Two weeks ago, at New York Comic Con, Capcom announced four new characters for Marvel vs. Capcom 3, bringing the total now up to 26. With a reported roster being “over 30 characters” deep, we’re coming down to the final few character announcements on each side. So, this week for TOP 5, I wanted to go over my suggestions for who to include int he game. But, since I felt it would be unfair to include both Marvel and Capcom in the same list (since one would have more slots than the other, and it was too damn hard to narrow it down as is) we’re going to have two TOP 5s this week. Click here to view my list of Capcom characters if you haven’t given it a view already.

#5: Mysterio

We haven’t seen too many Spider-Man villains in any of the Vs. games, save for Venom who hasn’t even been announced for this one yet, and I for one feel we should change that. When I originally wanted to include Mysterio on this list, I was worried Capcom was going to use him as the major villain of the game, as they have with pretty much every Spider-Man game that involves different dimensions, and have him create some sort of rift between the worlds of Marvel and Capcom. Fortunately, they decided to go against using Mysterio, but went ahead and did pretty much the same thing with Doctor Doom and Wesker.

#4: Black Cat

Keeping up with the theme of “not enough Spidey villains, “(seriously, he has probably the best rogues gallery Marvel has to offer, and all we’ve ever seen of his adversaries in these games is Venom?), I’ve included Black Cat on the list for several reasons. Firstly, I love Spider-Man and think we need to get more of everything that makes him great into the game, but also because Black Cat is a very physical character, so she would fit right in with a fighting game. As far as I know, we haven’t seen much of her in Spidey’s previous outings, and she’s a pretty integral part of the Spider-Man universe, so we really should fix that. Plus, she could serve as a good rival for Darkstalkers‘ Felicia. Cat fight, anyone?

#3: Black Widow

Another physical female character is Black Widow. No doubt due to the popularity she received in Iron Man 2, Marvel has announced plans to produce a Black Widow film after The Avengers is released. This makes her the only members of the Avengers movie, who has a solo film as well, to not be included in Marvel vs. Capcom 3. You can’t get a much better idea for whether or not the Black Widow movie will perform well than to see how well she is received in the game. And while some of her moves will probably include guns and gadgets (which I think we have enough of with all the characters currently announced), she’s also quite adept at martial arts, meaning there should be no shortage in how she could play out.

#2: Nightcrawler

Much like everyone else on the list thus far, I feel that Nightcrawler hasn’t had his fair share of exposure in video games. He briefly appeared in Marvel Ultimate Alliance (and you could play as him with paid DLC for the Xbox 360 and Playstation 3), only to be removed completely in Ultimate Alliance 2. If included in the game, Nightcrawler could have a mix of sword attacks and martial arts, complimented by his ability to teleport. I picture him battling with Wesker, with the two of them constantly teleporting out of each others’ grasps. We may already have too many X-Men characters with Wolverine and X-23, but I think he would be a welcome edition, if not in the retail game then definitely as DLC.

#1: Jean Grey/Phoenix

How can you make a Marvel game without including arguably the most powerful character in the Marvel universe? While I personally would like to see her included wearing her Age of Apocalypse outfit, they would more than likely go with the standard green/red and yellow as you see above (green for normal Phoenix, red for Dark Phoenix, for those not in the know). The same as with all the characters mentioned previously, there would be no shortage in powers and moves available for Phoenix if included in the game. And as with Nightcrawler, we may already have too many X-Men characters included with the retail release, but to hell with that! I demand Phoenix be included in the game!