Although the game Insomniac's Spider-Man has its own way of interpreting Spider-Man’s widely known world, the game still has a deep entrenchment in Marvel’s massive universe. The game mentions many of the characters as well as cosmic entities that come from Marvel’s comics and even movies such as the Avengers, Damage Control, Crusher Hogan, and so on.
If you are a “comic-aholic” or maybe a huge fan of the MCU (Marvel Cinematic Universe), you can easily understand or even find out by yourself these hints and details. However, to those who only have interests in the character themselves but have no idea about the hidden aspects of their world and also the other characters who live in it, these references might just slip away without being noticed.
While we spent time experiencing the game, we spotted a vast number of references and easter eggs hidden in the game and we would deeply regret if we don’t share them to you. Since there are so many hints concealed in the world full of the bustle of Spider-Man waiting for you to discover, we are going to present to you the most intriguing ones.
Spoiler alert! Before you continue to read the rest of this article, if you haven’t finished the game yet, it’s best for you to save the link of this article and come back later once you have done so since many of the late game details of the story will be mentioned later in this article. However, if you are fine with that, don’t hesitate and keep on reading, you won’t be disappointed.
The game Insomniac's Spider-Man is now available and there’s no doubt that this is an amazing game which shows clearly the passion for this character. To know more details of this game, you can find our review article. We also have some guides which point out all the essential details and tips that most players wish they knew about before starting to play the game. There is also a detailed researched skills guide that may come in handy to you while playing. To the ones who are enjoying their time with this game, here’s a great news: The first DLC expansion pack of this game is intended to be released on October 23.
Before getting into detail, should you find any Easter eggs in this game that aren’t mentioned here, we would really appreciate if you tell us in the comment section below.
1. Famous Landmarks
There are countless landmarks found in Manhattan’s scenes in Insomniac. A part of them is real, for instance, Madison Square Garden or the Empire State Building, while the rest are not. But to be fair, it’s not exactly a copy of the real Manhattan, it is, in fact, just a Marvel’s version of one of the most popular cities in real life. Since this place is one of Marvel’s biggest headquarters of superhero (and, of course, supervillain), there are numerous iconic locations appearing in the area that can hardly ever go unnoticed under Marvel fans’ eyes.
The first thing that would catch the players’ eyes probably is the Avengers Tower lying in the Upper East. But that’s not all. Located right in Midtown is the magnificent Wakanda Embassy; during the game, Peter Parker a.k.a Spider-Man will mention about King T’challa a.k.a Black Panther, Peter wonders whether or not T’challa got his Black Panther powers because a radioactive panther bit him. Should you go to Greenwich Village, you would find Dr. Strange’s home, also called the Sanctum Sanctorum, right where it’s supposed to be. And there’s still more, for instance, the Damage Control HQ, an organization established with the sole purpose of cleaning up what’s left of a superhero fight, against the supervillain of course. And also The Bar With No Name, which is basically a secret bar where the supervillain come to have some drinks and relax peacefully.
All kinds of Marvel landmarks are widely spread in Spider-Man. We only mention about the most noticeable as well as famous ones here, therefore, we highly recommend you to try and discover the rest of the game by yourself.
2. Mr. Phillip Chang
Just like any other game, besides the main ones, there will be side-quests, one of which ask you to assist a man named Phillip Chang. He is a student in ESU and he wants you to look for some missing people, who are also his classmates. He is a brilliant man who has developed an advanced technology that recognizes people’s faces. This technology enables him to locate people based on their social media feeds. Although it can violate the privacy of many people, it was pretty useful when helping Spidey save the day.
However, what makes this man so special is that he, in fact, also plays a role in the comic books. Although his origin in the comics is much different from that in the game. In the comic books, Chang and Peter attended in the same university, for quite a time they were even labmates. Chang was once a core character in an arc relating to a dangerous gang called the Tiger’s Claw. That’s not all, during the younger years of his life, Chang has a somewhat troubled life, he even got himself involved with a Chinese organization in the underworld.
