Marvel Games Comic Connection: The Tinkerer
Hello True Believers, and welcome to the latest installment of Marvel Games Comic Connection, where Yours Truly searches through the House of Ideas’ cavernous Comic Book Vault to spotlight the incredible issues that inspire the amazing additions of the coolest characters hitting our most popular video games.
This week’s intriguing installment celebrates the worldwide launch of Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales on the also launching PS5. Hailed by TechRadar as “the best action blockbuster of the year...(and) one of the best superhero games ever made,” this immersive thrill ride created by the digital wizards of Insomniac Games widens the ever-growing web that snared legions of fans in the 2018 hit, Marvel’s Spider-Man. Caught in the crossfire between the ruthless energy corporation Roxxon and the hi-tech crime syndicate known as the Underground — not to mention the rampaging Rhino and the mysterious Prowler — Miles Morales clashes with the obsessive inventor nicknamed the Tinkerer for the fate of his loved ones as well as his new home, Harlem.
Continuing their tradition of celebrating classic comic book characters by reimagining them for new medium, Insomniac Games have transformed the Tinkerer on multiple levels. So just who is this crafty criminal and what is their connection to our web-slinging hero? Let’s leap into this week’s weirdly weaponized Marvel Games Comic Connection!
AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #2 (1963)
Created by Stan Lee and Steve Ditko, the scheming Phineas Mason — known to the underworld as “The Terrible Tinkerer” — ran a humble repair store that doubled as a secret fix-it shop. In this debut chapter, Phineas attempted to blackmail politicians with bugged radios, laying the blueprint for his eventual evolution to supplying advanced weaponry to enterprising super-villains.
AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #160 (1976)
Phineas returns for a technical tangle with the wall-crawler via a robotic servant known as The Toy which, despite its name, proved he wasn’t playing around!
Rather than engaging heroes physically, the Tinkerer preferred to profit with his mind, equipping some of the web-slinger’s and rest of Marvel’s crime-fighters’ most memorable foes throughout the ‘70s and ‘80s, including...
Kingpin: AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #160
Rocket Racer: AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #182
Beetle: DEADLY FOES OF SPIDER-MAN #1
In addition to his skill for elevating electronics and his knack for devilish deception, another compelling feature which marked the Tinkerer as a fiendish foe of Spider-Man was his advanced age. Joining the likes of the Vulture, Doctor Octopus, the Big Man, the Green Goblin and even J. Jonah Jameson, the Tinkerer wielded his wisdom and experience against the teen hero as a larger-than-life example of the clash of the generations that erupted during the tumultuous ‘60s.
How will this classic rivalry take on new life through Insomniac Games’ modernization of this elder statesmen? Find out for yourself by taking a swing around a snowy NYC in Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales, and then join us here next time for another illuminating edition of Marvel Games Comic Connection. Have fun, Fearless Front Facers!
Marvel's Spider-Man: Miles Morales is now available both physically and digitally on the PlayStation Store. Discover more about the game now!
Bill Rosemann is VP and Head of Creative, Marvel Games. Follow him on Twitter at @BillRosemann! Follow Marvel Games at @MarvelGames!
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