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Aug 26, 2023

Araña

[Esta historia contiene spoilers de Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse.] Se ha convertido en una práctica común que los estudios incluyan todas las referencias y huevos de Pascua que puedan en las películas de superhéroes.

[This story contains spoilers for Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse.]

It has become common practice for studios to cram in every single reference and Easter egg they can into superhero movies, perhaps so that dedicated fans will pore over each frame and return to the film to find more. Whether that be license plates that spell out specific comic issues or more abstract things like thematic parallels reproduced by repeated imagery, the Spider-Man films are probably the most dense in this regard, drawing from an almost endless history of transmedia properties, be they video games, movies, comics and even cereals.

And now, with the release of Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse Sony Pictures Animation has given itself the license to push this practice further than ever before as the film expands into the vast and endless Spider-Verse. No matter the interpretation of Spider-Man, you can bet that they’ve got their own universe. So, I said my prayers to the Grand Web of Life and Destiny that my vision might be unclouded enough to spot as many Easter eggs as possible in the new film.

I previously created an exhaustive list of all the Easter eggs in Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, which should serve as a prologue to what has been attempted in the following list. As such, any repeated Easter egg won’t be mentioned here beyond what has already been included on the previous list.

So, Thwip yourself a $29.99 AMC popcorn bucket in the shape of Miles’ head, sit back, and please enjoy the comprehensive list of every Easter egg and reference in Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse spotted after one viewing of the film (heaviest of SPOILERS). How many do you recognize? And let us know what I missed by tweeting @HeatVisionBlog.

THE MAJOR PLAYERS

1. Miguel O’Hara / Spider-Man 2099

Miguel O’Hara is the Irish/Latino Spider-Man from Nueva York in the year 2099 A.D., created by writer Peter David and artist Rick Leonardi (whose name graces the comic that introduces Miguel in the film). In the Spider-Man 2099 No. 1 comic, O’Hara first appears while working on a project for Alchemax so that he can try and re-create the powers of Spider-Man. Why? Well, it is to cure his addiction to a hallucinogenic drug called Rapture that he was tricked into taking.

But, like any hero’s origin story, here established as the canon, he has an accident and half of his DNA gets reprogrammed to be that of a spider’s. He maintains very few of the powers of the original Spider-Man, mostly the strength and agility, and doesn’t have a Spider-Sense. He does have light-sensitive, red eyes that allow him to see in darkness and zoom in, plus vampire fangs. The guy is a serious edgelord. He also curses a lot using futuristic lingo like “What the shock!” So, it’s not all bad.

He spends most of his time in 2099 fighting against Tyler Stone, the vice president of R&D at Alchemax and the person who tricked him into the accident that caused him to become Spider-Man. Most of these details are absent from Across the Spider-Verse, but there are enough hints to suggest his sordid past, like a shoulder injection of Rapture that he gets mid-film.

The Miguel we meet here is angrier than his already angry comic counterpart; he’s never been an explicit villain in the books before. In the comics, he has a relationship with his half-brother, Gabriel, which often helps pull him back from the edge, at least until Gabriel was mistakenly assumed to be the Green Goblin of 2099. In the film, that role seems to be given to an invented girlfriend of Miguel’s, whose death sparked his quest to seek out a better universe to live in. But, we all know how well that worked out …

2. Lyla

Lyla stands for LYrate Lifeform Approximation, and she is the artificial intelligence and personal holographic assistant of Miguel O’Hara. In the comics, she’s modeled after the appearance of Marilyn Monroe, but here she’s taken on a different, bespectacled look. Probably for the best.

In the source material, Lyla and Miguel’s relationship has gone through ups and downs, but they have become close friends kept apart only by the fact that Lyla isn’t human. Through it all, she’s probably the closest relationship he has. In the few times that she’s come close to developing human emotions it has caused her to have system failures and shut down. Too bad she can’t do what I do when emotions arise and grab the nearest pint of Häagen-Dazs to drown them out.

3. Jess Drew / Spider-Woman

On the heels of Guardians of the Galaxy: Vol. 3 and Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, it is a great time for me to explain the comics history of Jessica Drew, this movie’s Spider-Woman, without having to imagine the groans from you, my readers, as I explain what Wundagore Mountain and who the High Evolutionary are. I’ve ruined too many Thanksgiving dinners the same way. You’ve seen those movies, right? They are awesome, and so is Jessica Drew.

You see, when she was young, Drew’s father moved her family to the base of Wundagore Mountain and became a research partner to the man who would become the High Evolutionary. When young Jessica became ill, her father injected her with the blood of several uncommon species of spiders and sealed her in one of those terrifying genetic accelerators that the High Evolutionary used to totally murder that defenseless turtle. For Jess, the process worked slowly, and she was kept in stasis for decades until she was eventually released with little memory of what happened to her.

Later, she was recruited into Hydra and was ordered to murder SHIELD director Nick Fury before she undid her brainwashing. Eventually, she would escape to Europe and don a new identity, dying her hair and taking up the mantle of Spider-Woman. Since then, she’s been an Avenger, agent of SHIELD, a private investigator, best friends with Captain Marvel, and even a Skrull.

The Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse character seems quite different from her comics counterpart. The comics character is a white woman of European descent, whereas the film character is a Black woman. This change is likely inspired by a character named Valerie who first appeared in Spidey Super Stories No. 11, a comic spinoff of the popular The Electric Company children’s television show, which featured the first live-action Spider-Man adaptation. In the comic, Valerie, a young, Black librarian witnesses the Vulture attack and capture Spider-Man. But Valerie finds a Spider-Man costume, puts it on, and saves the day as Spider-Woman.

Her costume, motorcycle and pregnancy are straight out of the 2015 run of Spider-Woman comics by writer Dennis Hopeless and artist Javier Rodriguez. In that series, we meet up with Jess after the events of a new Secret Wars where she has left the Avengers, started her own private investigations firm, and is unexpectedly pregnant. The run of comics is one of the best that Marvel has released in the past decade and really allowed Jess to step outside the shadow of her Hydra/SHIELD/Avengers past, complete with a new costume, bike and outlook on life. Issues featured her fighting against Skrull spaceships while going into labor and were altogether awesome.

The one other major change to the character appears to be her powerset. In the comics, Spider-Woman has very little to do with the powers and origins of Spider-Man, other than the name. She can shoot bioelectric blasts from her hands, glides through the air, and has pheromones she can use to influence men. And you know what? Ditching those pheromone powers is the perfect showcase of why adaptations are great. I never want to see them again.

4. Pavitr Prabhakar / Spider-Man: India

Pavitr’s comic debut in November 2004 began with a short, four-issue miniseries called Spider-Man: India by Sharad Devarajan, Suresh Seetharaman and Jeevan J. Kang. The character was heralded as the first “transcreation,” where instead of doing a translation of the original material for a foreign market, they chose to “trans-create” the character of Peter Parker into an Indian boy named Pavitr Prabhakar who lived in Mumbai, here Mumbattan. The series had little fanfare and the character disappeared for a while until writer Dan Slott gave him a leading role in his “Spider-Verse” comic event a decade later.

The character lives with his Aunt Maya and Uncle Bhim, is friends with Meera Jain, and fights demons after encountering an ancient yogi who grants him the powers of a spider. Like Peter, an early avoidance of responsibility results in his uncle being stabbed to death. His costume in the comics is very much an Indian-styled take on the classic Spider-Man suit, but the movie takes the character and gives him a dramatically different appearance, and powers seemingly based around yoyo-like web bracelets. Frankly, it’s one of the best redesigns of a Spider-Man costume in years. Bravo Spider-Team!

5. Hobie Brown / Spider-Punk

In the original comics, Hobie Brown was an inventive young kid who created his own costumed persona as the vigilante the Prowler. After an early interaction with Spider-Man, he was set on the right path and has become a longtime friend and ally of Peter.

But, in another dimension — Earth-138, a reference to The Mistfits’ song “We Are 138”,, which was introduced in Amazing Spider-Man (Vol. 3) No. 10 — he was bitten by a spider irradiated by illegal waste dumping and became Spider-Man. We affectionately call him Spider-Punk, he refers to himself as a “radioactive suicide machine” aiming to fight against President Ozzy Osborn’s corporate and political regime. If you are a fan of punk music, his first solo comics Spider-Verse No. 2 and Edge of Spider-Verse No. 1, written by Jed MacKay, brilliantly reframe the music and political movement of the ‘70s into fun, edgy Spidey stories.

In the film, Hobie is ostensibly exactly the same but somehow even cooler. It helps that he’s animated to look like a living Sex Pistols “Anarchy in the U.K.” record cover, assembled out of loose pieces of set lists, newspaper articles and zine art. Can we get a whole movie that looks like this?

6. The Spot

Dr. Jonathan Ohnn is the Spot. Get it? Jonathan Ohnn: The Spot… “Johnny on the spot!” Eh! Get it?

In the comics, he got a dramatic introduction in the pages of Peter Parker: The Spectacular Spider-Man Nos. 94-100 as a scientist working for the Kingpin to reproduce the powers of the teleporting vigilante Cloak, of Cloak and Dagger fame. He was successful at first, summoning forth a portal that wiped out New York’s power grid. After stepping into the portal, Ohnn realized that he wasn’t able to reproduce Cloak’s access to the dark dimension, but one of darkness and light. Upon exiting this new dimension, his body was transformed into the Dalmatian-esque the Spot!

His whole deal is that whatever goes into one of his portals can come out of another. Visually, he’s a pretty silly-looking villain, but the power set is actually rather frightening. What is actually left of Dr. Jonathan Ohnn if he’s just holes? In a great 2011 Daredevil comic, writer Mark Waid and artist Marcos Martin used Daredevil’s radar vision to reveal what’s left of this Swiss-cheese man, and the image was a unique form of body horror. For a long time, the Spot was an underutilized Spider-Man villain, which is exactly why it’s so exciting to see him on the big screen in this fashion. Frankly, I could never have imagined it!

His backstory remains similar in the film. This time the Kingpin had him working at Alchemax to perfect his dimension portal technology. We learn specifically that he was the scientist we all laughed at for getting hit with a bagel in Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse. Given how hilarious that was, I don’t entirely begrudge him becoming a universe-ending supervillain.

7. May “Mayday” Parker

When we last saw Peter B. Parker, he was standing on Mary Jane’s doorstep, flowers in hand, ready to make an apology for running away from her and the prospect of fatherhood. When he shows back up in Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse he’s become a caricature of an over-proud father. I should know; his journey in the first film led me to become a father myself.

His daughter is May Parker, affectionately known as Mayday. Named after Aunt May, Mayday was the star of the longest-running female-led comic in Marvel’s entire library: Spider-Girl by writer Tom DeFalco and artists Pat Olliffe and Ron Frenz. In Marvel’s normal continuity, Mary Jane lost her first daughter due to a miscarriage (or the Green Goblin, depending on what you believe). But, in Earth-982, Mayday survived her birth and during her teen years took up the mantle as Spider-Girl. The character has her own set of villains and allies and is generally beloved by fans. Marvel and Sony have teased that they have an interest in developing her story into its own series of films, but this marks her first time onscreen.

The character has all the powers of Spider-Man, just like her father, but isn’t capable of the same feats of strength. She makes up for that with advanced agility and a more powerful Spider-Sense. Her father is injured in a battle and loses half of his leg, but they still manage to team up with each other several times during her comic book run.

