Highlights

  • Insomniac's Venom half-sequel might not arrive soon, but its story seems locked down with an anti-hero twist as per multiple rumors.
  • Venom's gameplay in Marvel's Spider-Man 2 indulges in ravenous destruction and his spin-off will need to explain his change of heart.
  • To make Venom an anti-hero, Insomniac could explore Peter passing on the Anti-Venom symbiote to Harry like he should have done in Marvel's Spider-Man 2.

All signs point toward a standalone Venom game from Insomniac beneath the ever-expanding Marvel’s Spider-Man banner. Insomniac’s Venom might not be arriving anytime soon if rumors and devastating hack details are true, but its story seems locked down with an anti-hero twist on the alien symbiote’s character bonded with whomever its host is.

Players already got a taste of what Venom’s gameplay might look like in his own half-sequel due to his playable sequence in Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 and yet that gameplay really only makes sense when Venom can be ravenously rampaging and destroying everything in his wake. Ultimate Spider-Man thrived with such a premise because its hungry deuteragonist never leaned into anti-heroism and Insomniac will now need to explain why its iteration of the symbiote has suddenly decided not to continue its invasion of Earth in an effort to “heal the world.”

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If Marvel's Spider-Man 3 is planned as a final entry in the franchise, Insomniac may want to seriously consider hopping backward in the timeline.

Insomniac May Have Backed Venom into a Corner Narratively

Harry Osborn had a clear plight in Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 and while that happened to parallel what the symbiote turned out to want, Venom’s ambitions seem independent of Harry. Therefore, the marriage of both characters as symbiote and host is never satisfyingly depicted.

It never made sense why Harry would want symbiotes to subsume the Earth and all of humanity, insinuating that Harry was more of a victim to the symbiote than a willing participant in Venom’s abrupt mayhem. This would be an interesting thread to unravel in Venom’s half-sequel, though with Harry seemingly incapacitated once again it appears as if a new host is required.

If so, Insomniac has far more to worry about since it needs to explain why the symbiote now wants to help humans and how a new character comes into contact with it in the first place. Eddie Brock Jr. is obviously a good candidate and already technically exists in Marvel’s Spider-Man’s lore, but without his traditional backstory it might be all too convenient if the photojournalist ends up fatefully bonded to the symbiote this time around.

Venom Can’t Suddenly Want to Be Good in His Half-Sequel

Either way, Venom is certainly an antagonist in Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 with no redeeming qualities and that’s going to need to be walked back somehow if Venom’s ever going to become a so-called ‘lethal protector.’ Perhaps Insomniac introduces a new host for Venom who is able to persuade the symbiote to change its ideology, but that shouldn’t be a character development that occurs hastily in a half-sequel.

A half-sequel will hopefully provide more than enough time for this to play out, and seeing it front-loaded with destructive gameplay as an antagonist still would allow it to have its cake and eat it too.

Venom’s Half-Sequel Can End with Peter Finally Passing on Anti-Venom

One of the most salient ways for Venom to become an anti-hero rather than an antagonist is if he becomes Anti-Venom, regardless of whether that transition is voluntary or not. Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 ends with a huge loose thread in Peter still bonded to the Anti-Venom symbiote and instead of gifting it to Harry and solving literally every problem his best friend has, he’s seemingly kept it for himself. Maybe the reasoning behind this is so Peter can pass it onto Harry in Venom’s own game, turning Harry into a legitimate take on both Anti-Venom and Agent Venom.

Of course, that plausible throughline is thrown out the window if Harry remains in a coma and someone else becomes Venom’s host. Insomniac will need to be incredibly creative and faithful to Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 in order to make a Venom half-sequel work as an epilogue or aside for the antagonist.