I Hope Spider-Man 2 Doesn’t Make The Villain Mistake Of Marvel’s Spider-Man
Spider-Man 2 #Spider-Man2
Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 has been talked about a lot, and yet there’s still not a lot of information out there about it. In fact, if you have even a passing interest in it, you’ll be thoroughly bored of that one picture by now. You know the one I mean. Miles on the left, Peter on the right, both staring directly at the camera in the evening light. We’re all sick of it. However, I don’t think this radio silence is much cause for concern. Tony Todd (kind of) confirmed it would be ready for September, Insomniac has a good track record, and it’s sensible to let fellow PS5 exclusive Final Fantasy 16 get out of the way first, while also letting Starfield make the first move. I’m very confident we’ll get a very good Spider-Man video game this year. I just hope its villains aren’t so messy.
A consequence of Spider-Man 2’s understated marketing to date is that we don’t know much about it. Venom was teased at the end of the first game, but with a slightly different origin. We see Norman Osborne (who is not yet Green Goblin) treating his son Harry in a tank filled with green liquid and black webs. We were left unsure whether this would mean a mix of Goblin and Venom, but the glimpse of Venom we’ve seen appears to be pure Venom. Does that mean there’s to be no Green Goblin at all? Or will Norman somehow take on that role? We also know Kraven the Hunter will appear, but know little of his purpose in the story.
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The first game had a bit of a villain issue. Things started off well – Kingpin ran the town in the absence of a Green Goblin figure, and when he is taken down in the first mission, a power vacuum opens up. There are various lower level bad guys to web in the face, but the central villain is Mister Negative and his goons, who are replaced in the third act by the transformation of Doctor Otto Octavius into Doc Ock, who in turn frees the Sinister Six. The Sinister Six are a huge deal in the comics, but the game rushes through them, making most of them into insignificant boss battles and on-rails set pieces that boil down into cutscenes.
While this is happening, mercenaries are called in to patrol the streets. Ran by Silver Sable, they don’t take kindly to Spider-Man’s interference. Though Sable is ultimately more of an anti-hero than a villain (the game’s DLC has Spidey working with her against the Maggia crime family), she’s another antagonist thrown into the mix. That’s before we get to Black Cat, Spider-Man’s cat burglar ex-girlfriend whom he works both with and against at various points in the story, juggling his feelings for Mary-Jane at the same time.
Adding further complications to the DLC, Yuri Wanatabe, your cop friend, is revealed to have killed a mobster in cold blood, having become disillusioned with the justice system. This presumably foreshadows her transformation into the vigilante Wraith, which the sequel will also have to carry out.
Throughout all this, Miles has no powers. He doesn’t reveal them until the game’s final scene, and in his own spin-off game, he fights Rhino and some more generic mercs and tech bros, adding even more characters into the world. He fights his uncle, who leads a double life as Prowler, and the two come to a heartfelt agreement, but Miles’ story is far smaller and is about coming to terms with his identity. The people of Harlem proclaim as ‘our Spider-Man’ and he releases he has a place in the world that is far more than an alternative to Peter’s identity.
However, while Miles’ characters aren’t as messy as Peter’s – and therefore offer some hope of the next entry being less overstuffed – the game still brings complications. Firstly, as a spin-off, it’s difficult to know what its impact will be, as it seems to have been a lot of wheel spinning while Peter was away, and I’m unsure how much Miles’ personal progress will be accounted for. The new game is pointedly called Spider-Man 2 rather than any subtitle, making it clear that this is the next step in Peter’s story, even if Miles is playable. It’s also interesting that Peter is present in parts of Miles’ spin-off, even featuring in the famous ending shot of them leaping at the camera, but the latest game still marks itself as Peter’s own.
Most complicated though are Miles’ powers. These are referred to as Venom Power despite having no connection to the Venom of this universe (the one in the tank, who remains in the tank for the duration of Miles’ game), nor to the typical mythology of the symbiote. The devs knew Venom was on the way when Miles was launched, so this was done deliberately, but it adds another layer of confusion – it could have been called anything, and these conventions suggest a deeper connection.
This means Spider-Man 2 needs, at minimum, to: establish Venom in the world; decide whether he is hero, villain, or something in between; explain why Miles’ powers are called Venom when they are unconnected (or are they?); continue the personal stories of Peter and Miles; and take on Kraven the Hunter. That sounds doable. However, on top of that it should also continue Norman’s story, potentially introduce Green Goblin, focus on the after effects of the first game’s events on Otto, introduce Wraith, and continue Black Cat and Silver Sable’s individual arcs. Those last two could be cut, but given my own personal disappointment over the cancelled Silver & Black movie, I hope not.
As for the rest though, the game would be weaker without these threads being continued, and that’s before you even get into who any minor or supporting villains could be. Fantastic Four have been repeatedly teased and could bring their own saga, Kingpin is still lurking, and the Sinister Six were misused last time out. There’s so much potential for Spider-Man 2, but I hope it doesn’t use all of it. I hope it keeps some back. Spider-Man has the deepest bench of anyone in comic books, save for maybe Batman. Let’s not throw them all in at once.
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