2018’s Marvel’s Spider-Man will appear as a remastered version in the Ultimate Edition of Spider-Man: Miles Morales.
While much of everything to be seen in the remastered edition will be an improvement over the original, not every change might appear satisfactory to the audience. One, in particular, is the recasting of Peter Parker, which sees a shift in an image from John Bubniak to Ben Jordan’s.
The Ultimate Edition of Spider-Man: Miles Morales comes with a remastered version of Marvel's Spider-Man, but you won't be able to pick up where you left off on PS4. https://t.co/9CSH6t8TAN pic.twitter.com/WdR6PZ44Ju
— IGN (@IGN) September 22, 2020
The many faces of Peter Parker
Since its entry in the movie industry, Spider-Man has, so far, been represented by multiple faces. It began with Tobey Maguire who played the role of the web-slinging superhero in its first trilogy. Then, followed by Andrew Garfield and more recently, Tom Holland, who reprises the role as a teen Parker.
If voice acting counts as an impersonation of Peter Parker, then Spider-Man has seen more people take a substantial role in his existence.
To be fair, none of the actors who played Spider-Man’s protagonist share a similarity that would make the image of Parker distinct. Even the comic depictions of the same character have not been too consistent throughout the years. Which, if anything, could be a justification that the figure could be represented as anyone vaguely reminiscent of the original design, so long as every other detail fits the bill. Fair play.
Peter Parker in a video game
The case with John Bubniak, however, is different in that he became the very image of Peter Parker in video game format. At least, in the PS4 where motion capture based on an actual person is a thing. Thus, giving an impression of how the titular character would look like in his modern reimagining, one that would especially stick considering Marvel’s Spider-Man’s success in the market.
After thinking on it more, the reason I'm so averse to it is because I got emotionally attached to this version of Peter Parker. That includes his voice AND his face. Changing him so drastically makes me feel disconnected from him. It's weird and uncanny now. https://t.co/gHJ2pZgUW2
— Xavier Mendoza (@GodzillaMendoza) September 30, 2020
For the audience to see, therefore, a brushed-up Peter Parker with strong facial details to someone who dons an altogether different hairstyle and less pronounced visage exterior, the surprise is unsurprisingly big. This is also taking into consideration the fact that the drastic alteration occurs within the same game. One only is the enhanced rendition of the other.
Name a bigger downgrade, I'll wait #SpidermanPS5 pic.twitter.com/rLIK7zu3jI
— Lazz (@Laziiner) September 30, 2020
Much of the improvement seen in the port to the next-gen PlayStation console is indeed a welcome addition. But many appear to be on the fence when taking into account the shift between character models. Some even going so far as to insinuate it as a “downgrade” rather than an “upgrade”. Others even demanding the developers to bring back John Bubniak’s model as Peter Parker in the remastering of the game.
Image used courtesy of Jayshockblast/YouTube Screenshot