‘I couldn’t believe it’: Spider-Man 2 fans seem divided over how serious Puerto Rican flag mix-up was

Insomniac Games released its highly anticipated PlayStation 5 video game, Marvel’s Spider-Man 2, on Oct. 20 to much fanfare and excitement. But over the weekend, players noticed that there was a glaring error in the character Miles Morales’s room: It had a Cuban flag instead of a Puerto Rican one.

The character of Morales, who is a Black Puerto Rican, was introduced to the Marvel Universe in 2011.

Marvel fans were quick to post on social media about the mistake, and it wasn’t limited to solely Puerto Rican players. Fans of the 2020 Spider-Man: Miles Morales game were surprised by the mistake in the new game, given that Aaron Jason Espinoza, the senior community manager at Insomniac, wrote a lengthy post in 2021 about how and why the company wanted to “honor Morales’s heritage.”

James Stevenson, the director of community and marketing at Insomniac Games, said a “fix is coming” in response to an X user. No timeline has been provided.

The game broke the record for the fastest-selling PlayStation Studios game after selling more than 2.5 million copies within the first 24 hours.

The Cuban flag appears twice in the game — first in Morales’s bedroom and then again during a street scene. While the Cuban flag and Puerto Rican flag have similar designs — a star in a triangle and three colored stripes — the colors are inverted. The Cuban flag has a red triangle and three blue stripes, and the Puerto Rican flag has a blue triangle and three red stripes.

Fans of the Spider-Man: Miles Morales game previously expressed their appreciation and excitement that developers highlighted Morales’s Puerto Rican heritage throughout gameplay.

In an article for IGN, Alex Centeno wrote, “Each detail and layer subtly represents Miles Morales’ Puerto Rican heritage in a way that feels authentic and indebted to it. Insomniac has worked to celebrate Miles and those cultural elements that set him apart from his fellow heroes.”

Centeno also highlighted details he loved in the game, such as Morales’s mom sending him a grocery list with coconut milk on it and storefronts with Spanish names, which reflect the Harlem neighborhood Morales lives in.

“I couldn’t recall a more engrossing cultural experience within the medium,” Centeno added. “My playthrough was full of moments that made me smile and recall pieces of my own experiences as a Puerto Rican.”

The devotion to details in Spider-Man: Miles Morales is why some reactions to the Cuban flag mix-up are more baffled and confused than outraged.

In the 2020 game, the Puerto Rican flag is correctly displayed in Morales’s apartment twice.

Later in the Spider-Man 2 game, players can unlock a new suit for Morales that is adorned with the correct Puerto Rican flag design, leaving fans more puzzled over how the mix-up happened.

“Big oof but as a Puertorican, I dont mind the mistake since I know that whoever was in charge of the flag was probably confused or didn’t know the difference,” one Instagram commenter wrote on In The Know video producer Mark Chrysafis’s post about the flag mix-up. “Which again, it’s weird because they already made a Miles game but oh well.”

“Bro said we’re all the same,” another person commented.

“Welcome to the fam miles,” one user joked, including a Cuban flag emoji at the end.

Younis Alzubeiri, a New York-based content creator and Spider-Man fan, told In The Know by Yahoo that he noticed the flag “right away.”

“Growing up in the Bronx, I had a lot of Latino friends and neighbors, so I know the Hispanic flags like the back of my hand,” he said. “I legitimately [did] a double take when I saw it. I couldn’t believe it. I think I even laughed.”

The error won’t stop Alzubeiri from continuing to play the game.

“From having the Puerto Rican pride suit for Miles to messing up the flag just seems like such a careless and silly mistake,” Alzubeiri concluded. “But my God, what a bad mistake.”

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The post ‘I couldn’t believe it’: Spider-Man 2 fans seem divided over how serious Puerto Rican flag mix-up was appeared first on In The Know.

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