I can’t be the only one who’ssick of the multiverseat this point, right? It’s been a dominating mainstream trend for the last several years, but I’ve just never clicked with it. Multiverse narratives are huge in superhero stories andMarvel’s Spider-Man 2dips its toes into the multiverse with a missable scene at the end of the Spider-bot collectible quest.
The Spider-verse is a big deal in Spider-Man comics and movies, but I’m really hoping that the Easter egg scene in Spider-Man 2 is just that: an Easter egg. While I love seeing a bunch of Spider-people swinging around the city as much as the next guy (as long as the next guy isn’t J. Jonah Jameson), the Spider-verse has been thoroughly explored in recent years and I’m hoping thatMarvel’s Spider-Man 3doesn’t go in that direction too.
Spider-verse Overload
Since 2018, there have been four major Spider-Man movies: Spider-Man: Into the Spider-verse, Spider-Man: Far From Home, Spider-Man: No Way Home, and Spider-Man: Across the Spider-verse – all films that have dealt directly with the multiverse in their main plotlines. The idea of multiple Spider-people coming together to learn that they’re not alone (something all Spider-people wrestle with thanks to the great power and responsibility they wield) is compelling. But, sincethat idea has been the center of most mainstream Spider-Man storiesfor nearly a decade, I’m starting to want something – anything – else from stories about the superhero.
The Insomniac Spider-Man games have been a lovely departure from the ocean of multiverse Spider-Man stories. They often deal with similar themes as Spider-verse stories sinceMiles and Peter share the same strugglesof balancing their hero life with their personal life, but they don’t get weighed down by multiverse theory and portals to different dimensions.
It might seem a little silly to say about a game where youfight a guy who transforms himself into a giant lizard, but the Insomniac Spider-Man games are much more grounded in reality, and that makes them much more relatable to me. While I like my fair share of Spider-verse stories, they’re not what caused me to fall in love with the character, and theplot lines from Insomniac’s games tell excellent, classic-feeling Spider-Man stories.
Hoping For The Best
There are two possible explanations for the multiverse teaser in Spider-Man 2 that I’d be fine with.
The first is that the scene where a Spider-verse portal opens and Peter talks with a bartender who steals all the various Spider-bots from him is just an easter egg that bridges the gap between Insomniac’s Spider-Man games and Peter’s PS5 appearance making cameos in both Spider-verse movies. There’s some cute dialogue in the scene where the bartender mentions Miguel O’Hara, or Spider-Man 2099, the antagonist of Spider-Man: Across the Spider-verse — an allusion to the PS5 version of Peter being recruited by him in the film and showing up in the background as a cameo.
The other explanation I’d be happy to accept is that the scene was a setup forthe canceled Spider-Man 2 multiplayer spinoffthat was going to be a Spider-verse-themed multiplayer mode before it was canceled. While I’m sick of Spider-verse stories in general, I would have been fine dealing with another one if it meant that I could have swung through the city with friends in a spinoff game. Because story likely wouldn’t have been the main focus of the game, using the Spider-verse as an easy explanation for why Spider-Gwen and company showed up would have worked just fine for me.
My hopes are that one of those two reasons is why the multiverse scene was included and not that it was teasing whatever main storyline is coming next for Peter and Miles. There were a handful of teases at the end of Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 that seemed promising, likethe introduction of Cindy Moonand the tease that Doc Oc and Norman Osborne were going to potentially be working together, so I hope Insomniac goes in one of those directions instead of following the multiverse trend.
If Spider-Man 3 is another entry in the Spider-verse canon, you’ll find me starting a podcast of my own to slander Spider-Man’s name like J. Jonah Jameson.
