Megadoomer

1. Halloween (1978) - this is a rewatch, though it's been a year or two since I last saw it. It still holds up extremely well; watching more of the Friday the 13th series made me really appreciate the acting by Jamie Lee Curtis and Nancy Loomis. Their interactions felt really natural. Also, there were little moments where Michael was just standing in the background of a shot that creeped me out.

2. Army of Darkness - also a rewatch; it had been at least five or six years since I'd last seen it, possibly more. It drifts away from the horror-comedy of Evil Dead 2 to full-on comedy with only minor horror elements. Surprisingly short at an hour and 20 minutes, it had Bruce Campbell as a one-liner-producing machine, and some great physical comedy.

3. Child's Play 2 - everything below this point consists of movies that I'd never seen before. The puppetry or animatronics were amazing, Brad Dourif was great as Chucky, Alex Vincent did a great job as a world-weary child, and I was able to follow what was going on despite not having seen the first one.

4. Gremlins - this movie was barely a Halloween-themed movie; if anything, it's closer to a dark Christmas movie. It felt kind of tonally confused, like it wasn't sure if it wanted to be dark or silly. Still, the Gremlins (particularly Gizmo) were great, and the writing and acting were solid.

5. Friday the 13th Part 3 - it felt like the filmmakers finally got the formula down for the Friday the 13th movies with this one. There weren't any dragged-out moments like in the first two, and while the 3D shots were unintentionally hilarious (especially when watching the movie in 2D, which results in characters throwing stuff at the camera for no reason), at least one of them (towards the end) felt like it would be pretty unsettling.

6. Taste the Blood of Dracula - I'd seen a Christopher Lee Dracula movie before, but this one was in the same four-pack, and I hadn't seen it. Christopher Lee didn't have as many lines of dialogue as I was expecting or hoping, and it didn't go as dark as I thought it would. Also, the R-rating felt tacked on; only one scene felt like it earned the movie that rating, and it was completely gratuitous and unnecessary. Still, I had fun with it.

7. Friday the 13th - this movie is not well-written; it's a whodunnit where the one who did it isn't mentioned or doesn't appear until the last ten minutes, and any other suspects who are built up get built up at a point where it would be physically impossible for them to be the murderer. Impressive gore effects; I avoided watching the movie at all because of Kevin Bacon's death scene, and even knowing that it was coming, it was still uncomfortable to watch.

8. Alien 3 - the movie starts with 3/4 of the survivors of the previous movie killed off-screen and the fourth infected by a face-hugger, which is a death sentence. The survivor doesn't learn about that detail until the last half hour, and she's one of two living characters in this movie who's even remotely likeable. The movie just gets bleaker and darker from here. Most of the characters look identical, the rooms are lit in an unpleasant brown colour that makes the Xenomorph stick out like a sore thumb rather than blending in with its surroundings like it did in previous movies, and the whole thing was a huge downgrade from Alien and Aliens.

MARVEL

1. Spider-Man
2. Ultimate Spider-Man (aside from his Venom Touch and cloaking, Miles can apparently make electricity constructs like lightning swords, so that helps set him apart from Peter)
3. Wolverine
4. Storm
5. Magneto
6. Iron Man
7. Captain America
8. Thor
9. Hulk
10. Black Panther
11. Captain Marvel
12. Ms. Marvel
13. The Thing
14. Doctor Doom
15. Deadpool
16. Magik
17. Rocket Raccoon and Groot
18. Thanos

This turned out lighter on newcomers than I expected - just Miles, Ms. Marvel, the Thing, and Magik. Still, going bigger than 40 (20 per side) for the base game seems like a lot.

CAPCOM

1. Ryu
2. Chun-Li
3. Rashid
4. Juri
5. Mega Man
6. Zero
7. Dante
8. Nero
9. Morrigan
10. Jedah
11. Mike Haggar
12. Tessa (Red Earth)
13. Amaterasu
14. Leon S. Kennedy
15. Jill Valentine
16. Wesker
17. Phoenix Wright
18. Monster Hunter (based on Rise)

Again, not as many newcomers as I'd like (Rashid, Juri, Nero, Tessa, Leon, though give how heavily Mega Man and Monster Hunter would be revamped, they might as well be new), but it's hard to fit so many fan favourites into here on top of the newcomers. I heavily considered Akuma or Viewtiful Joe, but nowadays, Capcom seems more likely to save Akuma for DLC given that they know he'll sell (see Street Fighter 5 and 6), and I wanted a character from a new franchise. (In this case, Red Earth)

It turned out lighter than I expected on newcomers and villains, but I more or less just wrote the first idea that I thought of without tinkering with it.

MARVEL

1. Shuma-Gorath
2. Venom
3. Gwenpool
4. Apocalypse
5. Squirrel Girl

CAPCOM

1. Akuma
2. Vergil
3. Lady Dimitrescu (Resident Evil)
4. Jon Talbain (Darkstalkers)
5. Asura (Asura's Wrath)

I figure it's a good mix of veterans and newcomers; I'm not sure if having both Squirrel Girl and Gwenpool in here is a little redundant, but they'd be entertaining picks that I'd like to see.

