Not unlike how Peter Parker catches Mary Jane Watson’s cafeteria tray and all of its airborne food items in Sam Raimi’s originalSpider-Manmovie, Insomniac balances a lot on its plate inMarvel’s Spider-Man 2. However, not every ingredient inMarvel’s Spider-Man 2lands back on the plate as neatly as it was placed there, and its third act is where its storytelling is mired while dumping an entire symbiote invasion into the mixture. Now, with everything the mainline sequel endeavored to establish in its campaign and side quests, it seems obvious that not many unannounced villains may be inMarvel’s Spider-Man 3.
Moreover,Marvel’s Spider-Man 2’s series of mini-games and rides at Coney Islandwere likely a nod to which antagonists aren’t making the cut in future installments. There’s no real threat ofMarvel’s Spider-Man 3only featuring high-profile villains but, with at least Green Goblin, Doctor Octopus, Carnage, and Chameleon on the docket, it seems as if Insomniac wants to close out its web-slinging saga as an epic blockbuster. If there’s room at all for anyone who Insomniac would need to introduce to many players for the first time, though, Swarm—or perhaps SWARM—already has as close of an in as they may ever get.
Emily-May’s Emphasis on Bees Seems Too Specific to Be a Coincidence in Marvel’s Spider-Man 2
TheEmily-May Foundationhas a lot to peruse but, similar to the underwater and outer space exhibits at Oscorp inMiles Morales’ flashback, doesn’t appear to have any blatant Easter eggs or teases to dissect about how future villains’ origins could play out. Indeed, there was no effort made to have the symbiote be a substance Oscorp found while exploring deep space; it simply landed on Earth and Oscorp happened to locate it according to the context provided in a brief flashback. Still, there’s a sliver of a chance, if Insomniac wanted, that Swarm could materialize from the peculiar emphasis on bees that Emily-May displays to players.
To be clear, nothing about this scene seems to explicitly suggest Swarm is being teased forMarvel’s Spider-Man’s upcoming titles.
TheEMF experiments involving bee drones in the Entomology labnever truly allude to anything more than the environmentally and technologically conscious startup’s goals for sustainability and restoration, backed with Osborn funding. Regardless, it’s a remarkably long lab sequence dedicated to bee imagery and not one that players have the option to experience on their own terms like feeding fish nearby, making it seem unmistakably important beyond simply introducing players to one of the EMF mini-games they’d see later on.
SWARM’s History in Marvel’s Spider-Man Deserves to Make Its Way to Games
Swarm’s source material backstory as Fritz von Meyer is obscure if not convoluted and would surely be uneasy to convert to anything comparable inMarvel’s Spider-Man, let alone a presumed final entry in the series where not much time is going to be afforded to any character who hasn’t already been revealed thus far. That’s not for a lack of trying, though.
Marvel’s Spider-Manhad J. Jonah Jameson mention a “Nazi made out of bees”while a tie-in comic book,Spider-Man: City at War #2, literally features the villain as SWARM (Symbiotic Warfare Anthophila Restraining Model).
Assuming this rare dialogue line and comic book are still considered canon, SWARM actually exists as a villain already and that should be enough of a foot in the door forMarvel’s Spider-Man 3to lean on Emily-May’s old Entomology bee lab heavily and induct SWARM into its roster of in-game antagonists. SWARM’s design for the comic is easily one of the most original and extraordinary aesthetics of any lesser-known villain adaptation, and it’d be a shame not to see it in-gamebefore Insomniac closes the book onMarvel’s Spider-Man.
