Summary
Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 has already set up a perfect plotline for Mary Jane Watson in a future game or DLC. Both Marvel’s Spider-Man and Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 followed Mary Jane’s career as an investigative journalist for the Daily Bugle, with her often finding herself in treacherous situations through the games’ stealth sections.
[Warning: The following article contains spoilers for Marvel’s Spider-Man 2.]
While Miles Morales was protecting the city and becoming a hero through Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales, Mary Jane and Peter Parker embarked on an adventure to cover the war in Symkaria, home to the mercenary Silver Sable. A line in Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 suggests that Sable trained MJ during this time to protect herself, and provided her with an enhanced version of the stun gun she acquired at the end of Marvel’s Spider-Man, something that proved to be extremely useful as MJ infiltrated Kraven’s lair and Symbiote nests.
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Spider-Man 2’s Unidentified Targets Missions Led To Chameleon’s Base
Chameleon Had Been Monitoring His Half-Brother, Kraven
Marvel’s Spider-Man 2‘s “Unidentified Targets” side activities see either Peter or Miles chase a series of drones across the city to protect a series of targets that Kraven is trying to find. At first, the data appears to be corrupted into one file, so the heroes attempt to uncover the identity of each person. Over time, it becomes clear that there is some irregularity with these targets sharing the same DNA or having died years prior.
Ultimately, players are led to a penthouse after determining all the targets are the same person, and automated recordings left for Kraven reveal that the apartment belongs to Kraven’s half-brother, Dmitri Smerdyakov, who has been keeping tabs on Kraven’s hunters, refusing to ever be hunted again. Upon discovering a hidden room, there are many disguises on display, including Peter’s original mask. Spider-Man remarks that it is Chameleon’s base, which combined with a mention of Chameleon in Marvel’s Spider-Man‘s “Spider-Men” mission confirms that the villain has clashed with Peter Parker’s Spider-Man before.
Chameleon’s hidden room is unlocked by moving a piece on the chessboard in the living room.
Since then, he seems to have upgraded his methods, however, as is revealed by one particular prosthetic mask displayed on a workbench. While this mask looks fairly non-descript at first, it transforms into a design closer to Chameleon’s comic appearance using holographic technology upon further investigation. Spider-Man then determines that the reason the drone data appeared corrupted at first was because it captured Chameleon mid-way through a holographic transformation and therefore collected the data of its various stored identities at once.
Interacting with this opens up another hidden entrance, where there’s further information about the two brothers. Although Kraven appears in files, Chameleon’s true face has been scratched out of any images, and a case file about “Proyekt Khameleon 1985” has been almost entirely redacted.
Related: Marvel’s Spider-Man 2: Every Villain Confirmed & Teased So Far
The Chameleon Is Free In New York
Chameleon Was Never Apprehended In Spider-Man 2
Soon after making this discovery, it’s revealed that Chameleon has rigged the apartment to kill anyone who entered – which, going off his pre-recorded messages, he believed would be Kraven – and Spider-Man must leave before he can collect further evidence. After escaping the traps left behind in the penthouse, a cutscene plays where a disguised Chameleon can be seen monitoring the web-slinger from afar, and the villain is never apprehended later in the game, setting him up for a return in a future Marvel’s Spider-Man title, or DLC.
Chameleon’s true name had been crossed off the family tree in Kraven’s lair in a prior mission, and his relationship with his family was clearly strained, but with Kraven dying at the hands of Venom in Marvel’s Spider-Man 2, he can now act freely without fear of Kraven’s hunters getting in the way. With Chameleon’s ability to change his identity on the fly with his new mask, it could make for some intense scenes if he targets major organizations such as Oscorp, or sets his sights upon the Spider-Men and their allies as his actions while disguised could build an increasing sense of paranoia and mistrust among the characters.
Related: How Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 Sets Up Marvel’s Spider-Man 3’s Story & Villains
MJ Is No Longer Tied Down By The Daily Bugle
As Spider-Man wasn’t able to collect much information before he left, and much of it was redacted anyway, this kind of storyline would align perfectly with Mary Jane’s investigative journalism career. By the end of Marvel’s Spider-Man 2, MJ had left her job at the Daily Bugle behind after growing tired of J. Jonah Jameson’s new leadership and the kind of inflammatory stories he wanted her to tell. Instead, she sets up a new podcast called “The New Normal” to focus on the people of New York City and how they cope in the aftermath of some of the major events in Insomniac’s Marvel Universe so far, such as the Devil’s Breath outbreak, Nuform reactor explosion, and the Symbiote invasion.
With Chameleon assuming the identities of those who have died, it’s possible that a story as simple as a person spotting their deceased loved one in the city could lead MJ on the path to track down Chameleon. It’s also incredibly likely that the Spider-Men could have discussed Chameleon being on the loose in the city after discovering his base already, which would certainly spur her to investigate further.
With Mary Jane’s gameplay mechanics evolving to make her far more adept in the field, and borrowing from other action-stealth titles in its nature, an espionage-thriller would be a natural fit for her missions. While Miles – and maybe Peter if he is pulled out of his hiatus – are likely to face superpowered villains such as Green Goblin, Doctor Octopus, and Carnage in the future, seeing Mary Jane using her investigative skills to take on a more grounded foe like Chameleon would be a fun way to progress her missions further in more of a self-contained arc through Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 DLC, or a full sequel.
MJ could investigate a particular villain. Read More