1. Guardians of the Galaxy vol. 3 - an amazing movie, and the best MCU movie in a while. I got a little choked up at the end, when "The Dog Days Are Over" started playing; James Gunn did an excellent job with making me feel connected to these misfits who started off as D-list Marvel characters, and I can't wait to see what he does with Superman

2. John Wick Chapter 4 - outstanding, non-stop action with insane choreography, and a great way to end this series. It made me want to look up more movies featuring Donnie Yen, because his action scenes were great in this.

3. Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse - it felt very much like a "part 1", without a real conclusion (it just kind of stopped), but it was great while it lasted. Gwen got a lot more screentime/development than I was expecting, which was nice, though Peter got less than what I was expecting, which is a shame. (also, Mayday is great - if the comics are going to blatantly change characters/storylines for shameless movie synergy, I wish they'd incorporate her) A solid continuation from the original.

4. Creed 3 - well-directed by Michael B. Jordan; I was glad to see the Creed series step out from the shadow of Rocky as a franchise and give us a story that wasn't strictly tied to older Rocky movies.

5. Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny - a solid action movie that gave us a good ending for Indiana Jones as a character.

6. The Flash - it was a good movie, and I got choked up at points, but it wasn't as definitive of an ending for this era of DC's movies as it had been built up to be, and the inclusion of some post-mortem CGI cameos seemed to be in questionable taste.

7. The Super Mario Bros. Movie - it was basically what I expected; nothing too surprising beyond Chris Pratt's Mario voice being better than the trailers suggested and Peach being handled really well (I was worried she'd turn into a damsel in distress in the third act, to keep with Mario tradition). Jack Black as Bowser was a highlight.

8. Transformers: Rise of the Beasts - it was one of the better Transformers movies that I've seen, but that's not a high bar to clear. It was a solid action movie, and the human characters were likeable (which can be tough to do in a Transformers movie), but I'd put it below Bumblebee and the first live action Transformers movie. The big reveal at the end fell kind of flat, and the main highlight for me would be the final battle - I watched Beast Wars as a kid, so seeing the Maximals and Autobots team up was great, even if this movie didn't have the Predacons.

9. Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania - I get that the people behind this movie didn't want the series to be a palate cleanser any more, and they wanted to be the big dramatic event movie, but I honestly would have been fine with it staying a lower-stakes palate cleanser. With Scott's convict friends, Cassie's mom, and Cassie's step-dad gone, a lot of the movie's heart felt like it was missing, and the movie constantly told us how much of a threat Kang was instead of showing us. (also, the second post-credits scene was a complete waste of time, simply telling us what had already been established a dozen times throughout the movie) The end of the movie felt like it was determined by focus groups, because it happened so abruptly, though it did give Paul Rudd a good closing monologue that book-ended the movie.

10. Shazam: Fury of the Gods - it was okay. The lack of focus on the kid actors caused it to lose a lot of the charm and heart of the original Shazam movie (Asher Angel did a great job with his limited screentime in this one), and the villains were forgettable, but it still had some funny parts, it was charming, and I'm glad I saw it in theaters.

Netherrealm games often base their roster around the game's plot. (though not always, as seen with the Joker's inclusion in Injustice 2 - he only appears in the story mode once as a hallucination, and he's long dead by the events of the game, but you've gotta have the Joker) I'd rather avoid the "superhero civil war" trope, as Injustice already covered that pretty thoroughly, but there'd need to be a reason for the heroes to fight each other.

What I came up with is that Doctor Doom and Kang the Conqueror are having a war through time travel, which is shattering the space-time continuum. This leads to versions of heroes from different points in time (times that they'd rather forget) or alternate universes showing up in the main universe. (it also serves as a justification for mirror matches) Obviously, this would mean that Doctor Doom (1) and Kang the Conqueror (2) would be playable.

With Doom and Kang in here, we'd need to have the teams that are most famous for opposing them.

The Fantastic Four

-Mr. Fantastic (3) - he's Doom's arch-enemy, and he's distantly related to Kang; he kind of has to be in here. (plus, the Council of Reeds would provide a ton of different options for alternate costumes)
-The Thing (4) - the ever-lovin' blue-eyed Thing ain't about to miss a chance to smack Doom around!

