Doing Whatever a Spider Can

It’s not often that a game announcement at E3 surprises me. I knew going into E3 that the next Legend of Zelda game (now known to the world as “Breath of the Wild“) was destined to be on my “must play videogames” list. It almost didn’t matter what Nintendo announced. And outside of something like The Last Guardian or Persona 5, I did not expect any game at Sony’s E3 presentation that would actually make me want to buy a Playstation 4. I was able to comfortably sit out the Playstations 3 / Xbox 360 generation, and much of what I’ve been seeing this generation from Sony and Microsoft has been either remasters or sequels for games I was ambivalent towards the first time. I thought I knew what to expect this year.

How could I have known they were planning to reveal a new Spider-Man videogame?

Full disclosure: Spider-Man is far and away my favorite superhero, in part because I grew up watching the 90s cartoon on Saturday mornings. As a result I’ve seen most of the movies, read the current series of comic books, and I even own multiple lapel pins featuring the web-slinger’s disembodied head. For one reason or another though, I’ve never actually played any of the Spider-Man video games over the years. I’ve been mulling over the idea of buying the Ultimate Spider-Man videogame on eBay, but perhaps now that won’t be necessary.

This Spider-Man game may be just the first of many original videogames from Marvel. After dominating the movie box office year after year, it appears they have set their sights on videogames:

“The Marvel Games team is determined to deliver authentic Marvel experiences filled with our magic mix of action, drama, humor, romance, social relevance, and jaw-dropping awesomeness. This all-new Spider-Man game and our partnership with Sony Interactive Entertainment and Insomniac is a direct result of our wholehearted dedication to creating the best Marvel games the world has ever seen!”

If this is the next stage of Marvel’s Master Plan for Multimedia Domination, it might be more exciting than anything in the Cinematic Universe. The possibilities are truly vast: games starring the Avengers, the X-Men, or the Guardians of the Galaxy; games with bigger stories, featuring more characters and stranger villains than we can ever hope to see on film; games that don’t have the word “LEGO” in the title; maybe even an interconnected Marvel Videogame Universe.

That’s a future I’m ready for, True Believers.