We’re just over one week into the February season of Marvel Snap Most Wanted! I’m here today with an update on where some of your favorite characters stand, as well as a character spotlight on one of my personal favorite characters - Ex Nihilo!
Most Wanted Update
Let’s start with a quick look at the current standings! I’m finding myself in a Groundhog Day situation (the movie, not the holiday), reporting that once again, Mephisto has been usurped at the top of the list by Gargantos. This time is a little bit more extreme, as Mephisto has fallen all the way down to number twenty. I don’t expect this to last, but I’m always intrigued at the consistent voting patterns that bury Mephisto early and bring him to the top in the last few days.
If you mooove all the way down to the bottom, the lowest-ranked character at the moment is Bova, who just joined the list last week. I’m not going to begrudge anyone for voting down Bova, but I want to point out that Marvel Snap has over 300 human or humanoid characters and only one bovine character. At some point, that has to change. Rintrah has already been voted off the list. (Boo!) I’m warning everyone now, if Bova gets voted off the list this month, I’m going to add Minotaur (Dario Agger) to the next Most Wanted poll. And if you vote him off, expect to see X-Cow soon after. Don’t ever tell me there is no cow level. (That’s for the other geriatric millennials here.)
One other interesting tidbit from the current month is the one character in the Top 20 who has never been there before. Quasar is currently ranked 12 on the list. Last month, Quasar topped out at 53, so it will be interesting to see if this week was a fluke or if people are feeling cosmically inspired by this month’s Guardians of the Galaxy season.
Most Wanted Madness
Without getting into too much detail, I wanted to let everyone know that next month, Most Wanted as you know it, will be taking a slight break. Instead of the traditional poll with 250 characters, the Top 32 ranked characters will be involved in a month-long tournament to see who comes out on top. This should give you extra incentive to vote this month to make sure your favorite characters are included in this event!
I’ll have more details on this in the coming weeks, but I thought it would be relevant to share now, in case anyone wanted to take the time to boost their favorites. (As of now, fan favorite characters like Ikaris, Northstar, Arcade, and Molecule Man are not making the cut!)
Character Spotlight: Ex Nihilo
In December, I spotlighted possible options for the Second Chance poll, where dropped characters could make their return to Most Wanted. I highlighted some of my favorites that month, but deliberately avoided talking about the character that I voted for, so as to not bias the voting.
Now that Ex Nihilo is safely back on the list, I thought that, given the galactic nature of this season, today would be a great time to highlight him!
Ex Nihilo was created in 2012 by Jonathan Hickman and starts the ball rolling down the hill on one of my favorite multi-year arcs in Avengers history. The crossover of Avengers, New Avengers, and Infinity is an epic story that, in my opinion, influences the greater MCU past, present, and future as much as, if not more than, any other story pulled from the comics. Entire characters, scenes, and images are ripped from the pages and appear in Infinity War, and the entire concept of incursions originates in these stories. And all of these stories start with the arrival of Ex Nihilo.
So why hasn’t Ex Nihilo appeared in the MCU? Why is he only in a handful of comics? Not to mention that he hasn’t been seen in a comic in over ten years. The answer lies in world-building. (And yes, I mean that in more ways than one.)
In-Universe World Building: Ex Nihilo was created by the Builders, the Universe’s first race of creatures, created by the Universe (cosmic entity) herself. Ex Nihilo was originally one of many, a species born with a paired Abyssi. Ex Nihilo creates life. Abyss judges it. Or so the system was supposed to go. When the Builders recalled their Ex Nihilii, one of them, for an unknown reason, continued to travel and create life. Specifically, the one that arrived to oversee Earth.
Meta World Building: The idea of layers, upon layers, of aliens and ancient species that have seeded the Earth, as well as other planets, was explored in Eternals. It was not well-received. Jonathan Hickman-level world-building is not for everyone. In terms of any creation-myth level species that might show up in any future MCU projects, I expect the limit to be Celestials, and perhaps the Beyonders.
Back to the spotlight, though! After terraforming Mars, Ex Nihilo sends Origin Bombs to various spots on Earth. These all drastically change life on Earth in different ways, with the ultimate goal being to restart life on Earth by accelerating the evolution of the planet.
When the incursions begin on Earth, Ex Nihilo, and his sister Abyss, have no choice but to join with the Avengers. After all, if there’s no Earth to evolve, what purpose does Ex Nihilo have?
Ex Nihilo and his Abyss join the Avengers in an intergalactic war, and eventually encounter the remaining Ex Nihilii, alone, without Abyssi, as they serve no purpose if they are not needed to judge created life. With the force of the Ex Nihilii behind them, Ex Nihilo and his sister travel with Thor and Hyperion to the end of the universe to track down the cause of the incursion. The sibling duo meet their demise at the hands of a Beyonder, taking it down with them. (Truly an epic ending for an epic pair of characters.)
Ex Nihilo in Marvel Snap
Let's start by thinking about the future. Next week’s spotlight is going to be Ex Nilhilo’s sister, Abyss. Yes, I know she’s not currently on the Most Wanted poll, but re-reading some of these comics, and in turn writing this article, has inspired me to add her to the list next go-round. I say this now, because her card will directly relate to Ex Nihilo’s
One of the reasons Ex Nihilo is such an interesting character is because of his ability to create and alter life. Marvel Snap already has one life-giving character in Elixir, and his ability is thematic and unique. Ex Nihilo, however, goes about changing life differently, specifically, with the use of Origin Bombs, which seed life on planets and create something new from what was already there.
Ex Nihilo - 4/8 - On Reveal: Replace all locations.
That’s right. The Seventh Cosmos is a card now. If you thought Legion could be chaotic, this card becomes the ultimate “get out of bad locations” free card.
My gut instinct was to make this a 5-cost card, but compared to Legion, the unpredictable nature of the card ultimately led me to the decision to try it at 4-cost.
In terms of building a deck around the card - I’m not so sure where the best home would be. Could location changing one day be an archetype? This might be too gimmicky to really find a home. But it’s a great tool for Arishem decks, and on its own, 4/8 is not a terrible stat line. I know for sure, though, that we’ve all been in games where we look at the state of the board and think to ourselves, “How am I supposed to do anything with this?” Well, now you have your answer.
Conclusion
So ends another Most Wanted update. If you haven’t yet, please vote in the Most Wanted poll for February! This month’s ranking is extra important for next month’s tournament!
I have two season passes to give away this week! You can win one by leaving your Discord handle at the end of the vote. (Notifications on, please!) You can also win one by recommending a comic for me to read below. Give me one specific issue that I won’t be able to put down - it can be something standalone, or the beginning of a great arc. Be sure to leave your Discord name in the comment as well.