While I could have included Sue and Johnny, I feel like it's going to be tough enough to fit everyone in here as it is. (maybe they'd be free DLC, or the first characters revealed for a season pass)

The Avengers

-Iron Man (5)
-Captain America (6)
-Thor (7) - all three of these are mainstays of the Avengers since the silver age, and they feel like they have to be in here
-Black Panther (8) - he makes for a nice contrast with Doom, and he has history with the Fantastic Four
-Captain Marvel (9)
-The Vision (10)
-Scarlet Witch (11) - all three are regular members of the Avengers, popular characters in their own right, and have plenty of opportunities for evil alternate versions of themselves
-Ant-Man (12) - specifically the Hank Pym version, though Scott Lang could be a premiere costume like Bizarro in Injustice. Hank's own worst enemy is himself, in more ways than one, and having him beat up his Ultimate version or a version who stayed as Yellowjacket in story mode could be cathartic
-The Wasp (13) - I feel like Ant-Man and the Wasp are severely under-used compared to the other founding Avengers. To differentiate her from Hank, she could focus on shrinking and flying, while Hank could have a moveset inspired by his Dr. Pym: Scientific Adventurer phase where he grows or shrinks various objects to use as weapons, in addition to his growth powers

I originally had She-Hulk and Hawkeye in here, mostly for the interactions (and in Hawkeye's case, having a version of him mention the Justice League in a mirror match - Netherrealm is owned by WB, to my knowledge, so I think they could get away with that), but I felt like I was overdoing it with Avengers members, so I cut them.

There are heroes who feel like they have to be in here, like the Hulk (14) or Spider-Man (15). I don't think I need to explain why they're being included - even if they don't have much in the way of ties to either villain, you'd have to be crazy to make a Marvel crossover without these two.

However, every single character that I've mentioned so far was made in the 60's; I figure it's time to get some newer characters in this. Ultimate Spider-Man (16) (Miles Morales) and Ms. Marvel (17) (Kamala Khan) are easily Marvel's biggest success stories of the 2000s; I'm sure some people might find issues with there being two Spider-Men, but they've been differentiated enough in other games, with Peter being more tech-focused and Miles having his stealth and venom blast.

Marvel's got at least one other major earthbound super-team that should be included in here - the Great Lakes Avengers the X-Men!

-Wolverine (18) - it would be more shocking if he wasn't in here.
-Storm (19) - aside from being one of the more popular X-Men, I could see there being fun with alternate timelines where she never met Professor X or she let the fact that she was worshipped as a goddess go to her head
-Rogue (20) - she's connected to Captain Marvel and a character that I'll mention later, and she was previously evil, so an easy alternate timeline is one where she stayed that way. Plus, I could see her having a unique action (like what Injustice characters have) where she pulls off her glove, grabs someone, and if it connects, her unique action is replaced with one of the opponent's powers/skills
-Magik (21) - I think her powers (summoning demons, the Soulsword, the Stepping Discs) would work well for a fighting game, and it would be pretty easy to make an evil alternate version of her
-Cable (22) - the heroes need a time traveler of their own to take the fight to Kang and/or Doom; I debated between him and Dr. Strange, but I figured I'd keep the focus on the Fantastic Four, Avengers, and X-Men.
-Deadpool (23) - he seems like some much-needed comedic relief, especially with She-Hulk and Hawkeye cut
-Magneto (24) - he'd be firmly on the side of the X-Men, though some of his time-displaced versions could be from the points in time where he was villainous. (if possible, I'd love for there to be a "Welcome to die!" reference in a mirror match)

While he doesn't seem to be affiliated with any of the other characters (though he was on the West Coast Avengers once), I'd like to include Moon Knight (25) in here - with this game involving time travel, it could be neat to have various versions of Moon Knight in different time periods, since the role is inherited. (there was an issue where Kang fought different incarnations of Moon Knight throughout history, and both Kang and Moon Knight are tied to ancient Egypt)

The roster needs more villains than just Doom and Kang. We've got a Fantastic Four villain and an Avengers villain, so I feel like it's time to include some X-Men villains.

Apocalypse (26) has a versatile power-set, and he could serve as a rival for Kang in ancient Egypt, along with a threat in his own right. (and he's got a long, confusing history with Cable) Plus, he'd have some great dialogue.

I think that Mystique (27) would work well as a villainous wildcard, with it never being clear who's side she's on. Plus, she's a shapeshifter, so there could be some fun with that, and she's got ties to Captain Marvel (seeing as she's Carol's former arch-enemy) and Rogue (since she's Rogue's adoptive mother).

I'd like to include a Spider-Man villain, since outside of Venom, Marvel vs. Capcom doesn't really use them. Doctor Octopus seems like a natural inclusion, though the concept of someone who can grapple you from across the screen seems like a balancing nightmare. I'll go with Green Goblin (28), who seems like he'd have a lot to work with between his pumpkin bombs, glider, and the fact that he's basically a super soldier.

While I could stop things here, there's one more character that I'd want to include, since most of his "family" is in the roster - Ultron (29). Aside from being one of the main Avengers villains, and having ties to Ant-Man, the Wasp, Scarlet Witch, and the Vision, a version of him could be reprogrammed by Kang or Doom to serve as a recurring villain along with Doombots and Kang's similar robotic duplicates.

There are SO many other characters that I wanted to include - aside from She-Hulk and Hawkeye, there's Taskmaster, Namor, Cyclops, Phoenix, Doctor Strange, Squirrel Girl, America Chavez, Shuma-Gorath... I could be here all day, but thirty already felt like it was too much for a base roster for the first game in a series.