Rivals players asked: Who is "The Hood?"
Which is kind of a fair question for such an obscure character, ever since he was leaked when the game released there were people who said "nobody wants this unknown character."
Which is a bit reactionary in my opinion, but here's my attempt to explain "who" Hood is by summing up his history.
IN OG COMICS :
Parker Robbins is an over-ambitious crime lord wannabe who we first meet as a low-level thug on a robbery gone bad. After accidentally killing a minor demon and stealing it's enchanted boots of levitation and cloak of invisibility, he decides to use his newfound powers to plan out elaborate and ridiculous schemes to build a criminal empire consisting of other low-level criminals.
His motivation for doing this is because, aside from having mysterious powers that intimidate most low-level crooks to have easier control over them, he believes that the average crook is hilariously disadvantaged in the face of larger players in crime and heroism.
His other motivation is to grasp enough money and power to secure the future of his ex-wife and child, and build a better life for them. Initially this is his biggest personal motivation because he came from a troubled household and felt just how powerless he really was in the world as an impoverished boy in a world of gods, monsters, and superheroes. He was determined to make sure his family never had to experience this for themselves.
Unfortunately in his later mainline appearances, his ex-wife and child are no longer involved in his life, having seen him corrupting himself with every flavor of ancient or dark magic and repeatedly losing his own humanity. His life became too dangerous for them, and some iterations either remove them from his thoughts and life or have them under witness protection.
He instead developed an on-again off-again relationship with Masque, and in some iterations he is a slave to sexual vices and a womanizer. He's not even consistently involved with Dormammu, as his powers have been obtained from many different cosmic sources such as Mephisto, the Norn Stones, the Infinity Gems, and the Spirit of Vengeance.
Ultimately, his OG comic stories are always about exploring the experiences of the small-time villains. He's a tale of a doomed man, enslaved by his vices, his financial situation, the justice system, and cursed to constantly trip over himself and his ego.
IN RIVALS :
Parker Robbins starts out as a child of a struggling Puerto Rican family. His father was a retired thief who moved to New York to build a better life for his sickly wife and young Parker.
Parker learns early on about power dynamics, inspired by Captain America's speech on how the average person has the power to control their situations. This is a big formative moment for him, because when his father is threatened by Kingpin he believes his father should try and take Kingpins power away from him and use it for himself.
His father is adamantly dismissive of the idea, but Parker grips onto this childlike ambition to take from Kingpin like he has taken from so many others, to fight back by taking control out of his hands. He attempts to do this by stealing from Kingpins warehouses, which only endangered his father.
When Captain America is killed, he sees it as a power vacuum. He knows the tides have shifted away from the people, and the oppressors now have more influence than ever. On the same day, his father is killed in prison, leaving Parker void of any self control. He becomes reckless, steals more from Kingpin, then attempts to assassinate him on his own.
After being beaten by Kingpin and later imprisoned, he meets another Captain America which gives him an opportunity to understand why heros don't do more to help people like him. He discovers that heros live completely separate lives, Captain America believes that he could escape oppression by just using his voice and hopelessly flailing against a system that always changes the rules.
When Parker sees just how different their viewpoints are, he takes the first opportunity he can to walk away from Cap and find his own source of power, which is when he steals the cloak of Oblivion.
This version of Hood is a victim of systemic oppression, but despite this he is still choosing the worst possible path for himself. He kills, steals, and lies entirely for himself and for the sake of grabbing as much power as he can. He is desperate for control over his life, he's terrified of having no power, which is what makes him so dangerous. He's like if the indomitable human spirit became one guy and became evil, I really love this version of Hood.
In general I'm a pretty big fan of Hood, and a lot of the supernatural characters of Marvel in general. I hope this reaches someone who's feelings disinterested in Hood, and this gets them to feel a bit more optimistic about his inclusion.
