A few weeks ago, around the period wherein EA Sports kicked into promotion mode for their latest product FIFA 23, leaks emerged of an upcoming collaboration with Marvel.
At first, fans were puzzled as a crossover between a football simulation game and comic book superheroes seemed outlandish.
Nevertheless, after the early confusion simmered, the community actually began to embrace the idea.
The notion of Hulk as a CDM was clearly too good to pass on.
Unfortunately, the collaboration’s official reveals led to disappointment as Marvel were merely providing superhero-themed sketches for future FUT Hero cards.
This, of course, was far from what players wanted – a true crossover.
Well, recently they received exactly that, albeit with certain caveats.
Drifting away from the big screen, Marvel Studios have recently been on a streak of putting out television shows.
Based on relatively B-grade characters, these shows have been a mixed bag, and not just critically.
Even the visual effects in use have been met by uncertainty from fans, the primary culprit of which has undoubtedly been their latest production, ‘She-Hulk’.
Based on, you guessed it, a female Hulk, the show didn’t exactly have the biggest of budgets, which is clearly reflected through the appearance of the protagonist herself.
While the mainline movies had a sharply animated Hulk, the TV show fails to follow, and Jennifer Walters comes off as a side character from a video game.
Coupled with a visual smoothening effect, footage from the show displaying a wonky-looking She-Hulk turned into a viral meme.
And fans soon discovered an uncanny resemblance between her and the character models that players come across during ransfer negotiations in Career Mode.
Cutscenes for transfers were introduced back in FIFA 18, and have remained largely unchanged since.
After making an inquiry to sign a player, a cutscene begins, with an office as the backdrop.
The player’s character is joined by stiff models of real-life managers, or generic avatars when real-life ones aren’t unavailable.
These visuals have always been criticized for having extremely mechanical-appearing characters, a complaint also shared by ‘She-Hulk.
So when fans came across a clip from the show which takes place within an office, the perfect opportunity presented itself.
A user on Twitter shared an image from the scene with FIFA’s Transfer Menus edited in, with Walters acting as negotiator-in-chief.
For the lack of a better word, the crossover just feels right, and for some reason, the open view in the background just enhances the resemblance.
To really complete the vision, the user animated the entire scene, and even threw in the music used in-game.
In it, the superhero can be seen negotiating Jude Bellingham’s transfer to Liverpool.
The cutscene just clicks perfectly, to the point where this could’ve easily been incorporated into the game.
And as it turns out, in a clip blending together She-Hulk and FIFA, the strangest part is a £30m bid being accepted for Bellingham.
Don’t be surprised to see a She-Hulk mod roll around after FIFA 23’s release. Needless to say, she’ll fit right in.
