Frank West

Background

UMvC3

MvC:I

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What do you mean I don't belong here? I've covered wars, y'know.
Frank's victory quote

Frank West is a main character from Capcom's Dead Rising series. He is a veteran of previous Capcom vs. games, but he makes his introduction in the Marvel vs. Capcom series in Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3. Frank returns in Marvel vs. Capcom: Infinite as a veteran.

Backstory

An overzealous photojournalist looking for the scoop of a lifetime, Frank West went to Willamette, Colorado to report on rumored riots at the Parkview Mall. The rioters were revealed to be zombies, forcing Frank to take refuge in the mall. Deciding to help during this outbreak, Frank rescued survivors, battled psychopaths, and attempted to discover the reason this was happening. He learned that a man named Carlito Keyes had done it, angry about a mysterious zombie outbreak in his home country that the United States government ignored and covered up from the rest of the world. With Carlito's sister Isabela as his ally, Frank survived until the military arrived to kill all survivors, and even then, managed to escape and spread the story. However, he had been bitten by a zombie, causing him to become dependant on a 24-hour drug called Zombrex (which he and Isabela invented) that would fight zombification.

Five years later, Frank West went to Fortune City as it was in the midst of a zombie outbreak. After rescuing Chuck Greene, a man who became a hero during a zombie outbreak much like Frank himself had, from a zombie, the two exchanged information they had. Phenotrans, the company that makes Zombrex, had been starting zombie outbreaks to obtain more samples for the drug. The two teamed up to infiltrate and investigate the Phenotrans facility. They learned that there was a cure for zombie infection that was being kept from the public but was unable to get it. Frank and Chuck swore they would find the cure and stop all the suffering.

Appearance

The version of Frank present in this game resembles his appearance in the first Dead Rising, rather than the older Frank in Case West and Off the Record in Dead Rising 2. Instead of a young, beautiful protagonist present in many Japanese games, Frank was designed to look like an everyman.

Frank wears a suit jacket, a white buttoned shirt, green slacks, and brown shoes. His camera is hung around his neck.

For his DLC costume, Frank wears a version of Mega Man's armor as it is seen in the original Dead Rising. Unlike the original costume, he does not have a Mega Buster to wear on his right arm as he needs both hands to hold his camera.

Powers and Abilities

Although Frank himself does not possess any superhuman abilities, he is not powerless. Frank is very skilled, with abilities like:

Can adapt many random items into weapons
Skilled photographer
Combat experience and proficiency with firearms due to covering wars
Various martial arts and wrestling skills learned while traveling through quarantine zones
Taught by Chuck Greene to think creatively and combine items into combo weapons
Extreme determination
Scavenging for food

Personality

Frank enjoys attention since his main motivation in the first game is to break the big story and become famous. However, he soon becomes more concerned with the people who survived the outbreak and require help. He is not a very serious person, as he has fun killing zombies in creative ways, but he still finds justice important, such as when he battles psychopaths who endanger innocent people, and when he tries to bring down Phenotrans. However, he can be a bit jealous, with the announcement video for the "What If?" story Dead Rising 2: Off the Record portraying him as a bit jealous that Chuck was the one to find out the story behind the Fortune City outbreak. In short, Frank's personality traits are very realistic, being complex enough to possess both positive and negative personality traits like a normal person would.

