Marvel's Spider-Man is definitely one of Insomniac Games' most ambitious projects, as well as their very first time developing a Spider-Man game, and they were able to deliver a fantastic story with compelling characters that is getting praise from video game critics and fans of the arachnid superhero alike.
The story in
Marvel's Spider-Man is a fresh new take on the wall-crawler—focusing on an older, and more experienced Spider-Man who has already been donning the mask for 8 years—and yet very faithful to the characters, and their lore.
Insomniac Games has done a wonderful job delivering a proper Spider-Man story that focuses on these characters who have been around for a while, while still offering snippets of information that give us a better look at their individual background stories.
While
Marvel's Spider-Man story is unique in its own right, the developers did their research by reading some of the classic Spider-Man stories that helped make the character a household name—drawing inspiration from various comics like Steve Ditko and Stan Lee's iconic
Amazing Fantasy #15 or even Brian Michael Bendis'
Ultimate Spider-Man.
Bill Rosemann, Executive Creative Director at Marvel Games, shares which comics helped inspire the people over at Insomniac Games when developing
Marvel's Spider-Man.
When writing Marvel's Spider-Man, Insomniac Games went straight to the source by drawing inspiration from
Amazing Fantasy (1962) #15—Stan Lee and Steve Ditko's very first issue of the web-headded superhero—as the pillar of the whole story, as well as making the famous "
With great power there must also come great responsibility" their very own motto.
Amazing Spider-Man (1963) #1 -
#38 gave Insomniac Games the idea to make the story in
Marvel's Spider-Man both a Spider-Man story, as well as a Peter Parker story as they figured that a good Spider-Man story is one in which Peter's world collides with Spider-Man's.
Marvel's Spider-Man also borrowed some ideas from Brian Michael Bendis'
Ultimate Spider-Man (2000) #1 as this take on the hero is just as much of a reinvention of the character as the Ultimate run was, "mixing familiar faces and situations into unexpected and thrilling combinations".
When focusing on the game's main villain, Martin Li/Mister Negative, Insomniac Games took a look at
Amazing Spider-Man (1999) #546, which was the first time the character was introduced, as well as the F.E.A.S.T. Centre that he created. Making Marvel's Spider-Man story revolve around the centre by having Peter and aunt May being directly involved with Martin Li.
As the developers delved deeper into the origins of Mister Negative, the team drew inspiration from
Dark Reign: Mister Negative (2009) #1 and
Amazing Spider-Man (2015) #6, which also explored the corruptive abilities of the character—which play an important role in Insomniac Games' Spider-Man.
In
Marvel's Spider-Man, our hero will see the city being infected by something called the "Devil's Breath, which the developers thought of including after being inspired by
Amazing Spider-Man (1999) #659—that doesn't follow the story closely but kicked off the "
Spider-Island" run that had people gaining Spider-Man's powers, which was also treated as an infection of sorts.
And lastly, Insomniac Games looked at
Spider-Man/Fantastic Four (2010) #1 and
Amazing Spider-Man (1991) #661 in order to keep the humour, drama, and action in
Marvel's Spider-Man faithful to the character.
Sony Interactive Entertainment, Insomniac Games, and Marvel team up to create a brand-new, authentic Spider-Man adventure exclusively for PlayStation 4. Take control of an experienced Peter Parker who is more masterful at fighting crime.
Marvel's Spider-Man is available exclusively for the PlayStation 4.