{"id":47026,"date":"2019-07-25T06:00:35","date_gmt":"2019-07-25T10:00:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.shamusyoung.com\/twentysidedtale\/?p=47026"},"modified":"2019-07-12T02:19:34","modified_gmt":"2019-07-12T06:19:34","slug":"spider-man-part-22-exposition-central","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.shamusyoung.com\/twentysidedtale\/?p=47026","title":{"rendered":"Spider-Man Part 22: Exposition Central"},"content":{"rendered":"

Let’s back up a bit and talk about a scene that takes place at the height of the city-wide crisis, before Spider-Man defeats Electro, Vulture, Scorpion, and Rhino. We get a moment where Spider-Man shows up to a burning building to save Miles and Aunt may. One thing leads to another, and MJ and Miles end up saving Spider-Man. Then our three heroes gather on the roof to process what’s going on in the city. It’s a great scene that allows MJ and Spider-Man to reconcile and gives some character development to Miles. This is the first time we’ve had all three of our hero characters togetherTechnically they all attended the Osborn rally, but they hadn’t been introduced at that point.<\/span> and now we get to see them bond and make plans.<\/p>\n

It’s also a bit of a funny scene because Spider-Man and MJ have to pretend to be casual acquaintances instead of an ex-couple. Miles is charming, eager, and a little star-struck.<\/p>\n

Spider-Man thanks MJ for saving his life, and she turns it around by pointing out how often he’s saved hers. It’s pretty clear that this bugs her. Yes, maybe Spider-Man is a touch overprotective, but maybe she’s a little overly defensive about it and maybe this partnership would work better if they both relaxed a little. I know I keep saying this, but I really like this new take on the characters and I find this dynamic so much more interesting than the original version of the relationship between down-on-his-luck Peter Parker and his wealthy glamorous supermodel actress wife.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Not a Damsel<\/h3>\n

Isn't it about time for one of you idiots to get captured?<\/div>
Isn't it about time for one of you idiots to get captured?<\/div><\/p>\n

I really appreciate that MJ is never a damsel in this story. Sure, she gets captured at one point as part of a group of hostages, but we never have a moment where the bad guy kidnaps her specifically for leverage over Spider-Man. Even when she is captured, it’s because she was doing something heroic and not just standing on the sidelines. She’s also proactive about getting herself out of trouble.<\/p>\n

This is not to say that having heroes rescue their romantic partners is inherently a bad thing. Having a damselWe need a masculine \/ neutral form of damsel. Like, “damsor” or something.<\/span> is a fine concept for a story and it’s a great way to unite two divergent plot threads so that the romance story can converge with the “stop the evil villain” story. This is particularly true in movies where time constraints are the most strict and the audience expects everything to tie into the main plot.\u00a0I understand why damsels are so popular, but it’s also been really overdone. It’s also frequently done poorly<\/i>, which doesn’t help matters. So I’m glad the writer did something different here.<\/p>\n

Once Spider-Man is done with the Electro & Vulture fight and the Rhino & Scorpion fight, it’s time to see about curing this disease.<\/p>\n

The Cure<\/h3>\n

I don't know who told this guard to stand in a corner facing the wall (probably Silver Sable) but it sure does make tasering him a lot easier.<\/div>
I don't know who told this guard to stand in a corner facing the wall (probably Silver Sable) but it sure does make tasering him a lot easier.<\/div><\/p>\n

Spider-Man correctly assumes that Oscorp must have some sort of cure. His concern is that if it exists, Martin and Doctor Octopus will probably snatch it before it can be deployed. To prevent this, Spider-Man needs to find it first.<\/p>\n

The problem is that the Devil’s Breath lab location is off the books. MJ uses all of her reporter superpowersGiven how easy it is for fictional reporters to gather protected information via casual web surfing or happenstance, it basically qualifies as a superpower.<\/span> and comes up with nothing. Spidey and MJ concluded that the best place to check is in Norman Osborn’s penthouse.<\/p>\n

MJ sneaks in. The next section of the game feels more like a Telltale game than a Marvel-branded action adventure. MJ has to talk to a person to talk to another person to enter a thing to find a thing to open a thing to get a combination to open another thing so she can read a thing that explains a thing granting access to another thing. \u00a0It’s not bad if you enjoy that sort of people-talking and thing-getting, but if you’re just here for the web-swinging and face-punching then it’ll probably really test your patience.<\/p>\n

MJ is afraid she'll be discovered by Silver Sable, but she's got nothing to worry about. MJ is not Spider-Man, which means that the Silver Simpleton is not a threat to her.<\/div>
MJ is afraid she'll be discovered by Silver Sable, but she's got nothing to worry about. MJ is not Spider-Man, which means that the Silver Simpleton is not a threat to her.<\/div><\/p>\n

