Spider-Man 2 and the Question of Carnage
Posted: Tue Oct 24, 2023 5:00 am
It's not a spoiler to say that when we run into Venom Carnage is not far behind. Outside Spectacular Spider-Man every incarnation of Venom has always been followed by the inclusion of the Carnage Symbiote. And the Insomniac games are no exception with a side quest subplot in the game setting up the character as an upcoming villain.
The real question is what sort of form will this story arc take? Will Carnage be the focus of a DLC, a full on Expansion Pack, the main villain in another Miles Morals spin-off game or the main antagonist for the first half of Spider-Man 3 like Mr. Negative was in the first game and Kraven was in the second game?
Personally I think he will be the main antagonist of a Expansion Pack or a Miles Morals spin-off and there are a number of reasons why I think this. First a single DLC or a small series of DLCs would just be to small and the series already tried this with The City That Never Sleeps from the first game which I personally found to be cluttered, repeated to may major plot points from the base game and was a massive dissevers to two characters that I love, those being Black Cat and Wraith.
While having Carnage as a starter villain for the next game would be interesting Carnage is simple to big of a villain to just be a Disc One Boss, if he's going to be in the story he SHOULD be the main antagonist as he's just to big of a threat and would likely overshadow anyone who came after him. Insomniac has been rather clever with their starter villains by giving it to lesser know villains of Peter's Rogues Gallery like Mr. Negative and Kraven the Hunter who are a threat in their own right but are nowhere near as popular as Doctor Octopus and Venom.
This can't be done with Carnage as he's one of Spidy's most iconic adversaries, the second most popular Symbiote in Marvel and an argument could be made that he's more interesting then the Green Goblin. Goblin wants to save his son while Carnage is just someone who wants to watch the world burn and for no other reason then because he can.
Therefore the Expansion Pack or Miles Spin-off makes the most sense and I honestly think of the two the Expansion Pack is the more likely. Spider-Man: Miles Morals was accused of just being DLC sold as a standalone game and while I personally like SMMM more then the first game I do agree with this statement. Insomniac is likely not going to risk the potential backlash of pulling another Miles Spin-Off "Game" so they'll likely just stick to an EP and if you look at the map you can see there are several areas that are locked off to the characters even though we can reach most of or ones that are highlighted on the map so the game will no doubt get some kind of DLC down the line.
And as a Expansion Pack we can get Carnage as a main villain to deal with the fall out of Venom as a way to wrap up all plot points from this game thus leaving very little baggage for the next game.
I also suspect that Yuri aka Wraith will be either a major character or the real protagonist of this part of the story given how she's setup as an adversary for the Carnage Symbiote's host The Flame aka Cletus Kasady in the aforementioned Side Quest Subplot for SM2. I honestly wouldn't be surprised if Yuri was made fully playable with her own unique move-set and skills given how she's able to match the Spider-Men in combat and will even join us in combat in the open world.
Still worried that they'll kill her or make her more of a villain but I suspect that this will be more of a Wraith focused story rather then a Spider-Men focused story.
The real question is what sort of form will this story arc take? Will Carnage be the focus of a DLC, a full on Expansion Pack, the main villain in another Miles Morals spin-off game or the main antagonist for the first half of Spider-Man 3 like Mr. Negative was in the first game and Kraven was in the second game?
Personally I think he will be the main antagonist of a Expansion Pack or a Miles Morals spin-off and there are a number of reasons why I think this. First a single DLC or a small series of DLCs would just be to small and the series already tried this with The City That Never Sleeps from the first game which I personally found to be cluttered, repeated to may major plot points from the base game and was a massive dissevers to two characters that I love, those being Black Cat and Wraith.
While having Carnage as a starter villain for the next game would be interesting Carnage is simple to big of a villain to just be a Disc One Boss, if he's going to be in the story he SHOULD be the main antagonist as he's just to big of a threat and would likely overshadow anyone who came after him. Insomniac has been rather clever with their starter villains by giving it to lesser know villains of Peter's Rogues Gallery like Mr. Negative and Kraven the Hunter who are a threat in their own right but are nowhere near as popular as Doctor Octopus and Venom.
This can't be done with Carnage as he's one of Spidy's most iconic adversaries, the second most popular Symbiote in Marvel and an argument could be made that he's more interesting then the Green Goblin. Goblin wants to save his son while Carnage is just someone who wants to watch the world burn and for no other reason then because he can.
Therefore the Expansion Pack or Miles Spin-off makes the most sense and I honestly think of the two the Expansion Pack is the more likely. Spider-Man: Miles Morals was accused of just being DLC sold as a standalone game and while I personally like SMMM more then the first game I do agree with this statement. Insomniac is likely not going to risk the potential backlash of pulling another Miles Spin-Off "Game" so they'll likely just stick to an EP and if you look at the map you can see there are several areas that are locked off to the characters even though we can reach most of or ones that are highlighted on the map so the game will no doubt get some kind of DLC down the line.
And as a Expansion Pack we can get Carnage as a main villain to deal with the fall out of Venom as a way to wrap up all plot points from this game thus leaving very little baggage for the next game.
I also suspect that Yuri aka Wraith will be either a major character or the real protagonist of this part of the story given how she's setup as an adversary for the Carnage Symbiote's host The Flame aka Cletus Kasady in the aforementioned Side Quest Subplot for SM2. I honestly wouldn't be surprised if Yuri was made fully playable with her own unique move-set and skills given how she's able to match the Spider-Men in combat and will even join us in combat in the open world.
Still worried that they'll kill her or make her more of a villain but I suspect that this will be more of a Wraith focused story rather then a Spider-Men focused story.