Marvel Rivals Adds Jubilee on July 10 as Season 9 Brings 2 New Heroes

Q: Why did Marvel Rivals turn the vibrant Jubilee into a vampiric harbinger of famine?

Marvel Rivals made Jubilee a vampiric Horseman of Famine to fit Season 9’s “Age of Apocalypse” storyline while drawing from established X-Men comics. The vampire angle is not invented from scratch. In Marvel comics, Jubilee was turned into a vampire during the “Curse of the Mutants” era after being bitten by Xarus, Dracula’s son. NetEase is using that part of her history in the game, which is why her design includes yellowish eyes and why she has a “Vampiric Kin” team-up with Blade. The famine angle comes from the game’s own lore. In Marvel Rivals, the “Timestream Entanglement” leaves her son, Shogo, trapped in dragon form. Desperate to save him, Jubilee seeks Apocalypse in Thebes and agrees to become his Horseman of Famine. That ties her directly into the season’s Apocalypse theme and gives a story reason for a darker version of a normally bright, upbeat character. It also fits how Marvel Rivals builds its roster. The game’s setting is an amalgam of multiple realities, allowing developers to remix familiar heroes with alternate visual styles and backstories. Jubilee still keeps her signature fireworks and plasma effects, but they are reframed through a support-focused kit and a more gothic, apocalyptic identity. So the change serves two purposes: it references a real comic-book chapter in Jubilee’s past and gives Marvel Rivals a dramatic, season-specific version of her that matches its multiverse-driven narrative.

3 articles · Updated · Polygon · Jul 7

July 10 marks Jubilee’s debut in Marvel Rivals as a Strategist in Season 9, a support-role choice NetEase confirmed during a livestream reveal.
NetEase framed her kit around pyrotechnic plasma and vampiric powers, tying her to Team-Up abilities with Blade and The Hood rather than a damage-focused Duelist role.
Season 9 also adds The Hood, an Age of Apocalypse theme, and a new Egyptian-inspired map tied to Jubilee’s story of seeking Apocalypse to save her son Shogo.
Jubilee’s design keeps her classic yellow jacket and pink shades while adding a vampire-themed "Midnight Mutant" skin, drawing on her long-running comic history as a bitten mutant later cured in 2019.