Mythology Gag / Marvel's Spider-Man 2

• One trailer has Peter and Miles give a monologue very reminiscent of the one from the original movie.
  Miles: This is my power. Peter: My responsibility. Both: I am Spider-Man.
  Peter (movie): Whatever life holds in store for me, I will never forget these words... "With great power comes great responsibility." This is my gift. My curse. Who am I? I'm Spider-Man.
• The vial that held the Venom sample is labeled "VNM-252". The symbiote first appeared, as the black suit, in "Amazing Spider-Man" #252. This also doubles as reference to a similar Mythology Gag in Marvel's Spider-Man, where the Venom symbiote is initially referred to as the V-252.
• Like in Spider-Man 3, the Venom symbiote is shown arriving on Earth via a meteor. Unlike the movie however, the meteor is actually a plot device this time.
• The Venom symbiote's main host other than Peter Parker is Harry Osborn, as in the Ultimate Spider-Man cartoon.
• Harry using Venom as a mobility aid, and later as a superhero suit, echoes Agent Venom.
• As Venom attempts to take over Peter in the climax, there is a shot of the Symbiote covering his chest, which mirrors a similar shot in Spider-Man 3.
• Mary Jane now sports a yellow sweater as her casual attire. The look originally came from The Amazing Spider-Man #168 as a one-off, but was popularized by her Spider-Man: The Animated Series iteration making it a default look.
  • She also now uses a motorcycle to get around, possibly a nod to her Deleted Role in The Amazing Spider-Man 2 portrayed by Shailene Woodley.
• In Flash Backs, Peter sports the hairstyle of his Ultimate-universe counterpart.
• During the Battle in the Center of the Mind inside Peter while Martin Li tries to get the symbiote out of him, Miles is attacked by a cavalcade of villains while falling downwards similar to the "Be Greater" trailer for the first game.
• Kraven is dying of cancer like in Kraven's Last Hunt and Spider-Man: Life Story. This doubles as a Red Herring for those familiar with the latter story, since it implies Kraven will be this continuity's Venom like he was there, when Harry is the one who becomes Venom here, and even personally kills Kraven.
• As with many stories involving the Black Suit, the symbiote hijacks Peter's body while he's asleep.
• Observational notes about Dr. Farley Stillwell's research, the scientist known for creating Mac Gargan's Scorpion, can be found within Kraven's abandoned food market hideout in "Bad Guys On The Block". They specifically talk about his "crackpot", yet successful research into "Neogenics" - a term and concept introduced by the character in Spider-Man: The Animated Series. The sheet also mentions he was previously based in Lowtown, Mandripoor and speculates about his connection to Trask Industries.
• One of Venom's attacks after grabbing in opponent is folding them backwards until their spine snaps, which was something Venom could do in Ultimate Spider-Man video game.
• During Venom's fight with Kraven, he grabs Kraven in a Neck Lift and licks his face in preparation to eat him, like the Sony's Spider-Man Universe version of Venom did to Roland Treece in Venom.
• Several to Venom (Donny Cates) (and Absolute Carnage):
  • Venom uses a set of wings from that run.
  • The civilians assimilated by Venom sport a spiral insignia on their faces, known to comic readers as the mark of Knull, the god of the symbiote. Furthermore, the different enemy types bare a resemblance to the Life Foundation symbiotes.
• The patterns on The Flame's shirt bear a strong resemblance to traditional look of the Carnage symbiote's, an early clue to his true identity.
  • Cletus Kasady heading an Apocalypse Cult was first introduced in Donny Cates' Venom, and with his identity's reveal their "Crimson Hour" starts to sound an awful lot like Absolute Carnage.
• In terms of Spidey suits, this isn't the first time Peter has worn a white and black tamed symbiote suit in a Venom-centric storyline. In Marvel's Spider-Man's third season, Maximum Venom, Peter is given a similar suit by Max Modell. While it's not officially referred to as an Anti-Venom suit, it functions exactly like the Insomniac's interpretation: all of the symbiote abilities without the corruptive hive mind.
