Who is The Beetle in comics? Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 villain explained

Leaked info pertaining to Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 implies that legacy villain The Beetle may be making their debut in an upcoming DLC mission.

A recent Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 leak could have given away a pretty significant DLC plot point. The leak, via a dev menu that was mistakenly left accessible, doesn’t feature any specific content but rather a broad overview. 

The villain the DLC may introduce is one who has been fighting Spidey and other Marvel heroes for years now, though they’re not the original holder of the title. 

Although Insomniac Games has yet to officially confirm DLC for Marvel’s Spider-Man 2, here’s everything you need to know about Marvel Comics villain The Beetle.

Marvel’s The Beetle is the daughter of Spider-Man villain Tombstone

The DLC leak references Beetle Janice, but she’s not the original Beetle. The first was Abner Jenkins, a mechanic who turned to crime.

Jenkins would do battle with a number of heroes over the years, most notably the Fantastic Four and the Avengers as a member of the Masters of Evil. He would ultimately find a new lease on life as a member of the Thunderbolts, where he abandoned his villainous ways and became known as the hero Mach. 

In an effort to defeat the then-Captain America Bucky Barnes, Baron Zemo bequeathed the Beetle identity to Janice Lincoln, the daughter of New York crime boss Tombstone. Though Janice was unsuccessful in her attempts at defeating Captain America, she found herself deeper and deeper into a life of crime, following in her father’s footsteps. 

Janice would eventually form her own criminal supergroup, The Syndicate, consisting of gender-flipped versions of popular Spider-Man villains, including Scorpina and Electro. Most recently, Janice has found herself balancing her criminal life with a relationship with Peter Parker’s roommate, Randy Robertson. 

How will The Beetle factor into Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 DLC? 

It’s important to note that as of this writing, The Beetle is not yet confirmed for Marvel’s Spider-Man 2, let alone any DLC plans. However, the leaked content on the dev menu and the events of the main story hint at a DLC that may crib from a recent Spider-Man comic event. 

In Gang War, New York’s criminal underground goes to war with itself when Tombstone is attacked at Janice’s wedding. Janice herself, along with the Syndicate, vie to take control, with Janice eventually becoming the new Scourge. 

It does end on something of a bittersweet note. Seeing that Janice is either going to win the war or be killed, Tombstone slips back into a life of crime and violence. He knocks out his own daughter and takes the decisive final strike in the war himself, becoming the sole leader of New York’s criminal underground.