Fridge / Marvel vs. Capcom 3

Fridge pages are Spoilers Off by default, so all spoilers were removed and all entries folderized. Proceed with caution. You Have Been Warned.

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Fridge Logic

Fridges that require an explanation go here.

• The game's subtitled "Fate of Two Worlds"? That would mean the Marvel and Capcom worlds, so Resident Evil, Street Fighter, Mega Man X, Devil May Cry and all of the other Capcom games all take place in the same continuity. That's pretty awesome, actually.
  • Considering that Street Fighter, Final Fight, Saturday Night Slam Masters, Captain Commando, and possibly Rival Schools are set in the same timeline and there were multi-series cameos as early back as Ken's Street Fighter Alpha 2 stage,◊ the idea isn't quite as far-fetched as one may think. There have also been Epileptic Trees in the past linking together the more supernatural series (e.g. Darkstalkers, Devil May Cry, Ghosts 'n Goblins, Chaos Legion, etc.), TvC had Morrigan mentioning to Joe in her win quote that she was disappointed he couldn't live up to what she heard about him from Alastor, and even Namco × Capcom rolled with the idea that the various series shared the same world but were separated by time and space.
  • The first Dino Crisis features the insignia of the Umbrella Corporation on boxes found in-game, while the Republic of Borginia/Borginian Republic (the setting of Dino Crisis) is reused as a location in the Ace Attorney series (note that Shinji Mikami was involved in all three series, so the nods could be intentional). Additionally, Hewie of Haunting Ground is the dog Leon rescues from a bear trap early on in Resident Evil 4 and the Tricell logo can be seen on various billboards in Ascension City from the Bionic Commando (2009) sequel. Thus, it's safe to assume that a good number of Capcom franchises share some sort of continuity, even if a majority of those games don't bother to further explore those connections.
  • The MvC universe is a parallel universe to the many MANY Marvel comics universes that blends elements of each of them (mainly 616 and Ultimate), it's not a big leap to assume it's also a parallel universe to all the Capcom games' respective universes that is a blend of each of them. Looking at it from a game design standpoint, as much as possible, Capcom would like to garner publicity for the game by taking the most popular elements of all franchises involved, so it will make the portrayals easy to understand for those who aren't totally familiar with the source material.
  • Connected to the whole two worlds thing: how do the characters readily exhibit knowledge of the other universe when Galactus merges them? There's Dormammu and Ghost Rider being familiar with Mundus when fighting any of the Devil May Cry characters, Crimson Viper knowing about A.I.M., Ryu and Akuma knowing about K'un-Lun as well as the latter knowing Apocalypse when fighting Wolverine. Not to mention Frank West wanting to send pics of Spidey to the Daily Bugle, Rocket Raccoon ribbing both Chris and Wesker for the Raccoon City Incident, Chun-Li accusing Doctor Doom of dealing with both Shadaloo and S.I.N., Spencer supposedly hearing stories of Captain America from back in the day...
• It is kind of odd that Ghost Rider's Penance Stare works on everyone, even good people/beings (Chun-Li, Amaterasu), the insane (Deadpool) and the soulless (Sentinel). Sure, Gameplay and Story Segregation, but it's weird.

