, because if it works, there’s no reason to change anything at all.
Content
The Art of Marvel Rivals was definitely made as an art showcase, with a focus on the style and designs they used for the Marvel characters as seen in the game. This means that while those that love the art style will enjoy what they get here, people that are hoping for deep insights and early designs will be left wanting more from the book.
If you like the visual direction of the game—one which has given the characters fresh looks while retaining their recognizable identities—you’ll enjoy the work of the art team here too. This review isn’t intended to critique the artwork, but the bold visual style is one that I really enjoy. Fans, as well as artists looking for interesting references, will love what you can see in this release. The superb print quality also helps the art pop off the page.
The book is made up mostly of character art pages, with each hero or villain getting a couple of spreads each. On the first spread you get the title, character description and final design, along with some more pieces of art in various poses. Some of the characters also have things like weapons included too. The designs found here though are what you see in the game, there is no unused material or development concepts. It’s a real shame, as the art style is so strong, it would have been great to include the other ideas the artists had. This might be the biggest disappointment of the book, which highlights its clear intention to act as a gallery over a concept art book.
The second spread for each character includes animation art and skins. The 2-3 alternative costumes are also final designs only, with no variation or early ideas on display either. However, I do think the animation art for the attacks and abilities is a nice addition, as they depict the dynamic movements and effects used for the gameplay, some of which aren't in the final game. It’s one of the highlights for me and leaves me wishing they included more content like this.
The books also features artwork for the locations, but again there are no early concepts here, but rather 3-4 full colour pieces on each spread. It’s not a huge section of the book as the characters dominate the page count. It then ends with promotional and cutscene art, with only a single page of storyboards to end the book. Again, they all nice inclusions clearly focused on presenting their stunning artwork over development art, in which it fully succeeds.
The text throughout doesn’t add a huge amount, the vast majority describes the characters and locations. There is some that speaks to the art itself, pointing out design choices, but with only a couple of sentences used at a time, don’t expect to learn too much about the artists approach or goals.
Sadly then, the book’s description is misleading, because this is a gallery showcase. There is nothing wrong with that, but it should have been presented that way. To highlight this, here is part of the description;
“Explore the development of freshly reimagined icons like Iron Man, Namor, Storm, and many more—including their imitable skills and equipment, and a vast wardrobe of unique costumes. The action all takes place across maps inspired by Marvel's most recognizable locales—from the spires of Yggsgard to the depths of Hydra’s Hive World—concept art for all of which can be analyzed in extreme detail.”
There’s no development exploration here, no vast wardrobe of costumes, and no extreme detail with insights or concept art. Had this been an illustration book, I would be more positive on the content, but it’s described as a more conventional ‘Art of’ book. I actually like the artwork a lot, but without the development insights and early art, it’s far from as good as it could be. Perhaps a page count bump from 208 to 240+ would have allowed for this.
Credits
This is sadly another negative, because I have just highlighted that The Art of Marvel Rivals is art focused with less insights, presenting some fantastic artwork to the reader, but it doesn't say who is responsible for that art. Some books don’t credit the images, which isn’t ideal, but they at least list the art team in the back of the book. However, that is not the case here. To have such a great style for the game, also based on iconic characters from Marvel, you’d expect the artists to get the recognition they deserve for working on such a huge IP. A big selling point of the game is the style, so the artbook should have recognised those that helped create it.
Use of Space
On to a more positive aspect of this release, the layouts are simple, yet strong throughout. As mentioned before, the characters are all presented in the same way, so there’s not a huge amount of variation, but the pages are filled and the images are good sizes too. The location chapter also floods the pages with artwork. As well as this, the pieces that cross the centre fold do a very good job at avoiding image loss too. The designers did a really good job with this book.
Value
The book has an RRP of $54.99/ £49.99 which is the usual amount for an artbook from Dark Horse, so business as usual. Of course, discounts are common for artbooks so you can likely find it below this. Using Amazon as always for consistency, in the UK is already over 30% off at the time of writing this, just a day after the book was published. In the US it is currently full price, but this will likely fluctuate too. This is a good price for the book, just bear in mind the description isn’t entirely accurate, so pick it up knowing what you are getting.
Verdict
This is one of those books that is tough to review, because as much as it isn’t entirely positive, I enjoyed my time with it despite being disappointed by the lack of insights and development concepts. The artwork does the heavy lifting here, so if you want to see a gallery of images for the game, you’ll consider this as great addition to your shelf.
Unfortunately though, the book promised more than it delivered, so it’s only fair to review it based on that intention. I have no doubt that the sketches and alternative designs look incredible, but you won’t find them here. The lack of artists credits is also very disappointing. Because of this, I could only recommend the book to those that are happy with art for the final designs, or artists wanting some good references.
If you are one of these people though, you can order a copy can order The Art of Marvel Rivals here;