OTHER SPIDER-MEN

8. Tarantula

Ben Reilly was a clone of the Earth-616 Spider-Man, the Peter Parker that comics have focused on for the past sixty years. However, there was another Peter Parker, of Earth-1610, introduced in a comic called Ultimate Spider-Man that rebooted the character for modern audiences at the turn of the century. It was this Peter Parker that ultimately died, about a decade later, and inspired Miles Morales to take up the mantle of Spider-Man (as we saw in Into the Spider-Verse). However, before his death he had his own run-in with clones, this time created by Doctor Octopus.

One such clone is Tarantula and he shows up in Across the Spider-Verse in a number of places, but first riding in Peter Parkedcar with Spidercide, “Last Stand” Spider-Man, and LEGO Spider-Man (more on them later). Tarantula is a failed clone experiment that basically answers the question of “What if we cloned Peter Parker and gave him more attributes of a spider?” Tarantula has an all-black suit with white markings, six-arms, black eyes, fangs, and spider hair covering his body.

9. Kaine (Scarlet Spider)

Another clone of the Earth-616 Spider-Man is Kaine Parker. Kaine was the first-ever clone of Parker during the Jackal’s lengthy process. At first he was deemed a success, but quickly degenerated. This meant that he suffered serious physical and mental instabilities that left him more monster than man. The Jackal left him alive to see how long it would take his body to break down, but Kaine ended up outliving his expectations. Still, he felt greatly betrayed by The Jackal, who quickly abandoned him for better experimentations. This eventually sent him on a mission to destroy Ben Reilly’s life, although at the time he thought Ben Reilly was the real Spider-Man and Peter the clone. The logic here gets really twisted and is probably best left to a personal quest for knowledge, if you seek it.

Kaine has the same power-set as Spider-Man except for a “Mark of Kaine”, though we have seen Spidey use this one time before. Ostensibly, his wall-crawling abilities are so heightened that he can use his stickiness to essentially brand his enemies with his hands, hence the “Mark of Kaine”. Kaine has since gone on to become an anti-hero and even hero in his own rights as the new “Scarlet Spider”. He left New York and moved to Texas to operate as his own vigilante force, but he feels the pull to come back into Peter and Ben’s lives every now and then.

That’s how he appears in Across the Spider-Verse, as Scarlet Spider in a few background moments in the Spider Society. His Scarlet Spider suit is bright red with a black mask, shoulders, chest-spider, and fingers.

10. Spider-Man Unlimited

Every millennial remembers the ‘90s Spider-Man: The Animated Series, but how many people remember Spider-Man Unlimited, the sequel to the popular series? In it, Spider-Man is watching the launch of John Jameson’s space mission to travel to the High Evolutionary’s Counter-Earth when he notices Venom and Carnage trying to enter the space shuttle. Spider-Man steps in but is ultimately blamed for losing contact with John. So he goes to Mister Fantastic and asks him to redesign a nanosuit so that he can make his way to Counter-Earth and save John. The series depicts his quest to fight High Evolutionary’s Beastials and lead a revolt against the human oppressors. The series ran for 13 episodes before it was canceled, but the suit and character shows up several times throughout Across the Spider-Verse.

11. Spectacular Spider-Man

Every Gen-Zer remembers the ‘00s The Spectacular Spider-Man and the depression they felt when the series was canceled after two brilliant seasons. The show followed a school-age Peter Parker discovering his powers and enemies for the first time, with each episode named after a class he’s taking: “Biology 101,” “Economics 101,” etc. The show is famous for its unique character designs and clever writing that reworked older stories to breathe new vibrancy and modernity into them. Voice actor Josh Keaton brought Spider-Man to life over the 26 episodes that saw air. However, the show was prematurely canceled and over the years the fans have made it known that they desperately want the character to return (#savespectacularspiderman). So, when it was announced that he would show up in Across the Spider-Verse, there was a palpable sense of triumph. But not only does he show up, Keaton himself returns for two lines in the film!

His appearance carries an even more profound significance because during the sequence discussing the Canon Event of Captain Stacy’s death we see Spectacular Spider-Man cradling a dying version of his own Captain Stacy. Fans of the show will know that this event never took place during the two seasons that it was on the air. Captain Stacy was a series regular and seemed likely to suffer a similar fate to that of the comics (more on this later), but was strangely spared by cancelation. His death may be sad, but it does suggest that even after its cancellation the world of The Spectacular Spider-Man television show lives on.

12. Spider-Cat

When Miles flees from Miguel’s team of Spider-Men, he’s attacked by a Spider-Cat. This cat originated during a story called Spider-Island: I Love New York City No. 1, a small anthology book that took place during an event where every resident of New York City was given the same spider powers as Spider-Man. In this instance, a house cat used his newly gained powers to fight crime — specifically dreaming of taking down a pigeon named Venom who had claimed several of his nine lives. Sadly, as is your fate if you hang around comics too long, he was devoured by immortal totemic vampires who sucked his life essence out and killed him. You can address all your angry letters to writer Dan Slott for that one, not that he needs more after he killed Peter Parker.

13. Spider-Rex

Late last year, Marvel Comics properly reintroduced (after a cameo appearance in Spider-Geddon No. 4) a Spider-Man named Pter Ptaker, affectionately known as Spider-Rex, during the lead-up to their “End of the Spider-Verse” storyline. Pter Ptaker is a Pteranodon who was hit by a meteorite containing alien spiders, which caused him to swap bodies with Norrannosaurman, a Tyrannosaurus-Rex. That baffling process left him with Spider-Powers. And now, he’s suddenly in Across the Spider-Verse memorably chomping his way after Miles during his escape. Even better, his webshooters make a “T-WHIP” sound effect!

14. Spider-Man 2211

Max Borne is a TimeSpinner and Spider-Man from the year 2211, which basically means his job is to prevent disruptions to the Marvel timeline. He wears a helmet with six eyes and has four mechanical, red arms that extend from a unit on his back. He fights against the Hobgoblin of 2211 to try and stop her retcon bombs from erasing existence. He shows up in Across the Spider-Verse as the Spider-Man that Miles clings to to hide during his escape from the Spider-Society.

15. Black Suit Spider-Man

If you have seen Spider-Man 3 you know what this is all about. Spider-Man gets a symbiote from space that gives him an upgraded black costume, but also amplifies his worst attributes and launches a multibillion-dollar franchise you might have heard of called Venom. Several variations on this suit can be seen walking around the Spider-Society.

16. Bombastic Bag-Man

Yes, you did spot a Spider-Man with a paper bag for a head and, yes, that costume has a hilarious history in the comics. It all starts with the symbiote, black costume that first appeared in Amazing Spider-Man No. 252. In the movies and television adaptations of this story, the costume amplifies Peter’s anger and worst attributes. This isn’t true in the comics, but the suit does take over Peter’s body when he falls asleep, swinging him around town and fighting crime with its own particular agenda. As a result, Peter wakes up exhausted but unaware of his nighttime activities.

Eventually, in Amazing Spider-Man No. 258, Peter grows curious about his new costume and decides to visit his friends, the Fantastic Four, to investigate the mysterious suit. It is at their home, the Baxter Building, that Mister Fantastic discovers that the suit is a parasitic symbiote and uses fire and sonics to detach it from Peter’s body.

Parker now needs a new suit. So, the Fantastic Four gives him one of their spares. Unfortunately, their costumes don’t come with a mask, and Spidey must protect his secret identity. So, the Human Torch, as a joke, cuts two holes in a paper bag and puts it over Spider-Man’s head. Thus, the Bombastic Bag-Man is born! As an additional joke, the Human Torch puts a “Kick Me” note on Spider-Man’s back — and hilarity ensues.

The suit’s design in the movie is very different, except for the bag-head. Sony doesn’t have the rights to use the Fantastic Four logo, as those rest with Disney/Marvel, and so the costume is reimagined as a blue-dominant Spidey costume. Either way, the design is a riot.

17. Cyborg Spider-(Wo)Man

In the posters and toys for Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse there is a character featured prominently who is truly a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it appearance in the movie: a character they are calling “Cyborg Spider-Woman.” It’s hard to say that there are any feminine or truly human qualities about this brutish figure (I honestly think it has been misnamed), as it looks like a bunch of loosely assembled pieces of other better cyborgs. All I know is that the action figure will run you $59.99. At that price it better be an actual cyborg.

In the comic Spider-Man No. 21, written and illustrated by comics legend Erik Larsen, Spider-Man is saved from near death by a figure called Cyborg X. When he awakens he finds himself wearing a new cybernetic arm, a new eyepiece, and some well-placed bandages. It’s probably his most ‘90s design and only lasted for the one issue, but it was around just long enough to inspire this new design and find its way into a variety of video games as an extra costume.

18. Charlotte Webber / Sun-Spider

Hailing from Earth-20023, the inclusion of Sun Spider in Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse came as a bit of a surprise considering she only appeared on the pages of comics a couple of years ago (Spider-Verse No. 6 in 2020) and only got her first full story a few months ago — in Edge of the Spider-Verse (Vol. 2) No. 4, released in 2022. But her history is directly tied to the first Spider-Verse film.

After the release of Into the Spider-Verse, people took to Twitter to reveal their #spidersona, basically who they would be if they were under the mask. Marvel saw the success of this and launched a Spidersona competition to make those characters canon and to print the images of the winners in the back of select Spider-Man comics. Dayn Broder won the competition with Sun-Spider, and as such, the character is now a part of the official Spider-Verse.

Charlotte Webber, an obvious pun, has Ehlers-Danlos syndrome, which causes hypermobility and extreme flexibility, along with resultant sores, bruising and additional injuries. To counter that, many people with EDS use crutches, wheelchairs, and canes to assist them. Sun-Spider has twin canes and a wheelchair that are equipped with internal web-shooters so that she can swing through the air. In the film, we see her in a wheelchair that quickly morphs into a motorized Spider-bot that she can manipulate. She crawls after Miles across the ceiling during his escape from the Spider-Society.

19. Peter Parkedcar

In the wake of his original “Spider-Verse” story, writer Dan Slott lamented that the one character he wasn’t able to include in the story that he pitched was a sentient, transforming version of the oft-mocked Spider-Mobile, whose secret identity was Peter Parkedcar. Recently, he was able to tell that story with his frequent collaborator Ty Templeton in the pages of Edge of the Spider-Verse (Vol. 2) No. 4. Here the sentient Spider-Mobile appears during Miles’ hasty escape from the Spider-Society.

20. Superior Spider-Man

In one of the most shocking Spider-Man stories ever, Amazing Spider-Man No. 698, it is revealed that a dying Doctor Octopus swapped his mind into the body of Spider-Man and vice versa. Two issues later, in the blockbuster Amazing Spider-Man No. 700, the mind of Peter Parker that was trapped in Doctor Octopus’ body died at the hands of a Doctor Octopus-controlled Spider-Man. With Peter gone, Doctor Octopus declared himself the Superior Spider-Man and set about living Peter’s life in a radically different way: brutalizing his enemies, creating a spy network of spider-bots that covered Manhattan, pushing away Mary Jane, and even re-embracing the Venom symbiote. These were awesome, exciting comics. Seriously, go read Superior Spider-Man.

