Year in Review 2018 Letter Series: Marvel’s Spider-Man-Spider-Pig…I Mean Cop

Hi Caitlin!

The word that comes to mind when I think of this game is cops.

I didn’t pick up Marvel’s Spider-Man day one, rather day two, so I had just enough buffer to hear criticisms of Peter’s feelings toward police and various power systems throughout the city before I picked it up. This is a Spider-Man that the city already trusts, that has developed a relationship with the police instead of being wanted by them, and most notably, a Spider-Man that was written after the Marvel Cinematic Universe took hold of many people’s perception of what comic stories are about and after the Arkham games redefined what superhero games are about.

I initially found the Arkham comparisons moot because, as someone who has dumped hundreds of hours into that franchise, and being someone who regularly calls Batman their problematic fave, I felt this game went far beyond them as far as gameplay goes. Spider-Man is a character that easily suits the adjective “fast”, both in city traversal, and in combat. The combo system is very much the same as what the Arkham games did, but the numerous added gadgets take it from “older Spider-Man games but better” and plant it right into “post-Arkham superhero combat.” But then there’s the third act of the game.

Spider-Man tries to stop the riot at Rikers Island. This set piece is ripped straight from the tone of Arkham and is maybe the largest testament to the complaints you’ve already duteously listed about Peter’s willfulness to dispatch criminals without thinking about who they are, unless they’re superpowered. This isn’t even new to Spidey or these games, but it goes downhill so quickly since the game downright flaunts the Spider-cop tone. He sings a song about how he’s Spider-Cop for god’s sake. It wears thin so quickly.

I remember I was briefly dating a boy during the initial release of this game and he heard so many complaints from me if he came over while I was playing it, but I had no hesitation to keep playing because it felt good. It’s a very well made game. Being the resident Arkham and One Piece fan, I’m well trained in the art of enjoying a thing despite being very conscious of its faults when it comes to terrible politics. But this was one of the hardest times I had doing that. I don’t know if it’s the game’s forceful authoritative tone or just me getting older and less and less able to separate it or both, but “punch bad guy feel good” wasn’t enough for what those punches meant.

Even if I wanted to turn my brain off and collect things or do combat challenges, Peter had to remind me what it all meant. The game isn’t confronting this conflict in the slightest, it’s proud start to finish. But people playing it and seeing these stories need to confront those problems and, people did. I reached a point where I’d only feel good about getting into combat if it was against SABLE. Pete quips things like “they’re arresting protesters that’s messed up,” but even that feels like the game is trying to be critical of extremist fascism without realizing it’s touting it as the solution to problems, as long as it’s the police doing it.

All that said, I suppose my separation kind of worked because the emotional core of Marvel’s Spider-Man still got to me. Peter’s desire to be good and teach Miles things was great and felt genuine. Miles’ whole arc made him an incredible character even if I wish they’d just let him be Spider-Man without teasing out future content. The final scene with Pete and Otto really delivered on those themes too, between William Salyers’s great performance as Otto and Peter saying “Do what you think is best, Doc. It’s all any of us can.” But I look back now and wonder if they can be genuine in the face of the rest of the game’s tones about what the “best” really is.

This game is built out of conflicts both with itself and the people who played it. Caitlin, how do you feel about these emotional beats and the game’s story?