Marvel’s Spider-Man PS4: Meet Peter Parker’s Villains in the Game With Our Official Guide

Editor’s Note: If you haven’t played/completed the game, this article contains spoilers.

A hero is only as good as the world, and the villain(s) he’s presented with, pushes him to be. Fortunately (unfortunately) for Peter Parker, his rogues’ gallery can line up the length of the Manhattan Bridge.

Marvel's Spider-Man PS4 Game Villains:

• Kingpin (Wilson Fisk)
• Mister Negative (Martin Li)
• Inner Demons
• Norman Osborn
• Silver Sable (Silver Sablinova)
• Sable Agents
• Tombstone (Lonnie Lincoln)
• Taskmaster
• Shocker (Herman Schultz)
• Screwball
• Sinister Six
  • Rhino (Aleksei Systevich)
  • Electro (Max Dillon)
  • Scorpion (Mac Gargan)
  • Vulture (Adrian Toomes)
• Doctor Octopus (Otto Octavius)
• Black Cat (Felicia Hardy)

In Marvel’s Spider-Man, available now on PS4, an experience Peter Parker has been protecting the city of New York for the past 8 years. With Wilson Fisk AKA Kingpin finally behind bars, life for the city will return to normal…being easy…idyllic, right? Wrong. Kingpin’s absence propels the city into chaos. While Peter Parker is out trying to navigate his personal and professional lives, Spider-Man must now contend with a new crop of adversaries looking to settle some scores, with no regard of who they pull into the fray.

How did Marvel Games and Insomniac Games ultimately decided who would pop up throughout the game? Marvel Games’ executive creative director Bill Rosemann stated, “Because Spider-Man has such an incredible rogues’ gallery — definitely competitive with the foes of hero in fiction — selecting which villains made the cut was agonizing. There were several factors at play when it came to the decision-making process, such as gameplay potential, the different challenges and flavors each would bring, and also realizing how many is enough. When it comes to who players would want to fight, the first answer is ‘all of them,’ but then you have to figure out the right balance so that the experience doesn’t feel rushed and shallow, and the final number allows you the time and resources to fully deliver on their potential.”

As you witness the story of Marvel’s Spider-Man unfold for yourself, Rosemann teased, “This swerve from past Spidey cannon will have players on the edge of their seat, wondering where the twists and turns of our story will take them.”

Let’s begin with the man who kicks off the game:

KINGPIN

Wilson Fisk AKA Kingpin, long-time nemesis of Spider-Man, has been ruling New York’s organized crime syndicate under the guise as a philanthropic businessman. He strongly believes “I’m the one who brought order to this city.” A thorn in Spidey’s side the past 8 years, when the opportunity arose, Spider-Man leapt at the chance to help NYPD Captain Yuri Watanabe take in Fisk. His arrest spurs a power vacuum across New York.

MISTER NEGATIVE

Mister Negative is a man divided, and this duality presents a complication for Peter Parker. To the public, Martin Li is an incredible humanitarian and businessman who is creating great impact within the city with his F.E.A.S.T. shelters that aid the homeless. A friend to Peter, Martin Li is also a boss to Peter’s Aunt May who runs one of F.E.A.S.T.’s shelters.

However, within Martin Li, lies Mister Negative, a ruthless and violent leader of the Inner Demons gang, with the ability to wield and imbue himself and others with dark energy. Mister Negative is determined to enact revenge on Mayor Osborn, who he believes is responsible for his volatile state, even if it takes down and destroys NYC.

When it came to designing Martin Li/Mister Negative’s duality, Marvel Games art director Tim Tsang shared “Mister Negative's power and abilities are so tied to who he is narratively and visually, it was important for the team to clearly design and communicate who Martin Li is and what he is about in order to successfully introduce this character to the world.”

Insomniac Games’ studio art director Jacinda Chew added, “We put a lot of detail and life into F.E.A.S.T. to show Li’s compassionate side. You can see how much he loves F.E.A.S.T. and appreciates Aunt May during her surprise party and when he hands F.E.A.S.T. over to Aunt May. While Mister Negative’s corrupted world showed the demons that he battled with. It’s a dark shadowy world that stands in contrast to the warmth of F.E.A.S.T. There, his own inner demon takes the form of an actual demon.”

NORMAN OSBORN

Norman Osborn, head of Oscorp, his corporation that deals with experimental technology, now the mayor of New York City who is seeking re-election. A high-ranking official who has spurned a lot of his constituents, the Norman Osborn in the game doesn’t veer into his comic book persona, Green Goblin. Mayor Osborn faces the challenge of imposing order following the power vacuum Kingpin’s arrest and capture caused.

