It sure has been a good year to be a Spider-Man fan. Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 has released to both critical and commercial success, while absolutely dominating sales charts. The experience it offers can easily be described as Insomniac’s best work yet, and has already left us hungry for Marvel’s Spider-Man 3!
Unlike the first game in the series, there are no plans for story DLC to be released, so this has left a lot of eager fans theorizing and anticipating what is next for our friendly neighborhood heroes. Just as the first game did, Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 leaves us with plenty of interesting clues and pieces to speculate on what the plans are for the sequel. Never before seen villains, Marvel heroes, and even new playable spider-people are all in the realm of possibility. Of course all we can do is speculate, and while the wait will be long, these are some things we can expect for Insomniac’s next Spider-Man game.
Marvel Spider-Man 3: What We Expect:
Warning: This article contains major spoilers for Marvel’s Spider-Man 2
A New Playable Spider-Person
In case you missed it, at the end of Marvel’s Spider-Man 2, we are introduced to a new character very briefly, Cindy Moon. If you don’t have a ton of knowledge about Marvel characters, you may not have realized that that person is actually Silk. Silk was bitten by the same radioactive spider as Peter Parker in the comics and shares a majority of the same powers as he does. While this tease was much more subtle than how Miles was teased in the first Spider-Man game, it is safe to assume that they are setting up the next game ,or possibly another spinoff, to have her join the roster of playable Spider-People.
Silk may not be as strong as Spider-Man, but she does have increased agility and a much better version of his spider-sense ability known as “silk-sense”. This allows her to sense impending danger much sooner and react to almost anything before she is hit. Silk could fill the hole left by Spider-Man for a large part of the game allowing Miles to take on the role of Mentor just as Peter did for him. It would be some fantastic representation for the character, and its always nice to see some of the lesser known Spider-People get their time in the spotlight. Even Miles Morales wasn’t nearly as well known as he was compared to a few years ago. Now he has become a well-known and loved hero by even the most casual Spider-Man fans.
Miles Morales Will Be the “New” Spider-Man
At the end of Marvel’s Spider-Man 2, Peter Parker lets go of his concerns and agrees to let Miles take over for him while he focuses on non Spider-Man things. Don’t worry though, I wouldn’t expect there to be no Spider-Man in a game called Marvel’s Spider-Man 3. Insomniac will most likely leave him out of the first act to get players acquainted with Silk and Miles new role as the main hero, attempting to show he is capable of handling the city on his own. Miles has proved to be a bit overconfident in his abilities before though, and his reluctance to ask for help may ultimately be his downfall, causing Spider-Man to have to come back to help him and Silk at some point in the story.
Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales’ success showed Insomniac that fans loved their take on the character. Miles as the main protagonist feels like a natural progression to the story and will provide some very interesting story-beats for Insomniac to play around with. Miles has created his own enemies as well and his ties with Peter are assuredly going to paint him as a target. He could very well be used as a means to an end in order to get to Spider-Man, and after all that has happened, the villains will be more desperate than ever to kill him. It wouldn’t come as a surprise to see Peter die at the end of the next Spider-Man, officially handing down the mantle to Miles in his last moments bringing their arch together full circle. Killing Spider-Man isn’t going to be easy though, and the villains we can assume will be there are going to have to deadlier than ever before.
New and Returning Villains
Insomniac’s Spider-Man world has been filled to the brim with beautifully crafted and accurately portrayed characters all throughout. There has however been one large omission that is normally present in almost every incarnation of the Spider-Man mythos. That is of course, the Green Goblin, one of Spider-Man’s most popular villains.
The Green Goblin is usually either Harry or Norman Osbourne, both who have plenty of reason to go after Spider-Man in the next game. I would wager that Norman seems to be particularly motivated with Harry being so close to death and will be using the experimental “G-Serum” as mentioned in Marvel’s Spider-Man 2’s ending. Green goblin is not the only iconic villain set to make an appearance though. After the main story is finished, players can complete a side mission which sets up the red symbiote known as Carnage. Carnage is an alien that bonds to a host much like Venom, but is even more ferocious and bloodthirsty than its black counterpart.
Where this gets even more interesting, is that this sets up the potential for Insomniac to create their own adaption of the Red Goblin story. This is where Green Goblin binds with the red symbiote to create an enhanced ultra-deadly version of the character. We could see Green Goblin and Carnage attempt to kill Miles on their own only for them to agree they need each others strength to overcome him and get to Peter. As terrifying as Red Goblin is known to be in his source material, it would surely give Peter a reason to dawn the mask again and save Miles from pushing himself too far just to to show Peter he is capable of being Spider-Man without him.
Of course this is just the main villain. There is also the already teased return of Doctor Octopus, as well as the Chameleon who quite literally vowed to do what his brother Kraven couldn’t, kill Spider-Man. Of course, the potential for returning villains from the original sinister six has dwindled thanks to Kraven killing them off. That doesn’t mean a new and even more powerful team up of villains could happen in the next installment. With Insomniac reaching further and further into the expansive list of Marvel’s roster of characters the possibilities are literally endless. With Wolverine coming out from them as well, they have another unique opportunity to introduce and cross over character from other comics completely.
An Even Greater Expanded Marvel Universe
It is no secret that Insomniac likes to tease their fans with easter eggs and fill their world to the brim with interesting things to find. The biggest and most obvious is the Avengers tower that is standing tall in the middle of the city. Eagle-eyed fans have now started to find other references to additional Marvel characters though. Through a recent update, Insomniac added a plaque that references Matt Murdock. For those unaware, this is the alter-ego of the Marvel hero Daredevil. While this is interesting enough on it’s own, an unfinished logo of the Fantastic 4 can also be spotted on a rooftop in Marvel’s Spider-Man 2. Combine this with the introduction of Wong and Insomniac’s upcoming Wolverine game and the developers plans to sneakily create their own Marvel game universe much like the Marvel Cinematic Universe begins to become a reality.
Bryn Intihar, the creative director of the first Marvel’s Spider-Man, stated that their Wolverine game will be in the same universe as Marvel’s Spider-Man 2. This opens up a whole realm of possibilities and crossovers to occur over the next few years. This means Insomniac could create many short self-contained games similar to Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales that are all interconnected to help flesh out the world that they have already established. By the time Marvel’s Spider-Man 3 releases, we could be interacting with a number of different Insomniac Marvel heroes within the same city. It definitely could make for some interesting side-content involving other New York heroes, that elevates the feeling of being in a real comic book world. Lastly, there was also an in-game spider-verse tease that opens up the multiverse as a tool for them to use. The possibilities are literally endless.
With Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 being nominated for 7 different categories at this years Game Awards, it is safe to say that the sequel is going to be hard to wait for. Insomniac has truly created a phenomenal experience that has set the bar even higher for themselves and the superhero genre in general. Perhaps to help alleviate some of the pain, they will release another smaller stand-alone title in the series that helps to flesh out its characters and world.
The addition of their Wolverine game should also provide fans on some further context and clues concerning the intricate universe they have created. Until then, we are left to speculate and wonder on what the sequel could have in store. If it is anything like their previous installments, there is no doubt that it will be a game worth waiting for.
