Landing on October 20 this year, Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 is bound to be one of the best-selling games of the year, even with it having been a rather strong 2023 in gaming already.
As is always the case with Spider-Man, or any superhero for that matter, it’s the quality of the villain that matters. Luckily for us, we already know some of the big hitters who’ll be able to challenge both the powers and the core characters of Peter Parker and Miles Morales.
Below, you will read:
- A look at all of the Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 villains that we know will be in the game
- Character bios, powers, and how each Spider-Man 2 villain can affect the game
- Speculation on the Sinister Six in Spider-Man 2
1. Venom
While we didn’t get to see that iconic toothy grin in the Gameplay Reveal above, the official PlayStation page features the full Venom as we know them in the background. Even though we saw Peter Parker seemingly in a symbiosis with the Symbiote, true Venom looks set to appear at some point during Marvel’s Spider-Man 2.
First, where has Venom come from in the game? In the first game, which is set on Earth-1048, Harry Osborn is seen being kept in a stasis tank filled with green liquid, seemingly suspended by a black goo. The goo in question reached out to Norman Osborn when he visited, potentially showing a kind of sentience. Essentially, this is probably the Venom Symbiote.
It’s possible that the Insomniac story writers have opted to run with the story of Black Suit Spidey from Earth-12041, which sees Harry Osborn don the Venom suit, win over J. Jonah Jameson, and humiliate Peter Parker. Eventually, he succumbs to the more violent urges of Venom. In the trailer, though, we see who we assume to be Parker – as he’s playable – wearing the Symbiote costume.
Earth-616 Spider-Man contracts the Symbiote during the Secret Wars storyline, eventually handing it over to the Fantastic Four to keep in captivity. It later escapes and becomes the vengeful Venom through Eddie Brock. As part of the Earth-28242 reality, Spidey follows the same steps as the one from Earth-616, but removes the Symbiote himself to lead to Brock becoming Venom.
There’s also the Poison Spider-Man line from Earth-70134 – which involves Venom sneaking into an unconscious Peter Parker to possess him – but that seems a little too dark for this game. Instead, they may go in a new direction, with Harry needing the Symbiote to survive and it being a creation of his father in an attempt to cure his son’s disease, becoming more and more dangerous, and Peter not being willing to defeat his old friend.
We last saw Norman tell Dr. Conners to bring Harry out of stasis at the end of Spider-Man: Miles Morales, and the trailer reveals that Spidey knows that the doctor is helping Osborn to stay alive. Perhaps this unleashes the Venom Symbiote into the wild or onto Peter by accident, which causes a rift between him and Miles.
2. Lizard
Curt Conners and the arrival of Lizard was teased throughout Marvel’s Spider-Man, most notably via the collectable Lizard’s Blood and then in passing during the scene that sees Harry Osborn in the stasis tank. Conners is in his human form when Norman Osborn tells him to bring his son around, but that doesn’t seem to last long.
As empathetic as he is iconic, Lizard came about from Conners attempting to regrow his arm: the doctor formerly worked as a battlefield surgeon, but was grievously wounded. As is often the case with these transformative Marvel villains, a serum was to be the cure, but it mutated him into Lizard. He used to continue to don his white lab coat and purple trousers, but in Marvel’s Spider-Man 2, he’s a much more realistic-looking crocodilian.
In the gameplay trailer, Lizard is the centerpiece. Kraven the Hunter has come to Manhattan to hunt this great beast with his cronies, and Spider-Man hopes to protect the abomination. Of course, as a ferocious beast, Conners doesn’t know any better when in Lizard form, and will attack Parker and Morales as they try to divert him from the real dangers.
3. Kraven the Hunter
Kraven the Hunter was born in Russia, but ventured out to the plains of Kenya where he developed from a great hunter using rudimentary tools to one who could collapse the largest of game with his bare hands. Always seeking a challenge to prove his nobility and greatness, regular animals eventually bored him so he turned to the ultimate prey: superheroes and supervillains.
We see Kraven get alerted to the sheer volume of highly skilled game in Manhattan in the opening of the trailer, just after he’s presumably killed off the last hunter who could potentially challenge his skill in the jungle. He declares, “The Great Hunt Begins,” with his tablet running through a bunch of the other villains on this list. Kraven will certainly be taking his vast crew, the Hunters, with him to act as the game’s more disposable adversaries.