Trivia

Frank West can take photographs in order to level up, much like in his home series. He can also use some of the combo weapons from Dead Rising 2, including the Paddlesaw.
His character theme is a remix of Adam MacIntyre's theme from the original Dead Rising. He also pulls out the modified shopping cart used by Stephen (albeit modified with the paddlesaw). His appearance is his younger Dead Rising self, compared to his glasses-wearing, overweight version used in Dead Rising 2: Off The Record.
Frank's color alts include one based on Chuck Greene and one of his alternates from Tatsunoko Vs Capcom. His DLC costume is the Mega Man X armor from Dead Rising.
Frank West was originally meant to appear in the original Marvel vs. Capcom 3 as a playable character. However, Frank was cut from the game for causing unspecified lag issues.
- Frank was confirmed to be the pilot in the helicopter Chun-Li was riding into the S.H.I.E.L.D. helicarrier in the second promotion cutscene of the original Marvel vs. Capcom 3.
Frank previously appeared as a playable character in Tatsunoko vs. Capcom: Ultimate All-Stars. His gameplay has been drastically changed since his TvC appearances, from there he was an oddball character with good combos and strong zoning tactics, along with his crouching B/M being a strong anti-air.
Frank West and Rocket Raccoon were revealed on October 31, 2011, as the last two characters revealed.
Frank is the only character with different opening animations, one as he takes a picture and another of him kicking a zombie off of him. He also had two different opening animations in Tatsunoko vs. Capcom as well.
Frank is the only Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom newcomer from the Capcom side in the game to have three Level 1 Hyper Combos.
In one of the preview gameplay videos for Frank West and Rocket Raccoon, Frank West is paired with Hsien-ko and Chris. This is a reference to the Dead Rising series as Hsien-Ko/Lei Lei is a jiangshi (a zombie in Chinese folklore) and Chris is in his Chuck Greene alternate costume (as well as being another zombie fighting protagonist).
There are a few minor plot continuity issues with the gameplay style. Since this is based on Frank when he was in the first game, he wouldn't have been able to use the Paddlesaw or any other combo weapons due to how they were not in the first game, and all the games he used combo weapons had Chuck Greene in them. There is also the discrepancy of where Frank gets the items he uses, because he throws the weapons away after he has used them, and they don't appear on his body, except for when he uses his Survival Techniques Hyper Combo.
Frank is voiced by Rikiya Koyama (who also voiced Wolverine in the Marvel Anime series) in Japanese. This marks the first time Frank has a Japanese voice.
Frank's Funny Face Crusher is similar to his Zombie Charge Level 3 from Tatsunoko Vs. Capcom, as they both involve Servbot masks and have Frank smash the opponent's head into the ground. Funny Face Crusher also seems to serve as a Level 3 in a way like Zombie Charge, for it is the only Level 1 Hyper to need special conditions to utilize first(by leveling up Frank three times).
- The finisher of his Survival Techniques Hyper Combo resembles his Dead Rising Hyper Combo from Tatsunoko vs. Capcom.
- Also, both he and Viewtiful Joe are the only (U)MVC3 characters from Tatsunoko vs. Capcom to not have a Level 3 hyper from that game or for MVC3. Zero is the only one to do so but has a new one instead in its place.
In his official description, under abilities, Capcom humorously use the infamous "I've covered wars y'know" line. There are other numerous references to this line, such as one of his titles being "Covered Wars, Y'Know."
One discrepancy with Frank's Mega Man DLC costume is that the right arm was originally bare with the black sleeve of the undershirt exposed. To cover it up, Frank originally wore the Real Mega Buster. With this version, both of Frank's human hands are exposed in order to help him hold his camera while the armor piece from the other arm covering up the black shirt.
Contrary to his moveset, Frank did not originally use a plunger as a weapon in Dead Rising.
Frank West, Phoenix Wright, and Chris Redfield are the only characters that only use attacks that should not logically cause much damage to opponents like Hulk, or Sentinel.
Capcom ironically has three zombie hunting characters (Chris Redfield, Jill Valentine and Frank West) and two zombie characters (Hsien-Ko and Nemesis). Though the number can jump to three depending on whether or not they consider Albert Wesker a zombie after the first Resident Evil.
Frank West and Phoenix Wright are the only characters in UMVC3 that utilize ordinary objects as weapons (Frank West with things like a plunger and gallon of orange juice, Phoenix Wright with evidence like the Servbot doll, or the potted plant).
Frank West and Phoenix Wright both use a plunger as a weapon (Frank uses it as a melee weapon, while Phoenix throws it).
Some of Frank's costumes resembles other game characters. For example, the white suit and the red shirt resembles Tony Montana from Scarface. Also, the yellow suit resembles Chuck Greene, the protagonist from Dead Rising 2.
Frank's official artwork for UMvC3 is a nod to his original Dead Rising artwork; he holds his camera over his right shoulder and a baseball bat down by his side. The difference lies in the angle from which Frank is seen and the lack of blood on the bat and his shirt.
Frank's victory quotes against Felicia is a reference to Christopher Walken's famous 'More cowbell' line from Saturday Night Live.