Even more than in movies, video games are the perfect opportunity to portray the power fantasies inherent in everyone’s favorite superheroes. Marvel: Ultimate Alliance and its sequel let you put together your own superhero team, the Batman: Arkham games did a remarkably immersive job of making players feel like the World’s Greatest Detective, and it’s so easy to lose yourself in Insomniac’s Spider-Man series just by swinging around New York City. Not only can games craft a gameplay loop that fits the abilities of a comic book character, but it also provides a level of direct control that fans have wished for since the moment they saw Batman or Iron Man on the page.
While there have been games like Square Enix’s Avengers and Rocksteady’s Suicide Squad released over the last 10 years, the decade has belonged to Insomniac’s Spider-Man franchise. A massive hit when the first game dropped back in 2018, it was followed by a Miles Morales spin-off and a sequel, 2023’s Spider-Man 2, which quickly became one of the best-selling PlayStation games ever. Insomniac has no plans to slow down, with another Spider-Man sequel on the way alongside game adaptations of other Marvel properties… including a fast-approaching release based on a certain feral Canadian.
