When True Believers tend to consider the best Spider-Man villains, Hammerhead is rarely counted among the best. He's a mobster with a thick-plated skull, and Tombstone - arguably - does whatever he does only twice as good, owing to the dynamic shared between that character and Daily Bugle staffer Robbie Robertson.
Ironically, it is Insomniac's commitment to portraying Hammerhead as an old-school career criminal that makes him such a sinister force on camera in Turf Wars. Right from the very get go, the game establishes him as a cop-killer willing to do whatever it takes to outmuscle his rivals. He's thoroughly despicable, and his presence addresses one of the biggest flaws from The Heist - that being the lack of a tangible antagonist.
The addition of Hammerhead also begets a shift in tone. Gone are the sunny skyboxes of the main game - in their place are grey skies and rain, while the sound of gunfire permeates the atmosphere. It's an unexpected shift, but it illustrates Insomniac's excellent comprehension of Spider-Man's world, and their willingness to portray all its aspects - both the good and bad.
WhatCulture's very own resident movie guy, Ewan has been working in the content creation biz for over 10 years now, having started as a freelance contributor to WhatCulture Gaming all the way back in 2015. After graduating with a First-Class Honours in History from Northumbria University in 2017 (where he won a prize for a totally killer dissertation on the Watergate years), Ewan took on the role of Comics Editor at WhatCulture and quickly developed WhatCulture Comics into one of the biggest superhero-focused channels on YouTube. He followed this with a brief hiatus at Screen Rant in 2021, where he worked across the Gaming and Film sections as a writer and editor, before returning to WhatCulture as a Senior Content Producer / Presenter in 2023. He started his own podcast, We Love Dad Movies, in 2022, and has contributed several written pieces to the Eisner-nominated comics website Shelfdust as well.
In his current role, Ewan incorporates his love of cinema, comic books, and history into written pieces and video essays for WhatCulture's Film & TV channel, as well as WhatCulture Gaming and WhatCulture Horror, with a particular focus on nineties-era Dad Movies, old school Westerns, and Golden Age Hollywood Noir. John Carpenter is his fave, and he thinks Batman Beyond should never have been cancelled. If that's your vibe, you'll probably like his stuff.
