Subnautica: Below Zero writer Brittney M. Morris is joining Insomniac as it continues to hire for Spider-Man 2, the highly anticipated follow-up to the first game and its spin-off, Miles Morales.
Morris even wrote the Miles Morales prequel novel, Wings of Fury, which featured Vulture's daughter, Starling, a new Vulture in the making. Hence the novel's name. Maybe she'll show up in the games one of these days too. Aside from that, the novel dives further into Miles' grief over his dad's death and finding himself in this new world.
Morris has written a few other novels, too: there's 'Slay,' a bestselling story about a game developer fending off a troll who wants to sabotage her Black Panther-inspired game created as a safe haven for Black gamers; The Cost of Knowing which is about a teen who can see into the future; Together, Apart, an anthology of love stories with Morris' about scorned enemies falling for each other, and The Jump, a cryptology contest where teens plan to stop an oil refinery from being made in their neighbourhood.
A common theme in a lot of Morris' work is racism and Blackness, with the Miles Morales prequel exploring further what it means for a Black kid to put on that mask, to take up that mantle. We could potentially see that brought into Spider-Man 2.
But it's also Morris' dream to write for video games, so what better than a giant, fan-favourite blockbuster? There's a lot of hype drumming up around Spider-Man 2 which makes sense given that it's pitting Peter Parker and Morales against Kraven and Venom, two of the most iconic - and brutal - villains in their rogue's gallery.
Morales' origin story in the comics has a very strong tie to Venom in particular. It was Eddie Brock and the symbiote who killed his mother, giving Morales his own Uncle Ben moment. But what route the writers are taking isn't clear yet - we'll just have to wait and see.