After that, when his association with the criminals led to the tragic situation where his parents lost their lives, he finally decided to cut ties with all those underworld citizens. He, then, went to the US and applied to ESU college, which is also the place where he became friends with Peter Parker. But soon enough, the peace of his life was once again ruined when his impressive ability and technique in fighting was noticed by the Tiger’s Claw. The gang was looking forward to having him as their leader. Of course, after what happened to his family, particularly his parents, he would be the last one who wants to have any bit of involvement in another underworld gang. Chang turned down the offer which pissed the whole gang off. Long story short, this ended up with Chang rescued by Spidey from the hands of the Tiger’s Claw.
3. Otto's AIM Contract
When the grant committee stopped supporting them, along with the fact that Norman Osborn decided to cancel all of their resources, Otto asks for some help and starts funding his research with the money he just takes on. Up to this point of the game, the Marvel fans would be able to recognize immediately one founding partner of the research.
When you spend times to examine clearly the lab as well as some of the new types of equipment there, you may found the paperwork showing the details of the money provided by A.I.M or Advanced Idea Mechanics. In the game, Peter mentions that this organization doesn’t have a good reputation, it is considered to be quite bad. This detail of the game can also be an understatement, especially when we relate to the comic version of this organization.
In the comic books, this is an underworld organization which is funded privately. Members of the A.I.M are solely terrorist, arms dealers and scientists. They only have one purpose which is to find their ways to take over the world’s government using the improvements they have in technology and scientific field. They have a wide range association in the underworld, many of the well-known supervillains that they are involved with can be mentioned like Red Skull, Hydra, General Thunderbolt Ross, and the Serpent Society (basically another underworld organization established for criminals and mercenaries whose clothes are similar to snakes)
4. The Taskmaster
Once you have gone through about half the game, you will come across a mysterious character who assigns you some challenging tasks consisting of fighting against dangerous criminals, defusing bombs and tracing automatic drones.
This character who is likely to be one of Spidey’s dangerous enemies in this game, in fact, no one other than the Taskmaster himself, a familiar villain who Spider-Man has to encounter occasionally in the comic books. Not only Spider-Man’s comics, but he also gets to appear in several other famous comic series such as The Avengers, Deadpool, Daredevil, and even more. Furthermore, those who enjoy fighting games may also find the skull full face mask of The Taskmaster since his name also mentioned in the character list of the famous game series Marvel vs. Capcom 3.
Once you have accomplished Taskmaster’s missions, you will be able to figure out something he possesses known as the “photographic reflexes”. With this kind of ability, he just needs to observe physical movements or even martial arts moves only once, by then, he can perform the exact same moves again. This explains why he assigns you with difficult tasks that require a lot of skills, especially physical movements so that he can defeat you using your own moves.
5. Screwball
Once again, during another side-quest of the game, Internet Famous, you will get involved with an online challenge that gets worse and worse through time. After having the QR code scanned, you will have to find and rescue a kidnapped victim. In order to do so, you must first locate the victim, which can only be achieved by fighting in combats and solving tests.
The one who’s behind all of this is a social media user called Screwball. The sole purpose of her is to make use of the advantage she could get from having Spidey in her videos completing challenges, which will boost the number of subscribers in her channel.
It’s undeniable that Screwball is highly obsessed with her virtual life, and she sometimes takes it a little too far. Her comics version is almost the same with that we see in the game, she is known as the one who commits crimes while having her crew record the whole thing. Then she would upload the videos on YouTube and get money from it. To earn even more money from her work, she makes it clear that she will definitely have Spider-Man appear in her footage since she realizes how effective it is in drawing attention and increasing subscribers. It is also worth knowing that this character first appeared in 2008, a few years after YouTube was introduced, her behaving way is now much more relevant than back then.
6. Spider-Man 2 Reference
While experiencing through the second half, you will get to the point where Spider-Man has to find ways to stop a subway train traveling at high speed after defeating Mr. Negative. To Marvel fans, especially Spider-Man’s fans, his first try would be easily recognizable since he did the very same thing in Spider-Man 2. The game makers took a further step to make sure even those who’s never watched SM2 before can still figure out the connection by having Spidey say "That totally worked the first time!" when he fails, as the game intends to.
7. Backpack Collectibles
Throughout the whole game, you will come across a total of 55 backpacks spread in every corner of the game. These are not just random collectibles that help you enhance Spider-Man’s abilities. Actually, each and every one of them represents and gives you a bit of information about different aspects in his life as Peter Parker and also as Spider-Man as well as his history. For instance, you may be able to find the glasses Peter wore when he got bit by the spider that gave him his power, or even his web shooting device called Mk I.