SILVER SABLE

Mayor Osborn consults the mercenary Silver Sablinova AKA Silver Sable and her network of Sable Agents following the attack on his re-election campaign rally to deal with his Inner Demons problem and restore order in the city. This works puts her in Spider-Man’s path on more than one occasion.

TOMBSTONE

Lonnie Lincoln AKA Tombstone is a fearsome, brutal, albino criminal with razor-sharp teeth, impenetrable skin and superhuman strength, looking to expand his illegal empire via Mister Negative. Don’t miss his true potential in a side mission.

TASKMASTER

The mercenary and prodigious savant of mnemonic talents known as Taskmaster provokes Spidey to challenges around the city in order to observe and mimic Spidey’s signature moves with his “Photographic Reflexes.”

SHOCKER

Something has motivated Herman Schultz, the long-time Spidey nemesis known as Shocker, with the power to shock and awe with his high-tech suit and vibro-shock gauntlets, to turn things up to 11 in the game.

SCREWBALL

In Marvel’s Spider-Man, the villain Screwball tries to distract with Spidey with a side mission utilizing her schtick. Interested in internet fame, Screwball has found the key to online virality—capitalize on Spidey. Utilizing his phone’s QR reader, Spider-Man must pull off Screwball’s tricks to save her kidnapping victim AND entertain her fanbase.

RHINO

Aleksei Systevich earned the reputation as Rhino due to his artificially-crafted skin and super strength. He aligns with another sinister villain willing to help him ditch his physical limitations following his breakout from The Raft.

ELECTRO

Max Dillon AKA Electro has the ability to absorb and wield electricity. However, he yearns for more—transforming himself into pure, living energy. This desire lands him in The Raft, but that won’t stop him from finding another sinister individual who can grant him what he wants.

VULTURE

A long-time adversary to Spidey, Adrian Toomes, known to the city as Vulture, now spends his time incarcerated at The Raft suffering from spinal cancer after years of exposure to the power radiating from his suit. In exchange for freedom and a cure, Adrian must help another individual in need with his sinister vendetta.

SCORPION

The maniacal Mac Gargan AKA Scorpion strikes a deal with a sinister benefactor willing to expunge his criminal record if he eliminates Spider-Man, his long-time rival. Win-win, what can go wrong?

DOCTOR OCTOPUS

Perhaps the most heartbreaking and devastating person to find on this list. Navigating Marvel’s Spider-Man, we get to know passionate and brilliant Otto Octavius and the circumstances and events that led him to be who we all know as Doctor Octopus or Doc Ock. Peter Parker works with his friend and mentor Doctor Otto Octavius at Octavius Industries in hopes of developing advanced prosthetic limb replacements.

Co-founding Oscorp with Norman Osborn, the two former business partners parted ways after Norman’s role in infecting a young boy with an experimental serum and killing the boy’s parents. After having his grants at Octavius Industries revoked by Mayor Osborn and no longer able to continue his research with Peter. Fueled with anger and affected by an unstable prototype of his advanced prostheses, Doc Ock approaches several villains locked inside The Raft with axes to grind with Osborn resulting in the Sinister Six—including Electro, Mister Negative, Rhino, Scorpion, and Vulture—unified under a singular goal.

How did the games teams capture the nuance to the character whose story we see unravel slowly throughout the course of the game? “We wanted to communicate through the designs a visual story arc that told the story of how Otto’s tech evolved throughout the game and show the player how both him and his tech started out to be a good thing, that ultimately turns into what becomes Doc Ock’s arms at the end,” said Tsang. Chew added, “Otto’s transformation into Doc Ock is reflected in his world. As Otto faces various challenges, you can see the prosthetic arm technology change and become twisted as his own dark thoughts.”

Rosemann credits the Insomniac writing team—Jon Paquette, Ben Arfmann, Christos Gage and Bryan Intihar—with his guidance as well as an original story treatment by Dan Slott for weaving the intricate and beautiful relationship dynamic between Peter and Otto.

Chew’s thoughts on the great doctor reflects what we all feel, “Doc Ock took the longest to create, but was the most fulfilling. He ended up being such a complex and sympathetic character that I couldn’t help but root for him up till the very end.”

BLACK CAT

Felicia Hardy is an expert thief who goes by Black Cat. What’s in store for Spidey when she returns to New York? You’ll have to wait and see. We’ll explore Black Cat further when Marvel’s Spider-Man: The City That Never Sleeps DLC pack’s first chapter “Marvel’s Spider-Man: The Heist” drops on October 23.

Be sure to snag Marvel's Spider-Man now. Keep it on Marvel.com for all the latest and greatest on Marvel’s Spider-Man and the rest of the Marvel Games roster. Stay tuned for further analysis of building the world of Marvel’s Spider-Man in the coming weeks. And follow Marvel Games on Twitter for more!