I’m just going to come out and say it; we are in the modern golden age of Spider-Man. First, we get Spider-Man: Homecoming, which brought us a more familiar Peter Parker. Hollands’ wonderful portrayal of Spider-Man returned to the more jovial teenage Parker who I remember growing up with. Then we had Marvel’s Spider-Man on PS4, which finally captured the perfect web swinging experience and condensed Peter’s highlights naturally. Making him older immediately side-stepped any initial issues other Spider-adaptations faced. He was still funny, still caring, still Peter Parker. I didn’t think it could get any better. Then Into The Spider-Verse came and blew everything out of the water.
Where Spider-Man on PS4 is a perfect introduction to Peter Parker’s origin story, Into The Spider-Verse is a fantastic introduction to Miles Morales’ backstory. From his animation style to his personality, to the freaking soundtrack of the movie: it was all chosen to reflect on Miles as a character. Sony put a lot of care into this movie. I have never seen a piece of media with such freedom of expression, creativity, and easy flow of different concepts. Each character and world’s art style blends easily together with the rest whilst still being noticeable. Every joke lands perfectly which is a rare occurrence. It condenses each Spider-person’s backstory into a minute at most and lends no screen time to empathize with the villains, an excellent way to avoid slowing down the pace of an already packed movie. In fact, there is so much going on that we are still finding more Easter eggs; here are some of the more elusive ones.
26 There Are Multiple Stan Lee Cameos
Stan Lee cameos in his franchise releases are expected these days. However, with his recent passing, Into The Spider-Verse is his third-to-last appearance. While this is tragic, we now know that there are far more Stan Lee appearances than meet the eye here.
Don’t strain your eyes looking for him.
If you pause the movie on almost any crowd shot you will most likely spot Stan Lee in there somewhere. It’s like the Where’s Waldo of famous movie cameos.
25 Donald Glover Makes An Appearance
Donald Glover, also known as Childish Gambino, is one of the funniest comedians and rappers out there today. While his name may not have been on the credits, he did make an appearance in Spider-Verse. If you check out Uncle Aaron’s TV when Miles visits you can see the scene from Community where Glover wore the Spider-Man costume. Not only did he play the prowler in Spider-Man: Homecoming, but Glover dressing as Spider-Man received a lot of hope for a Spider-person of color.
24 Jefferson Davis’ License Plate
You may have been too distracted by Miles’ reaction to being lectured and embarrassed by his father to notice his license plate. If you check out his license plate, it says RFD-960. This may seem innocuous, but it is quite the sneaky Easter egg. This license plate is a reference to Law and Order as their car had this same license plate number during its entire run. Coincidence? We think not. Looks like our man Jeff may have a past we don’t know about.
23 Peter Parker Was Blond Once
If you ask anyone what Peter Parker looks like they would say that he has brown hair and brown eyes. However, seeing the ‘perfect’ Peter Parker with blonde hair and blue eyes was a shock for many.
This is not Peter Parker – or is it?
Back in the 1994-96 cloning arc of the Spider-Man comics, Ben Reilly was Peter’s clone and had blonde hair and blue eyes. All these fine detail references are making me geek out over here.
22 Chris Pine Sang Spidey-Bells
You may not have caught it since he was not on screen long, but Chris Pine voices perfect Peter Parker in Spider-Verse. This Spider-guy has it all: experience, merchandise, cereal. He even released his own Christmas album. This album, from what we can gather, was meant to be a throwaway joke until they saw Pine could sing. The last couple of paragraphs express Spidey’s regret and embarrassment at doing a Christmas album. The source of this embarrassment? Chris Pine himself.
21 Spider-Pops Are Real
One of the great things about perfect Peter Parker's origin story is the fact that it showcases Spidey's products. The film beautifully presents Spider-Man's story while not shying away from the more commercial aspects of his image. He is an icon that people look up to and want to be. They want to wear his suit, read his comics, eat his cereal, and apparently eat his face?
