The Marvel multiverse first developed in the comics has been complicated for decades, integrating many different parallel realities that MCU movies like Endgame and even recent shows like Loki have just begun to scratch the surface of. Ever singe the release of the Academy Award-winning movie Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, particular attention has been drawn to Spider-Man as a great IP for exploring the marvel multiverse, particularly when it allows multiple versions of the iconic character to interact.
On top of its continued success as a movie IP, over the last few years Spider-Man has also become one of PlayStation's best-selling first-party series, with Marvel's Spider-Man: Miles Morales helping launch the PS5. Although the Insomniac games have some key differences from the comic and movie versions, there is one villain who could help bring more Spider-People into the series.
Spider-Men
Miles Morales was originally introduced as Peter Parker's successor in the comics, in a universe where Peter had been killed by the Green Goblin. In the Insomniac games Peter isn't killed, but instead helps mentor Miles after a spider bite give him similar powers. The fact that there's already a Peter Parker and Miles Morales in the Insomniac universe doesn't mean that the studio can't include more characters from the Spider-Verse in future games, however. The original version of Miles seen in the comics did meet an alternate, still-living version of Peter Parker. Spider-Men released back in 2012, on the 50th anniversary of Peter Parker's debut in Amazing Fantasy.
Spider-Men sees Peter Parker thrown into Miles Morales' universe by Mysterio. While the version of the villain seen in the movie Spider-Man: Far From Home was a fraud, the comic's version is far more powerful. It's revealed in Spider-Men that the Mysterio who appeared in Ultimate Comics: Spider-Man - the universe Miles debuted in -Â was actually an android being controlled by the Mysterio in the main Marvel comics reality, Earth-616.
The Spider-Verse
Mysterio does not appear in Spider-Man: Miles Morales, but the character did have a strange role to play Insomniac's Spider-Man PS4 games. In the first game, Peter goes to a Halloween party where he encounters Dr. Stratton dressed as Mysterio, making it clear that Mysterio exists in the Insomniac universe and has battled Spider-Man enough to be publicly known.
Using Mysterio to introduce multiverse elements could make the next Insomniac Spider-Man game very interesting. The games have a different style to the Spider-Verse movie, but could introduce more Spider-People in a way that fits the tone. That makes some of the movie's sillier Spider-Man versions like Spider-Ham less likely to show up, but the games could explore characters like Spider-Gwen from Earth-65, Old Man Spider from Earth-4, and many of the other Spider-Man variants from the comics' Spider-Army.
The more genre-bending characters like Spider-Man Noir and Spider-Man J might not be to some fans' liking, but they could allow the Insomniac games to throw players into worlds with completely different art styles. The first two games have both taken place in the same in-game version of New York, but these characters could offer opportunities to completely reskin the city.
Dealing with the Spider-Verse might pose some challenges, but the opportunities it creates are massive and extremely flexible depending on what sort of story the studio wants to tell. With Mysterio already hinted at in the first game, the master illusionist could be key to expanding the series' horizons, especially with the MCU also rumored to be taking Tom Holland's Spider-Man to alternate realities. It could even allow the games to introduce characters and locations that have only been seen in the movies so far.
Spider-Man: Miles Morales is available now on PS4 and PS5.
