Summary
Warning: spoilers ahead for Marvel’s Spider-Man 2Marvel’s Spider-Man 2delivers an exciting and captivating superhero story, one that features both Peter Parker and Miles Morales. While havingmultiple playable characters helpedSpider-Man 2’sgameplay and side quest design, it may have had an unintentionally detrimental effect on the game’s main story, as Miles Morales gets a bit sidelined.
Although the plot ofMarvel’s Spider-Man 2isn’t a direct continuation of either of its predecessors, the growth that each Spider-Man experiences in their stand-alone titles carries over to this shared story. Both Peter and Miles have experienced loss and trauma, andMarvel’s Spider-Man 2builds off these experiences while adding new issues for the heroes to deal with. At times, this leads to a genuinely enthralling story about friendship, death, and grief, but most of the time, Miles can seem like something of an afterthought, which is unfortunate.
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Miles Morales Feels Disconnected from Spider-Man 2’s Main Story
Spider-Man 2’s story is filled with mystery, drama, and intrigue, but the meat of the story is centered on Peter rather than Miles. The conflict of the main story, the symbiote suit, has virtually nothing to do with Miles, while it has everything to do with Peter. Indeed, the strongest connection Miles has to the Symbiote plot is his relationship to Peter, which can make him feel like more of a side character and less like a co-lead.
Peter’s story revolves around reconnecting with Harry Osborn, who has been mysteriously healed of his illness, which was once thought to be terminal.Spider-Man 2’s cinematic plotgoes on to reveal that Harry was cured via the Symbiote, which temporarily possesses Peter before ultimately taking over control of Harry. Thus, two of the biggest plot beats are Peter’s struggle with being possessed by the Symbiote and Peter’s struggle with his best friend being possessed by the Symbiote. During this time, Miles certainly helps, but he has no personal connection to the Symbiote; he helps Peter get the Symbiote suit off, and is crucial in stopping Venom from destroying the city and beyond, but it’s not his story.
Instead, Miles spends most of his time reckoning with thoughts ofrevenge against Mr. Negative- an internal conflict that was not a significant focus in the earlier games and seems tacked on. Beyond that, Miles struggles with completing his college applications, helps out with museum theft, and engages in other slice-of-life, lower-stakes activities. It’s not that Miles is bad or uninteresting inMarvel’s Spider-Man 2, but his implementation in the story can make him seem like a sidekick with no personal stake in the story, motivated more by a desire to do the right thing and save his city than an individual connection to the villainous forces - something that is a convention of Spider-Man stories.
That said, there are benefits to how Miles is used in the game.Spider-Man 2still features random crimeand a wealth of side missions, some of which are exclusive to each hero. With Peter off dealing with weighty relationship issues and psychological torment, giving Miles the more low-stakes activities lets him fill the role of the “Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man”; helping his fellow high school students ask each other to Homecoming, getting nervous around his crush, and snapping scenic photos for the AV Club make Miles feel more like the typical, down-to-earth Spider-Man, contrasting Peter’s high-tech, alien-infected rendition of the character.
Still, Miles could have gotten more to do in the story. Spider-Man stories are usually about the hero juggling smaller, personal issues with massive threats, so Miles didn’t need to feel sidelined to achieve this slice-of-life storytelling. Hopefully, theMarvel’s Spider-Man 2sequelwill find a better balance for the character.
