Sony has shared the official launch trailer for Marvel’s Spider-Man 2. This trailer shares quite a bit but is also perplexing for what it now takes out.
Getting straight to the chase, the trailer clearly shows a few seconds of a gigantic Sandman taking on both Peter Parker and Miles Morales. This Sandman has appeared in Insomniac’s games before, and is generally believed to be the same character in the comic books.
As a strange aside, in Insomniac’s game he uses the alias William Baker, but in the 2007 movie Spider-Man 3, played by Thomas Haden Church, he goes by the name Flint Marko. But these are essentially the same character, with the same biography, powers, weaknesses, etc.
Another character who briefly appears first in the trailer, but casual viewers may not recognize, is Martin Li. Li is the character you will see glowing white, and attacking Peter with a shovel.
Martin Li is Insomniac’s version of Mister Negative, an original character they created just for their games. This Mister Negative originally emerged as one of Peter’s enemies, but he is an even bigger villain to Miles Morales’ personal life – and a lifelong enemy to Norman Osborn.
As a child, Martin was experimented on by Osborn without his consent. Osborn gave him a serum called the Devil’s Breath. That serum gave him superpowers, but also caused an explosion that killed Martin’s parents.
Martin returned to New York years later as an adult, with a criminal empire of his own, and plans to exact revenge on Osborn. That led to a bomb attack on one of Osborn’s re-election rallies, but along the way he killed a lot of innocent people – including Miles’ dad, Jefferson Davies.
Martin is mostly like his comic book counterpart, with the same negative energy powers, as well as his personal army, called the Inner Demons. Peter may have learned about Martin and taken him out in the first game, but Miles only learns secondhand of the harm that Martin did to him in the events of Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales. So Miles may yet get the opportunity to face Mister Negative yet.
But what’s strange about this launch trailer is the sudden disappearance of Kraven the Hunter. Right until now we had been sold on the idea that he is the central character surrounding this games’ conflict. We see the Lizard and Venom again, but Kraven is conspicuous in his absence this time.
Thankfully, Insomniac doesn’t have to worry about having too many things going on like Sam Raimi did. There will definitely be more than enough time to introduce and develop all these villains, as we learn their roles in what is clearly going to be a very ambitious narrative for Marvel’s Spider-Man 2.
Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 will be releasing exclusively to the PlayStation 5 on October 20, 2023.