In the background of the Nueva York headquarters, a reappearing Spider-Man can be seen wearing a suit designed by Humberto Ramos for the Superior Spider-Man. The suit is notable for its black lenses, triangular cut chest design and shoulder pieces, gauntlets and black legs. Once you know it, and the story associated with it, you can’t miss it.

21. Stealth / Big Time Costume

Coming out of an era before Superior Spider-Man, the Stealth Suit or Big Time Costume debuted in Amazing Spider-Man No. 650 by Dan Slott and Humberto Ramos. In that story, Peter finally hits the “big time” when he’s invited to work at leading tech company Horizon Labs. There he is given the anonymity to develop technology to aid in his work as Spider-Man but that might also serve a dual role to help society.

When the villainous Hobgoblin resurfaces, with his devastating sonic laugh, Spider-Man has to create a noise-cancelling suit. The result is the Stealth Suit, which can bend light and sound around it in its two different colored modes, both of which look like something out of Tron. Several dozen variations on this suit can be seen throughout the background of the Nueva York headquarters worn by faceless Spider-Men.

22. Spider-Byte

Debuting in Vault of Spiders No. 1, a spinoff series of the original Spider-Verse story, is Earth-22191’s Spider-Byte. In her universe, Margo Kess spends most of her time as a virtual avatar in Cyberspace, just like everyone else. But with the rise of cybercrime, she decides to step up and become a spider-superhero named Spider-Byte. In Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse, she shows up as the person/avatar behind all the various communication devices that the Spider-Men share through their Web-Watches.

23. Insomniac Spider-Man

Chances are that you’ve already played and are familiar with Marvel’s Spider-Man on the PlayStation 4 and 5, as developed by Insomniac. As of last year, it had reportedly sold over 33 million copies, has had a spinoff all about Miles Morales, and a sequel is releasing later this year. The character of Peter Parker, voiced by Yuri Lowenthal, shows up with his unique, white-spider-branded costume during the sequence where Miles is shown a variety of dimension-less villains that are being held in Spider-Jail.

24. MK I Armor

The first in a series of armor upgrades, Spider-Man created the Mark I suit to be bulletproof so that he could fight off a group called the New Enforcers when they attacked New York City. The silver suit shows up in Web of Spider-Man No. 100 and has become a favorite for inclusion in video games and other adaptations. The suit looks like a disco ball come to life and limits Spider-Man’s agility, but it got the job done. Here it shows up being worn by a random Spider-Man in the background of the Spider-Society.

25. MK II Armor

Peter built this second suit of armor to compensate for when he lost his Spider-Sense after a fight against a villain known as the Spider-Slayer. It came in handy when a mass murderer, aptly named Massacre, kidnapped a group of people and was holding them hostage in a high rise. Peter had recently taken up the mantra of “No one dies” and was determined to take him down. Frankly, I think the story it debuts in, Amazing Spider-Man No. 656, is the best stand-alone issue of Amazing Spider-Man in the past decade.

The suit itself has one of the most unique costume designs, thanks to the brilliant pencils of Marcos Martin. It looks almost like a black turtleneck with strange web designs carved into it and yellow spider-legs that loop around the suit and connect the eyes together. And, you guessed it, a Spider-Man is wearing this suit in the background of the Spider-Society.

26. MK III Armor

Shortly after Spider-Man debuted the MK II suit, he moved on to the MK III version. Visually akin to football pads, this suit boasts every upgrade of the previous suits plus a customized helmet, enhanced lenses, electricity-proof shielding, built-in web shooters, flight, enhanced durability and a built-in utility belt. Basically, it made Spider-Man a one-man arsenal in his fight against Doctor Octopus and his Sinister Six as they took the fight to the “Ends of the Earth.” The suit was damaged in Spider-Man’s final fight with Doctor Octopus on his sinking, kaiju-like ship and hasn’t shown up again in over a decade. So, it was surprising to see it show up, again, in the background of the Spider-Society.

27. Velocity Suit

Another suit that shows up during Miles’ escape is the Velocity Suit. The suit originated in the Marvel’s Spider-Man video game on PlayStation. Designed by comic artist and conceptual designer Adi Granov, famous for his work on various Iron Man suits, the suit was included as a bonus, unlockable suit for players. It had no previous history in the comics and so came as a bit of a surprise to longtime fans. The joy of using the suit is that it unlocks a Blitz power that utilizes micro-gyros to provide Spider-Man with faster sprinting speeds and momentum-transfers between a variety of enemies. But, mostly, it just looks like an Iron Man suit given the Spider-Man treatment.

28. Electro Proof Suit

In the deep background of Miles’ escape is a Spider-Man wearing the Electro Proof Suit that first appeared in Amazing Spider-Man No. 425. The suit was handbuilt by Peter to combat an electrically overcharged Electro. It is black in appearance, with brown rubber padding in the places where Spider-Man’s costume is typically blue. While it made its first appearance in the comics, it is better known as an alternate costume across a half-dozen video games.

29. Bruce Banner Spider-Man

Gosh, now we are getting into some serious obscurities! Hailing from Earth-70105, a Spider-Man who is actually Bruce Banner can be seen in the Nueva York headquarters. The character hails from the Bullet Points miniseries, a story about a universe where Doctor Erskine was killed 24 hours earlier, causing Project: Rebirth (the one that created Captain America) to never happen. A ripple effect of that change sees Peter Parker turned into the Hulk and Bruce Banner turned into Spider-Man from a gamma-infused spider he dissected while searching for a cure for Peter. His costume looks like a typical Spider-Man costume, just instead of being red and blue with white eyes he is silver and black with orange eyes.

30. Cyclops Spider-Man

Even more obscure is the Spider-Man from Earth-61422, a universe explored by the Ultimate FF team where everyone is a cyclops. So, imagine a Spider-Man with one big white eye in the middle of his costume and you’ve got the right idea. That’s all we know about him. It must be hard to swing a web without depth perception.

31. Iron Spider Armor

If you’ve seen Avengers: Infinity War, and I know you’ve seen Avengers: Infinity War, then you know this suit. In the comics, Spider-Man sides with Tony Stark during his Civil War against Captain America. As such, in Amazing Spider-Man No. 529, Tony builds Spider-Man a suit of armor that has come to be known as the “Iron Spider.” The suit is red and gold, with three spider-legs that extend from the back. Why is it three limbs when four would have made Peter more arachnid-like? I don’t know. Ask Tony Stark and artist Ron Garney.

Either way, Peter eventually rejects the suit when he learns about the nefarious things Tony has done in the name of the Superhero Registration Act, including rigging the suit to allow him to control Peter. Peter hacks into the suit and surprises Tony. It’s a good story and one that found its way largely intact when translated to the MCU. You can see this original design worn by a Spider-Man in the Spider-Society.

32. Neversoft Spider-Man

Released in 2000, video game developer Neversoft, famous for the Tony Hawk Pro Skater series, made a Spider-Man game for the PlayStation 1. It is a game that many, myself included, regard as one of the best Spider-Man games ever made. The lead character design is great, but obviously features dated polygonal graphics. As such, the Spider-Man figure is particularly distinct among Spider-Men. That’s why it was a thrill to see that old polygonal model show up walking around the Spider-Society!

33. Mangaverse Spider-Man

The last surviving member of the Spider-Clan, Peter Parker seeks to enact ninja-justice for the death of his Uncle Ben, killed by Venom on behalf of Kingpin and the Kuji Kuri. The Marvel Mangaverse was one of their first attempts to appeal to the huge audience of manga readers. Spider-Man appears in an anime style, youthful and ninja-like. His costume only has webs on his mask, he wears skater shoes, and his fists are wrapped in bandages. Fans of Marvel’s Spider-Man on PlayStation are likely to recognize the cartoony, alternate costume that appeared in that game when it appears in the Spider-Society. But, don’t mistake him for the Chibi Spider-Man that is also running around the Spider-Society, an original character and design invented for this film.

34. Spider-Cop

Fans of the Marvel’s Spider-Man game will also laugh at the inclusion of Spider-Cop in Across the Spider-Verse. Throughout the game, Peter jokes with Captain Yuri Watanabe about his persona as “Spider-Cop.” There is a brief mention in the game of a “Spider-Traffic-Cop,” which is what the character in Across the Spider-Verse appears to be as he directs Spider-Men around the Spider-Society.

Marvel even leaned into this joke in Spider-Geddon No. 4, written by Christos Gage (who also wrote for the game), when they introduced an actual Spider-Cop character. This Spider-Man is from Earth-19119, and he wears a policeman’s uniform over his Spider-Man suit. Even worse, he wears shades and has a mustache on the outside of his mask. Did he cut a hole in the mask for his stache to poke through? Is the stache a false one that he glued to the outside of his costume? These are questions I have, but I don’t necessarily want the answers.

But, this character could also be Spider-Man from Earth-X No. 0. In the Earth X series, the entirety of humanity becomes mutated and Peter retires as a superhero, feeling he has nothing more to offer in a world where everyone has superpowers. His life quickly fell apart from there as he settled into depression and bad eating habits. It wasn’t until his daughter May bonded with the Venom symbiote and was captured by the Skrulls that he found meaning again. He then took control of his life again and joined the NYPD.

“The NYPD, home to America’s finest retired superheroes and their mid-life crises!”

35. Spinneret and Spiderling

During 2015’s comics mega-event Secret Wars, the Marvel multiverse was destroyed and pieced back together as a patchwork of pocket universes, themselves amalgamations of other Marvel stories. One such universe was Earth-18119, as detailed in the series Amazing Spider-Man: Renew Your Vows. In this universe, Peter Parker and Mary Jane remained married, and after the death of their daughter, May Parker, they tried for a second child. That child is Annie Parker, and she too inherits the Spider-Powers of her father. Together, the three of them fight as a Spider-Family as Spider-Man, Spinneret (Mary Jane using a device to siphon Peter’s powers for herself) and Spiderling (Annie).

When we are first introduced to Nueva York’s Spider-Society, if you look closely you can see Spinneret in a white and red costume holding hands with younger Annie in a blue and red suit, plus helmet!

36. Lady Spider

One of the first characters we see in the Spider-Society is Maybelle Reilly, also known as Lady Spider. She’s distinguished by her blue jumpsuit, corset with a spider symbol, pilot’s cap and goggles, and four mechanical arms that come out of a harness on her back. First introduced in Spider-Verse No. 1, Maybelle is one of the first new characters to spin out of the “Spider-Verse” event story. Her father caged animals, including a spider, and when she got bit she learned a lesson about what it means to capture wild creatures in cages. When her father died, she took that lesson to heart and built herself her Spider-Suit and mechanical arms, determined not to let society cage her.

37. Spider-Monkey

For whatever reason, in 2008’s Amazing Spider-Man Family No. 1, Marvel revealed the first look at the Monkeyverse, home to simian versions of the heroes we know and love from the normal Marvel universe. One such character is Spider-Monkey, a violent, egotistical alternative to Spider-Man who had no qualms about killing villains who refused to reform. One of his villains is Doctor Ooktavius, an orangutan with four mechanical arms grafted to his body. I’m not making this stuff up. Anyway, you can see Spider-Monkey flinging poop on the big screen as part of the Spider Society.

