11.5 Update Recap - Young Avengers

Introduction

With the "New Avengers" update (2.4) being one of the more memorable early updates, and one with the least attention given to its characters, a Young Avengers update has been requested for quite some time. It finally arrives to close out 2025 and hot on the heels of the hit TV show "Agatha All Along" which featured Wiccan's live action debut. Perfect timing to not have Wiccan feature either in this update or an Agatha update - instead we get bad uniforms for Kate Bishop and America Chavez, and a pretty good one for Loki but not the one anyone wanted.

Thankfully this is saved a little by three useful mid-month patch uniforms, but one of them is a support and the other two are expensive PvP characters. We were due a stinker after the Olympus update and this is the one.

• Characters

  Characters

  Promising Young Avenger

  Kang the Conqueror [Rama-Tut]

  Kang the Conqueror [Rama-Tut]

  Kang keeps the impressive Native Tier-3 uniform streak alive, fitting in nicely with Knull and Sentry as the top 3 options in PvP. Probably not taking the top spot, but competitive with the other two and counters Sentry quite consistently (Knull is tougher with Agent Venom's support + immortality).

  He isn't great in PvE, though as with Knull and Sentry, is a solid option for Zombie Survival with high healing and spammable residual skills.

  Also worth noting high-rank Kang Artifacts can be obtained from WBL first clear rewards, so you could consider him easier to "max out" than Knull and Sentry.

  Loki [Young Avengers]

  Loki [Young Avengers]

  Every time Loki gets a uniform it's a banger, and despite looking awful (+ not being the much-requested Loki Season 2 uniform) this uniform is no exception. The switch to Hero makes him a great beginner-friendly ABX/L focused uniform that effectively replaces Zeus, which is nuts considering Zeus' recency and cost.

  His skills are a big improvement and it is now significantly easier to hit higher ABX/L scores. The removal of delayed cancels have also made him much more proc-friendly for new players.

  Fantastic uniform overall, and it's a shame the other main update characters (America and Kate) were not on par, given that they are debut Tier-4s and the sun has been shining on Loki for quite some time (Avengers reference).

  Scarlet Spider [Gift Deliverer]

  Scarlet Spider [Gift Deliverer]

  A pretty standard Seasonal Support uniform. These are usually meta in some way, with Scarlet Spider replacing Amadeus Cho as the best support for the new Speed Male Alliance Battle restrictions. With Zeus also AB-mogged by Loki, that makes two characters in the last update that are immediately redundant.

  He won't do much damage on his own (also standard for a support focus uniform) but being able to advance to Tier-4 gives him another advantage over Cho. The only downside really is availability due to being seasonal, plus the slightly higher Crystal cost that comes with it.

  Aging Out

  Madelyne Pryor [Winter Queen]

  Madelyne Pryor [Winter Queen]

  A visually very impressive uniform, animations are quite similar to her base uniform but with more eloquent effects.

  She has gained some usefulness in ABX due to her fast-charging Striker Skill, though her main use with this uniform is still PvP. While it brings her back to being "almost meta" in a similar spot to when her base uniform was released, the fact that this is a paywall uniform compounds on how insanely expensive she is. You are now looking at:

  1. Completing the Goblin Queen Epic Quest, which has 0 other relevant characters
  2. Somehow recruiting Rachel Summers, either by paying a lot or getting lucky with the Contribution Chest
  3. Buying the Hope Summers Deluxe Pack, which costs more than most Deluxe Packs
  4. Upgrading a double-cost Native Tier-2 all the way to Tier-4
  5. (NEW!) Buying a seasonal paywall uniform that costs more than regular paywall uniforms, only for her to still be worse than Sentry, Knull and Kang.

  For players heavily invested into PvP and have all the must-haves already, she's a nice addition to a PvP roster. But if you are looking to get decent return on investment in a PvP character she is far from being worth it.

  Marvel Boy

  Marvel Boy

  Marvel Boy is expectedly unremarkable, though new Bio Selector characters are always nice for new players. Two Universal free characters in consecutive updates is unprecedented.

  He is designed to be the dedicated support for a Young Avengers team, although they aren't that good in PvP, there aren't even enough of them to fill a full Otherworld team, and his PvE buffs are lacking (especially without his Artifact at a high rank).

  Can't hate too much on a free character though, he will naturally be a solid Shadowland or early World Boss option for new players.

  Black Cat

  Black Cat

  Hellcat

  Hellcat

  Black Cat finally gets her Transcended Skill. She's overdue a new uniform, but finally being able to use her in WBL is nice especially with the seasonal uniform returning (and on discount). Hellcat is whatever.

  #WASHED

  Hawkeye (Kate Bishop) [Young Avengers]

  Hawkeye (Kate Bishop) [Young Avengers]

  Probably the "headlining" character of this update but it's a flop. It has been years now that Netmarble has flat out refused to give us a strong but cheap Speed Female Human Hero alternative to Luna Snow, and this Kate uniform is yet another miss.

  Despite her previous [Marvel Studios' Hawkeye] uniform being very good in PvE at the time, they have made this one PvP focused but it ain't very good there either! If you insist on building a gimmicky Young Avengers OWB team then you're part of the problem.

  America Chavez [Young Avengers]

  America Chavez [Young Avengers]

  Unlike Kate, who is popular and has been good in the past, America is not as popular and has historically been bad. Not a surprise then that this uniform feels low-effort and is just more PvP fodder. It still has defensive accumulation on the 3rd skill if you needed any convincing.

• Hulk Emblem Collection

  Hulk Emblem Collection

  This update brings the much anticipated Alliance Battle Emblems, coinciding nicely with the recent expansion to restrictions. There are quite a few useful bonuses even at lower ranks (e.g. Caiera's Energy Attack buff at Advanced) but predictably the Collection Reward Slot stinks with the Life Seed rewards.

  Unlike the first three collections of Emblems though, the Hulk collection has no reliable method of farming, so you rely purely on random drops from chests (which are still very rare as free rewards) or by gambling. This was perhaps expected since Alliance Battle is a big money maker but still disappointing.

  This also calls the future of Multiverse Invasion into question, which was introduced as a tie-in mode alongside Emblems. The December 2024 Dev Note stated that Netmarble was "planning more accessible ways to obtain Emblems", but this clearly was not the case with the new set being more or less Crystal-walled. There was also no mention of Emblems or Multiverse Invasion at all in the December 2025 Dev Note.