Highlights

  • Marvel's Spider-Man 2 excels in showcasing complex villains like Kraven, Venom, and Mister Negative.
  • The game falls short in wrapping up Mister Negative's storyline, leaving loose ends and questions unresolved.
  • Martin Li's character arc needs closure in the next Spider-Man game, potentially involving a team-up against Green Goblin.

Marvel's Spider-Man 2 features a solid roster of iconic villains from the wall-crawler's rogue's gallery and does a great job of showing Peter and Miles' struggle with their complicated relationships with these villains. Complex villains like Kraven, Venom, and Mister Negative are some of the greatest strengths of Marvel's Spider-Man 2, demonstrating the depth of the game's storytelling ability. However, one area where the game falls flat is in the ending given to Mister Negative, failing to tie up the loose ends and answer the questions still surrounding his appearance and relationship with Miles after the game's finale.

Throughout Spider-Man 2, Miles must grapple with his hatred of Martin Li, whom he blames for his father's death in the first Insomniac Spider-Man game. Despite his hatred of Li, Miles is torn between killing Mister Negative during their showdown in Kraven's prison and doing the right thing by returning Li to the Raft to serve the rest of his sentence. The struggle between these two conflicting feelings creates the basis for a well-timed redemption arc for Mister Negative, but his eleventh-hour aid doesn't go far enough to resolve the lingering conflict surrounding his character.

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Marvel's Spider-Man 2 Doesn't Adequately Wrap Up Mister Negative's Story

Martin Li plays a crucial role in the story of Spider-Man 2, going beyond just being a source of character growth for Miles to become the key to defeating Venom and the symbiote invasion. Although Miles still harbors a great deal of anger towards Li, it's clear that Li feels remorse for his crimes and no longer wishes to walk the path of vengeance. As a part of his atonement, Li and Miles work together to free Peter's mind from the symbiote's control using Li's Negative powers, resulting in Peter gaining Anti-Venom abilities during the game's finale.

Despite Li playing a pivotal role in stopping Venom and the symbiote invasion, the game unceremoniously ditches Li after Peter gains the Anti-Venom suit. Li departs shortly after helping Peter and Miles, but it's not clear where he's going or what he plans to do now that he's been freed from prison and seemingly atoned for his past sins. To add to this abrupt ending, Miles is never given a concrete resolution regarding his feelings towards Li, seemingly still resentful of him despite working together to help Peter, leaving Martin Li with a lot of untapped potential that could be explored in the next Insomniac Spider-Man game.

Mister Negative Still Seems to Have a Role to Play in Insomniac's Spider-Man Universe

Martin Li

Insomniac still has the chance to give Martin Li the closure his character deserves in the upcoming Spider-Man 3, which seems likely given how his character was left hanging at the end of Spider-Man 2. In order to complete his character arc, Spider-Man 3 needs to see Miles finally come to terms with Li's redemption from the previous game and forgive him for his father's death. With Miles set to take over as the lead Spider-Man following the ending of Spider-Man 2, he needs this type of growth to reach the maturity of a hero worthy of protecting the people of New York City.

A future game also needs to establish where Martin Li ends up after the end of Spider-Man 2, whether that be back at F.E.A.S.T., returning to serve his sentence at the Raft, or founding a new organization aimed at helping those in need. Mister Negative could also play a role in the fight against Spider-Man 3's main villain, who will likely be Norman Osborn's Green Goblin. Having Mister Negative team up with the Spider-Men to take down the Green Goblin would bring his arc full circle after Li spent the first game seeking revenge on Norman Osborn, potentially flipping the script and helping bring Norman to his senses over his desire for revenge on Spider-Man.