The hype season for Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 is officially underway. Insomniac Games’ PS5 follow-up to their 2018 PS4 title has received a plethora of development updates in the past month. A gameplay trailer debuted during PlayStation’s latest showcase, providing viewers with a glimpse of an updated New York City. Shortly after, a release date announcement found its way to Summer Game Fest, scheduling the game’s launch for October 20, 2023.
Given the excitement for a stable release date, and an actual peak at new gameplay, it is no surprise that a prequel comic got lost in the shuffle of information. Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 #1 released on Free Comic Book Day this year, May 6th, written by Christos Gage and with art by IG Guara. The comic mostly came and went, but with the new excess of game information available, it appears ripe for a revisit.
The story of the comic initially serves as a life update for our trio of main characters, Peter Parker, Miles Morales, and Mary Jane Watson. Each one finds themselves in a new environment following the events of 2020’s Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales. Peter is now living at his childhood home in Queens, working to earn his teacher’s certificate in hopes of steadily paying his bills one day. Miles is still working to find his footing as Spider-Man, as well as trying to decide his college major. Mary Jane is battling with the commercial failure of her book on the war in Symkaria, while dodging Peter’s attempts to ask her to move in with him. All of them procure a brief hiatus from their personal problems when a masked villain referred to as “The Hood” begins activities.
The Hood
As the team battles The Hood’s operation, more and more questions about Spider-Man 2 develop. The Hood is actively searching for magic abilities supplied by “The Foreigner.” The Foreigner’s identity never comes to light within the pages of the comic, but the new gameplay trailer leads a trail back to Kraven the Hunter. Of course, this could be a red herring, given that a character named The Foreigner exists within Marvel’s mythology. Insomniac may be planning a new interpretation of The Foreigner, or a conflict may be brewing between him and Kraven.
Having been inevitably apprehended by both Spider-Men, The Hood is taken to jail. Will this be the last we see of him? The trailer portrays many threats across Manhattan that Kraven will be going after, but The Hood was not among them. Even still, I would not completely rule out a return. Especially since his operation appears to be reutilizing some of the Tinkerer’s technology from previous games. Miles immediately takes issue with this, not wanting his friend’s legacy to be tarnished in any further way. Will Spider-Man 2 feature any sort of further explanation on this topic? Perhaps Miles will be going out of his way to rid the streets of this tech.
Mysteries of Spider-Man 2
The extended gameplay section of the most recent trailer begins outside Peter’s home in Queens. Peter appears to come into possession of the Venom symbiote prior to this encounter with Kraven’s forces. The biggest questions the comic invokes relating to this regards Peter’s personal life. How will his newfound fight with both Venom and Kraven affect his attempt to become certified as a teacher? What about his desire to convince Mary Jane to move in with him? With his patented Parker Luck at his side, we can only assume some hiccups will be occurring.
The prequel comic concludes with J. Jonah Jameson returning to the Daily Bugle in hopes of buying it back. Jameson had previously moved onto his own media venture, the Fact Channel. How will Jameson’s nonsensical opinions returning to the Daily Bugle interrupt Mary Jane’s day job? Any chance for a Cindy Moon cameo or mention if Jameson brings over some of his Fact Channel staff? At the very least, hopefully some spice will venture into the Mary Jane gameplay portions of Spider-Man 2.
A Middling Success
As a standalone comic, Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 #1 provides little more than a by-the-book Spider-Man story. However, it succeeds in what is likely its true mission, drumming up excitement for the upcoming game. In conjunction with the trailer, a number of compelling questions arise, but we will just have to patiently await those answers.
On its own merit, I give the comic a 5/10.
In terms of raising anticipation levels for the upcoming game, I’ll go 8/10.
