MARVEL SNAP's New Season is Big in Japan

The newest season of MARVEL SNAP celebrates the characters, storylines, and art styles of Japan. Get ready for the BIGGEST (both literally AND figuratively) season yet!

BIG IN JAPAN SEASON PASS

For fans of X-Men, the MARVEL SNAP universe is about to take you on a journey to Japan. This month's Big in Japan Season Pass gives you the opportunity to unlock a brand new card, variants, avatars, and card backs. Your journey begins near Sendai, Japan, as we introduce Daken, the son of one of X-Men’s most iconic figures, Wolverine.

NEW CHARACTER: DAKEN

The mutant Daken is an assassin who kills anything in his path, making him a more vicious version of his father, James Howlett/Logan, AKA Wolverine.

Decades ago, the brainwashed KGB assassin James Buchanan “Bucky” Barnes, AKA Winter Soldier, kills Itsu—the pregnant, Japanese wife of Logan. Unbeknownst to Logan, his unborn baby is torn from Itsu’s womb—likely surviving due to his inherited mutant healing factor—and abducted by secretive manipulator Romulus. 

Near Sendai, Japan, Daken is taken in by a wealthy man named Akihira who raises him as his own. Named Akihiro, Daken is taunted for his heritage and called a mongrel by the servants. As a boy, Daken kills one of his tormentors, teaching the others to fear him. At eleven, his adoptive mother Natsumi gives birth to a son; recognizing the competition from a legitimate heir, Daken kills the baby justifying banishment by his father. Before he leaves, he kills Natsumi, releasing his claws apparently for the first time. After Akihira kills himself with a rifle, Daken is confronted by Romulus. Daken then undergoes training as an assassin.

GIGANTIC SEASONAL REWARDS!

NEW CARDS

Some of our favorite characters from the X-Men Comics are releasing this season! You can find these new cards in Spotlight Caches or the Token Shop!

SERIES 5

X-23

When a top-secret program attempted to recreate the original Weapon X experiment that involved the feral mutant Wolverine, they failed to secure a test subject that could survive the bonding of the virtually unbreakable metal Adamantium to their skeleton. Seeking to take the project in a new direction, the project's director, Doctor Martin Sutter, recruited renowned mutant geneticist Doctor Sarah Kinney and tasked her with creating a clone. Using the only available genetic sample from Weapon X, which was damaged, they were unable to salvage the Y chromosome after 22 attempts. Kinney then proposed they create a female clone, and though her request was initially denied, she still went ahead and produced a viable female subject, prompting Sutter to reconsider. Despite resistance from his protégé Doctor Zander Rice, whom he had raised after Rice's father was killed by a bestial Wolverine at the original Weapon X Project, Sutter allowed Kinney to proceed. As revenge for her insubordination, Rice forced Kinney to act as the surrogate mother for the clone, and she gave birth to "X-23."

Raised in captivity, X-23 was trained to be a weapon. Kinney did her best to ensure the child retained some semblance of humanity, but her efforts appeared to be in vain. After seven years, Rice had X-23 subjected to radiation poisoning in order to accelerate the activation of her mutant gene, then forcibly extracted her claws and coated them with Adamantium. Next, Rice created a chemical compound he called "trigger scent" that sent X-23 into an involuntary berserker rage upon smelling its presence. Three years later, X-23 was sent on her first field mission to kill Presidential candidate Greg Johnson. Numerous other missions followed, as X-23's services were sold to the highest bidder, and she was left emotionally stunted as a result. Rice, in an attempt to avenge his father's murder, abandoned X-23 on a particularly dangerous mission, but she survived against overwhelming odds and managed to return to the facility.

Ultimately, Rice persuaded Sutter to hand over control of the program to him, then secretly ordered X-23 to kill Sutter and his family. Later, Rice revealed to Kinney a chamber with dozens of incubation pods containing female clones before he fired her. Before fleeing the facility with X-23, Kinney gave her one last mission - destroy the pods and kill Rice. However, Rice was able to exact revenge on Kinney from beyond the grave, as he had earlier exposed her to the trigger scent, sending X-23 into a rage that caused her to kill her mother. As she lay dying, Kinney named X-23 Laura.

SERIES 5

SILVER SAMURAI

Kenuichio Harada is the mutant son of the former Japanese crimelord Shingen Harada. As a youth, Harada mastered the attendant disciplines of the medieval samurai and sought employment as a warrior for hire. He first worked for the criminal Mandrill and clashed with the blind hero Daredevil. Harada then served the Viper, an agent of the terrorist organization Hydra, as her bodyguard. In that capacity, Harada battled opponents such as the costumed crimefighter Spider-Man, the martial arts master Shang-Chi, and the team of mutant trainee heroes the New Mutants.

