Highlights

  • Marvel's Spider-Man 2 delivers on fan demands by offering a wide range of suit options to customize costumes, including the highly desired Amazing Spider-Man 2 costume and the black symbiote suit from Spider-Man 3.
  • The Bag-Man suit, which has been popular in games, is a missed opportunity in Marvel's Spider-Man 2 and could have been a fun unlockable suit after Peter's boss fight, connecting to the storyline involving the symbiote.
  • Insomniac may have missed the chance to create a comics-inspired event by not including the Bag-Man suit in the sequel. While not the most demanded suit, its absence is a missed opportunity for fans looking for a connection between the comics and the game.

Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 is a grab-bag of the two games that came before it that attempts to supply fans with everything they demanded from them. Mary Jane’s missions were greatly improved while still being an instrumental part of the franchise, for example, but nowhere was fan demand supplemented more than in the suit selections that players received. Now with suit style options in Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 to further customize many preferred costumes, Insomniac needed to make tough decisions when it came to reprising beloved suits from previous games while also debuting new ones that had been clamored for.

The suit that was easily the most desired was The Amazing Spider-Man 2 ’s costume and Insomniac delivered on it, players got to enjoy the black symbiote suit from Spider-Man 3 alongside its red-and-blue Raimi counterpart, and Miles’ popular Bodega Cat suit from Miles Morales returned with its cat companion helping attack enemies in finisher animations.

Insomniac obviously can’t please everyone and shouldn’t be held to that standard in every game. However, there’s a suit that’s still on the cutting room floor that would’ve made a fun nod to the actual events of Marvel’s Spider-Man 2: the Bombastic Bag-Man.

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Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 Not Reprising the Bag-Man Suit is a Missed Opportunity

How Spider-Man’s Bag-Man Suit Connects to the Symbiote

On paper, the Bag-Man suit really has no context and seems only like a humorous costume mishap. That’s essentially what it is, but its context is important in understanding why Peter ends up looking that way, even if it is only for a brief moment in the character’s storied history.

The only reason why Peter ends up wearing an outdated Fantastic Four costume—sans footwear—and a paper bag over his head is that he is left without a costume when Reed Richards is able to separate the alien symbiote from him in The Amazing Spider-Man #258. The Human Torch comedically lends him this makeshift outfit and even completes the look by slapping a ‘kick me’ sign on his back that Peter doesn’t notice.

This suit has arguably been more popular in games than it has been in the comics, lending itself to fun skin cosmetics in games such as Spider-Man on PS1 or Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions. It was even featured in Marvel’s Spider-Man with Insomniac’s own take on it, and because the sequel deals with Peter wearing and later absconding from the symbiote, it is odd that it didn’t return to have a neat comics connection there.

Bag-Man Could’ve Been a Fun Post-Symbiote Suit Unlock in Marvel’s Spider-Man 2

Insomniac had to have known that it wanted the symbiote to play a large role in the sequel while it was still working on the first game since it appears in the post-credits scene, and yet it looks like it was too antsy and wanted to have the Bag-Man suit in Marvel’s Spider-Man regardless of whether there would be any fun connection to make or not. This could’ve written it off from being included in Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 thereafter, but instead Insomniac did reprise a number of suits, leaving Bag-Man in the dust when it deserved to be in the game more than ever.

It would have been excellent to see the Bag-Man suit become available for resource purchase after Peter’s boss fight where he rids himself of the symbiote, reflecting back on that being when Peter receives the Bag-Man suit in the comics. The Amazing Bag-Man suit is not in the sequel and while it may not have been the suit fans demanded the most to return, it’s a missed opportunity since it would have actually created a tether between its comic-inspired and original events, unlike suit additions such as Marvel’s Spider-Man 2’s Superior suit.