Lizard, Spider-Man, Spider-Man again, Black Cat, Taskmaster, Tombstone, Shocker, Prowler, Wraith, and an alternating image that eventually lands on Kingpin in the distance all appear on the table. Kraven hunts to kill; there is little room for middle ground. He feeds his ever-growing ego by vanquishing those who could oppose him. As such, the story thread could be the Spider-Men attempting to save their old villains from this unrelenting one.
Now, there are plans to release a film all about Kraven the Hunter. The trailer looks brutal, and the concept seems quite interesting. They even got Russell Crowe to star as Kraven’s father in this new Kraven the Hunter movie, coming out on October 6th, 2023.
4. Villains targeted in The Great Hunt
Spider-Man will always try to capture his enemies rather than kill them, with many who are quite sympathetic. Kraven, however, is a relentless killer, posing a greater threat to the local villains than Spider-Man ever did.
So, all of those who popped up on Kraven’s tablet to commence the Great Hunt might end up relying on the good nature of Miles and Peter to survive the story. These are the other villains who Kraven looks to have on his hit list.
4a. Black Cat
For completionists, Black Cat proved to be one of the best inclusions to the first game, propping up her hidden cat dolls for you to attempt to spot. Importantly for the story, Felicia Hardy played a larger role in The City That Never Sleeps DLC, even saving Spider-Man from the cyborg-enhanced Hammerhead.
Black Cat was arrested when caught trying to steal all of Hammerhead’s loot. She entered Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 as a former cat burglar and retired until further notice. If Kraven exploits her cravings for treasures and riches, a trap could easily be set to capture the Black Cat.
4b. Taskmaster
One of the great super-powered characters of the first game and the Marvel universe as a whole, Taskmaster’s ability to duplicate the abilities of others makes him incredibly difficult to beat, especially in hand-to-hand combat. He played a key part in helping the player to learn some of the more advanced controls and techniques, and posed a decent challenge when he finally decided to fight the Spider himself.
4c. Shocker
Herman Schultz came into the Marvel’s Spider-Man games as a villain, but not by his own volition. Mister Negative was in full control of the former bank robber, having him don the Shocker suit for maximum effect. On the one hand, he was robbing banks, but on the other, he was threatened into doing so. Either way, he looks to be out and about now.
4d. Prowler
Uncle to Miles Morales, Aaron Davis is both a vigilante and a mercenary, which made his place in Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales somewhat dubious. In the end, Prowler turned good, letting himself get arrested and helping to stack up evidence against Roxxon chief Simon Krieger. He also seems to be out of prison now and could prove to be a key bit of bait for Kraven to use against Spider-Man if the Hunter can figure out a way to get around the cloaking devices, bursts of super-speed, and power claws.
4e. Tombstone
Leader of his namesake gang Tombstone, Alonzo Lincoln’s stone-hard skin was remedied in his battle with Peter Parker in the last game via a drug synthesised to counter the Diox-3 that caused the villain’s condition. Perhaps still cured and seemingly released from the Raft now, we’ll have to see if Tombstone can regain his powers in time for Kraven’s arrival.
4f. Wraith
Former police officer and Spidey informant Yuri Watanabe found her own sense of justice in the first game’s DLC, coming to her own conclusions as to when the law works and when it doesn’t. We saw her fall to anti-heroin status, and as Kraven’s tablet shows, she is now the Wraith in full.
4g. Sinister Six
As should be expected after the culmination of Marvel’s Spider-Man, the Sinister Six appear to still be held on the Raft. They all flick through on Kraven’s target list and are presumably part of the Hunter’s plans. Being in the ultra-high security prison, it seems unlikely that a prideful villain like Kraven would simply oust them while they’re incarcerated. Perhaps this leads to Kraven and his Hunters releasing Doctor Octopus, Electro, Mister Negative, Rhino, Vulture, and Scorpion onto the streets of New York to wreak havoc and make for a more challenging hunt.
Kraven and Venom are certainly big enough villains to carry a whole story, and then some, but there’s a chance that Insomniac Games are keeping a few villains hidden for launch.
For more interesting content, check out: Spider-Man 2 Characters