Lego Marvel Super Heroes is, in this lover of tiny bricks’ humble opinion, the best Lego game, and an unexpectedly great open-world game to boot. After a slightly disappointing Lego Marvel’s Avengers spin-off, it’s finally getting a proper sequel next month, and a new trailer breaks down what’s going on in the Lego Universe. In a word: Kang.
If you’re not familiar with Kang, he’s continuity’s greatest foe. He’s a time-travelling supervillain, a Pharaoh, a young superhero and member of the Young Avengers, and the Lord of Limbo. He’s all these things at the same time and yet millennia apart. He frequently meddles with time, concocting various disasters and temporal messes.
This Lego version of Kang has been typically up to no good, drawing different nations, worlds and realities into one big open-world city. It’s a bit like a scaled back Secret Wars, where Doctor Doom combined different planets and alternate Earths into Battleworld. Man, comics are silly. The story has actually been co-written by award-winning comic scribe Kurt Busiek. When he was writing for The Avengers, he wrote the Kang Dynasty storyline, where the titular villain manages to take over the world, temporarily.
Speaking of the world, here’s a tour of Kang's Lego city, Chronopolis:
The roster of heroes looks suitably diverse, and even includes heroes like Spider-Ham (he is Spider-Man, but also a pig) and Throg (Thor, but also a frog). I’ve yet to spot any X-Men or members of the Fantastic Four, unfortunately. They didn’t in Lego Marvel’s Avengers, since they aren’t part of the cinematic universe, but while Super Heroes 2 contains things inspired by the films, it’s not as beholden to them. It would be a shame if the game ended up being mutant-free.
If you’re a bit confused about the talking dog in the trailer: that’s Cosmo. He’s a canine cosmonaut who ended up being the sheriff of Knowhere, a space station built inside the head of a dead Celestial. So yeah… he’s a talking dog who hangs out inside the floating skull of a deceased space god. He’s also mates with the Guardians of the Galaxy.
It’s great to see obscure characters getting some time in the spotlight, but damn is that a horrific Russian accent. Hopefully he won’t talk too much. And we can probably expect better voice acting elsewhere, as Peter Serafinowicz, who currently plays The Tick in the Amazon adaptation, will lend his dulcet tones to Kang.
Lego Marvel Super Heroes 2 is due out on November 14.
