Insomniac’s Latest Venom Game Rumor is Throwing Me for a…

The following contains mild spoilers for Marvel’s Spider-Man and Marvel’s Spider-Man 2.

If you ask me, the reveal of Venom in the PlayStation Showcase 2021 announcement teaser for Marvel’s Spider-Man 2, which aired not long after Marvel’s Wolverine was announced with its own teaser, undercut the sequel’s story a bit regarding what surprises were in store. It even alluded to Venom challenging Kraven and being the main villain after all, which wasn’t difficult to predict occurring sooner or later due to the symbiote’s tease back in Marvel’s Spider-Man. Notwithstanding, it pains me to say that I didn’t enjoy Marvel’s Spider-Man 2’s narrative much, and Venom is the root of several underlying gripes I have with it.

Ever since Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 was released and it was discovered that Venom has a brief playable sequence with riotous rampage mechanics in Oscorp and a boss fight against Kraven in Times Square, speculation had been rampant about whether Venom would receive a standalone game that could elaborate on his gameplay. Leaks that have struck Insomniac have claimed that such a game would come to fruition, and a recent rumor, taken with however many grains of salt as you wish, declares that Insomniac’s Venom half-sequel is still on the menu. Either way, while it could be astonishing, I fail to see how a Venom game is feasible following Marvel’s Spider-Man 2’s story.

Insomniac’s Venom Game Rumors are as Hefty as They are Problematic

Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 is only a couple of years old. However, without DLC to look forward to a la Marvel’s Spider-Man’s episodic City That Never Sleeps tale, it’s only natural that the alleged Venom game would be high on anyone’s list of hotly anticipated Marvel games, even with how little we know about it. Interestingly, according to MP1st, Insomniac’s rumored Venom game is still in development. And, if legitimate, it would also supposedly feature the following details:

A half-sequel comparable to Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales.
Eddie Brock as its protagonist and Cletus Kasady (Marvel’s Spider-Man 2’s Flame cult leader, fated to become Carnage) as its antagonist.
An Anti-Venom symbiote that’s different and more comic-accurate than the one Peter Parker currently possesses.
A release date potentially landing it somewhere in 2027, while Marvel’s Wolverine is apparently slated for a 2026 launch.

A 2027 window for what would probably be titled Marvel’s Spider-Man: Venom suggests that Marvel’s Spider-Man 3 won’t follow it until 2030 at the earliest, and that’s if Insomniac isn’t dedicating resources toward the planning and pre-production of future X-Men-related projects. It would be fair for this Venom game to release after Marvel’s Wolverine and before Marvel’s Spider-Man 3 so that its events can maybe trail directly into the latter, yet I find it tough to imagine how a Venom game could sustain itself narratively anyhow, and it boils down to the treatment of Marvel’s Spider-Man 2’s Venom and how he has impacted the series.

A Venom Game Has a Lot of Missing Lore to Account for

Firstly, I don’t see a scenario where it doesn’t feel forced or obligatory that Eddie is suddenly appearing out of thin air after only being referenced in a goodbye card addressed to Peter from his days at the Daily Bugle. It’s impossible to estimate whether Eddie would theoretically be an appropriate symbiote host when we know nothing about him in Insomniac’s Spider-Man continuity.

Plus, because he isn’t explicitly and intrinsically involved in the symbiote/host marriage that spawns Venom like he traditionally is in the comics, it no longer matters if Eddie ever comes into the picture; evidently, anyone could hypothetically be ‘Venom,’ as Harry Osborn originally bonded with the symbiote for restorative purposes.

As for the symbiote having a curative nature, it’s baffling that Eddie would presumably obtain his own Anti-Venom symbiote, particularly if that means he and Peter both have one. Does Martin Li demonstrate how grossly overpowered he is again by granting Eddie with it, or is Peter’s symbiote subsumed into Eddie’s? The answer is sure to irritate or confuse me. It’ll never cease to annoy me that Peter still has a symbiote at all, and that neither him, Miles, nor Mary Jane Watson think that’s disturbing in the slightest.

I might’ve been more content with Venom’s story taking place in a half-sequel wholly, rather than it muddying Marvel’s Spider-Man 2’s waters and making Kraven fairly forgettable. In the same way that Martin Li’s Mr. Negative went from being Marvel’s Spider-Man’s main villain to a largely back-burned yet sympathetic sub-antagonist when it was revealed that Dr. Otto Octavius was secretly forming a Sinister Six and scheming against Norman Osborn, I was disappointed that Sergei Kravinoff’s Kraven went from being Marvel’s Spider-Man 2’s main villain to a headless corpse, written out of the story expeditiously after Peter basically handed Harry the symbiote and an abrupt symbiote invasion of New York City is incited the next day.

Indeed, this would’ve assuaged a complaint about Carnage that I have, too. Marvel’s Spider-Man 2’s Flame side quest is a slow burn that sneakily and effectively leads to the revelation that Cletus Kasady is the cult leader we’ve been pursuing, and it’s not until the quest’s cliffhanger ending that Cletus conveniently procures a symbiote for himself. The problem, then, is that nothing in the sequel is a precursor to a Venom and Carnage clash or interaction.

Instead, the quest concludes with Peter and Yuri Watanabe—now the vigilante Wraith—on awkward terms in their conflicted crime-fighting partnership and the tease that they’ll join forces again when Cletus resurfaces. If the Venom game is responsible for closing the book on Carnage with insufficient exposition toward Eddie and Cletus coming across one another, and if Peter and Yuri play no role in helping defeat Cletus, it will feel disastrously unearned for the sake of a Carnage boss fight while playing as Venom.

While it could be astonishing, I fail to see how a Venom game is feasible following Marvel’s Spider-Man 2’s story.

It’s not out of the realm of possibility that I could be pleasantly surprised by what Insomniac may be cooking for a Venom half-sequel, and simply having an Ultimate Spider-Man successor where I can bound across New York City and potentially consume pedestrians would be enough to sell me on it overall. That said, I’d have high expectations for its story and a lot of questions that I hope are answered by it.

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