38. Werewolf Spider-Man

Spider-Man has been transformed into many things, including a human-sized spider. But in Across the Spider-Verse we meet his lupine form for the first time onscreen. Originating in the Spider-Man Unlimited endless running mobile game and appearing in the Marvel Zombies/Army of Darkness crossover, Werewolf Spider-Man has no recorded history. He’s just a human-flesh-eating werewolf in a torn-up Spider-Man costume and apparently perfectly fine for inclusion in the Spider-Society … and they told Miles “No!”

39. Future Foundation Spider-Man

When the Human Torch was thought lost to the Annihilation Wave in Fantastic Four No. 587 he left a vacancy on the Fantastic Four roster. Spider-Man stepped up to fill that role, and the Fantastic Four rebranded as the Future Foundation. Part of the rebrand meant new suits, and Spider-Man got one as well. The suit, entirely white with a big black spider at the center, black sides and black lenses, is a huge departure from the standard Spider-Man costume. That helps to make it easily identifiable when it shows up as part of the Spider-Society.

40. Web-Slinger and Spider-Horse

A cowboy version of Spider-Man, complete with a mask-wearing horse, is featured prominently in Across the Spider-Verse as a member of the Spider-Society. First appearing in Amazing Spider-Man (Vol. 3) No. 9, Web-Slinger has a six-shooter that fires webs and a mental connection to his horse that makes sure they always travel together.

41. Captain Spider

One of the first variants of Spider-Man to ever exist is Captain Spider, from 1977’s What If… ? No. 7, a story that asks, “What if someone else besides Spider-Man had been bitten by the radioactive spider?” Captain Spider imagines what would happen if bully Flash Thompson had received the spider bite. Captain Spider sports a more letterman jacket look in Across the Spider-Verse, but he’s unmistakable by his coif of blond hair that sticks out of the top of his exposed mask. In the comic, he goes on to fight crime, cheered on by his biggest fan, Peter Parker. However, when he fights his first supervillain, the Vulture, he is dropped and falls to his death. You see, Flash wasn’t the science whiz that Peter was, and therefore never developed web fluid to break his fall. Look, they can’t all be heartwarming tales!

42. Doppelganger

The Spider-Society better watch out because they have a mindless killer in their midst. The Doppelganger is a duplicate of Spider-Man who first appeared in Jim Starlin and Ron Lim’s Infinity War. The story behind his creation is too complicated to detail, but Doppelganger really rose to fame for his inclusion in the popular “Maximum Carnage” story that dominated Spider-Man comics in the mid-’90s. Sporting six arms, razor-sharp fangs and webbing, talons, and a multitude of eyes, Doppelganger became a killer pet to a number of bloodthirsty Spider-Man villains.

43. Spyder-Knight

First appearing in the Ultimate Spider-Man cartoon show (season three, episode 11), Spyder-Knight is a fitting member for Miguel’s Spider-Society. From Yorkshire, England, Spyder-Knight fights alongside the wizard Merlyn on his Spider-Horse. Yes, he has one too. You can see him in his Spider-Armor throughout the Spider-Society.

44. Spidercide

Remember when I told you about how Spider-Man was cloned a bunch of times? You know, about an hour ago when you were reading the entry on Scarlet Spider. Well, anyways, it turns out there were a bunch of other failed clones that preceded the success that became the Scarlet Spider. One such clone was Spidercide, a creature that was convinced it was the real Peter Parker until his built-in programming activated alongside his shapeshifting powers. Spidercide is a hulking clone with a violent tendency as true to his name as you might expect. Engineered specifically to kill Peter, Ben and Mary Jane, Spidercide would go on to cause a mass casualty event in the city of Springville, Pennsylvania, when he released an airborne virus. He’s not a beloved character by fans, but he’s had a few stories over the past years that have redeemed him as a Spider-Man foe. His appearance in the Spider-Society should be cause for alarm, or at least the hiring of an exterminator, 6 feet of separation and mandatory mask usage.

45. Prince Arachne

Another member of the Spider-Society is Prince Arachne, a fairy-tale knight who first appeared in Spider-Man: Fairy Tales No. 4. After the death of his noble father and uncle, young Peter Parker is entrusted into the care of Norman Osborn. In typical fairy-tale fashion, Peter becomes a servant to his step-father figure alongside his maid, Mary Jane. King George Stacy is holding a ball to find a suitable knight to marry his daughter, Princess Gwendolyn. Peter takes up a suit of armor, fashioned after a spider from his father’s tomb, and sneaks into the ball. Just like Cinderella, Peter and Gwendolyn dance the night away until the clock strikes midnight. The whole thing ends with Peter and Gwendolyn getting betrothed before Norman inadvertently kills her. It’s tragic. Enjoy your bedtime story, kids!

46. “Dr. Strange and the nerd from Earth-199999!”

As Miguel, Gwen and Jess wrap up the Vulture at the Guggenheim, Miguel laments “And don’t get me started about Doctor Strange and the nerd from Earth-199999.” Earth-1999999 is controversially the designation for the Marvel Cinematic Universe, despite the fact that it is labeled as Earth-616 in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. Earth-616 is the label for the Marvel Comics Universe, so here Miguel is referring to the events of Spider-Man: No Way Home.

47. “Last Stand” Spider-Man

Walking around the Spider-Society and wearing a red and blue trenchcoat, buttoned wide across his right breast, and sporting a tall red collar is what’s commonly referred to as the “Last Stand” Spider-Man. This character shows up in the Spider-Society and refers back to the events from Amazing Spider-Man No. 500, a story called “Happy Birthday.” In the comic, Peter is lost in time and is ultimately faced with a tough decision: saving his future self during a “last stand” with police who have him surrounded, or stop his younger self from ever becoming Spider-Man in the first place. We come into the story as the future Spider-Man stands over the grave of his Aunt May and refuses to back down. Ultimately, due to Peter’s inaction, a possible future version of himself is shot to death.

This future Spider-Man was later spun off into his own variant in Earth-312500 as a possible future of Peter Parker. That version of Spider-Man is a lethal avenger, killing Kraven the Hunter and Doctor Octopus. He’s kicked out of the Avengers and becomes a costumed antihero, leading to the death we saw in earlier comics.

48. Classic-Suit Jessica Drew

Another version of Jessica Drew wearing her traditional costume appears in the Spider-Society. The suit is primarily red with yellow boots and gloves, an arrow over her abdomen that connects through her breasts to an upside-down triangle that is mirrored on her mask. This is the suit that she’s most known for, with the other suit briefly replacing this one during her time away from the Avengers.

I recreated the entire second Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse trailer in LEGO! ( 🧵)@philiplord @chrizmillr @LEGO_Group @SpiderVerse #AcrossTheSpiderVerse #Blender pic.twitter.com/IlWfuEpp3Q

49. Lego Spider-Man

Spider-Man has had Lego sets for as long as I can remember. Producers Phil Lord and Chris Miller also helmed the Lego movies, so this marks a wonderful crossover between those two films, as we follow the Spot briefly into the world of the Lego Daily Bugle. The fun thing is that there is an incredible Lego Daily Bugle set that is identical to the one shown in the movie, complete with the Spider-Mobile, Spider-Gwen, J. Jonah Jameson, and so much more. But be prepared to empty your wallet for it as it runs $349.99 and is made up of 3,772 pieces!

Even more astonishing that the appearance of the LEGO world in this movie is that this was a late addition to the film made by a 14-year-old. When Preston Mutanga’s recreations of the Spider-Verse trailers in stunning LEGO started to go viral, Chris Miller and Phil Lord reached out to him about including a segment of his work in the movie where the characters visited a LEGO universe. It was only then that they realized that Preston was only 14 years old!

50. Andrew Garfield’s Spider-Man

When the various Spider-Man Canon Events were revealed, audiences were delighted to see the return of Andrew Garfield’s Spider-Man. No, this wasn’t new footage or anything, but seeing him crying over the body of a dying Captain Stacy (Dennis Leary) from the ending of Amazing Spider-Man was just as emotional as the first time. You can also see Martin Sheen’s Uncle Ben dying during the Uncle Ben Canon Event sequence.

51. Tobey Maguire’s Spider-Man

Just like Andrew, Tobey gets his moment as Spider-Man again in this film. We see him cradling his dying Uncle Ben on the sidewalk, establishing another moment in the Spider-Man canon.

52. Julia Carpenter

Known as the second Spider-Woman, Julia Carpenter appears as a part of the Spider-Society. Created by Jim Shooter and Mike Zeck for the first major Marvel event, Secret Wars, Julia Carpenter participated in an athletic study that turned out to be an experiment where she was injected with a mix of spider venom and exotic plant extracts. Gyms will do anything to keep you a member!

She gained similar powers to Spider-Man and very shortly thereafter was kidnapped by a cosmic being called the Beyonder to battle in his Secret Wars on the side of the heroes. Eventually, Julia would take over the position as Madame Web, and in that role she began to interpret and safeguard the Grand Web of Life and Destiny (more on that later).

In this film, she is identifiable by her black and white costume with a big white spider on her chest. She looks like she is wearing a symbiote, but it turns out that Spider-Man’s symbiote costume only looks the way it does because his subconscious modeled it after her suit when he grew jealous of her during Secret Wars.

53. Spider-Man ‘67

As Miles escapes from Nueva York he is nearly attacked by a still image of Spider-Man from the infamous 1967 cartoon show. The show, most fondly remembered for its iconic theme song — “Spider-Man, Spider-Man / Does whatever a spider can” — came at a time when American animation studios were collapsing and budgets were drying up. The series was forced to rely on reused stock animation to stretch the length of the episodes to meet broadcast standards. So, this particular image of Spider-Man swinging across New York City would be replayed over music many times per episode. The joke that this Spider-Man can’t move to catch Miles because his animation won’t allow him to is particularly hilarious if you know the history of the show’s budget and production.

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54. Metro Boomin’s Spidersona

Music producer Metro Boomin was brought on to produce the soundtrack to Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse, and as such, character designer Kris Anka saw fit to design him his own spidersona. The character can be seen in the background of the Spider-Society, but he gets the last word during Miles’ escape when he descends, upside-down, from the ceiling with all the Spider-Men behind him to corner Miles.

OTHER EASTER EGGS (IN CHRONOLOGICAL ORDER)

55. “COUGH”

At the start of Across the Spider-Verse you can hear a loud cough and the word appears on the screen in the lower right-hand corner. This is a continuation of a joke that producer Chris Miller has been doing ever since 22 Jump Street where they left a cough in the mix. The cough never made it to the Blu-ray version, as Sony was worried that people think someone had invaded their home while watching the film. It has since shown up in Into the Spider-Verse, The Mitchells vs the Machines, and now prominently in Across the Spider-Verse.

56. Miles’ Comic Logo

Each Spider-Man comic series can often be distinguished by the font choices they use for the logos on their titles. At the start of the movie, the Sony logo begins to glitch and one of the fonts it glitches into is the exact same font as those from the Miles Morales: Spider-Man comics. For the most part, the font appears angled backward with red fill and deep black shadows extending upward.

57. Secret Wars Logo

The same change is true of the Sony Pictures Animation logo, which briefly glitches into the same font as the Marvel Super Heroes: Secret Wars No. 8 font, which was the issue where Spider-Man first gets the black Venom symbiote costume. Then it turns into a logo that replicates the cover of Amazing Spider-Man No. 300, what many consider the first full appearance of Venom.

