I think people always considered Marcus crap because of what they wanted him to do, not what he actually can do. He is advertised as the beast master but doesn't do much to beasts besides wp buffs really however it does afford you an excellent range of models, and personally I love the idea of Alpha and people can get hung up on it as it sounds cool but is difficult/impossible to use with any regularity and personally I'm really crap and needed something to blame haha