Spider-Man: Across The Spider-Verse‘s recently announced villain would make a perfect addition to Marvel’s Spider-Man 2. Insomniac has already revealed two villains for the upcoming sequel in Venom and Kraven. However, with Venom possibly serving more of an anti-hero role, there’s room for another main villain for the game. The newly announced villain for Spider-Man: Across The Spider-VerseThe Spot, is a perfect candidate to fill this role.
Announced in 2021 at a PlayStation Showcase for the PS5, Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 is one of the most anticipated games for the platform. Following up on the original Marvel’s Spider-Man and smaller-scale sequel, Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Moralesthe game will feature both Peter Parker and Miles Morales, with Venom rumored to be playable in Spider-Man 2 as well. The game already has an underappreciated villain in the spotlight, with Kraven the Hunter seemingly taking the lead, a villain who has yet to be seen in a Spider-Man movie. After the first game’s villain Mr. Negative and Miles Morales‘villain, The Tinkerer, The Spot could continue Insomniac’s trend of featuring underrated villains in its Spider-Man games.
The Spot would be a great fit for Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 because of his interesting origins and unorthodox powers. With The Spot’s origins connecting to being a scientist, there are a few people in Insomniac’s New York to whom he could be connected to. With his powers, he could open up a whole multiverse of possibilities for future Marvel games.
The Spot Could Connect To Many Villains In Marvel’s Spider-Man 2
If Insomniac decided to stick with The Spot’s usual origins in Marvel’s Spider-Man 2, could be a failed experiment for Kingpin. Insomniac could make this tragedy fit in with Marvel’s Spider-Man 2‘s darker story. In the comics, The Spot is a scientist working for Kingpin, Dr. Jonathan Ohnn, experimenting to recreate the teleportation and intangibility powers of the superhero Cloak. One night, his experiments produce a shocking result: a singular black portal. However, this experiment causes a blackout across New York City and destabilizes the portal. Out of desperation, Ohnn steps into the portal and awakes in an alternate dimension. When Ohnn finds his way back to his own dimension, his body is transformed, covered with the black portals his experiment created. These portals allow The Spot to transport both across long distances and even across dimensions.
With this out-of-the-box origin and The Spot’s self-given nickname, The Spot is usually looked at as a joke in the comics. With the way Insomniac has reimagined Marvel’s Spider-Man villains, they could pull off making The Spot suitable for a darker story. The Spot’s Kingpin connection gives him a perfect entrance into Insomniac’s Marvel universe, too. With how big of a presence Kingpin has in New York in Marvel’s Spider-Manperhaps Ohnn was performing these experiments before the events of Spider-Man. However, Cloak does not yet exist in Insomniac’s Marvel universe, so this origin may not work in Insomniac’s sequel. However, there’s another scientist in Marvel’s Spider-Man who has been doing some shady experiments.
In Marvel’s Spider-Man 2, Dr. Jonathan Ohnn could have been doing experiments for Norman Osborn’s Oscorp. As a part of Norman’s desperation to heal his son, Harry, the Oscorp from Marvel’s Spider-Man has engaged in some pretty crazy experiments. While it’s hard to imagine why multiversal travel or teleportation would help heal Harry, an explanation could be found to implement The Spot as a part of Oscorp’s experiments.
It’s also possible The Spot could connect to a villain not introduced in Marvel’s Spider-Man, like Mysterio. Mysterio and The Spot would make for an unexpected, but interesting team-up. The Spot’s powers of teleporting his enemies across dimensions would be a compelling power to be paired with Mysterio’s powers of illusion.
Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 – The Spot Could Introduce The Multiverse
Another main reason for The Spot to be introduced in Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 is to help set up a multiverse or Spider-Verse. So far, Insomniac’s Spider-Man games, and Marvel games in general, have been staying in their own contained universes. But the introduction of The Spot, whether as a main villain or post-credits stinger, could set up the potential for a multiverse. This multiverse could be a Spider-Verse to tie in other Spideys like Spider-Gwen, or a more general multiverse to tie in other heroes. This multiverse could even be used to introduce the hero of Insomniac’s other upcoming superhero game, Marvel’s Wolverine.
This multiverse could even open the door for connections with non-Insomniac developed Marvel games, like the soon-to-be-released Marvel’s Midnight Suns developed by Firaxis. There are a lot of other Marvel games that Insomniac’s multiverse could connect, too. Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy would be a fun ensemble cast for Peter and Miles to join forces with to combat a threat. The Spider-Men could even team up with the team from the maligned Marvel’s Avengers game from Crystal Dynamics. This crossover would even include a version of Peter Parker from an alternate universe to introduce. While combining these characters from games of completely different genre would be unlikely for a full game, The Spot opening up a multiverse at least lets these characters from across Marvel game universes see each other in short cameos.
A second purpose that a multiverse introduction caused by The Spot could serve would be to make a map more interesting in Marvel’s Spider-Man 2. An expanded and changing New York map in Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 has already been teased in Spider-Man: Miles Morales, with Peter Parker moving to Queens at the end of the game. This brings the possibility of an even bigger open world to Spider-Man 2. However, a third game swinging around a largely similar New York City might feel a bit trite for some players.
The Spot could remedy this by introducing even more new elements to the open world in Marvel’s Spider-Man 2. Chaotic new elements from the multiverse could make New York an even more interesting place to swing around and explore. If Insomniac leaned all the way into a possibility of a multiverse, Peter and Miles could even travel to alternate versions of New York, with different tones and possibly entirely new landmarks and buildings in general.
Insomniac’s next title is already shaping up to be ambitious with symbiote variants for every Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 suit being rumored to appear. To add to this ambition, though, The Spot would be a very fun and interesting addition to the villains featured in Insomniac’s Marvel universe. The Spot has an easy way into the studio’s sequel, thanks to Kingpin already having a major presence. However, Norman Osborn or a different new villain could introduce The Spot as well. Introducing the multiverse through The Spot could add a lot to the game, with character crossovers and changes to New York City in Spider-Man 2. With or without The Spot, though, Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 will release on PlayStation 5 in 2023.
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