Following his father’s death, Harada sought the leadership of Shingen’s Clan Yashida from his half-sister Mariko Yashida, but was opposed by the ronin Yukio and Mariko’s lover, the mutant adventurer Wolverine. Later, Harada worked with Wolverine to free American private investigator Jessica Drew from the influence of Black Blade of Muramasa, a sword mystically imbued with its creator’s madness. Wolverine himself fell under the sword’s spell, but managed to overcome his possession after which Harada took up the sword, finding himself worthy of its power.

After Mariko’s death, Harada claimed leadership of Clan Yashida and was briefly employed by the Japanese government as leader of their fledgling super-team Big Hero 6. Ultimately, his inability to lead Clan Yashida allowed the Mongolian crimelord Haan Kaishek to take control, and he allied with Wolverine to defeat the Kaishek’s. However, the disgrace of losing leadership was too great for Harada, and he returned to his mercenary ways.

SERIES 5

LADY DEATHSTRIKE

Yuriko Oyama is the daughter of Kenji Oyama, a former Japanese kamikaze pilot during World War II whose face was horribly scarred in a failed suicide attack on an American battleship. Later becoming the head of Oyama Heavy Industries, Kenji had Yuriko and her two brothers privately tutored by Marcy Stryker, wife of an American soldier named William Stryker. Kenji felt much shamed by his failure decades earlier, and as a result he ultimately scarred the faces of his three children in a ritual design. Becoming the criminal scientist Lord Dark Wind, Kenji developed a means for bonding the virtually indestructible metal Adamantium to human bone, a procedure he hoped to use in creating an army of super-soldiers for Japan. However, his notes were stolen, and it took him years to rediscover the process.

Growing to despise post-war Japanese civilization, Lord Dark Wind had the then-crippled assassin Bullseye brought to his island off the Japanese coast. There, Dark Wind replaced some of Bullseye's broken bones with Adamantium substitutes, hoping that in return Bullseye would assassinate Japan’s minister of trade for him. Arriving in Japan intent on recapturing Bullseye, the blind costumed crimefighter Daredevil encountered Yuriko who sought vengeance on her father, both for scarring her and for the deaths of her brothers, who had perished in Lord Dark Wind’s service. Moreover, the young man Yuriko loved, Kira, served in Dark Wind’s private army, and she did not want her father to cause him harm. After Yuriko guided Daredevil to her father’s private island, Bullseye escaped and Yuriko herself slew Lord Dark Wind just as he was about to kill Daredevil.

Following Daredevil’s departure, Kira committed suicide in despair over Dark Wind’s death. The shock of Kira’s death radically altered Yukio’s outlook on life, and she resolved to carry on her father’s work. Yuriko became convinced that the mutant adventurer Wolverine had gained his Adamantium-laced skeleton by means of the process stolen from her father years earlier. Garbed as a female samurai and calling herself Lady Deathstrike, Yuriko led a number of her father’s warriors to Canada where they confronted Wolverine, seeking to retrieve his Adamantium skeleton for study.

So, when can you expect new cards?

You can expect new cards to be released weekly—starting with last month’s Season Pass Card, Phoenix Force, releasing as a Series 5 card on August 7th.

• August 7th: Phoenix Force - Series 5 Release
• August 14th: Lady Deathstrike - Series 5 Release
• August 21st: X-23 - Series 5 Release
• August 28th: Silver Samurai - Series 5 Release

New Series 4 and Series 5 cards appear in the all-new Spotlight Cache and the Token Shop. As you level up your Collection Level, there will be Spotlight Caches where you can open a Series 4, Series 5 card, or variant. If you want to know more, check out the Spotlight Cache blog on Marvelsnap.com!

MEGA MECHA SPOTLIGHT CACHES!

August 7th:

• Galactus

• Nimrod

• Spider-Ham

August 14th:

• Lady Deathstrike

• M.O.D.O.K.

• Stature

August 21st:

• X-23

• Nebula

• Silk

August 28th:

• Silver Samurai

• Kitty Pryde

• Spider-Man 2099

BRAND NEW LOCATIONS

Your adventure continues with these all-new locations!

• Yashida Base: At the end of the game, destroy the last card to get here.
• Valley of the Hand: After turn 5, your destroyed cards revive here.

BRAND NEW VARIANTS

There’s 40+ New Art Variants coming to the game this season.

