Key Highlights:
- Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 features five playable characters: Peter Parker, Miles Morales, Mary Jane Watson, Hailey Cooper and Venom.
- Peter and Miles offer full open-world exploration, while the other three appear in specific story or side missions.
- Venom takes our top spot for his destructive combat sequence, although his playable appearance is brief.
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Five characters are playable in Marvel’s Spider-Man 2, ranging from its two central superheroes to supporting characters with their own missions. Peter Parker and Miles Morales provide most of the action, but Insomniac Games also lets players control Mary Jane Watson, Hailey Cooper and, unexpectedly, Venom.
Major story spoilers follow, including a late-game playable character.
We’ve ranked all five based on their gameplay mechanics, variety, freedom and how effectively their individual sequences use the character’s abilities. This is a ranking of the experiences they offer, not their importance to the story.
5. Hailey Cooper
Hailey Cooper becomes playable during Graffiti Trouble, an optional Friendly Neighbourhood Spider-Man (FNSM) request in Little Odessa.
After Miles investigates graffiti at a flower shop, the mission switches to Hailey’s perspective, revealing how she helped transform the vandalised wall into a mural.
Rather than introducing another combat encounter, Insomniac builds the sequence around exploration, interaction and street art.
Hailey is deaf, and the mission uses heavily muted audio, visual symbols and emoji-like representations of conversations to communicate her experience. Players also use the DualSense controller to shake spray cans and paint murals.
The result is one of the sequel’s most unusual missions. It demonstrates that helping a neighbourhood doesn’t always require superpowers, while giving Hailey a role beyond supporting Miles’ story.
As a playable experience, however, her limited movement and lack of combat offer considerably less mechanical depth than the other characters.
I appreciate the decision to make her perspective interactive rather than simply presenting another cutscene. It is a thoughtful experiment, even if the actual gameplay is fairly simple.
4. Mary Jane Watson
Mary Jane returns with substantial improvements to the stealth missions introduced in the original Marvel’s Spider-Man.
Her playable sections still involve infiltrating dangerous locations without superhero abilities, but Insomniac gives her considerably more freedom to fight back.
MJ carries a Sable Stingray stun weapon capable of incapacitating enemies. She also gains additional capabilities as the story progresses, including web-based attacks and sonic technology useful against symbiotes.
Crucially, being spotted no longer automatically means failure. Players can defend themselves, reposition and continue an encounter rather than restarting every time an enemy detects them.
These changes address one of the principal complaints about MJ’s missions in the first game.
Her expanded combat options make the sequences more engaging, although overcoming heavily armed opponents with comparatively little difficulty sometimes strains credibility.
MJ ranks above Hailey because her missions offer more sustained interaction and mechanical variety, but they remain relatively restricted compared with controlling the Spider-Men.
3. Miles Morales
Miles returns with an expanded version of the bioelectric combat system introduced in Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales.
His electrical Venom powers allow him to stun enemies, launch powerful attacks and damage multiple opponents. New blue bioelectric abilities provide additional ways to control crowds and build combinations.
Miles also retains his camouflage ability, making him particularly useful for stealth encounters.
His powers reward mobility and careful positioning. Electrical attacks can create openings against groups of enemies, while invisibility gives players another option when an encounter becomes difficult.
Unlike the other supporting characters, Miles has his own skill tree, suits, missions and access to the open world. Players can also switch between Peter and Miles during free-roam exploration, although some missions require a specific hero.
Miles is arguably the more versatile Spider-Man when combining stealth with quick, disruptive attacks.
He takes third place not because his gameplay lacks depth, but because Peter’s symbiote powers and Venom’s destructive sequence deliver more distinctive experiences in this particular ranking.
2. Peter Parker
Peter Parker combines familiar Spider-Man combat with some of the sequel’s most significant new abilities.
His mechanical Spider-Arms provide powerful attacks capable of launching enemies, striking groups and creating openings during difficult encounters.
The addition of the alien symbiote takes his combat further.
Peter gains aggressive tendril-based abilities that can pull enemies together, inflict heavy damage and control large areas. Symbiote Surge temporarily transforms his fighting style, allowing him to overwhelm opponents with a series of devastating attacks.
The contrast between Peter’s mechanical arms and symbiote powers gives his gameplay a sense of progression beyond simply unlocking stronger versions of existing moves.
His story also connects these abilities to changes in his personality, making the additional power feel consequential rather than purely mechanical.
Later developments allow Peter to retain access to symbiote-style abilities through Anti-Venom, preserving much of the combat variety introduced earlier.
For sustained gameplay, Peter arguably deserves first place. His movement, gadgets, upgrades and combat options provide an experience that remains satisfying across the entire campaign.
However, our top-ranked character offers something Peter cannot: a short opportunity to experience the game from the perspective of one of its most powerful villains.
1. Venom
Venom takes first place for the sheer impact of his playable appearance during the late-game mission Don’t Be Scared.
After the symbiote bonds with Harry Osborn, players briefly take control of the enormous villain and unleash his abilities inside Oscorp Tower.
Unlike Peter and Miles, Venom relies on overwhelming strength rather than acrobatics and web-swinging.
His attacks include powerful punches, grabs, ground slams and tendril strikes. He can throw enemies, counter incoming attacks and charge through obstacles, making ordinary opponents feel almost helpless.
The sequence escalates as Venom escapes Oscorp and battles Kraven’s Hunters in Times Square, culminating in a boss encounter against Kraven himself.
It is a dramatic reversal of the usual superhero formula. Instead of trying to overcome a seemingly unstoppable opponent, the player temporarily becomes that opponent.
Venom’s greatest limitation is that this is a scripted, one-off experience. He cannot freely explore New York as an alternative protagonist or develop his abilities through a conventional skill tree.
Nevertheless, his distinctive movement, destructive combat and sudden introduction make the sequence particularly memorable.
Insomniac’s willingness to let players experience Venom’s power also helps explain the interest in a potential standalone Venom game.
