Marvel's Spider-Man 2 developers discuss what's next for Peter Parker and Miles Morales
Web design.
Two members of Marvel's Spider-Man 2 narrative team have shed more light on the game's ending, and what it means for Peter Parker and Miles Morales.
Narrative director Ben Arfmann and advanced writer Brittney Morris discussed how the ending of Spider-Man 2 will impact the likes of Peter, Miles and MJ, and spoke about a change of focus for Insomniac's series.
Please note, there will be spoilers for Marvel's Spider-Man 2 in the article below. If you are yet to finish the game, and wish to keep it as much a surprise as possible, this is your cue to head elsewhere now.
Speaking with Gizmodo, Arfmann and Morris both said Miles will become the "main" Spider-Man in any future games. This is something that was heavily implied at the game's conclusion, when Miles, along with Peter and MJ, spend some time together in Aunt May's garage.
When Peter shows MJ his plans to continue the work of the Emily-May foundation, he gets a Spider-Man alert on his phone. However, rather than immediately suiting up and getting ready to save New York from whatever the latest incident to befall the Big Apple is, he instead takes MJ's hand. Miles then shows up, ready to swing his webbed-way to stop the crime that the two Spider-Men have been alerted to.
Pete fumbles over his words a bit, clearly wanting to find a way to tell Miles that for now his priorities are going to lie elsewhere, away from his role as Spider-Man. However, Miles cuts his friend off and simply says "Pete, I got this... All of it. Go be Peter Parker for a while". In this moment, the baton gets passed on, and Miles is now set to become the main Spider-Man going forward. This is something, Morris explained, that always felt like the "natural" course of action for the game, and presumably the series.
"I think we all collectively thought it would happen," Morris explained. "To me, it shows a great deal of evolution from Miles; at the beginning of the game, we see him struggling to figure out what he wants to do with his life. By the end, we had Miles carrying the burden of saving the city, and also carrying Pete when Pete wasn't strong enough to carry himself at various points.
"That's what's been so cool about writing a story about two Spider-Men: they're both strong, and one of them can be strong when the other is not. By the end, Miles is more confident and he's like, 'Yeah, I got this. How much worse can things get after what we just went through?'"
Morris' point about Miles becoming the new focus for the series was subsequently echoed by Arfmann.
"The idea of a two Spider-Man story was always really essential to this game. I think pretty early on, we knew that we wanted to have that moment of handing the reins over. And as we developed it, as we started to lay down more track leading up to that moment, it just felt more and more right," Arfmann said, adding that this scene in Aunt May's garage is one of their favourites from the game.
"It's such a great moment between the two of them. And it felt like such a natural conclusion; I'm not sure when specifically we decided to do that, but it always felt like the only way the game could end," they closed.
Many had already surmised that any future Spider-Man games from Insomniac will indeed focus predominantly on Miles. This was something that was additionally backed up in Spider-Man 2's post-credit scene.
When Miles' mother Rio introduces her son to her new boyfriend Albert, the family also meets his daughter Cindy. Cindy, as many Marvel fans will already be aware of, is another person who has been bitten and given powers by a radioactive spider. She ultimately becomes Silk. So, perhaps in the inevitable Marvel's Spider-Man 3, we will see Miles and Cindy team up, with Peter acting as more of a support or cameo character. I guess time will tell.
For more on Spider-Man 2's ending, you can read mine and Marie's spoiler-heavy thoughts and theories about Insomniac's sequel here.