Halfway through this section it adds a bunch of Sable agents for you to stealth around, but they’re nearsighted and brain-dead. They slow the player down without challenging them. Like I said earlier in this series, the stealth in this game is really shallow and isn’t strong enough to justify the time we spend with it.<\/p>\n

Also, MJ slips right by Silver Sable and enters Norman’s exclusive penthouse elevator, even though Silver Sable is on maximum-paranoid alert because everyone’s afraid Martin the Terrorist is coming for Osborn. Taken in isolation this would be fine, but like every scene she’s in it just underscores how much she sucks at everything. The only<\/b> thing she succeeds at in this story is beating up Spider-Man. Like I said earlier in this series, this character is not cool enough to best Spider-Man. If she’s supposed to be an awesome badass that Spider-Man needs to take seriously, then the story needs to stop showing us she’s a failure at everything from covert operations to dressing herself in the morning.<\/p>\n

Exposition Station<\/h3>\n

At the end of all the messing around, MJ gets into a secret room where Norman Osborn has been storing all of his top secret exposition. It’s not a big room, but four different plot threads intersect here.<\/p>\n

Earlier the story revealed that Harry Osborn is in 'Europe'. As it turns out, this tank is Europe.<\/div>
Earlier the story revealed that Harry Osborn is in 'Europe'. As it turns out, this tank is Europe.<\/div><\/p>\n

1) We get some foreshadowing for the end-game reveal.<\/b><\/p>\n

While exploring the Osborn penthouse, MJ discovers a bunch of medical equipment in Harry Osborn’s room. Harry is the same age as Peter and MJ, and in the comics he was occasionally Peter’s best friend and sometimes the Green Goblin. He was supposedly in Europe for the duration of this gameAll of the silly science station missions were supposedly Peter Parker looking after Harry’s science projects while he was “in Europe”.<\/span>, but here it becomes clear that he’s not on vacation, he’s sick.<\/p>\n

In the Amazing Spider-Man movies, Norman Osborn dies of a family-specific genetic disease and Harry inherits it. Here in this story, his mother is the one who died of Plot Syndrome and Norman is doing all this crazy dangerous research to save his son. Which means that Norman Osborn created Devil’s Breath because of his love for his son, not out of a sense of greed or a desire to make weapons.<\/p>\n

There’s a science-tank here that looks big enough for a person. At the end of the game we’ll see that Harry is floating in this tank. I’ll talk more about that reveal when we get to it.<\/p>\n

The Martin Li footage is filmed in grainy underlit shaky-cam, like a found-footage horror film.<\/div>
The Martin Li footage is filmed in grainy underlit shaky-cam, like a found-footage horror film.<\/div><\/p>\n

2) We get a video showing the “origin” of Martin the Terrorist.<\/b><\/p>\n

There’s some archival footage showing Norman Osborn and Otto Octavius doing unexplained science on a kid with an unexplained problem that causes the kid to give off an explosion of particle effects that kill his parents. Also, the game hints that the science juice that bestowed \/ activated Martin’s powers was an earlier version of Devil’s BreathThe footage in question comes from a file called “GR-27 Martin Li Incident”. The GR prefix is used by Oscorp for Devil’s Breath projects.<\/span>, which is… weird. Was Norman working on this stuff all those years ago? Wasn’t that before any of the Osborns got sick? But then what was this formula for? I know tying disparate plot threads together is Comic Book Writing 101, but I don’t see the point here. It doesn’t tell us anything or mean anything.<\/p>\n

More importantly, none of this helps justify Martin’s wonky behavior, and it also introduces new questions about why he’s willing to work for Octavius. Why does he hate Osborn so bad but have no apparent hate for Octavius? Does he blame Octavius for what happened? Does he know Doctor Octopus is Otto Octavius? Does he care?<\/p>\n

How are we supposed to feel about Osborn? From the footage it seems like he was just trying to help the kid. Was he doing something unethical? Was he taking needless risks in the name of personal glory? Was he careless? Did he cut corners?<\/p>\n

After the accident Otto says to Norman, “What have you done?”<\/p>\n

Yeah, what DID he do? I couldn’t tell in this blurry shaky cam footage.<\/p>\n

The story never bothered to explain why Martin spends so much effort killing innocents and never tries to hurt Osborn. At the same time, it doesn’t properly frame Osborn’s supposed crime. Why spend this time showing us this origin story if you’re not going to put it into the proper context?<\/p>\n

Every time I interact with the Martin plot I feel like I missed a major scene somewhere. Was something cut from the game? Am I supposed to have read the comic? Everything else in this story is structured properly, so why does the Martin plot feel like there are pages missing?<\/p>\n

