Mad, Upset, and Uninformed: Peter Parker’s Face in Marvel’s Spider-Man 2
Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 is one of the most highly anticipated games of the year. The PlayStation Showcase gave us 10 minutes of gameplay featuring new villains, switching between both Spider-Men, and the symbiote suit. The discourse surrounding the sequel isn’t about any of these new features but it’s about something they revealed back in September 2020. The new face for Peter Parker.
Back when this was announced for Marvel’s Spider-Man Remastered, this same discourse happened. Insomniac Games switched from John Bubniak to Ben Jordan as the face model. In the PlayStation Blog post, they said it was “to get a better match to Peter Parker/Spider-Man actor Yuri Lowenthal’s facial capture.”
Fans were not happy with this decision, including myself. I wasn’t pissed but thrown off by the change. This outrage became so big that Bryan Intihar, Creative Director at Insomniac Games, issued a statement saying they did not make this choice lightly and the change was a necessity. I wrote an article called “About the new Peter Parker model…” to get my thoughts out there. I closed my piece by saying “only time will tell as fans still want the older actor back or a new person all together.”
As we move into 2023, people are still not happy with the new face. If you’ve played Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales, you would’ve seen the new model in action for the small time it was on screen. More importantly, Marvel’s Spider-Man Remastered uses the new face model throughout the whole adventure. After playing the remaster, I’m fine with the new face model. I see him as an older Peter Parker in his mid-20s. I also see the enhanced facial capture.
Admittedly, I did not love John Bubniak’s face as Peter at first. I think after many people played the game with John’s face, they’re attached to this version of Peter. I am also attached to John’s face (to a certain extent) but Insomniac Games have moved on and we should too. I’m going to repeat a sentiment I said on my podcast (The Travis & Damian Podcast) when this news happened: Peter Parker is just another white boy. There’s no reason to be so upset and outraged at this model when the idea of Spider-Man is anyone can wear the mask. Insomniac Games knew what it meant to transition to the PlayStation 5 and had to ditch John Bubniak’s likeness in the process. This change was made in September 2020 and people still don’t know why they changed it, even though the information is out there. It still blows my mind when people ask “why did they change it” when Insomniac Games clarified it was to capture Yuri’s performance better. And if you’ve played the remaster, you’ll see it.
A tweet that has more than 90,000 likes and 9.5 million views says “just realized we’re gonna see this mf in Spider-Man 2 with a symbiote suit instead of the original peter 😭😭”.
While I do find this tweet to be funny, fans will be proven wrong when Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 releases. Yuri’s performance as symbiote Spider-Man is already stellar and I’m eager to see how he looks with the mask off. The facial capture has to be better with the game in development for the PlayStation 5 only.
People online agree with me in the new face model being the way, not only because Insomniac Games isn’t changing it but because it does look better in capturing Yuri’s performance. If you are upset by Ben Jordan’s face and haven’t played the remaster for yourself, play the remaster and come back to me. I’m sure you’ll notice the subtle face capture differences. And if you’re still upset, then that’s your opinion. It’s been almost 3 years since the face model has changed. I think it’s about time we move on. Insomniac Games aren’t going to change it, no matter how much outrage is happening online. It’s time to suck it up and accept this change entirely.
Travis “tvsonic” Vuong
Business e-mail: travisvuong56@gmail.com
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