• Absorbing Man by Dan Hipp
• Adam Warlock by Eduardo
• Ant-Man by Dan Hipp
• Armor - Pixel Variant
• Arnim Zola by Dan Hipp
• Attuma - 3099 Variant
• Baron Mordo by Rian Gonzales
• Bishop by Dan Hipp
• Black Bolt - Variant
• Black Cat - 2099 Back Catalog
• Black Cat - Pixel
• Blade - Variant
• Blue Marvel by Max Grecke
• Brood by Kim Jacinto
• Bucky Barnes - Noir
• Cable - Variant
• Cable by Dan Hipp
• Captain America by Dan Hipp
• Cerebro - 3099 Variant
• Cerebro - Pixel Variant
• Colleen Wing - Noir Variant
• Cyclops - Variant
• Cyclops by Skottie Young
• Daken - Variant
• Daken by Dan Hipp
• Daredevil - Variant
• Daredevil - Yellow Suit Variant
• Dazzler by Dan Hipp
• Knull by Dan Hipp
• Knull - Variant
• Lady Deathstrike - Pixel Variant
• Lady Deathstrike - Variant
• Leader by Luca
• Luke Cage - Variant
• Mister Negative by Rian Gonzales
• Moon Girl - Spider-Verse Variant
• Orka by Giulio
• Red Skull - Fantasy Variant
• Rescue by Dan Hipp
• Silver Samurai by Nikola
• Spectrum - Variant
• X-23 by Skottie Young
• X-23 - Venomized Variant

COLOSSAL BUNDLES INCOMING!

These Exclusive Bundles are available for a limited time! And don’t forget that you can use any new variant even if you don’t yet own the base card. Here are the upcoming bundles:

Stegronosaurus Wrecks

• Stegron Kaiju Variant
• Stegron Kaiju Avatar
• Stegron Kaiju Card Back
• 12000 Credits
• 310 Stegron Boosters
• Title: I Am Having Fun

Price: 7500 Gold

The Doctor is Tin

• Morbius (Mech) Variant
• Morbius (Mech) Avatar
• 500 Credits
• 1000 Tokens
• 500 Gold
• 465 Morbius Boosters

Price: $19.99

Death Becomes Her

• Death (Mech) Variant
• Death (Mech) Avatar
• Death Mech Card Back
• 2500 Credits
• 4000 Tokens
• 2000 Gold
• 620 Death Boosters
• Title: At Some Boring Funeral

Price: $74.99

My Hero Arachnia

• Spider-Man (Anime) Variant & Avatar
• Black Widow (Anime) Variant & Avatar
• 5500 Credits
• 310 Spider-Man Boosters
• 310 Black Widow Boosters

Price: 4000 Gold

Full Charge

• Juggernaut (Mech) Variant
• Juggernaut (Mech) Avatar
• 2000 Credits Changed
• 300 Tokens Changed
• 500 Gold
• 465 Juggernaut Boosters

Price: $19.99

One-Punch Women

• Storm (Anime) Variant & Avatar
• Captain Marvel (Anime) Avatar & Avatar
• 7500 Credits
• 155 Storm Boosters
• 155 Captain Marvel Boosters

Price: 5600 Gold

Heroes for Hire

• Daredevil Variant & Avatar
• The Punisher Variant & Avatar
• Misty Knight Variant & Avatar
• Daredevil Card Back
• The Punisher Card Back
• 155 Daredevil Boosters
• 155 Punisher Boosters
• 155 Misty Knight Boosters

Price: $9.99

Hail Hydraulics

• Red Skull (Mech) Variant
• Red Skull (Mech) Avatar
• 4000 Credits
• 1000 Gold
• 465 Red Skull Boosters

Price: $24.99

2 Cute 2 Furious

• Jane Foster (Chibi) Variant & Avatar
• Iron Man (Chibi) Variant & Avatar
• 2500 Credits
• 310 Jane Foster Boosters
• 310 Iron Man Boosters

Price: 2000 Gold

Join us as we go big! Really big! Colossal! Will you pit Daken against his father? Or trample new locations with Kaiju Stegron? We know you’re going to love these new characters! If you’re planning on attending Gamescom in Cologne, Germany later this month we’ll be there. You don’t want to miss what we have in store, come by and say hi!

Get in on the action now! MARVEL SNAP is available in 13 languages across the world and available for download now on mobile and early access  PC: www.MarvelSnap.com.

For the latest news on MARVEL SNAP, follow Marvel Games on Twitter!