Marvel's Spider-Man 3 is a difficult balancing act in terms of scope

Highlights

Marvel’s Spider-Man franchise strikes a balance between thrilling heroics without sacrificing the character’s human essence.
Insomniac Games faces the challenge of raising the stakes while maintaining the intimate, city-focused storytelling that characterizes the series.
Marvel’s Spider-Man 3 must find a way to introduce threatening villains without diluting what makes the series so special: the charm and identification with Spider-Man.

There is much to be excited about when it comes to the future of Marvel’s Spider-ManThe franchise has proven itself not only to be an entertaining game series, but also a convincing implementation of the Spider Man Mythos does a great job of portraying its main heroes and villains, and with them at the helm, it tells imaginative and entertaining stories. But while the road ahead looks promising, there are also some potential obstacles that Insomniac Games will have to overcome.

Interestingly, many of these obstacles are also present in the series’ comic and film counterparts: long-form superhero stories can get a little tricky over time, as the stories often become too big and complicated for their own good. Take the Marvel Cinematic Universe, for example. One of the problems with the MCU is that after the events of Avengers: Endgameit’s hard to tell stories with the same seriousness; when the fate of half the galaxy is at stake, other threats just don’t seem as important. Marvel’s Spider-Man isn’t quite there yet, but there’s a similar risk of poorly balancing the narrative stakes.

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Marvel’s Spider-Man is a nice change from other Spider-Man media

Spider Man Stories often deal with the balance between the relatable heroics of the title character on the road and the bigger, more bombastic ideas of the larger Marvel Universe. The two leading Spider Man Film adaptations – the MCU and Spider-Vers Movies – lean on the cosmic, high-concept aspects of Marvel more than anything else, pitting Spider-Man against enemies on a galactic scale, sending him into space, or blasting him across the multiverse. That can be great, but it’s also an approach that loses a little of what makes the character unique.

Marvel’s Spider-Man does not leave New York City or take on any major threats or space antics. Creatures like The Fantastic Four and Doctor Strange are referenced, but they remain far removed from the story, allowing Insomniac to write smaller-scale adventures whose outcome determines the fate of New York rather than the entire planet or galaxy. This is not only refreshing after the zoomed-out approach of other modern Spider Man adaptations, but in some respects also more effective: a disaster that strikes a single city or a single district is easier to understand and comprehend than the more abstract concept of a threat to the entire planet or to several planets.

Marvel’s Spider-Man 3 might have a hard time raising the stakes

Smaller stories might make for more interesting storytelling, but building a blockbuster franchise requires higher stakes with each entry. The problem is that Marvel’s Spider-Man 3is clear: Insomniac must decide how big its next story should be. Spider-Man has a huge rogues gallery to draw from, but many of these villains have their goals far beyond New York City and often aim to dominate the globe or even more. To Marvel’s Spider-Man To keep the saga exciting and interesting, Insomniac may need to expand further by introducing these menacing villains and grander concepts, and ultimately changing the identity of the series.

A threat on the same level as Doc Ock in Marvel’s Spider-Man or Venom in Spider Man 2 might be disappointing, but the usual comic book approach of introducing bigger ideas might dilute what makes the series so special. After all, there are countless video games about futuristic battles for Earth or cosmic conflicts, but there’s only one series about Spider-Man swinging around New York City, charming audiences with his wit and homespun seriousness.