Miles Morales: Spider-Man villains include a new take on the Tinkerer and late-stage capitalism

Miles Morales: Spider-Man, or as the game will be known outside of the US, Kilometer Morales: Spider-Man, won’t have a shortage of villains when it swings onto PS5 next week. The OG Spider-Man had his hands full with the Sinister Six, escaped prisoners, and the Taskmaster in 2018, but Miles will be facing a threat even worse than Galactus when he gets the munchies after passing through some groovy cosmic nebula: American capitalism.

Roxxon Corporation, an insidious big business who in the pages of recent comics have been led by a homicidal minotaur hellbent on making as much money as possible even if it results in killing the planet and thus making it slightly less evil than Nestle, will be rearing its ugly head. The company has set up shop in Harlem and is testing out a new “clean” energy source that is in reality diriter than Nestlé’s attempt to own all the water in the world. Seriously, who would have thought a chocolate company could be so evil.

“They’re serving as a primary antagonist and they’re a threat to Harlem,” creative director Brian Horton said to Game Informer.

At first, they present themselves as this clean energy company coming in with a modern clean energy. They say they’re going to revitalize Harlem, and it all sounds great through Simon Krieger’s PR lens. But, there’s an insidious truth behind all of that.

Roxxon’s security grunts will wield tech that doesn’t just make them an above-average threat when compared to your local biker gang, they’ll be able to actively counter Miles’ bio-electric abilities with shields that can reflect his attacks away. Getting away from them will also be a pain as they’re equiped with thermal goggles that can pick up Miles’ heat signature when he’s camouflaged. No word yet on how this impacts on Spider-Cat.

On the more traditional side of the comic book antagonist gallery, Phineas T. Mason AKA The Tinkerer, will also be making an appearance and not asking where Perry the platypus is. A genius inventor with a hate-on for superhumans, the Tinkerer has been one of the go-to criminals in New York’s supervillain underworld for inventing crazy new gadgets and weapons.

In the game though? He is now a she, as Insomniac has recast the character from a cranky old man into a brilliant young engineer looking to fight back against Roxxon Corporation alongside her gang known as The Underground. “Tinker is one of the oldest Spider-Man villains,” Horton said.

He goes back really far into the earliest comics. At his core, he’s always been an inventor of weapons for other people. He’s never gotten into the middle of the fight. He’s a supplier. We wanted to update the Tinkerer for today, and make the Tinkerer more of a presence that we can put in the front lines. Making the Tinkerer a leader of this criminal organization, The Underground, seemed like a way that we could really evolve the character.

I’m still thinking that American late-stage capitalism is the real villain here, but you can’t punch that into submission. Not too long to go now, until you can say ‘what’s up danger’ in Miles Morales: Spider-Man. Which happens to have a very very cool costume that you can unlock in the game.

Last Updated: November 5, 2020