Fridge Brilliance

• Deadpool's taunt is one of the shortest in the game. It makes perfect sense that Deadpool would make sure the player using him can taunt with the least risk possible, since that's what he would do.
• A lot of fans were upset that Nathan Spencer had his "dreaded" new look and would have preferred the redesign from Bionic Commando: Rearmed. But then you play it and realize that this Spencer can do something that the Rearmed 1 version couldn't: jump.
• Zero:
  • The whole "Your name's Zero? Hope you don't fight like one" from his pre-fight banter against Captain America is a reference to the first Mega Man X game, where Zero did in fact fight like a Zero. By blowing himself up to take out an enemy.
  • Also, Zero's designation of Sentinel as a Maverick. While the term itself has expanded and evolved as the X (and Zero) series progressed, a Maverick ultimately proves to be a source of great danger to humanity. Sentinel hunts down mutants (who are only different from regular humans due to genetic abnormalities; they're still humans all the same), and this isn't even factoring in the occasional Zeroth Law Rebellion that Sentinels seem to suffer from time to time.
  • In a very Meta example, Zero got in over Mega Man. Zero was meant to be the main character of Mega Man X (or, at least, X was designed as a red robot with long blond hair, which becomes Zero's design), but Executive Meddling reared its ugly head. And now the opposite happened. Triples as a case of Irony and Hilarious in Hindsight.
  • You might be wondering why Tron's post-fight Trash Talk after winning against Zero asks him where MegaMan Volnutt is. Remember Tatsunoko vs. Capcom? Who was representing the Mega Man series alongside Zero and Roll?
  • Normally, whenever someone gets KO'd by chip damage or while still standing, instead of the usual KO scream, they will spit out a soft spoken blurb. However, aside from Iron Fist, Zero is the only one that ALWAYS uses the same KO voice. Discounting that he actually does have a "soft KO" voice in the Gallery, the main reason could be that Zero being KO'd results in Critical Existence Failure by explosion, which would probably hurt a whole hell of a lot more than to warrant a simple "Oh no, I got beat" type of reaction.
• Amaterasu never howled as an insult in Ōkami — but since she does here, she leaves herself open to being attacked mid-howl, just like in the battle against Yami.
• Taskmaster's theme sounds very heroic. Considering who he is, it doesn't seem to fit his character. In reality, he's just a mercenary. A lot of times he's hired to train people, as his powers let him copy a wide variety of fighting styles and techniques. Even his endings for both versions of the game has him making money by releasing work-out videos. His titles also reference his job as a trainer. His theme isn't heroic, it gets you pumped for exercise.
• Sentinel's health nerf may seem pretty odd when you consider that he's a giant robot, but the Sentinels on the 90's X-Men cartoon were easily destroyed. If anything, the nerf made this Sentinel even more true to form!
• Phoenix has the lowest health in the game. This means naturally that she dies. A lot. Much like her comic-book counterpart (at least, that's how people see it). What makes it even better is that, if she dies when you have a full 5 meters of super, she goes into Dark Phoenix mode. Where she regenerates all her life, but still has the lowest health in the game. And will still die a lot.
• Marvel would only let the Fantastic Four be used in a game if all four of them were together, and Capcom didn't just put them in one of the games. They were trying to save space, and given that Super-Skrull has the powers of all four FF members to some extent, this was their way of both getting them in the game and saving slots!
• Doctor Strange was greeted by some of the fanbase with "Phoenix Killer!" One of the major roles for his character is to come in and deal with unstoppable galactic threats...
• The Ultimate version of Nick Fury appears in C. Viper's ending. Most people saw it as odd, especially because this universe (Earth-30847) is based off of the mainline Earth-616. But then the Updated Re-release come out with the name Ultimate MvC3, and now it makes sense.
  • Alternatively, it could be Nick Fury's son.
• Ghost Rider's motorbike hyper is named Spirit of Vengeance. Cool, but odd. But then there's the info about the Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance movie. Thus, this proves that Marvel is doing their meddlings to advertise their characters.
• Phoenix Wright:
  • The fact that he has two different music themes plays into his personality. The standard theme sounds more held back compared to the other themes in the game, like how Wright appears to be a pretty calm guy outside the courtroom. However, get 3 pieces of good evidence and use an OBJECTION! move switches his theme to a more techno-based version of "Cornered", more fitting of a Marvel vs. Capcom game, just like how Phoenix goes from a calm dude to the Hot-Blooded attorney we know and love once he gets in court.
  • Much of the evidence he gets in Trial Mode don't seem to be particularly connected with the actual evidence. The flower vase is an arc, the cellphone is a time-delayed projectile, the envelope is a bomb... wait... a bomb in an envelope? As in... a letter bomb?
  • How does Phoenix Wright stand up to foes with super-human powers? He can't. He's bluffing his way to victory, just like in court.
  • He holds his head after jumping because he is afraid of heights, just like in the fifth case of Trials and Tribulations.
  • His reveal trailer ends with him defeating Dr. Doom with the Ace Attorney Hyper Combo. This may be a joke or reference to Doom's ability to evade the legal system due to diplomatic immunity, as well as the game Ace Attorney Investigations, where overruling diplomatic immunity was a major plot point.
  • His playstyle, what moves are available to him, and how they function are perfect reenactments of his home series.
    • In Investigation Mode; Phoenix spends most of it just searching for evidence much like in his home series. It is also in this mode where the specials involving Maya are available, reflecting how Maya usually helps in Phoenix's investigations.
    • In Trial Mode; the Maya-related specials not being accessible could relate to how during a trial, Maya is mostly just Phoenix's co-counsel and thus unable to do much. Her super still being able to be used in this mode could represent her directly interfering in court, much like what she did in the first game when Phoenix defended Miles Edgeworth. In addition, Phoenix's "Order in the Court" Hyper sending him back in Investigation Mode could reflect the judge extending the trial and telling Phoenix to continue his investigation, as reflected on how the super destroys any bad evidence Phoenix may have when the Hyper Combo was used.
  • Two certain people give out different lines when they face Phoenix Wright as the first man up. She-Hulk states, "The Defense shall rest (beat) her fist on your face!" and Iron Man quotes, "If I win, you're gonna call off that lawsuit against Stark Industries." Common responses considering they know Nick is a lawyer, but the brilliance comes in the facts that both Nick and She-Hulk are DEFENSE attorneys. As for Iron Man, he heard "lawyer" and jumped to conclusions.