58. The Mary Janes

The movie opens on Gwen drumming with her band and recounting her origin story. The band, The Mary Janes, originated in her comics and even became a part of the early promotional elements that launched the character into her superstardom. Music played a huge part in the punk rock comic from Jason Latour, Robbi Rodriguez and Rico Renzi. They smartly reached out to an indie band called Married With Sea Monsters, who recorded a single called “Face It Tiger” and used it to bring awareness to their small Spider-Gwen comic.

The band, originally called MURDER FACE, itself consists of Mary Jane, Gwen Stacy, Glory Grant and Betty Brant and performs their hit single “Face It Tiger” in the comic, begging readers to play the music while reading.

59. Gwen’s Origin Comic Art

As Gwen is explaining her origins, specifically when she describes her spider bite, several comic images appear onscreen. These are real images from Gwen’s debut comic, Edge of the Spider-Verse No. 2, with art from Robbi Rodriguez and Rico Renzi. Robbi and Rico’s color style and mediums are so unique they probably deserve their own entry, or at least royalties, as the colors in Earth-65 lean into the neons and watercolors that dominated her comic book world. It’s important to mention that that comic opens in a nearly identical way to this movie, Gwen playing with her band and recapping the events of her origin story. In fact, most of the dialogue from the comic is almost perfectly duplicated onscreen.

60. Ultimate Fallout

In Gwen’s bedroom, there is a poster for a band called “Ultimate Fallout.” The comic Ultimate Fallout No. 4 is the first issue that Miles Morales appears in. In the comic, he fights the villain Kangaroo in a rudimentary Spider-Man costume, before pulling off his mask and revealing his face for the first time.

61. Ned Leeds

Most people are familiar with the character of Ned Leeds as he appears in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, as Peter’s “man in the chair.” However, in the comics the two weren’t very close friends, often competing for the affection of the same woman: Betty Brant. Ned eventually wed Betty Brant and even included Peter as his best man, a decision he would likely regret when he later learned that Betty was trying to cheat on him with Peter. It’s a mess.

Anyway, Ned shows up here in Gwen’s universe as a Flash Thompson stand-in, bullying young Peter. I guess there is a sense of cosmic (comic) justice after all.

62. Spider-Man: The Animated Series Shirt

Probably the most popular Spider-Man show of them all is the ‘90s Spider-Man: The Animated Series. To this day, no show has done a better job of translating the appeals of Spider-Man comics when they were at their peak of cultural inception. At the heart of the show was Peter Parker in a design based off of John Romita’s character-defining art for the character. Peter’s design featured a prominent white, blue, and turquoise green-striped, collared shirt. If you look carefully, it’s exactly the shirt Peter is wearing at dinner with the Stacy family in Gwen’s flashback to her origin story.

63. Peter is the Lizard

In Into the Spider-Verse we saw a brief glimpse into the events that led to Gwen Stacy becoming her universe’s Spider-Woman. This is all detailed in the opening to Edge of the Spider-Verse No. 2 and plays out exactly the same way, with almost exactly the same dialogue, in Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse. Peter becomes the Lizard because he wants to be powerful like Gwen. Gwen is forced to defend the school and inadvertently kills Peter. This sets Spider-Woman up as a menace to society that Gwen’s father is determined to bring to justice.

64. J. Jonah Jameson

We went over a decade without a depiction of J. Jonah Jameson on the movie screen, from Spider-Man 3 to Spider-Man: Far From Home. During that time, everyone speculated on who could possibly replace J.K. Simmons as the maniacal newspaper publisher. The answer was: no one. In Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse, Sony has doubled down on a good thing. In every single universe we visit, J.K. Simmons is J. Jonah Jameson. Long live the king.

65. Editors’ Notes

Oftentimes in the comics, when something gets referenced or has a confusing backstory, the comic’s editor, the person who assembles the creative team and guides the production, will leave a note on the page clarifying or pointing the reader toward what they may need to read to get the full details. Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse does this as well, but mostly for humorous effect, with boxes popping up here and there to help the audience.

66. Amazing Fantasy No. 15

Spider-Man’s first appearance was also the final issue of Stan Lee and Steve Ditko’s anthology series Amazing Adult Fantasy, renamed Amazing Fantasy for this issue. Fan reception and sales were so strong on this issue, which told the story of Peter Parker’s origins and the death of his Uncle Ben, that they gave Spider-Man his very own ongoing series, The Amazing Spider-Man. That series is still running to this day, over 900 issues later. This issue can be seen, with its Jack Kirby illustrated cover, on Miles’ bed, when Gwen shows up to reconnect with Miles.

67. Web of Life and Destiny

The idea of the Web of Life and Destiny is as old as the idea of the Spider-Verse, but it actually originated in the video game Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions on the PlayStation 3. Imagine a giant web where each strand of the web acts as a connective tissue between every part of the multiverse. Pull on one part of the web and it may create a ripple that impacts the rest of the multiverse in some way, usually through the various Spider-Men who are destined to protect and maintain the web.

That web shows up in a number of ways in Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse and lies at the heart of the story and the destinies that the Spider-Men seek to protect. When Miles is first approached by Gwen, she shows up in a hexagonal pattern, just like the center of a spider’s web. These hexagons guide Miles into the Spider-Verse and are shown to form portions of a much greater multiversal web, the very same Web of Life and Destiny. We’ve seen these hexagons in the MCU as well every time a ship bends space-time to travel the universe, or when the Scarlet Witch uses her powers to rewrite reality.

In the comics and this film, the great web is often depicted as a series of images that peer into various parts of the Spider-Verse, visually assembled as a web. The whole thing can make you go cross-eyed if you think about it too much, but it has been crazy seeing Sony Pictures Animation take a concept as insane as the Web of Life and Destiny and make it digestible for audiences who haven’t had literal decades to read it’s story unfold in the comics.

68. Top Skater

On the wall of Miles’ room is a poster for a Top Skater video game that is clearly a spoof of the Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater series. As I mentioned earlier, the Neversoft team that made that game also made a popular Spider-Man video game. But what you may not have known is that Spider-Man actually appeared as a hidden character in Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 2.

69. Yuri Watanabe

When Gwen’s father Captain Stacy shows up at the Guggenheim to apprehend the Vulture, who is attacking the museum, he can be heard talking to “Yuri.” This is Yuri Watanabe, a police officer introduced in Amazing Spider-Man No. 600 who was the lone supporter of Spider-Man inside the NYPD. However, her time spent around vigilantes would cause her to eventually take the law into her own hands, becoming an antihero named Wraith. The character was featured prominently in Marvel’s Spider-Man as Spider-Man’s partner inside the police force. Curiously enough, the character was portrayed by Tara Platt, wife to Yuri Lowenthal, the voice actor behind Peter Parker in the game.

70. Hammerspace

During the Guggenheim fight sequence, Miguel mentions that the Vulture has access to Hammerspace. The editor’s note that appears onscreen is sure to clear up what the Hammerspace is, but in case you missed it: The Hammerspace is a jokingly coined name to describe extradimensional spaces used for storing items. Basically, whenever a cartoon character pulls a large hammer or mallet out of nowhere, they are really pulling it out of the Hammerspace. So, as the Vulture rebuilds his costume out of nowhere or Spider-Ham pulls out a large wooden hammer, they are accessing the vast Hammerspace.

71. Web-Watches

Originally created by Pavitr Prabhakar in Web Warriors No. 1, the Dimensional Travel Watches allowed the various Spider-Men, part of a team called the Web Warriors, to travel the Web of Life and Destiny. Here they seem to have been built by Miguel O’Hara and operate both as travel and communications devices, as well as something built to stabilize dimension hoppers once out of their native dimension.

72. “Yeah, I think it’s a Banksy.”

In Into the Spider-Verse when the dimension collider begins to short-circuit and blast New York City, flattening elements of a variety of dimensions into each other, the results look like crazy art installations thrown into the streets. One observer comments, hilariously, “Yeah, I think it’s a Banksy.” The voice of the commentator is none-other-than musical artist Post Malone, who contributed the popular “Sunflower” to the Into the Spider-Verse soundtrack.

When the Vulture crashes into the base of the Guggenheim, destroying a bunch of modern art that he hates (he is from a Renaissance universe, after all), the same commentator shows up to look at the wreckage of the supervillain adding, “Yeah, I think it’s a Banksy.” Nope, that’s a Toomes.

73. Frog-Man

When Miles flips through his sketchbook we see how he’s aged over the past year and get a glimpse into his life as Spider-Man. We see that he’s fought some villains of his own in that time, including Frog-Man. Or is it Leap-Frog? Introduced in Marvel Team-Up No. 121. Frog-Man, Eugene Patilio, has an unusual backstory, as he’s the son of the villainous Leap-Frog, Vincent Patilio. His father’s career as Leap-Frog goes disastrously, and he winds up in prison. Eugene sees the only way for him to escape the specter of the Leap-Frog is to take up the mantle himself and become the heroic Frog-Man. He finds his father’s frog suit, which uses springs to launch him into the air, and heads out into New York to thwart crime. As a hero, Eugene is an accidental success, helping out Spider-Man a few times, but more out of clumsy luck than any particular skill.

74. The Beetle

The other villain we see in Miles’ sketchbook is the Beetle, one of Spider-Man’s earliest foes. However, the Beetle was never fully a Spider-Man villain, starting his career off fighting the Fantastic Four, he only really found his way into Spider-Man’s world through Spider-Man’s relationship with the Human Torch. The Beetle seems like a better fit as an Iron Man villain, as he’s pretty much just a man in a suit of armor who uses gadgetry to scale walls and break into banks. He’s always looking to upgrade his armor, and when he eventually reformed to the side of good he slowly upgraded himself from a Mach I suit all the way through Mach X.

75. “Steve D” Graffiti

As Miles swings around town and explains to us everything he’s been up to in the past year, you can see a name in graffiti that reads “Steve D.” That’s none other than Steve Ditko, the co-creator of Spider-Man. His name appeared in graffiti in Spider-Man: No Way Home as well!

76. Shakespearean Dimension

When Gwen is first telling Miles about an elite team of Spiders and her time traveling between dimensions, she mentions that she went on a mission to a “Shakespearean dimension”. That’s actually Earth-311, where a character named Peter Parquagh becomes The Spider in a comic called Marvel 1602. Set in the past, 1602 to be exact, Parquagh would find himself sent to the Roanoke colony to kill Sir Nicholas Fury. Eventually he would return to England to perform at the Globe Theater and was the first Spider-Man to die in the comics “Spider-Verse” event.

77. Ganke Lee

One of the best things about any Miles Morales comic is his best friend and partner-in-crime, Ganke Lee. Ganke, a Korean American student, is the first to learn about Miles’ secret and becomes his “man in the chair,” Lego-collecting buddy, and sometimes loose-lipped foil. Sound familiar?

That’s because in Spider-Man: Homecoming they rebranded the Ganke Lee character as Ned Leeds and made him into Peter’s best friend. It was a pretty confusing move, one sure to create confusion if and when a Miles live-action movie comes out.

Now, we live in a future where we have a character named Ganke Lee as Miles’ roommate, who will likely be confused as Ned Leeds. One thing is for sure, he reminds Miles, is that he’s “not your guy in the chair.”

