Summary
In a month full of exciting releases,Marvel’s Spider-Man 2might just be October 2023’s most anticipated game. Following on directly from the events of Insomniac’s last two Spidey games,Marvel’s Spider-Man 2sees Peter Parker and Miles Morales suit up to take onKraven the Hunter, who has decided to take his hunt to New York City. But Kraven isn’t the only villain the Spider-Men have to defeat, as Venom looms in the shadows, getting ready to pounce on the unsuspecting heroes.
First debuting in1988’sThe Amazing Spider-Man#300, Venom quickly became one of the Wall-Crawler’s most iconic adversaries, cropping up in countless comic books, animated TV shows, movies, and of course, video games. With a moveset similar to Spidey himself, albeit much more aggressive and intimidating, Venom always puts up a challenging fight, and that’s made him the perfect final boss of a slew of Spider-Man video games. And while Venom looks to reprise his villainous role in Insomniac’s ownMarvel’s Spider-Man 2, his design stands out quite a bit from those that came before it.
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How Insomniac’s Venom Compares to Past Spider-Man Games
Despite releasing a total of three trailers now, and the game only being two months from launch,Marvel’s Spider-Man 2has kept its own version of Venom largely under wraps. Fans first got a glimpse of Insomniac’s Venom duringMarvel’s Spider-Man 2’s announcement trailer, where his menacing face can be seen for a split-second before he rushes toward the camera. From just this one shot alone, it was clear that Insomniac’s version of Venom would be sticking with the same general design that’s been used for the character for decades now, though that doesn’t mean this design isn’t without its unique flairs.
In the most recentMarvel’s Spider-Man 2story trailer, fans got their first proper look at Insomniac’s full character model for Venom. Much like the rest of Insomniac’sSpider-Mancast, Venom’s design follows the comics that came before it very closely, but does have some unique embellishments. Insomniac’s Venom is suitably huge, with hulking shoulders, arms, and legs.
Venom’s head and face are also in keeping with the usual comic design, giving the villain a ridiculously long tongue, a ton of sharp teeth, and his iconic glistening white eyes. But the most unique aspect ofInsomniac’s Venom designis a huge white spider that stretches across Venom’s front, and joins with the design on the back. While most iterations of Venom have this white spider, it’s not often carried over to the back of the character, and it’s not usually as big or as jagged as Insomniac’s version.
Venom’s very first appearance in the video game landscape was in the Sega CD gameAmazing Spider-Man Vs. The Kingpin. This initial video game Venom design is pretty low-res, but it does capture the essence of the comic version of Venom very well, giving him his dark blue/black coloring, large white spider, and large white eyes, all ripped straight from the original comic book design. While Venom would appear pretty consistently across various Spider-Man games in the 1990s, one of his most interesting designs was in2000’sSpider-Manfor the PS1, where the villain is given an oddly bright blue color scheme.
2005’sUltimate Spider-Manhas a Venom design most similar toMarvel’s Spider-Man 2’s. Though Venom starts off with no spider symbol at all on his chest or back, he grows one by the end of the game, and in his final design this white spider stretches across his entire body, connecting the chest and the back logo just likeMarvel’s Spider-Man 2’s version of Venom. Though,Ultimate Spider-Man’s Venom features very different eyes from Insomniac’s, with them appearing quite jagged in the 2005 game. Of course, the 2007 version of Venom in theSpider-Man 3tie-in game looks completely different from Insomniac’s version of the villain, with the movie’s slimmer design carrying over to the game, along with the webbed costume and the triangular mouth.
Marvel’s Spider-Man 2launches on October 20, exclusively for PlayStation 5.
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