  • While the circumstances behind its creation couldn't be more different, Peter acquires the Anti-Venom suit the same way Eddie Brock got his: an unexpected reaction between remnants of the symbiote in his body and Mr. Negative's powers.
• In the first post-credits scene, Otto is writing a book in prison that he calls "the final chapter", alluding to both the final issue of the Master Planner arc and the last issue of the Gathering of the Five arc. These are two major Wham Episode storylines for Spidey, which just so happen to have Otto and Norman respectively as the main villains - the same people talking about that book in the scene.
• For the story mission "This Isn't You", Mary Jane is forcefully bonded to an evil symbiote, making her this universe's Scream. Much like Harry becoming Venom, this concept of a symbiote Mary Jane originated from the Ultimate Spider-Man cartoon, during that show's symbiote invasion arc where she became the Carnage Queen. This was later imported to the Spider-Gwen series.
• One of the side missions ("Photo Help") shows Peter helping Mina, a budding photographer, get a good photo of Spider-Man. The eventual photo is in the same style as one of the loading screen photos from the first game. The same mission also reveals that Peter's first cover photo for the Daily Bugle mirrors the famous Amazing Fantasy #15 cover pose.
  • Said side mission also shows that the Daily Bugle used to operate in the Flatiron building back when Peter was a teenager. While the current, generic building is more accurate to the comics, Sam Raimi's Spider-Man Trilogy also placed DB in the Flatiron building.
• The cure for the Lizard's condition needs to be electrolyzed in a particle accelerator to finish it. This was a similar case to the Lizard serum itself The Spectacular Spider-Man, where the serum only worked on Connors after it was accidentally blasted by Electro.
• For "The Message" side mission, 42 Spider-Bots need to be collected. Fittingly, the number 42 is a recurring Arc Number for the Spider-Man: Spider-Verse series.
• The ending of "The Message" replicates Spider-Man (2000)'s cutscene artstyle, in all its chunky, action figure-y, mouth-barely-moving glory.
• Fisk Tower from the previous games has been completely rebranded as the Baxter Building, and if you climb up to the top, you'll find a half-painted blue and white "4" on the roof.
• Once again, Spider-Man brings one Osborn to the other, who furiously vows revenge. Unlike the film however, this time it's Harry being brought to Norman, and Harry is in a coma, not dead like Norman was.
• The FNSM mission in Astoria is from a blind woman named Al(ma).
• The address of Peter's house is 15 Amfan Avenue, a clear homage to Amazing Fantasy #15.
• The Speed Demon roller coaster at Coney Island features pictures of the speedster character of the same name.
• This game's version of Coney Island's Ferris Wheel is named "The Big Wheel" after the Spider-Man villain.
• The "Hydro Bench" attraction is named after Morris Bench, AKA Hydro Man.
• Peter's Symbiote Suit (the evolved form of the Black Suit) bares a strong resemblance to the unused Black Suit that was scrapped for Spider-Man 3, even down to the sharp lenses similar to Tobey Maguire's costume.
• When Venom goes on a rampage in Oscorp and Times Square, the ambient lighting gives him his red-and-blue shading from Spider-Man: The Animated Series.
• When Ganke is making his numerous confessions to Miles after his life flashed before his eyes, he says he has been seeing someone named "Andi" who Miles recognizes as from their chem class, likely Andi Benton.
• If one visits Chameleon's apartment as Peter and stands next to the piano, it will play the opening music from Spider-Man: Web of Shadows.
• During the final mission when Peter, Miles, and MJ plan their strategy, Miles uses a goblin as a stand-in for Harry, alluding to his comic role as Green Goblin II.
• The Spider-Bots are collectible Mythology Gags:
  • One of the bots is patterned after Blood-Spider, a fairly obscure mercenary in the comics. The idea of using Blood-Spider as an alternate universe Spider-Man comes from the Ultimate Spider-Man cartoon.
  • The description for the Spider-Armor MK III Spider-Bot is "Feel like I could travel to the Ends of the Earth and not find something cooler than this."
  • The description for the Into the Spider-Verse Spider-Bot reads: "You know, that logo's not bad. Kinda just makes you sit up and go, 'Hey,'" referencing the flirting technique Aaron tries to teach Miles in Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse.