  • Wright's ending where he's in court as Galactus' defense lawyer can be seen at first as both a joke and weird as to why Phoenix would be defending someone like Galactus in court. Then you remember that, while Galactus was indeed trying to devour both worlds, he was provoked into doing so by the actions of Wesker, Doom and the other super villains, and suddenly Wright's choosing to be Galactus' attorney isn't so outlandish anymore, especially considering that Galactus isn't truly evil (nor is he truly good but still.)
    • His ending can also be a companion piece to Chris's Ending◊, where Matt Murdock is prosecuting Wesker. You could go even further and say that the two mentioned lawyers are working the exact same case (as the Defense and Prosecution, respectively) if you ignore the courtrooms looking nothing alike.
• Vergil's line to Dante ("Sorry I was late for the party") makes for an interesting Lampshade Hanging on his not appearing in the vanilla version.
  • Why would Vergil need Muramasa to hurt Wolverine? Muramasa can negate Wolvie's Healing Factor. Knowing Vergil, however, he'd likely want to go for something more absolute (especially if you keep in mind the events of DMC3, where the guy he thought he killed really wasn't dead). Besides, being a power-seeking samurai-esque swordsman, he was more interested in Muramasa and its powers than he was in killing Wolverine. It was only because Logan stood between him and the sword that Vergil struck him down.
• Frank West:
  • Among many other changes to his moveset during the transition between Tatsunoko vs. Capcom and Ultimate MVC 3, his Real Mega Buster move has been removed. Many fans wondered for the reason - but shortly thereafter, his DLC costume is revealed; it's him in the Mega Man X costume from Dead Rising games.
  • How does drinking booze give Frank double EXP when taking pics? He's probably drunk. Don't you think pictures you took yourself would look better to you when you're drunk?
  • It seems somewhat outta nowhere that Reed Richards recruited him in his ending to fight Marvel Zombies. Capcom and Marvel are just playing with a small joke... "Fantastic" is also one of Frank's memetic Catchphrase.
  • Spider-Man's post-battle quip against him about (accidentally) destroying the latter's camera may be a regular after-asskicking one liner for Spidey. It makes a lot more sense if Spidey finished the fight with his Maximum Spider HC, since the final hit sends the opponent straight down to earth. In Frank's case, the impact would have probably smashed his camera if he were the final point man.
• Arthur recognizes Iron Man and Doctor Doom as knights in his intro. Sure, they both use ornate armors, but why Arthur calls them so is deeper than that... If you remember the Doomquest ministory^note in which Iron Man and Doom are accidentally transported to the Middle Ages, Arthur's intro now makes much more sense. Especially because there's someone named Arthur in Middle Ages too.
• Several characters end up breaking the fourth wall by beating the crap out of the cameraman^note Deadpool starts ranting and grabs the camera, Wesker chokes him, Super-Skrull curbstomps the camera, Jill prepares a syringe, Nemesis lashes one of his tentacles out, Rocket Raccoon holds up a knife to the camera. However, since the "cameraman" doesn't necessarily exist since he's a part of the fourth wall (and none of the above characters save Deadpool have fourth-wall destroying powers), there has to be some other explanation. The supposed cameraman is apparently the beaten opponent. It is more evident in the winposes of Super-Skrull, Wesker and Rocket Raccoon.
• Mega Man X's card is ranked B in the Heroes and Heralds mode. It's a good throwback to him being a B-rank Hunter in his games.
• What is Deadpool doing riding the 'OBJECTION!' in the intro? He's just come through a wall. He's up to his old tactic of Breaking the Fourth Wall!
• If one pays close attention to Dr. Strange and Dormammu's movesets, they will find that the two characters actually have rivaling moves. Both stack spells with QCB commands, teleport with reverse dragon punch commands (their teleports even have identical range and patterns), can both fly, both have a magical command normal that uses the f+H command and even have similar standing animations. Both characters also have a hyper that resembles the other's special, Strange's Spell of Vishanti resembling Dormammu's Purification, and Dorm's Stalk Flare resembling Strange's Eye of Agamatto, especially with the Impact Palm followup. Finally, take a good look at both character's Level 3 hypers, particularly the commands and animations. It's interesting how the hero and his arch nemesis, being the rivals and foils they are, have such moveset duality.
• Regarding Taskmaster's new move added to Ultimate, Sting Master: it looks like nothing that a Marvel hero that's well-known recently does... until you realize that just because he is a Marvel character, doesn't mean he's restricted to copying moves from his universe, which means he must have copied Dante's Stinger!
  • Judging by that gunshot he caps the attack off with, he could've also copied Dante's Gun Stinger/Point Blank and altered it to fit his needs. Sure, Dante doesn't use the move himself, but you could chalk it up to the same technicality of Taskmaster using Hawkeye-inspired archery before Hawkeye made the cut in Ultimate (i.e. Tasky saw it off-screen).
• Galactus is so big, he can hold Earth between his two hands. But it seems like the fighters are, at most, as big as his hands (you can see it when he does his grab attack). Galactus is a combination of You Cannot Grasp the True Form and Your Size May Vary; his most common appearance is how he presents himself so that lesser beings in the Marvel universe can perceive him. His size (while always large) is wildly inconsistent whenever he shows up, ranging from the size of skyscrapers to larger than the earth. It's even present in the battle itself: while the player is dealing with his Heralds, Galactus himself is visible in the background with his hands cupped around Earth.
• Given her Dark and Troubled Past, X-23's upbeat theme music seems odd, until you consider that it could symbolize her hidden humanity and desire to be like a normal girl.
• Of all the opponents they could face, why does Arthur battle Dr. Doom in the cinematic intro of UMvC3? In each game from the Ghosts 'n Goblins series, Arthur must traverse through a series of stages twice, meaning he'll also fight the same bosses twice. Is it too far off to say that he's actually fighting a Doombot and will have to fight Doom again?
• In the "Days of Future Past" stage, Mega Man is the only character who has not been slain or apprehended. Considering he's fought a wide variety of killer robots, fighting and avoiding Sentinels should be right up his alley, not to mention his knack for copying and adapting weapons to use against enemies. If he is going down, it will take a damn long time before he does.
• It is kind of odd that Ghost Rider's Penance Stare works on everyone, even good people/beings (Chun-Li, Amaterasu), the insane (Deadpool), and the soulless (Sentinel). The Penance Stare causes the victim to experience all the pain s/he has caused others (whether innocent or guilty, good reason to do it or not, etc.). So Amaterasu would feel what she did to Orochi, Yami, Ninetails, and all those imps and demons. As for Sentinel? Days of Future Past and the events of the 1992 X-Men cartoon say hi.
• In Dormammu's original ending, the Capcom villains are helping him take over, with Lord Raptor calling him 'Master'. In his home series, though, Raptor has already tried to kill one superior once he was done drawing power from them. It wouldn't be surprising for him to try it again.

