The Into the Spider-Verse movie laid the groundwork for Miles Morales to go above and beyond in his role as Spider-Man. Now, the teen stars in his own video game, Spider-Man: Miles Morales, where gamers can experience Miles' story interactively for the first time.
The film also marked Gwen Stacy's first cinematic appearance as Spider-Woman, introducing the hero to a larger audience for the first time. This version follows the general format of Gwen Stacy's Spider-Woman background: a teen drummer in a band called the Mary Janes and best friend to Peter Parker until he dies, leading her to feel responsible for his death. Now that Miles has proven characters other than the original Peter Parker can be accepted as the spidey hero in a successful AAA title, perhaps Gwen Stacy deserves a similar starring role in the next Spider-Man game.
Spider-Gwen: A Complex Background
Like Peter Parker and Miles Morales, the Spider-Woman version of Gwen Stacy holds a dark backstory involving complications with her father and the death of a loved one, mirroring the realities of other Spider-Men. Gwen Stacey ends up bitten by a radioactive spider instead of her best friend, Peter Parker. He doesn't assume the role of Spider-Man in Gwen's dedicated comic series, but rather, became this universe's version of Lizard, eventually leading to his tragic death.
Partially thanks to Into the Spider-Verse, Gwen Stacy's Spider-Woman has become widely renowned as an alternate version of New York's hero. Many critics have gone on to say that Spider-Gwen succeeds thanks to being given a well-written backstory while also having a likable personality, mixing sarcasm and wit with self-perception issues and complex feelings.
Having the successful backstory and plot for Spider-Gwen already set up, Insomniac could easily translate this into a video game where, like Miles Morales, gamers could experience her version of the story interactively for the first time. So long as the developers were to keep with the same tone and personality along with her well-received plot, a Spider-Gwen-centered game would likely be a huge hit.
Refreshing Change to Combat
While Miles does has a variety of new abilities as Spider-Man such as Venom Strike and invisibility, combat between Spider-Man and Spider-Man: Miles Morales is largely the same. The two have nearly the same set of moves aside from Miles' special powers, and both utilize gadgets as a large element in their combat thanks to their genius minds keen on technology and science. Some versions of Gwen Stacy also write her this way, but Spider-Gwen often does not feature these characteristics. However, this would be a great opportunity for changing up some supporting gameplay while keeping with the same Spider-Man formula and moves.
For example, in the comics, Spider-Gwen is given her web shooters by Janet Van Dyne (also known as Wasp), and they uniquely use moisture from the air to create her webs. This means that Gwen will never run out of webbing as long as she's not in an abnormally dry space, but this also leaves room for specific technology tailored to Spider-Woman.
Many fans have also speculated on the musical side of Gwen Stacy. For example, in Into the Spider-Verse, she was given ballet shoes as part of her Spider-Woman costume because it added a nice supporting touch to her background as a drummer. This brings up the interesting idea that Gwen Stacey's combat could be more rhythmic and flow more like dancing that Peter or Miles' fighting stances do. Combining her ballet dancing with her edgy side being in a punk band, it could lead to a fun spin on the classic gameplay featured in both Spider-Man games so far.
Spider-Man: Miles Morales is out now for PS4 and PS5.