One could say that the debut of the alien symbiote inMarvel’s Spider-Man 2was random or underdeveloped and they’d have a tenable argument. The black substance was teased in post-credits scenes forMarvel’s Spider-ManandMarvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales, but it wasn’t revealed untilMarvel’s Spider-Man 2that it arrived on Earth with Oscorp knowingly at the scene and that Dr. Curtis Connors needlessly lost his arm in fear of it before bonding the symbiote willingly to Harry Osborn. It was inevitable that Peter Parker would eventually bond with it, too, and Harry already knowing Peter is Spider-Man meant there were no secrets for him to suddenly learn when it also inevitably went back to him and created the Venom monstrosity.
However, that’s not even close toall thatMarvel’s Spider-Man 2lays breadcrumbs for with symbiotes. The sequel explicitly teases Knull and Carnage, gives Peter an Anti-Venom symbiote, and boasts a Mary Jane Watson boss fight as the red and yellow Scream.Marvel’s Spider-Man 2states that there is a symbiote hive mind and implies that anyone bonded to a symbiote is linked to that hive mind regardless of whether they still possess a symbiote or not and, depending on what is retconned, revised, or conveniently added to that lore inMarvel’s Spider-Man 3, it’ll be interesting to see if MJ is somehow connected to that hive mind after her brief yet significant outing as Scream.
Mary Jane Watson is Likely Embedded in the Symbiote Hive Mind
A big point of contention inMarvel’s Spider-Man 2is Peter Parker being tethered to the symbiote hive mind and thus requiring Martin Li’s Mr. Negative to pour his energy into Peter’s subconscious andawaken a restorative Anti-Venom symbiote for Peter to possess. This is highly divisive because it’s unclear if the white-and-black symbiote is now a permanent fixture in Peter’s body or if he could remove it if he wished, and if there is only seemingly one game left in theMarvel’s Spider-Manfranchise there is a lot of explaining it’ll need to do to make sense of everything the symbiotes have stirred.
Indeed, if Peter bonding with a symbiote resulted in him being connected to the hive mind despite being free of it physically, there’s a chance Mary Jane Watson may be connected to it as well. Furthermore, MJ didn’t receive a resuscitation of negative energy and obtain a curative symbiote for her troubles, which means she could definitely still be tethered to the hive mind.
The argument could be made that MJ was only a symbiote host for a fraction of the time Peter held onto his. Yet, therepressed emotions and aggression she expressed during her Scream boss fightwould suggest that the bonding process occurred instantaneously and brought her immediately to the state Peter had been in during his own boss fight—not to mention Scream already exhibiting the appearance of an alien monster and not body armor like the black symbiote had with Harry and Peter.
Marvel’s Spider-Man 3 Has Unending Questions to Answer
PerhapsPeter’s Anti-Venom powerscould disintegrate any trace of the hive mind from MJ, but regardless this will need to be followed up on inMarvel’s Spider-Man 3. If the followingMarvel’s Spider-Mangame features MJ and doesn’t allude to the idea that she may be connected to the hive mind, though, that might be Insomniac’s answer in and of itself with not much else to read into.
The symbiotes could play a huge role in the franchise yet, and that is basically what’s anticipated given that Knull and an invasion of symbiotes were foreshadowed, but the series has also been drip-feedingteases of Green Goblinfor as long as it’s been around and for symbiotes to overshadow or obfuscate that would be a mistake. How Insomniac intends to juggle all of these narrative threads will be fascinating to see wheneverMarvel’s Spider-Man 3launches in the future, and it’d be great if another half-sequel tides that wait.
