With Spider-Man: Miles Morales, Insomniac Games has brought some Marvel deep cuts into its main cast of characters. Simon Krieger, Head of Research and Development at Roxxon Energy and the main antagonist of the game, stands out among them. Krieger is a minor Iron Man villain created in 1998 by Kurt Busiek and Patrick Zircher in Iron Man: The Iron Age.
In his two comic appearances -- both in Busiek and Zircher’s Iron Age -- Krieger is the Vice President of Republic Oil & Natural Gas. Republic eventually turns into Roxxon Oil, a play on Exxon-Mobil. Republic’s board also includes minor villains like Roxxon President Hugh Jones and the vibranium dealer Jonas Hale. The company he keeps puts Krieger in the corporate class of Marvel villains: the guys with hired muscle and plans to turn superheroes into profit engines.
In Iron Age, Krieger kills Tony Stark’s parents to spur a hostile takeover of Stark Industries. He executes this plan with the Saboteur, his hired muscle, but fails when Tony swings onto the scene and saves his family’s company. After his failed corporate takeover, Krieger moves on to buying Iron Man, though he does not realize the Avenger is his business rival. Stark goes along with Krieger, though, infiltrating his kidnapping of US government officials and dismantling yet another of the oil executive’s plans. Simon Krieger also leads the Dogs of War, a band of mercenaries intended to smear Stark Industries’ reputation. Krieger’s arc in Iron Age bears some similarity to Sam Rockwell’s portrayal of Justin Hammer in Iron Man 2. Both are suits that attempt to buy up the Iron Man brand and smear the Stark name, using mercenaries and extending their underpowered reach with money. They are also both young, handsome, and just a little weird.
In Spider-Man: Miles Morales, Krieger is somewhere between his comics interpretation and Rockwell’s Hammer, with a fair bit of Silicon Valley thrown in the mix. He's introduced like any other charming, corporate villain as he thanks Peter Parker and Miles for cleaning up a mess that the Rhino left behind and sweeping up the mess to turn into his own asset. When Miles discovers that Krieger is willing to let people die to make a profit off the dangerous energy source Nuform, the energy executive does not hide that he is a volatile sociopath.
Miles Morales’s Krieger is never violent, but oscillates between degrading those around him and acting amused by their tiny intellects. He threatens characters with torture, then heads to his daily workout, and he taunts the Rhino because he knows the villain is under his thumb. Kreiger also has delusions of his own importance, claiming ownership over Nuform when it was Rick Mason that developed it and all Krieger had was the patent.
Spider-Man: Miles Morales pushes the game franchise’s character adaptation further than the 2018 original. Where Marvel’s Spider-Man lived in a recognizable, though a retouched version of Spider-Man continuity, Miles Morales casts a wide net, pulling from the rest of Marvel’s IP and changing characters’ origins, relationships and presentations. With a Harry Osborn/Venom combination looming in the sequel, Insomniac has laid the groundwork for playing with Spider-Man continuity.