Spider-Man may be one of the most popular heroes of all time, but by adding him to the roster of Marvel's Midnight Suns, Firaxis Games is repeating the same mistake as Marvel's Avengers. Spider-Man is one of Marvel's best heroes, and Marvel's Spider-Man, one of Marvel's best games, is a testament to how well the character's story and power set can be adapted into video game form. That, coupled with the fact that the web-slinger is arguably Marvel's most popular and beloved hero, makes for a good case to include him on just about any cross-over hero roster in Marvel games. However, this has led to Spider-Man becoming one of Marvel's most overused heroes in video games, with each appearance feeling less and less unique or interesting.
While it's understandable that many games will want to capitalize on Spider-Man's popularity, his saturation in Marvel video games makes it all the more frustrating when he's added into a game he really doesn't belong in, such as the Midnight Suns roster, which already doesn't make sense. When Marvel's Midnight Suns was first announced, the trailer seemed to focus primarily on the darker, supernatural themes and characters from the Marvel Universe. This, coupled with the fact that it borrows its name from the Midnight Sons team in Marvel comics, which is an all-supernatural team, it seemed as though Marvel's Midnight Suns might be focusing on some of the lesser-used supernatural heroes. However, things quickly seemed off with the announcement that popular heroes such as Captain America, Iron Man, and Captain Marvel would be playable, despite none of them having a supernatural focus.
The inclusion of Spider-Man into the roster further takes the focus away from the supernatural elements of the game. While Marvel's Midnight Suns could have included Morbius or other Spider-Man adjacent characters who would have fit the game's theme better, Firaxis Games instead chose to include the web-slinger, and he feels out of place. This not only creates a problem with the game's supernatural focus, but it also furthers the Spider-Man problem in Marvel video games, continually making him a less interesting and desirable character with each new appearance. Spider-Man has obviously featured in a number of supernatural stories in the six decades since his first comics appearance, but it's not the character's main focus, which makes his appearance in Marvel's Midnight Suns feel less organic than other inclusions.
Marvel's Avengers Didn't Need Spider-Man Either
Marvel's Midnight Suns' Spider-Man mistake somewhat mirrors a similar mistake made by Marvel's Avengers. In November of 2021, Marvel's Avengers added an MCU-inspired Spider-Man as a playable character, a decision that was controversial for a few big reasons. The biggest of these reasons was that Spider-Man was exclusive to the PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5 versions of the game, but many players were also frustrated because they wanted to see the developers focus on characters that were more commonly linked with the Avengers team and hadn't recently had their own game. When Spider-Man became playable in Marvel's Avengers, it was hard not to compare his gameplay mechanics with those of Marvel's Spider-Man, which had the advantage, considering that the sole focus of Insomniac's game was the web-slinger.
In addition to this issue, Marvel's Avengers' Spider-Man released without any story missions, making him feel very out of place in the game's heavily story-driven world. This, coupled with the fact that Spider-Man had been a playable character in a host of recent games, such as Marvel's Spider-Man, Marvel Ultimate Alliance 3, and Marvel Future Revolution, made Spidey's inclusion in Marvel's Avengers feel weak and uninteresting. With so many versions of Spider-Man in video games fighting for fans' attention, each version is starting to blend together and lose its uniqueness. This may be a sign that it's time to let Spider-Man rest for a bit, at least until Marvel's Spider-Man 2 releases, and let games like Marvel's Midnight Suns focus on characters that fit their theme and story better.