78. Marvel’s Spider-Man Video Game

Speaking of Ganke, he’s playing a video game when we see him in Miles’ dorm room. If you look closely, you see that it is the upcoming Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 game that launches this fall. How can I tell? Well, Spider-Man is wearing the Iron Spider suit and uses it in ways that aren’t available in the first game but have been shown in the first trailer for the new game. Lucky Ganke. No wonder he doesn’t want to be the “guy in the chair.”

79. Venomverse

When the Spot is first exploring his powers, he leans through one of his portals and enters the live-action Venom movies. There he encounters the shopkeeper Mrs. Chen (Peggy Lu) from those films, who seems to be completely unphased by his sudden appearance. I mean, look, if you had to hear Venom say that line about a “turd in the wind” you’d accept just about anything. Heck, I’m sure she’s desperate for Phil Lord and Chris Miller’s table scraps at this point. Either way, before the Spot goes back though his portal, he grabs a box of Venomints.

80. “The Power of the Multiverse in the Palm of My Hand”

When the Spot finally figures out how to control his powers, he remarks, “I’ve got the power of the multiverse in the palm of my hand.” Fans of Spider-Man 2 will immediately recognize this on-the-nose reference to Doctor Octopus’ famous line, “The power of the sun in the palm of my hand.”

81. Foam Party

In Into the Spider-Verse, Miles’ father, Jefferson, remarks that all these new coffee shops are moving into the neighborhood. He specifically makes fun of one called “Foam Party,” which he says sounds more like a disco than a coffee shop. Miles just rolls his eyes.

A year later and Foam Party must be doing pretty well because it is still open in Across the Spider-Verse. When Miles and the Spot are fighting, they open a portal and dump a bunch of actual foam into Foam Party, where they continue to fight while sliding around on the floor, as if they are dancing to disco. It’s a smart callback to a relatively obscure joke from the first movie.

82. Armadillo

If you need a villain for Spider-Man to beat up at the start of your comic, you could do worse than Armadillo. Antonio Rodriguez sought to cure his diseased wife, and it brought him to criminal scientist Dr. Malus. Malus said he would cure her if Rodriguez would agree to become his test subject. Well, it doesn’t go well when Malus puts Rodriguez through an experiment that combines his genes with those of an armadillo. Who would have thought that that wouldn’t be a foolproof plan?

Armadillo has shown up throughout Miles’ run as a villain for him to beat up on, with his thick hide protecting him from Miles’ venom blasts. The same is true in Across the Spider-Verse, as he’s quickly disposed of by Miles after attempting to attack a train. With a swift kick, Armadillo rolls up into a ball and is venom-blasted away.

83. Bodega Bandit

When Spider-Gwen shows up to swing around town with Miles, they quickly thwart a robbery by a man in a green and black striped shirt. This is the Bodega Bandit, one of Spider-Gwen’s most frequent rogues. The character is clearly modeled after McDonalds’ Hamburglar and his motives are the same as well. He’s frequently seen robbing hot dog and burger joints. It was recently revealed that there is a Bodega Beyond, a sort of Bodega-Verse that connects every bodega and is guarded by Bandits assigned to each reality. I’m just learning about this now … but it changes everything I thought I knew about New York. And yet, it changes nothing …

84. Spider-Bots

As Gwen is investigating Miles’ universe for signs of the Spot she deploys a Spider-Bot to help her scan and keep watch over the building she suspects he’s in. Spider-Bots are a relatively recent addition to the Spider-Man mythos, but have become quite ubiquitous in the time since their addition. First created by Doctor Octopus when he took over Spider-Man’s body in Superior Spider-Man No. 2, he would use them to establish a “Web of Intrigue” to monitor all of New York City. He could control them through mental command, and eventually they were so numerous they became akin to a swarm on the city. He would eventually upgrade them to become “Arachnaughts,” large versions akin to walking spider-tanks.

85. Everything, Everywhere, All At Once

In a nod to this year’s Best Picture winner and one of the other best multiverse movies built around a bagel, Everything, Everywhere, All At Once, when Gwen and Miles scout out Dr. Ohn’s apartment there is a billboard above it with a giant bagel that reads “All of it, Always, All Over the Place.

86. “FCK”, The Wire

There is an infamous scene from The Wire where Jimmy McNulty and Bunk Moreland visit the apartment of a murdered woman. Every new detail they discover reveals how bungled the case was by the previous detective and allow them to link this murder to previous murders. The catch is that they only converse with iterations of the word “fck”. When Gwen and Miles investigate Dr. Ohn’s apartment lab they do the same except they only converse with the word “shoot”.

87. Miles <3s Gwen

Ever since the finale of Into the Spider-Verse, where Miles hints to Gwen that he’s interested in her as more than a friend and she politely redirects him, fans have been wondering if the two would end up together. Across the Spider-Verse continues to lean into that reading, that there is some romance brewing between the two Spider-Men, specifically reusing the upside-down kiss motif from the 2002 feature Spider-Man. Gwen’s hesitancy appears to be around Miles’ age and that, as she puts it, when Spider-Man and Gwen get together it always ends disastrously. I suspect their union in Beyond the Spider-Verse will be one of the things that proves that destiny is meant to be broken, or perhaps it will just end up in another tragedy.

In the comics, specifically Spider-Man (Vol. 2) Nos. 12-15 and Spider-Gwen (Vol. 2) Nos. 16-18, they are shown kissing each other, and a story reveals how it came to be. Sadly, the story isn’t one of their union but of Spider-Gwen turning Miles down after an ill-fated kiss. Either way, the story is a fun adventure and a lesson that these things don’t always work out.

88. Jess Drew’s Ex-Lover

Twice in Across the Spider-Verse, Jess Drew refers to a previous lover of hers. It’s unclear if this is meant to be a setup to a reveal in Beyond the Spider-Verse or just as a vague explanation of how she got pregnant. In the comics, Jess got pregnant through artificial insemination as a part of a deliberate attempt to move on to a different phase of her life. That said, during her pregnancy she began a romance with a reformed villain named Porcupine. The whole thing is awesome, sweet and uplifting. Seriously, writer Dennis Hopeless and artist Javier Rodriguez’s Spider-Woman is one of the best Marvel comics ever!

89. Spider-Society

In the comics, there are several different groups that are reminiscent of the Spider-Society that Miguel O’Hara has established in Nueva York. The Spider-Verse’s creation in the comics was a messy affair from several different writers over the span of several decades, and as such it’s not as easily grasped as the creation in the movie. One of the best things that writer Dan Slott did during his time writing Spider-Man comics was to slowly begin to weave all these disconnected ideas together into the tapestry that we now know as the Spider-Verse.

In Amazing Spider-Man (Vol. 2) No. 30, the start of the best modern Spider-Man story, take my word for it, we are given our first glimpse at the comics version of the Spider-Society. They are a secret society formed in Castile in 1099 A.D. that worships totemic spider deities. Basically, they believe that destiny is guided by spider deities who choose their Hunters on Earth, Spider-Man being the latest in that line. The chosen Hunters fight the Sisterhood of the Wasp, an organization built on dismantling destiny and sowing the seeds of chaos. To get into any more detail about all this would require a separate article, but know that this largely sowed the seeds for the eventual creation of the Spider-Verse in the comics.

After the events of the comics “Spider-Verse” story, several different realities had been destroyed and their Spider-Men were left essentially homeless. Chief among them was Spider-UK, a British Spider-Man whose role had always been safeguarding the multiverse as part of the Captain Britain Corps. He established the Web Warriors, a team of Spider-Men whose job was explicitly to protect the Web of Life and Destiny from any threats. Here we are introduced to a new Spider-UK named Malala Windsor a Muslim superhero named after Malala Yousafzai and the British House of Windsor. She has no comic counterpart, though it is important to note that recently Marvel introduced a new, different, Muslim Spider-UK named Zarina Zahari. The Spider-Society in Across the Spider-Verse operates almost identically to the Web Warriors and likely drew its inspiration from that team rather than the original Spider Society. The Web Warriors comics series was short-lived, but a lot of wacky fun.

90. Sacred Wars

While swinging around Mumbattan, a billboard for a movie reads “Sacred Wars.” This must be Mumbattan’s version of the upcoming Avengers: Secret Wars that will be the culmination of the MCU’s ongoing Multiversal War storyline.

91. Villain Tools in Miguel’s Lab

Evidence of the missions that the Spider Society have been undertaking can been seen hanging in Miguel’s lab. The most significant of the items there starts with a single Goblin Glider hanging in the back of the command center. The Green Goblin that we saw in Into the Spider-Verse was too big for a glider, but this suggests they’ve likely encountered a number of different Goblins over their journeys.

The second notable item is a robot with tentacles that first showed up in Amazing Spider-Man No. 37. In that comic, Professor Mendel Stromm sends a robot to Oscorp to get revenge on Norman for stealing his technology and setting him up to go to prison. One of the robots he sends is this green, amoeba-shaped robot with tentacles, exactly like the one hanging in Miguel’s lab.

92. Captain Stacy’s Death

One of the earliest moments in Amazing Spider-Man that firmly established that the world of Spider-Man was unlike any other hero was the death of Captain Stacy in Amazing Spider-Man No. 90. Captain Stacy, father to Peter’s girlfriend Gwen, had been a major supporting character in the comics for half a decade, both as a foil and supporter of Spider-Man. He was a respectable figure who nobly put his life on the line and always pursued what was right, even if it caused him trouble with his work. That’s why it was so shocking when he died as an onlooker to a battle between Spider-Man and Doctor Octopus.

This kind of thing seems fairly standard now, but wasn’t something common in the early ‘70s when the comic was released. Superhero battles were fairly anodyne and would always result in the hero cleanly winning. Here, a part of the building Spider-Man and Ock are fighting on falls toward the public below. Spider-Man isn’t quick enough to stop it and it falls toward a young boy. Captain Stacy hurls his body to successfully protect the boy but is crushed by the debris, revealing in his death that he knew that Peter Parker was Spider-Man and encouraging him to protect Gwen, as he does in the Amazing Spider-Man film. The actual artwork from this comic, from penciler Gil Kane and inker John Romita Sr., is shown several times in Across the Spider-Verse.

Across the Spider-Verse supposes that this is a Canon Event that all Spider-Men will share at some point, with the ultimate implication being that Miles’ father will suffer the same fate. In Marvel’s Spider-Man on the PS4, this comes true. Miles’ father Jefferson dies in a ceremony celebrating his heroic actions taking down Fisk and Mister Negative’s Inner Demons. Only time will tell if he will suffer a similar fate in Beyond the Spider-Verse.

93. The Amazing Spider-Man 2 Videogame

Generally regarded as one of the worst high-profile Spider-Man videogames, The Amazing Spider-Man 2 seemed rushed out the door to meet the release date of the movie of the same name. The video game development landscape has changed dramatically since the release of that title, with superhero games no longer rushing to meet movie releases and instead being allowed the time in development to truly shine. Regardless, during the sequence where we learn about the Canon Event that is Uncle Ben’s death, you can spot a cinematic from the game playing which showcases an incredibly poorly modeled Peter Parker standing over his Uncle Ben.