Still, there are lots of references and small detail that are very interesting in the game, such as Daredevil’s law practicing business card, blood vials of The Lizard and Sandman’s… sand. Those are all famous names in the comic world.
The game also refers a bit about another collectible Arm Web. Peter also mentions about this device, saying he wanted to use it to fly in short distance, but somehow it never works. This device, in the comic books, once an icon of Spider-Man in his early years, designed by Steve Ditko, who used to draw Spider-Man wearing costumes equipped with underarm webs and upload them for purposes relating to aestheticism.
The connections made in the game are not just to the characters as well as objects belong to the Marvel universe. We can find in the game a badge made for the Spidey Squad, which is a fan club of Spider-Man in our world itself. When he encounters J. Jonah Jameson and faces the risk of having his reputation ruined, Peter mentions about it and claims that they are the only fan club of his that is always by his side.
Those collectibles that come in the form of the backpack are full of informative details that reveal a lot about the history of not only Spider-Man’s life but also of Marvel universe. Therefore, it’s best to pick them up immediately on sight.
8. Yuri Watanabe's Potential Secret
One of the most trustworthy partner during the game is Yuri Watanabe. And just like any other character mentioned in this article, she appears in the comics, too. However, there’s a rumor that she has a far more intriguing version in the extended universe of this game which, unfortunately, Marvel hasn’t confirmed to be real or not. Long story short, in the game, Yuri acts as an NYPD officer and also Spidey’s supporter and partner, however, when the night comes, she becomes Wraith, a vigilante or a secret hero. She is actually not the first one who fight crimes under the name Wraith but fourth, but that’s another story and we will get into details in other articles. The reason why we mentioned about that is the game version of Yuri could likely be the Wraith. Let’s just wait and see what will happen.
9. The Black Cat
Like usual, you will encounter many side activities and one of those mainly require you to supervise a criminal, particularly a thief named Black Cat. The game will mention briefly about her history and relationship with Spider-Man. Originally, in the comic books, she plays quite a big role. At first, she was introduced as a supervillain of Spidey but they somehow ended up falling in love with one another. They had an on and off relationship for quite a long time, there were times that they fight side by side against criminals. Still, the end of this relationship came unavoidably when Spidey continued to be a hero whereas Black Cat went back to be a thief once again.
We can say without a doubt that Black Cat’s name is in Spider-Man’s most trustworthy partner's list. However, it is clearly shown in the game universe that the events of this game take place around the time that she shows signs of turning back into a thief. One may wonder if they are going to be a couple in the game version or not. Up to now, we can say nothing for sure. What we can actually say is that this side-mission is likely to be a teaser, a stepping stone in the plan to release the next game Spider-Man DLC, also called The Heist, in which Black Cat will potentially play a major role.
10. Dr. Morgan Michaels
During one of the main quest in the game, where you have to cease the "Devil's Breath" attack from happening, you will work with a biochemist from Oscorp Industries whose name is Dr. Morgan Michaels. He will probably not show you any other side of his personality but the fact that he does feel the sense of remorse for what he has done. But you can get to know him more clearly through his other version in the comic universe, where he was known by the name Morbius the Living Vampire.
As an extraordinary scientist, unfortunately, he had a really scarce blood disease he made every effort he could to cure himself through an experiment which combined the use of vampire bats with electroshocks. That method obviously didn’t work as he planned, more tragically, it resulted in him having a serious thirst for blood and being unable to stand sunlight. This affected him physiologically and turned him into an unstable shadow-dwelling creature. At first, he did have some fights with Spidey, but in the end, he turned out to be an anti-hero who seek criminals’ blood.
11. Those Spider-Suits!
Throughout the game, you will receive all kinds of suits. Some are the canon of the game’s main story, but most of them come exactly from comic books and the cinematic universe of Marvel. The most noticeable ones that we can mention here consist of the Stark Suit (Spider-Man: Homecoming), the Scarlet Spider (Clone Saga arc), and lastly, the Spirit Spider suit, which comes from one of many universes of the Spider-Man series where Spider-Man comes back from the dead and somehow earns powerful abilities. As for those you wish to see the fully detailed feature showing the origin of each and every Spider-Man, you may find one that has everything you need to know about them on our website.
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