Highlights
- Marvel's Wolverine is expected to have a violent and mature story, fitting for the character's nature and conflicts.
- The battle damage feature in Marvel's Spider-Man 2 is enjoyable but nonsensical, as it magically repairs the suit moments later, breaking immersion. Marvel's Wolverine should represent battle damage realistically to avoid similar issues.
Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 dove further into dark themes, at least as far as a modern take on Spider-Man has been willing to go lately. There are certainly many more horrific and traumatic examples of Spider-Man stories in the character’s source material, but it’s still brave of Insomniac to not only take wholly uplifting stories as inspiration for its narratives. It’s not expected that Insomniac would ever adapt Spider-Man: Reign, for example, but darker tones help encourage the idea that Marvel’s Wolverine will be able to unsheathe its claws and accomplish a violent and mature story of its own.
Indeed, Marvel’s Wolverine having narratives as uplifting or lighthearted as Marvel’s Spider-Man would simply seem strange. It’s not that a Logan-centric story couldn’t have such tones, but how he handles conflict typically involves a lot more blood than how Peter or Miles do. In this case, Marvel’s Spider-Man’s approach to battle damage is an interesting feature that Marvel’s Wolverine will likely adapt. However, despite how neat Marvel’s Spider-Man’s battle damage is, it is completely nonsensical from a narrative standpoint and Marvel’s Wolverine will probably make the same mistake in its implementation.
Marvel’s Spider-Man 2’s Battle Damage Requires a Suspension of Disbelief
Marvel’s Spider-Man and Miles Morales had battle damage, but these instances were far more logical and terrific due to them being narratively significant. Peter’s classic costume being torn leads to him finally crafting the Advanced suit, for example. Marvel’s Spider-Man 2, on the other hand, decided to introduce battle damage on a ubiquitous scale, where damage taken in moment-to-moment combat creates rips and tears on the player’s suit.
Spider-Man retains battle damage until players press down on the d-pad to heal, which magically repairs Spider-Man’s suit, as well.
Marvel’s Spider-Man’s Battle Damage is Circumstantial and Nonsensical
It’s a fun feature to see damage taken result in suits being damaged to reflect that, and yet having them instantly and inexplicably repaired moments later is wholly immersion-breaking. It doesn’t seem like there’s any way battle damage could be achieved while not disrupting immersion unless these Spider-Man games took place over single nights like the Arkham games, but many fans might not mind how unrealistic the feature is regardless.
One could also mention how suits not taking damage at all disrupts immersion. But without a balance struck between both preferences that makes sense, it comes across as jarring nonetheless when Spider-Man's already inexplicable healing mechanic also stitches his costume back from tatters.
Wolverine Can Heal from Battle Damage, But His Costumes Can’t
Rather, Marvel’s Wolverine will only exacerbate this issue if it adapts Marvel’s Spider-Man 2’s battle damage. The premise of Wolverine reflecting battle damage is almost too astonishing of an idea to ignore due to him being able to self-regenerate, meaning that his body could instantly repair from severe damage. Seeing Logan heal from injuries in real time would be an incredible showcase of PS5 load times, but if his clothing and costumes repair themselves too it will sully the entire concept.
Marvel’s Wolverine Needs to Represent Battle Damage Realistically
The only way Marvel’s Wolverine should have battle damage is if clothing and costumes remain damaged, even with the possibility of Logan’s clothing tearing away to leave him shirtless if need be, because they shouldn’t be able to repair themselves the way Spider-Man’s costumes apparently can. Either way, Insomniac is going to have a massive hurdle to clear in deciding how to approach battle damage with a character who could take advantage of it the most.
Marvel's Wolverine is in development.