  • The Stealth Spider-Bot's description mentioned, "If we could make a suit like this, we'd for sure hit the big time," referencing the storyline the suit debuted in.
  • The Spider-Girl Spider-Bot's description mentions that it's decorated with May's favorite colors—Spider-Girl's real name is May, after Aunt May.
  • Many Spider-bots that appear also match the various suits from the first game that didn't return in this one.
• Some of the unlockable Suit Styles are references to the Spider-Man mythos:
  • The Scarlet III suit is available in a red and black style referencing Kaine's Scarlet Spider outfit (which was present in the previous game).
  • The Superior suit has a green and white style inspired by Otto Octavius' time as the "Superior Octopus."
  • The Iron Spider armor is available in black and gold, referencing the later version of the suit worn by Aaron Davis.
  • The New Blue suit is a reference to the Fantastic Four, and has a black-and-white style referencing Peter's Future Foundation look.
  • The Classic Black Suit's styles include a dark purple, referencing the way the symbiote was drawn in Ultimate Spider-Man, and one that adds red and blue highlights to the black suit, referencing the way Venom was animated in Spider-Man: The Animated Series.
  • The black suit, symbiote suit and anti-venom suit got a few suit styles in the New Game Plus update; the former two got a style that turns the white parts of the suit (except their eyes) red, matching the palette of the initial concept art for the black suit all the way back in the 80's, (and/or a What If? storyline from the 2020's which featured a new, original design for the black suit that also revisited the red highlights).
  • The Family Business suit, which is Aaron Davis' Iron Spider look from the comics, is available in Prowler-style purple and green.
  • The Best There Is suit is adapted directly from What If...? Miles Morales, and all three suit styles give the costume more classic Wolverine colors.
  • Peter's Classic suit has a style that replaces the blue parts with black, as does the Spider-Man 2099 suit. Both were originally envisioned to be red and black (these games consistently name the 2099 suit a "black" suit) but used blue instead due to it being cheaper to print, and over time they became more associated with blue.
  • The original Advanced Suit has a style that turns it completely black with white accents, referencing the black suit from Spider-Man 3.
  • The Civil War suit is a surprise reference to the miniseries by the same name that was part of the Secret Wars (2015) crossover.
• One of Peter's exclusive tricks is fiddling with a Rubik's cube. And yes, you can wear the Spider-Man Noir costume while you do it.
• Kraven’s introductory scene has him performing a Neck Lift on a minion, followed by choking him until breaking his neck. This is exactly how Loki was killed by Thanos at the beginning of Avengers: Infinity War. The size differences and camera perspective is even the same.
• In a similar manner, during Venom's rampage through Oscorp there's a brief segment where Venom grabs a security guard and starts smashing him against his surroundings to destroy a security station. The way he does it is very reminiscent of the famous scene of Hulk smashing Loki around in The Avengers (2012).
• While he puts on actual fight this time, Mysterio's sidequest ends in a similar manner to the Spider-Man 2 console tie-in; Mysterio is quickly beaten and the whole deal is wrapped up without much fanfare as Miles leaves the building. Only this time it's a trick; the mission only pretends to end (including a fake "mission complete" screen) and the exit hallway will loop unless you turn backwards. Once you figure this out, there's much more impressive second phase with several doppelgangers at Mysterios side, and then a proper wrap-up to Beck's story.
• Kraven notably kills many of the villains from the previous game as part of his Great Hunt, with the player finding this out via his collection of trophies. This echoes his role in the game adaptation of The Amazing Spider-Man 2 where he kills most of the cross-species from that game's prequel off-screen, with the player discovering their bodies stuffed as trophies. For bonus points, both games feature Kraven acting as the Disc-One Final Boss compared to a symbiote, though this game has Venom in the role instead of Carnage. Kraven hiding in trees to snipe Spider-Man during his boss fight is also almost identical to one of his tactics during his boss fight in that game.
• Possibly a coincidence, but the abandoned hospital in northern Astoria visited during the Flame questline is visually based on Roosevelt Island's abandoned smallpox hospital. 20 years earlier, the climax of the first Raimi film was set at the ruins of the real building.