Let's make our unique hero \/ villain less special by diluting them and filling the world with lame knockoffs that have twice the power and none of the character depth! This has never caused problems in the comics!<\/div>
Let's make our unique hero \/ villain less special by diluting them and filling the world with lame knockoffs that have twice the power and none of the character depth! This has never caused problems in the comics!<\/div><\/p>\n

3) There are some science spiders in here, along with research trying to reverse engineer Spider-Man’s abilities.<\/b><\/p>\n

I have so many questions.<\/p>\n

How do people know Spidey got his powers from a spider bite? This is a Marvel universe. You can even see Avengers tower here in Manhattan. This means that nothing is off the table in terms of super origins. Maybe he’s a mutant? Maybe he’s got a technology suit? Maybe he got it from a super-soldier thing that has nothing to do with spiders? Maybe he’s an alien. Maybe a wizard did it? A god?<\/p>\n

On top of that, these spiders work. At the end of the game one of our heros gets bitten and turns super. If Norman is testing these spiders, then why doesn’t he know they work? If he does know they work, why isn’t the city filled with Spider-Man knockoffs?<\/p>\n

Worst of all, I really don’t like that the writer is leaving a door open to fill this world with spider-people. I kinda liked the idea that Peter Parker’s gift was a random, never-replicated miracle and thus he’s special.<\/p>\n

Back in the 90s, comic writers cooked up an excuse to flood the world with more alien symbiote<\/a>s. It didn’t give us any cool new villainsAlthough it did give us plenty of lame ones<\/a>.<\/span>, but it did serve to make Venom less special and interesting. I’d hate to see that happen to Spider-Man himself.<\/p>\n

This dullard is supposedly a badass that can take on Spider-Man, but here she's losing a game of one-room hide-and-seek.<\/div>
This dullard is supposedly a badass that can take on Spider-Man, but here she's losing a game of one-room hide-and-seek.<\/div><\/p>\n

4) We learn the location of the Devil’s Breath antiserum, which is our real goal in coming here.<\/b><\/p>\n

Once MJ is done downloading all the exposition off the computer and solving the “ages 3 and up” puzzle to locate the facility where the antiserum is produced, she bumbles into one of the spider containers and shatters it.<\/p>\n

The noise attracts Silver Sable, who comes in and fails to find a young reporter who has no covert training, who is just hiding behind a table in a room the size of a one-stall garage. It’s shocking how terrible Silver Sable is at everything that doesn’t involve beating up Spider-Man.<\/p>\n

Escape<\/h3>\n

You guys might want to hold on a tighter than that. I imagine the G-forces are pretty strong at the bottom of these swings.<\/div>
You guys might want to hold on a tighter than that. I imagine the G-forces are pretty strong at the bottom of these swings.<\/div><\/p>\n

MJ has to slip through the net of fresh Sable agents. She can’t reach the elevator, so she heads for the balcony and calls Spider-Man for help. Sable agents are closing in. Out of options, she jumps off the roof and Spider-Man arrives just in time to catch her.<\/p>\n

This moment always gets a smile out of me. It completes the relationship arc and solidifies them as a team. Spider-Man was able to allow MJ to walk into the heart of Sable security to get the info they needed, and MJ was able to ask for his help when she got in trouble. Her complete trust in Spider-Man was perfectly symbolized with a literal leap of faith and ended with the two of them escaping in each other’s arms. It’s a great moment at the end of a well-executed story thread. Each character overcomes a personal weakness, and by doing so they overcome the problem that was holding their relationship back. Beautifully done.<\/p>\n

I want to stress how much I love this scene because it stands in sharp contrast to the next one, which is the worst part of the game.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Let’s back up a bit and talk about a scene that takes place at the height of the city-wide crisis, before Spider-Man defeats Electro, Vulture, Scorpion, and Rhino. We get a moment where Spider-Man shows up to a burning building to save Miles and Aunt may. One thing leads to another, and MJ and Miles […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[612],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-47026","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-retrospectives"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shamusyoung.com\/twentysidedtale\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47026","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shamusyoung.com\/twentysidedtale\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shamusyoung.com\/twentysidedtale\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shamusyoung.com\/twentysidedtale\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shamusyoung.com\/twentysidedtale\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=47026"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/www.shamusyoung.com\/twentysidedtale\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47026\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":47537,"href":"https:\/\/www.shamusyoung.com\/twentysidedtale\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47026\/revisions\/47537"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shamusyoung.com\/twentysidedtale\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=47026"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shamusyoung.com\/twentysidedtale\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=47026"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shamusyoung.com\/twentysidedtale\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=47026"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}