When Marvel’s Spider-Man hit the PS4 back in 2018, it was almost universally praised by Spider-Man fans. Over time though, sentiment on the series has started to take a turn. It didn’t start with Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales, but with the 2020 remaster of the 2018 game, which notably and bizarrely redesigned Peter Parker to substantial backlash. And then in 2023, Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 released to considerable praise. But again, it feels like public sentiment on it has worsened over time.
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This is perhaps most evident by the Marvel’s Spider-Man Reddit page, which does not just feature a good number of critical posts and comments about the series, but often features lambasting comments about its developer, Insomniac Games. One part of the series that no doubt draws more criticism than any other part though, and it’s MJ and the sections of both games that involve her. You will be hard pressed to find any praise of MJ on the Marvel’s Spider-Man Reddit page, but you can find plenty of critique.
A great example of this is one of the top posts on this Reddit page from the last week, suggesting Insomniac Games has not listened to fan feedback on the character so far.
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Not only does the popularity of the post suggest this is a commonly held take, but the comments largely echo the sentiment of the post as well.
“She’s like straight up John Wick in 2. She’s able to one shot almost every enemy. Even Peter and Miles can’t do that. Also a gang of trained mercenaries looks a lot less menacing when they get absolutely bodied by a news reporter with no powers,” reads one of the comments.
If this post wasn’t enough, there are more. This is not the only popular post this week alone criticizing Insomniac Games and the character. There are others like the one below.
“The thing is, she’s boring at best and annoying at worst. She’s just not a particularly interesting character, and the way she and her scenes are written doesn’t do her any favors,” reads the top comment on this second post. “It just feels like the writers are going, “SEE YOU SHOULD LIKE HER.”
For what it is worth, the MJ sections are not as bad in Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 as the first game, but they are still present and still plenty bad. Beyond this, the character is, as the comment above gets at, very plain and very predictable and very boring. Meanwhile, like Peter Parker, she got a pretty strong redesign in the second game that did her character no favors.
It will be interesting to see what feedback Insomniac Games takes on board with Marvel’s Spider-Man 3 and MJ. If the sequel is any indicator though, there won’t be many meaningful changes.
