Insomniac Games Wants Its Own Spider-Man Continuity (And Why That's Great)

Spoilers for All Insomnaic Spider-Man games

With the release of the thrid game in Insomnaic's Spider-Man series in 2023s Spider-Man 2 I found myself loving the universe created even more. Everything with this iteration of Spider-Man feels fresh and interesting and I couldn't quite figure out why. That was until it really hit me, has any Spider-Man iteration had Miles Morales become and then be established as Spider-Man before we even get the Green Goblin? It don't think so, even in Spider-Verse we saw that universe had a Green Goblin already established. It was thinking on this and other actions taken by Insomnaic and how I think it benefits them. 

Obviously, a lot of established parts do remain. Peter Parker & Mary-Jane Watson end together, Uncle Ben has died, Peter is stuggling for money and to keep a job. However, a lot of other things have been changed, for one Insomniac let Aunt May die (and Peter didn't sell his marriage to the devil to bring her back take note Marvel editorial) it feels like they want to test the boundries of a Spider-Man story and what they can do to make their own Spider-Man (or men).

I think that Spider-Man 2 pushes this even further in at least two major aspects. First of all the fact that Harry Osborn is Venom. This series works on a thread of major antagonists having personal connection to the Spider-Men in this case Harry & Peter being best friends (running parallel with Phin and Miles from the game previous) it is an interesting change from Eddie Brock and considering where we are in Peter's story it makes sense. There's no issues between Peter & Eddie the time of which it normally happens with their work at the Daily Bugle long since past and honestly I think it's fine to not introduce Eddie I don't see the point now. Venom and Spider-Man running as opposites alongside Harry and Peter is what I would do and if Venom comes back for his own game (and it must be Harry as Venom) it would be fun to see how different he would be in a story to Peter. This change was done to bring in one of the most iconic villians for Spider-Man but measured in how to get the biggest emotional impact. This is a testament to Insomniac as I'm sure it would be easier to just have Eddie and do a story already done but they changed the origin and I think for them it works. 

Another is the introduction of Cindy Moon. It seems that with the end of the game she basically will have a whole new origin to become Silk. While I loved the origin of her being bitten by the same spider as Peter and hated the pheromones part (and felt it unnecessary) it feels like the only thing she shares with her 616 counterpart is her name (and well the game one has her family). I'm interested how this will work as this Cindy is basically a blank slate and being associated with Miles seems like she will be following his path as the new Spider in training. 

Beyond the reimagining of certain characters we also have some we haven't either seen or fully fleshed out the main one for me being Gwen Stacy. There seems to be a big thing with this series and just not mentioning her at this moment in time between tweeting she's not dead in their universe and the Spider-Gwen bot which said 'striking design on this one. Wonder who came up with it' which indicates to me Gwen and Peter have never met let along her just being alive. It seems they like teasing Gwen eventually being part of the story but taking their time (probably for Spider-Man 3) which is good, every game needs big characters to introduce and hook in.

Speaking of characters not fully introduced and mentioned previously it is incredible you can create such a rich and loved Spider-Man mythos without Norman Osborn fully turning into the Green Goblin. The most iconic Spider-Man villian and we are three games in and it's now only teased we will fight him in future. It would be very easy to game one use Goblin as the villain and I don't think people would mind but to hold off until the story build to a need is great. There's a want and expectation now and a lot of moving parts that can help with this story. How will Doc Ock react to Norman turning into the Goblin. How far will he go and how much of his mind will he lose. Will Harry recover (which he should if we get a Venom game) what would Norman feel if Venmon was on the Spider-Men's side could we see him fight his son. I find this so much more interesting then just a normal Peter & Norman story we have a lot more logical pieces to the story and a lot would be unique to this universe it would be fun and different to see what would play out. 

Speaking on villains from a commerical stand point holding off on Goblin makes sense. For each game you need a big villain we've had Doc Ock (and largly the Sinister Six) in the first game and now Venom here and I think you saw with Miles' game having this strong story pay off as The Tinkerer isn't a well known or loved villain. Checking who we haven't had in full costume the main the biggest bad guys (excluding any clone saga stuff as I think that may be something done seperately later down the line now) we have Green Goblin, Carnage & Hobgoblin as the main three. It does raise the question who they will use for any Spider-Man 2 DLC, with how Hammerhead was used as the main villain for the first game I could see them using the Smythe Family and the Spider-Slayers and save the bigger well known villains for main games. Makes me wonder who we would get if Miles Morales got another game. Will o' the Wisp as a former Roxxon employee is an option that would build on his first game but would be unsure if you could make him the main villain (although I did think they done a good job although lacking in some parts with The Tinkerer).

All in all I think the succcess of the stories of these games are boiled down to the risks taken. I'm sure it would be easy just to adapt stories with just Peter and have Green Goblin right away or Doc Ock without building his relationship with Peter but Insomniac took their time and now it feels like a fully fleshed out world that develops its characters. I hope we do keep getting games by this team beyond a Spider-Man 3 (and potentially Venom) because this world has so much more to give and it seems to only get better the more it's fleshed out.