94. Web of Venom

It’s not entirely clear why Venom characters are caught up in the Web of Life and Destiny, as it is specifically a Spider-Man thing, but Sony’s got to cross-promote. Yes, Venom was a Spider-Man costume and villain back in the day, but he’s gone on to be a standalone character as reflected in his movie series. Still, the only reason that Sony has the Venom character at all is because he’s considered a part of the Spider-Man IP they purchased the movie rights to. So, in that vein, during one of the Web of Life and Destiny sequences there is a particular spread of webs that detail a number of different Venoms. They are Eddie Brock, Peter Parker (from Spider-Man 3), Anne Weying (Eddie’s ex-wife), Jessica Drew, Eddie Brock (from Spider-Man Unlimited), and Gwen Stacy as Gwenom. Yes, in the comics Gwen Stacy became a version of Venom. In fact, she doesnt’ have spider-powers at all anymore. She was cured and wears a benign symbiote which allows her to shapeshift her costume and get her spider-powers back.

95. Canon Events

When explaining what a Canon Event is, Miguel showcases a series of core moments that define every Spider-Man’s existence. We see four of the most iconic moments from Spider-Man comics on display.

The first, from Amazing Spider-Man No. 33, perhaps the most iconic moment from any Spider-Man comic outside of his origin story, is a moment from what’s known as the “Master Planner Saga.” In it, Spider-Man is buried under tons of steel, just out of reach from a vial of medicine that would cure his dying aunt, and the room is flooding with water. It’s a hopeless moment, but Spider-Man convinces himself that he can persevere and slowly lifts the steel over his head. The way it is drawn by Steve Ditko is a master class in comic book storytelling. The story is called “If This Be My Destiny…” and it is about Spider-Man choosing to defy fate, no matter the uphill climb, and is a fitting inclusion to this story about Miles attempting to do the same.

We saw this same idea play out in Spider-Man: Homecoming when the Vulture buries Peter under a similar pile of rubble, pinning him with little option for survival. It’s visually nearly identical to the comic book sequence. In sync with the themes of the film, Peter convinces himself that he is Spider-Man, with or without the Iron Man suit, repeatedly referring to himself as “Spider-Man” as he lifts the rubble from overhead. It’s a moment Marvel Studios head Kevin Feige championed for the film.

The second, from Amazing Spider-Man No. 50, will be familiar to anyone who has seen Spider-Man 2. The comic, entitled “Spider-Man No More,” plays out very similarly to that film, wherein Spider-Man decides that it’s not worth being Spider-Man anymore and throws his costume away. The image of Peter Parker walking away from his costume has become iconic, replicated straight off the page into Sam Raimi’s film, and is repeated here. Ultimately, Spider-Man would take up the costume again, just as he did in the film, but these conflicting themes of sacrifice and sometimes selfishness are at the core of who Peter Parker is.

The final image that we see is bound to be controversial, but it comes from Amazing Spider-Man Annual No. 21 and it is the marriage of Peter Parker and Mary Jane Watson. The reason for the controversy is that in the comics this story has been undone as if it never happened, a decision pushed by Marvel editorial and much despised by a very vocal group of fans. The reality is that as much as we might love the pairing of Peter Parker and Mary Jane, their marriage was a publicity stunt orchestrated by Stan Lee and Marvel editorial at the time.

The idea was to marry them in the daily comic that Stan wrote and create synergy with the Amazing Spider-Man comics, while hosting a real-life ceremony at Shea Stadium between actors portraying Spider-Man and Mary Jane, with Stan acting as the officiant. The marriage lasted over 30 years, and as such, undoing it was bound to be controversial, but the thought was that having a married Peter aged him unnecessarily and pushed him out of the idealized vision for the character. Whatever you do, don’t mention it on social media because you are bound to be seized upon by both camps as the “Marriage Wars” continue to be waged to this day. I’ve even argued that Into the Spider-Verse was wise to let Peter grow up and have a family, unlike the comics, and by making the marriage a Canon Event, it seems the team behind Across the Spider-Verse agrees.

The fourth image we see is Spider-Gwen digging herself out of a grave as the rain pours down on her. This is a recreation of the famous moment from “Kraven’s Last Hunt” where Spider-Man digs himself from a deep grave after being poisoned and buried alive by Kraven (more on this later). He claws his way back to life, fueled by the faith that he feels Mary Jane has placed in him. It’s a great moment in one of the best Spider-Man stories ever told.

96. Villain Stuffed Animals

When Peter returns home with Mayday and places her in her crib, we get a glimpse of the stuffed animals she plays with. The two we see are goofy versions of the Green Goblin and an octopus wearing a mask. This is a reference to the two villains he fought in the previous film, Green Goblin and Doctor “Liv” Octavius. Plus, little Mayday is wearing Spider-Ham pajamas! There are a lot of questionable parenting choices that Peter makes in this film, and this might be the cherry on top of it all.

97. Big Man

One of the most prominent, early, supporting cast members of Amazing Spider-Man was Daily Bugle reporter Frederick Foswell. He lived his day as Foswell, directly reporting to J. Jonah Jameson, but at night he donned a white facemask, a green suit, and a fedora and became Big Man, a major crime boss in New York City.

Spider-Man thwarted his crimes and saw him arrested. But, after a short period of time he was back working at the Daily Bugle as an underworld informant named Patch. Turns out, the Daily Bugle isn’t afraid of hiring felons. If J. Jonah Jameson can be a paragon for reformation, what’s stopping the rest of you… America?

Well, not to throw water on Jameson’s best intentions, after helping Spider-Man overthrow another crime boss named the Crime Master, Foswell returned to his more sinister activities. He used the Crime Master’s defeat to become Kingpin’s right-hand man. Nasty! I agree. However, when Jameson’s life was threatened, Foswell remembered his kindness and took a bullet for him.

Federick Foswell shows up in his full Big Man attire when Miles visits the jail in the Spider Society.

98. Grizzly

When we get a glimpse at the jail in the Spider-Society we can see several different villains captured from many different realities, including a pirate Doctor Octopus and a giant rat (which could be a reference to the supervillain Vermin). One prominent villain is Grizzly, a character notable for the fact that he’s just a strong dude in a bear-skin costume. I have a feeling that Sony Animation just made a list of the lamest and most obscure Spider-Man villains that they could toss into this sequence. They definitely missed a few, but Grizzlywas a welcome inclusion here.

Grizzly dates back to early Spider-Man comics, first appearing in Amazing Spider-Man No. 139 from 1974, and has become a bit of a fan-favorite punching bag over the years. He is Maxwell Markham, a professional wrestler who was gifted an exoskeleton outfit from Professor Miles Warren (remember him?) so that he might attack J. Jonah Jameson, whose editorial caused him to be ejected from the wrestling circuit. Spider-Man obviously saves the day, not without mocking Jameson, and in the process makes an eternal enemy out of the Grizzly. Grizzly would ultimately become a member of a group called the Spider-Man Revenge Squad, better known as the “Legion of Losers,” alongside other esteemed villains like the Kangaroo, Gibbon and … the Spot.

99. Kraven the Hunter

On the other side of the Spider-Society jail spectrum is Kraven the Hunter, one of Spider-Man’s most formidable and earliest foes (first appearing in Amazing Spider-Man No. 15). Kraven’s whole thing is that he’s seeking “the most dangerous game” as a way to prove himself as the world’s greatest hunter. After conquering the animal kingdom, he sees Spider-Man as the ultimate way to prove himself. After several defeats, this “hunt” quickly becomes personal and a psychotic obsession for Kraven. Still, through it all he maintains a strict code of conduct and honor toward those he hunts, and Spider-Man is no exception.

Ultimately, this would lead Kraven on his “Last Hunt,” a story where he captured and buried Spider-Man alive, while assuming his identity, as he sought to prove himself Spider-Man’s superior. When Spider-Man eventually crawled his way out of the grave, he found that Kraven had failed in his quest and had committed suicide after coming to the realization that he wasn’t the world’s greatest hunter but just an imposter. The story, by writer J. M. DeMatteis, penciler Mike Zeck and inker Bob McLeod, has gone on to be heralded as one of the greatest stories in all of comics.

100. Typeface

Let’s go back to the exact opposite of a villain like Kraven the Hunter to perhaps the most mocked villain in Spider-Man’s history, if you even know who he is. Joked about by the most hard-core of Spider-Man fans, Typeface is the character I least expected to ever show up in the comics again, much less a movie. I’m sure that was the point of his inclusion.

Intended to be a bizarre character, Typeface appears in a tremendous run of comics from creators Paul Jenkins and Mark Buckingham in Peter Parker: Spider-Man No. 23. Gordon Thomas was a Vietnam veteran who lost his family when he returned from the war, taking up signsmithing as his new profession. When a man named George Finch buys his company and lays him off, Gordon turns to supervillainy and puts a large “R” on his forehead, for “retribution.” He even manages to defeat Spider-Man during an early crime spree. The key thing to know about Typeface is that his design is just ridiculous. He’s got letters in different fonts all over his body and literally holds giant letters as razor-tipped weapons.

In Across the Spider-Verse, he shows up in the Spider-Society jail and announces, “I’ll see you in Hell-vetica!” Game recognizes game, Sony Animation. If you don’t include Stegron, the Dinosaur Man, and Razorback and his truck the Big Pig in the next film, I will know you aren’t real Spider-Man fans.

101. Donald Glover Prowler

Way back before Andrew Garfield was cast as Peter Parker in the Amazing Spider-Man films, comedian/actor/rapper Donald Glover started a social media campaign to get himself cast as the character in the upcoming series. #Donald4Spiderman trended on Twitter, but it wasn’t to be.

As a main castmember on NBC’s Community, Glover decided to have some fun with the huge social media campaign he started. During the season two premiere, he can be seen waking up in bed, wearing a full-body Spider-Man costume. But, that wasn’t the end of it. When Miles debuted in Marvel’s Ultimate Spider-Man television show, they went to Glover and asked him to do the character’s voice, locking him in as the first official voice for the character. Glover would go on to play Aaron Davis, Miles’ uncle, in Spider-Man: Homecoming‘s memorable interrogation scene. Finally, Glover was cemented into Spider-Man lore, even if he wasn’t playing Spider-Man himself. To continue the joke, Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse brought back the clip of Glover in Spider-Man pajamas. Just as Miles enters his Uncle Aaron’s apartment, you can see Donald Glover’s scene from Community playing on the television.

Now, the circle is complete. We never got to see the MCU version of the Prowler and it seems the reason is because he has been captured by the Spider Society and put in jail, as Donald Glover shows up in full Prowler attire in Across the Spider-Verse.

102. Mooseterio

We got to meet Spider-Ham in Into the Spider-Verse, but what about his villains? Yes, they are animal variants on Spider-Man’s villains as well, including an anthropomorphic moose with the powers of Mysterio. The inclusion of Mooseterio in the jail sequence in Across the Spider-Verse is just about as substantial as his inclusion in the comics. He has only appeared in a pin-up image in Peter Porker, the Spectacular Spider-Ham No. 14 and never as a character in an actual story.

103. Videoman

The inclusion of Videoman is one of my absolute favorite Easter eggs in all of Across the Spider-Verse, and obviously … that’s a long list. The character first appeared in the 1980s Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends television show in an episode called “Videoman.” He was a unique creation for the show and has had a few winking appearances in the comics since. In the story, Electro tries to take over New York by increasing his powers. As a part of that plan, he transports the villainous Videoman, a pixelated, electric threat, out of an arcade game and into real life. He’s defeated by Spider-Man, Iceman and Firestar, but proved to be well-liked enough to make another appearance. I say “well-liked enough” because he comes back only to die at the hands of other arcade creatures. There is just something very charming about the performance and design of Videoman that he has sustained enough love over the years to appear as a cameo in Across the Spider-Verse. Count this one as an incredible obscurity that I couldn’t believe I was seeing in the theater.

