It doesn’t take long for video game memes to take off. A fixture of the internet since its inception, gaming-inspired memes are everywhere. Skyrim’s “arrow to the knee,” and, more recently, “hey you, you’re finally awake,” have taken on lives of their own. Cory in the House for the Nintendo DS has climbed the Metacritic charts, players are offering their lives up like Kratos at practically every turn, and internet users have been pressing F to pay respects for years now. It’s only natural, then, that a parody of the hit hero shooter Marvel Rivals would catch on, though DC Allies has become much more than a quick joke one might find in a YouTube comment section.
It didn’t take long for DC fans to share their hopes for a Marvel Rivals clone based on their preferred comic book brand, with James Gunn’s acknowledgment of the idea’s potential only adding to the fire. Almost as soon as Marvel Rivals was revealed, users joked that it was only a matter of time before DC Allies happened. And while these jokes were simple at first, they’ve since led to a full-on community that role plays as if DC Allies is real and Marvel Rivals is nothing but a made-up video game. With over 42,000 members in the DC Allies subreddit at the time of writing, the jokes are unlikely to stop anytime soon. However, while it’s hugely entertaining to watch DC Allies in action, the harsh reality behind the joke is that a hero shooter based on the company would be phenomenal.
While the DC Allies subreddit was created all the way back in January 2025, it’s been growing in popularity recently after being spotlighted by Marvel Rivals streamers such as Bogur.
DC’s Rumored Hero Shooter Needs to Avoid One Marvel Rivals Mistake
With talks of DC’s new live service title being a hero shooter, it needs to be careful that it doesn’t make the same mistake as Marvel Rivals.
What Exactly Goes on in the DC Allies Subreddit?
As a parody of Marvel Rivals, the following kinds of posts are prevalent within the DC Allies subreddit:
- Discussion of fake balance patches on par with Marvel Rivals’ dev updates, with players outraged over fake buffs and nerfs.
- Posts about popular or pay-to-lose skins, with Parallax Green Lantern being in the former category and the bulky Absolute Batman look in the latter group. (The Parallax Green Lantern mock-up is just an obvious overhaul of Mr. Fantastic’s Maker skin, adding to the humor).
- Regular jokes about the “fan game” Marvel Rivals, with official art treated as player-made concepts.
- Parodies of ongoing discussions in the Marvel Rivals subreddit, such as debates over the quality of (fake) friendly and hostile voice lines for the DC Allies roster.
- Mockups for “new heroes,” where players come up with surprisingly deep kits that imagine how their favorite DC character would work in a hero shooter. Fake skin concepts are also shared, like tie-in costumes for James Gunn’s Superman.
What makes DC Allies so entertaining is that all the subreddit’s users fully embrace the concept, having remarkably deep discussions about a game that doesn’t exist. There’s fake “gameplay” of DC Allies that places a Batman mod on Moon Knight and sees him throwing batarangs instead of Crescent Darts, a nonexistent Twitch page has been created that places DC Allies’ viewership far above gaming’s biggest hero shooters, and even parodies of viral Marvel Rivals memes — for example, the gag about no-kill Spider-Man matches being accurate because of the hero’s no kill rule and apply it to Spider-Man. The subreddit’s members are as delusional as they are clever, and seeing the occasional post about salty Lex Luthor mains in between topics about games that actually exist is proving to be a consistent source of humor for many.
Yet as funny as DC Allies is (and make no mistake, it is funny to watch thousands of people pretend a nonexistent game is their favorite pastime), there’s a layer of frustration beneath all the jokes. Whereas Marvel fans have been spoiled with a variety of games — turn-based RPGs, linear and open-world action games, card games, and the hero shooter that inspired the DC Allies gag, DC fans have been enduring quite the drought. Gotham Knights didn’t connect with audiences, the promising Wonder Woman game was canceled, Injustice 3 remains a pipe dream, and the supposed Arkham revival is years away. With DC movies finally getting back on track, it would be great to see its gaming output follow suit, and a hero shooter would be a solid way to get the ball rolling.
A Real DC Hero Shooter is Full of Potential
DC has had success with multiplayer games in the past, such as DC Universe Online and the cult classic Gotham City Impostors, so a hero shooter would feel like a logical progression for the brand. Sure, the genre is a bit busy, but a DC hero shooter makes too much sense to not try considering that it’s a company all about heroes and villains. Perhaps it could be a first-person shooter so that it stands out from Marvel Rivals a bit, as the two will naturally be compared to one another at every turn. As for crossover skins, there is a ton of potential for WB’s other properties to show up, with Game of Thrones, Lord of the Rings, AEW, and more collabs on the table. As for a potential roster, outside the must-have characters like The Trinity, there are some fun options available, like:
- Doctor Fate (Support)
- Clayface (Tank)
- Adam Strange (Damage)
- Constantine (Support)
- Shazam (Tank)
- Plastic Man (Damage)
- Booster Gold (Support)
- Lobo (Tank)
- Huntress (Damage)
- Poison Ivy (Support)
- Atrocitus (Tank)
- Blue Beetle (Damage)
- Beast Boy (Three roles like Marvel Rivals’ Deadpool)
One thing that Marvel Rivals has done well is sneak in niche heroes like Angela and Elsa Bloodstone alongside high-profile additions like Deadpool, and any of the above names would fit the bill of neat, lesser-known additions. Sure, The Bat Family would inevitably be on the roster (a gun-toting Red Hood Tank and a tech-based Batgirl healer are basically guaranteed for a game such as this), but the DC roster is full of interesting characters to adapt. Martian Manhunter, The Flash, multiple types of Lanterns — a DC hero shooter is guaranteed to have a deep and varied roster of characters. With DC having more unique settings to pull from for maps, too, like Gotham, Metropolis, Themiscyra, Apokolips, and Oa, such a game feels like a surefire success. Hopefully, it does end up getting made, but until then, players can watch DC Allies jokesters in action to get a potential glimpse at the future.
- Released
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December 6, 2024
- ESRB
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T For Teen // Violence
- Developer(s)
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NetEase Games
- Publisher(s)
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NetEase Games
