Everyone’s favorite friendly neighborhood Spider-Man has had many adventures and made many friends in his nearly 60 year run. While some of these arcs make sense, like his adventures with the Avengers, Peter Parker has met some especially crazy characters on the streets of New York and abroad that are a little less conventional. WhileMarvel’s Spider-Manwas a critically-acclaimed new start to the game franchise,Spider-Man 2can further explore the lore now that the base of the franchise has been set up. In Marvel’s next entry to theSpider-Mangames, coming afterMiles Moralesin November 2020,Spider-Man 2should take the opportunity to explore some of the more interesting, and obscure, villains and story arcs from the comic canon.
Throughout the years of comics, graphic novels, movies, and cartoons, Spidey has had different versions of how he got his powers. Some arcs even have the spider biting someone else and not Peter, making it seem like it was just a random occurrence. However, if Marvel wanted to use an arc from a2001 Spider-Man comic, it could add a new level of mysticism and fate to the game. The best part is the arc has its own ally to guide the player along with a big bad already built-in. Even if Ezekiel and Morlun only served as a short side-quest, it would be an interesting recreation of seemingly forgotten lore.
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Ezekiel and Morlun
WhenThe Amazing Spider-ManVol. 2#30 came out, players were greeted with a somewhat new spin on Peter Parker’s origin story. While swinging around the city, Spider-Man is confronted by a wealthy CEO named Ezekiel, who also has spider-like powers. When Peter catches up to him, Ezekiel tells the vigilante that his powers might not be an accident as the spider who bit him intended to. Ezekiel claimed that this power came from a spider deity residing within a totem, who had chosen Peter based on his strong heart and nobility. This obviously raised some questions, but it seemed to provide a reason for why the bully Carl King didn’t simply get powers from ingesting the spider, and instead seemed to be punished by turning into The Thousand, as well as why all the different Peters end up with powers across the multiverse.
However, Peter isn’t convinced that Ezekiel is something other than a madman, and refuses to take his advice to hide from the totem-eater Morlun. Spider-Man’s pride gets the better of him, and he goes about his day when he is attacked and quickly realizes he is outmatched. Peter manages to escape without being able to harm Morlun, but not before the totem-eater tells Peter that he is his natural predator and that he’ll stop at nothing until he’s defeated and consumed. With his contact-to-tracking ability, Morlun is able tofind Spider-Man a second time, where Ezekiel is forced to sacrifice himself, temporarily, to save Peter. With no one else to help, Peter takes some of Morlun’s blood for study.
Peter came to the realization that if he injected his own blood with radiation, that it would be impossible for Morlun to drink it. After Peter does this, he collapses and Morlun is able to track him to where he lay. However, as soon as Morlun touches Spider-Man he is poisoned and begins to grow weaker. It quickly becomes apparent that the weakenedvillain Morlun is no match for Spider-Man, and begs to be spared. However, his assistant Dex shoots him due to his anger of being mistreated.
Use What is Already There
Without even changing the base story, there are a lot of ways that this arc can play into theSpider-Mangame. It might be a little harder to explain ifboth Peter and Mileswere chosen by the Spider Totem, but even still. Ezekiel would be great as the NPC that guides the player along the quest, up to the point where he disappears while fighting Morlun. The predator’s tracking ability could make for surprise encounters during the run of that quest, pushing players to hurry and find a way to defeat him. Finally, it would be interesting to break into another lab and attempt to find the radioactive material, culminating in an epic boss fight with Morlun.
Admittedly, this is one of the weirder arcs, but it openedthe Spider-Man universeto new areas of magic and mysticism. A lot of the Spider-Man canon tends to revolve around predator-prey relationships related to the animal kingdom, and this one leans on that theme heavy. This arc could be fun, unique, and would reintroduce fans to a story that had been relocated to the comic history books.
Marvel’s Spider-ManandSpider-Man: Miles Moralesare available now on PS4 and PS5. A sequel has not been officially announced.