Fridge Horror

• Galactus has been defeated and killed! The world is saved! Hooray! And then you remember that Galactus' existence is imperative for the survival of the universe...
  • His ending line is "I now must squash you like the bug that you are!" after he's defeated, possibly Foreshadowing for a second battle.
  • Should Galactus actually be killed, his body will release a Sealed Evil in a Can named Abraxas who seeks to destroy every parallel universe. He killed an alternate Galactus and Roma (the protector of Eternity), among other things. The only way to kill Abraxas? Destroy all of reality and reset it using Galactus' Ultimate Nullifier. Nice going, heroes! You really have doomed the world!
    • Well, there have been stories where Galactus bites the dust and Abraxas doesn't pop up to make things worse (e.g. ''Marvel Zombies), so it's not that big a deal (and the Big G may not even be dead anyways as his defeat animation doesn't look like he dies, given he just kinda drops out of shot).
• Vergil reacts to Trish with evident disgust, making this Ascended Fridge Horror of the unsettling idea that Dante is in some kind of partnership (maybe sexual, maybe not) with a woman who looks exactly like his mother.
  • It's more likely that Vergil is just offended by a demon taking the form of his mother, who he is notoriously guilty of failing to protect.
• Hulk's ending has him smashing through the Spencer Estate. But he's not the most nimble fellow, so just one bite could create a zombified Hulk.
• Spencer's asking Iron Man how much of his suit is bionic is cute, until you remember what Bionic Commando 2009 revealed about how Spencer's bionics work.

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