Insomanic Spider-Man and Revenge
Something that's really interesting to me is the theme of revenge in the insomanic games, so I wanted to go game-by-game and discuss how revenge is used. This post is gonna b long so putting a read more
Spider-Man (2018):
In the first game we have Martin Li and Doc Ock. Both completely destroy their lives in pursuit of revenge.
Martin Li goes against the values he formed FEAST with, completely betrays everyone who worked for him. He hates Norman Osborn because Norman killed his parent, but in his attempts at revenge Li does the exact same thing to not just Miles but SO many other familes. How many people do you think he killed in not just the bombing but also the many shootouts the Demons cause? In the Devils Breath plague? He wasn't the one who unleashed it in the end, but he still planned to.
Doc Ock falls down a very similar path. He takes a tool that was originally meant to help and heal, and uses it to hurt. In his desire to cause Norman's downfall, he not only brutally attacks and nearly kills one of his closest friends, but also kills SO many people with Devils Breath. And, completely unlike Li, he feels little to no remorse for it. Doc Ock feels like the people who died deserved it, because they put Norman in power.
In the DLC we also have Yuri, who turns against her friends and coworkers in her attempts to destroy Hammerhead, but Yuri is less about revenge destroying someone and more about a "the ends justify the means" mindset. While she does have a theme of revenge in her story, I feel like its less present in her actual character arc. She less destroys her life and more takes her life down a different path. She recognizes that the system can't give her what she views as justice and so decides to take it into her own hands.
Spider-Man: Miles Morales (2020):
Ok, Phin. We don't know a ton about Phin before she started working towards revenge, but from what's there: my interpretation is Phin ends up going against the values that her brother died for in her bid for revenge.
Phin's brother (his name escapes me) lived to help others, and the Second he realized his research was being used for not only capitalist greed but also harming people he wanted to put a stop to it. Phin, in attempting to finish what her brother started, completely loses sight of this original goal. She hurts people, a lot of people, including her closest friend, and almost basically sets off a bomb in Harlem.
Phin wasn't stupid, you can't convince me that some part of her didn't recognize the risks. She was so angry and so convinced that she was the right one that she ignored the harm she was doing until it was too late.
Spider-Man 2 (2023):
Peter's character arc in this game is a direct parallel of Doc Ock's arc in the first game. Thanks to the symbiote weaking Pete's self control, he wants revenge on Kraven and hurts the people around him in the process. He turns Harry's kindness against him, gives MJ the cold shoulder, and literally attacks Miles. He's angry and upset and he doesn't know how to handle it other than taking it all out on Kraven.
Similar to how the arms affected Doc Ock mentally, while the symbiote does affect Pete mentally the emotions and desires he feels are still very very real. In direct contrast to Doc Ock though, Pete is given a chance and he takes it.
Miles didn't save Peter, Peter saved himself. But if Miles hadn't been there and hadn't supported Peter, Peter never would've gotten rid of the symbiote. Miles said to Peter: "I know you're angry but you're hurting people who don't deserve this, you need to stop" and, unlike Doc Ock, Peter listened and took the steps necessary to bring himself away from that path.
Meanwhile, Miles ALSO has a big theme of stepping away from revenge. Miles' entire character arc in the second game is him looking at how others ruined their lives through a search for revenge, looking at his own desire for revenge, and saying "I'm good. I don't want to go down that path"
Miles comes close to killing Li at least twice. If he would've actually killed Li is debatable (I personally believe he wouldn't have), but there's two times where Miles has an opportunity to kill the person who put him and his family through so much suffering, and he considers it.
Miles wants Li to suffer, he wants Li to feel even a fraction of the pain Li made Miles feel, but by the end of the game Miles is able to recognize that that doesn't help him or him mom recover from what they went through, it just causes more pain. Miles decides that he doesn't want to hold onto that hate, that he wants to move on, and so he does. Which gives Miles one of the most emotionally mature character arcs in the entire series.
It looks like the theme of revenge is gonna continue into the third game, with Doc Ock wanting to make both Norman and Pete suffer, and Norman wanting to make the Spider-Men suffer. It's just really interesting how every game has dealt with this idea of the harm revenge can cause.
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Fun detail I noticed while playing Spider-Man 2: when you activate Peter's symbiote surge ability (analogous to the rage ability of Shattered Dimensions' Ultimate Spider-Man) his black suit takes on a subtly different appearance, more closely resembling Venom.
Notice the texture of the suit (fleshier and more veiny), the lack of white chevron on the wrist and wider set spider emblem that goes OVER the shoulder when surge is activated.
Also the surge mode suit is erroneously labeled as Spider-Punk in the photo mode. Anyway here's some silly pics of the black suit.
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