104. Atari Green Goblin

Here’s another video game classic. The first-ever Spider-Man video game was for the Atari 2600 — look it up, kids — in 1982. In the game, Spider-Man has to ascend a building to defuse bombs planted by the Green Goblin. As Spider-Man uses his webs to ascend the building, fight thugs, and defuse the bombs, the layout slowly changes to keep players on their toes. At the top of the building, Spider-Man must face off against the Green Goblin and his “super bomb.” The Green Goblin is a series of about 10 pixels standing on top of his black Goblin-Glider. Those ten pixels show up in the Spider-Society jail as a sort of green man with one arm raised up. Truly bizarre!

105. Lady Beetle

No relation to the other Beetle villain, this Beetle is Janice Lincoln and she can be seen in the background during the jail sequence in Across the Spider-Verse. The character’s design is notable for her purple and green jumpsuit and mask with eyes the edge out in wedge shapes beyond the sides of her face. She is actually the daughter of Tombstone, a villain from Into the Spider-Verse and a major figure in modern Spider-Man comics. In a few weeks she is set to marry The Daily Bugle editor Robbie Robertson’s son Randy. The complication there is that Robbie Robertson and Tombstone are mortal enemies. It’s a sort of Romeo and Juliet situation that’s likely to end poorly.

106. The Rhino

In the jail is an actual, boring rhino, but the real deal shows up moments later as the web weaver attempts to send him back to his original dimension. The Rhino is a classic Spider-Man villain, first portrayed on the big screen in Amazing Spider-Man 2 by Paul Giamatti. The character in the comics first debuted in Amazing Spider-Man No. 41, the first villain invented by Stan Lee and John Romita Sr., and was a man named Aleksei Sytsevich. Aleksei was a thug in the Russian Mafia who accidentally became permanently bonded to a suit of armor modeled after the hide of a rhino. His dim-witted, easily angered nature makes him a blunt force to be reckoned with. Fights with the Rhino often see him tearing through whole city blocks in a mindless pursuit of Spider-Man. But, don’t let his demeanor fool you, he’s actually turned out to be a soulful man with a real tortured relationship to his role as a supervillain. For anyone looking to read his best stories, I would check out “The Rage of the Rhino” in Amazing Spider-Man No. 617 and No. 625.

107. Spider-Man 2099 White Suit

In the back of Spider-Man 2099’s laboratory you can see him building a new suit for himself, this time colored in white. There is a comics counterpart to this white suit that was developed by Peter Parker when Miguel found himself stranded in the present day in Spider-Man 2099 (Vol. 3) No. 1. The new white suit, other than looking cool, has increased durability, Web-Wings, boot jets, and small, arachnid-shaped explosives that he can fire. If the classic 2099 suit wasn’t already iconic, this suit’s design probably would have hung around longer out of its own sheer awesome factor.

108. Cosmic Spider-Sense

Across the Spider-Verse is the first film to truly get into the how and why of Spider-Man’s Spider-Sense, his precognitive ability to perceive danger before it happens. Here, Miles not only can perceive immediate danger, but he begins to see into a possible future where his father will die while working as a captain. The precise nature of the Spider-Sense has long been unknown, especially since spiders don’t actually have this ability, but in the comics and now in the films it seems to be enabled by Spider-Man’s connection to the Web of Life and Destiny. Some characters have a stronger connection to it and therefore can see far deeper into the future, especially if an event is so strong that it pulls or forms key elements of the Web of Life and Destiny. As such, it retroactively makes the connection all the Spider-Men felt in Into the Spider-Verse through their Spider-Sense all the more poignant, it was literally their destiny telling them that they all share a common connection to the Web of Life and Destiny.

109. Ditko’s Sinister Six

As Miles is fleeing from the Spider-Society, he seems to come across a training grounds of sorts that is complete with holograms of the Spider-Man villains most associated with the Sinister Six. Each of these drawings comes from the pen of Spider-Man’s co-creator Ditko for collections like the back of Amazing Spider-Man Annual No. 1. When Miles crosses past the Doctor Octopus image, you can hear Alfred Molina’s “Hello, Peter” line from his appearance as Doctor Octopus in Spider-Man 2.

The idea behind these training grounds comes from the Neversoft Spider-Man game. In the game, you can practice being Spider-Man as holograms of each villain pops up to taunt you.

110. Master Weaver

Deep in the heart of the Spider-Society is a loom that Miguel explains maintains the Web of Life and Destiny. Its primary focus is to send characters back to the universes that they were intended to be a part of. We see it acting on Rhino, and later it sends Miles back to the wrong universe, as his spider was intended to go to Earth-42 instead of where it ended up: Earth-1610.

In the comics, this isn’t a machine but a title bestowed on an individual who sits at the center of the Great Web in a device that looks very similar to the one in the movie. The first Master Weaver wasn’t a Spider-Man at all but a reformed villain named Karn who had killed enough Spider-Men and devoured their essence to act as one. He would later die and be replaced by a young woman named Spider-Zero who took up the charge.

112. “This mask is my badge now.”

When Gwen reconnects with her father at the end of Across the Spider-Verse, she attempts to justify her choice to become Spider-Woman in the wake of Peter’s death in terms that he will understand. She tells him, “This mask is my badge now.” This is the exact same sentiment she expresses at the end of her debut comic, Edge of the Spider-Verse No. 2. She stands over the body of her universe’s Rhino and adds, “If I don’t define what it means… monsters like this will. This is where I’m needed most.” It’s an incredible start to the character’s legacy and beautifully reflected in the film.

113. Riella O’Hara

We find out that the reason Miguel is as tormented as he is originates with the discovery that there is a universe where he’s allowed to be happy. That happiness appears as a daughter named Riella O’Hara. Sadly, his incursion into that universe ended up being its undoing, and her existence was wiped from reality. There is no comics counterpart to Riella, but her name comes from a derivation of Aunt May’s last name: Reilly.

114. Spider-Pointing

Do I even have to explain this at this point? At the end of Into the Spider-Verse, Miguel O’Hara goes into the universe (Earth-67) of the 1967 Spider-Man cartoon, which he suggests is the beginning of all the other universes. They then re-create a scene from the show that has become the most memeable meme of all memes. The image features two Spider-Men pointing at each other and comes from the episode titled “Double Identity.” In it, a villain attempts to impersonate Spider-Man to no success but a ton of hilarity. The earliest known use of the image as a meme was back on Feb. 5, 2011, but it wouldn’t gain its huge popularity until around 2015.

Since then, it has appeared in Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse and Spider-Man: No Way Home and now here, as all the Spider-Men point at each other when asked to “Stop Spider-Man!” I think this marks the official death of this joke. Good job writers, you exploited it for all it has to give. Now, let’s let it die.

115. Sinister Six Cartel

As Miles runs through Earth-42 at the conclusion of Across the Spider-Verse, we can hear J.K. Simmons’ J. Jonah Jameson announce that the city is being run by the Sinister Six Cartel. In the absence of a Spider-Man, it seems his villains have taken control of New York City and you can see their names emblazoned in large letters on the sides of all the skyscrapers. Even neater, the city is colored in green and purple lighting, a common color scheme that is shared by Spider-Man’s villains.

116. Rhino CasinoAfter retiring from being a supervillain, a reformed Aleksei “The Rhino” Sytsevich began working as a bouncer at Yonkers Raceway, a horse racing casino. Peter would eventually bump into him there right around the time that a new Rhino appeared in Amazing Spider-Man No. 617 and 625. This excellent story sees Aleksei fall in love with a woman named Oksana and eventually lapse into supervillainy when she is murdered by the new Rhino. It’s an incredibly tragic story that reinvented the character from his rather silly ‘60s roots. When Miles is sent to Earth-42, one of the buildings bearing the names of the Sinister Six Cartel reads “Rhino Casino,” a reference back to this classic story.

117. Mayor Manfredi

When Miles is accidentally sent to Earth-42, where the Sinister Six Cartel rules New York City, we can hear J. Jonah Jameson mention a Mayor Manfredi. Fans of classic Spider-Man comics will recognize this as Silvio Manfredi, also known as Silvermane. Silvermane was an old ganglord who ruled over the Maggia, the Marvel Comics version of the Mafia, first introduced all the way back in 1969’s Amazing Spider-Man No. 73.

In his old age he was always fixated on maintaining his rule through the discovery of some sort of Fountain of Youth. That came in the form of the Lifeline Tablet, which could heal and rejuvenate whoever drank the serum of its making. Unfortunately for Silvermane, he drank too greedily and ended up getting so young that he blinked out of existence. But, these are comics and Silvermane’s nonexistence wasn’t to last. He eventually came back as an android and currently exists as just a head that the villain Shocker uses to maintain control the Maggia.

118. Miles’ Co-Creators

When it is revealed in a dramatic graffiti art display that in Earth-42 it is Jefferson who died instead of Aaron, if you look at the faded graffiti under the new art you can read the names of “Pichelli” and “Bendis”. These are artist Sara Pichelli and writer Brian Michael Bendis, the co-creators of Miles Morales and his whole family of characters, Jefferson included.

119. Miles Prowler

Other than being the name of Sonic’s faithful fox friend, Miles becoming the Prowler is something that has never been done in the comics, even if it is a fairly obvious path to explore with the character. However, in one of Miles’ earliest stories, he is recruited/blackmailed by his Uncle Aaron to join him on a heist after he learns that Miles is Spider-Man. Aaron ends up dying on the mission, but instead of a noble death like that in Into the Spider-Verse, he tells Miles, who is operating as his partner-in-crime, “You are just like me.” It’s a neat inversion on Peter’s inspiration to do good coming from his Uncle Ben’s death, whereas Miles’ Uncle Aaron’s death pulls Miles toward supervillainy. I expect we’ll see some of these themes play out in Beyond the Spider-Verse.

120. Punching Bag Miles

The film ends with Miles tied up to a punching bag, just as Peter B. Parker was when we first met him in Into the Spider-Verse. This one is a sort of meta-joke about how Spider-Man’s role is to be the eternal punching bag. In fact, as detailed in the behind-the-scenes director’s commentary of Spider-Man 2, there is literally a scene in the film where director Sam Raimi hits Tobey Maguire when he bends over to pick up a book that he dropped. Raimi says to Maguire in the commentary, “You were a big sport to let us hit you with that bag so many times.” Raimi even asked the other extras to step on Tobey’s hand under the book so as to ratchet up the torture for the character. They redid the bag hit so many times that even Tobey admits that he was getting angry, but not because of getting hit but because no one would hit him hard enough to have it work for the scene. That’s how important it is that Peter bear the brunt of the world’s indifference to him. The entirety of Spider-Man 2 basically uses the character as a punching bag until he finally gets a win at the end. What better of a way to end this movie than a reminder that what makes Spider-Man so fun isn’t that he gets to travel the multiverse, but that he’s just like all of us … he never gets a break.

Dan Gvozden, a lifelong Spider-Man fan, is co-host of the Amazing Spider-Talk podcast which celebrates and explains the past, present, and future of the Spider-Man character. Find him on Twitter @supspidertalk.

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