The Spider-Man 2 video game is being called out for mixing up the Puerto Rican and Cuban flags, with the conversation centering around the lack of diversity in game development behind the scenes at Insomniac Games.
Miles Morales, who has become an icon as one of the few Latine mainstream superheroes, was shown to display a flag in his home not of his native Puerto Rico, but of Cuba. The wrong flag also is displayed outside on the streets. The Puerto Rican and Cuban flags have similar designs, but red strips for Puerto Rico and blue ones for Cuba.
Insomniac Games admitted the mistake and promised a fix would be coming soon, though no specific timeline for the update was given. This huge mix-up also occurred even though later in the game you can unlock Miles’ suit featuring the Puerto Rican flag.
Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 is the third entry in the Marvel’s Spider-Man series. It follows both Miles Morales and Peter Parker as they navigate their personal lives and try to become the best Spider-people they can be. While leaning on each other they also have to fight iconic villains like Kraven the Hunter and Venom.
It’s important to note that this flag mix-up in Spider-Man 2 isn’t even the first time it happened as the Cuban and Puerto Rican flags have been confused before in the comics according to fans online. And according to Reddit, the original Miles Morales game released by Insomniac Games in 2020 made the same mistake before pushing out a patch.
The flag mix-up happening again is a grave oversight, but it’s an easy one to make when you don’t pay attention and make absolutely no attempt to hire Latine creatives for a product about Latine characters. And this will most likely happen again until there’s an attempt to understand that Latine people need to be included in these rooms and that our communities aren’t interchangeable.
Puerto Ricans and Cubans should be given the respect they deserve for their own distinctive history and flags. Period.
