Summary
Spider-Man 2 is a game about redemption, and I’ll be explaining that with evidence, so don’t read on if you’re avoiding spoilers. This theme is evident very early on in the game, as it reintroduces you to familiar villains from Spider-Man’s world and shows you how they go on the straight and narrow.
Tombstone, who you have the opportunity to soundly defeat in the first Spider-Man game, is now working as a carnival worker, picking up go-kart racers when they wipe out and keeping them safe. Mysterio now runs a series of next-gen entertainment centers, though they’re severely malfunctioning – he’s doing his best. The Lizard, Dr. Connors, is helping treat Harry’s illness. Black Cat isn’tquitereformed, but seems more interested in getting to Paris to keep her girlfriend safe than benefiting herself. And, of course, the Prowler gives up his crime-doing ways and passes on his tech to Miles.
At the same time as all this redemption, the symbiote makes Peter increasingly aggressive and moody as he bonds with it. He becomes less and less like himself, going so far as almost killing Kraven before Miles stops him and convinces him to remove the symbiote. He does a lot of harm to a lot of people, defying the principles he stands for because of the corrupting influence of the alien creature he wears as a suit.
The symbiote has been used as an allegory for many things over the years, includingaddictionand mental illness.
The villains have to reckon with the choices they’ve made in the past and consciously choose to make better choices in the face of difficulty. It’s easy to go back to what you know, to do the things that hurt you, because it’s familiar – going against your instincts to do the good, right thing is much harder. Peter, in turn, has to go against the symbiote to make better choices, which is made even harder because the symbiote amplifies the worst parts of his personality, emphasising his insecurities. Every character must do the work to redeem themselves.
I’ve always loved redemption arcs, largely because they remind me that people can change. I spent my early twenties in therapy, learning to cope with my mental health and substance abuse issues, and stopped going a few years ago when my therapist told me I’d shown a marked improvement. Also, I’d clearly run out of things to talk about in sessions, and she felt bad taking my money just to gossip. I haven’t gone back since – when I think about returning, I often feel like I’ve done my time. I did the work, twice a month for years, and I’m not the person I was then anymore. Redemption arcs tell me that I don’t have to be the person I was when I was younger and that I can change the kind of person I am simply by acting differently. I am not inherently good or inherently bad, and my actions define me because I have no inherent self.
But that means choosing to do the right thing, forever. Without getting into the weeds of it, I’ve been having a hard time lately, and more and more, I’m noticing my bad mood rubbing off on other people. This is one of those situations in which I’m aware that I’m being a bit of a jerk, and I know there are steps I can take to improve the overall vibes. In this case, I could reach out for help and go back to therapy. It’s the kinder thing to do for the people around me, and it lowers the chances of me doing or saying something that hurts my loved ones.
Real life isn’t authored by a room of writers, and my life isn’t going to fit neatly into a single redemption arc that fixes my problems forever. The very human writing of Spider-Man 2’s characters reminded me that no villain has to stay a villain, and I don’t have to be the villain in somebody else’s life just because things are hard right now. I can and will take the steps towards making myself a better person, because nobody else will do it for me.