20 There Was Blur Plus Red And Blue Effect In The Background
Did you pay close attention to the backgrounds of Into The Spider-Verse? If you did, you may have noticed the details blurring together or being edged with blue and red.
Turning mistakes into art – very cool, Sony.
While some may have thought they were shown the 3D version of the movie by mistake, but this was done on purpose. There is a thing in comics called ‘printing pages off register’, which messes the pages up like how we see in the movie.
19 Who You Gonna Call, Spider-Man?
Miles sure has a lot of contacts on his phone. This is pretty normal since we saw him talk to a bunch of people in his intro, he must be pretty popular. Besides his Uncle Aaron, mum, and dad, there are a few interesting contacts there. Almost all of Miles’ other contacts are writers or animators who worked on the comics or movies. Imagine picking up the phone and its Miles Morales calling you. That would be awesome.
18 Shaun Of The Dead, Is That You?
Times Square sure has a lot going on and that doesn’t change no matter what reality you’re in, apparently. While we are used to seeing our brands plastered across the screens, Miles’ world has a different set of famous brands. For example, instead of Shaun Of The Dead, there’s a movie called ‘From Dusk Till Shaun’. The poster looks awesome; I wonder if the jokes are different and if they land the same way as ours do.
17 Aunt May Calling Doc Oc ‘Liv’
I watched this film a little late, but I had seen some Aunt May/Doc Oc art on my Twitter feed. I thought it was a gender bent or alternative universe situation. The thing is, they were dating in another universe. When we first meet Olivia Octavius, she says that her friends call her Liv.
What name does Aunt May use? Liv.
And she does not sound happy to see her. Fans have been outright shipping it since the movie came out without knowing it was canon once. Back in The Amazing Spider-Man #131, Aunt May and the male Doc Oc almost got married!
16 The Comic Covers Are Real Covers
As if this movie was not paying enough homage to the comics already, they had to go and shove actual legit comic books into it. The comics that appear as each character tells their story are real comic covers that were hand drawn then laid over the computer-generated animation. This ensured that the hand-drawn comics style was at the forefront and a real design choice. Sony is looking for a way to patent the awesome technologies they used to achieve this.
15 Blue Man Who?
You may or may not have heard of the Blue Man Group. If you haven’t, they are a group of musicians who fuse art and music together and perform rock shows across the globe. They have been performing since 1980 and have been creatively disturbing popular culture since. These guys, who are chosen after a lengthy audition process, literally paint themselves blue and perform. However, it seems that they decided to go with a red theme (as seen in the top right corner) in Miles Morales’ version of New York, which is where the group started.
14 Jersey Boys Are Noize Boyz
The Four Seasons, a four-man band in the 1960s were a pretty popular group before their breakup. However, they became even more popular in the early 2000s when a book and a musical about their rise and fall were released. The musical was called the Jersey Boys and was a documentary-style look at the events in the boys’ lives. However, in Miles Morales’ world, they seem to have leaned more on hip hop elements as the musical is called the Noize Boyz. I wonder what The Four Seasons sounds like to Miles.
13 Clone High Gets Aged Up
Clone High is a bit of an oddball show. Released in the early 2000s, it’s a show about historical figures being cloned into teens and going to school together. At the time, it received mixed reviews and had a little controversy surrounding it. Now, however, it has a cult following and is highly praised. From the posters in Times Square, Miles’ version of Clone High, or rather Clone College, is popular in his world.
12 PDNY, Put Your Hands Up
The NYPD is a long-standing institution that is meant to uphold justice and act with integrity. They have featured as law enforcement officers and departments in countless movies, TV shows, and news segments over the years that most people have heard of them. Whenever I hear NYPD, I immediately think of the phrase in the headline without thinking about it. However, Jefferson Davis works for the PDNY, which just sounds wrong after hearing it the other way around for so long.
11 Casual Product Placement, Sony
Miles Morales is big into music, considering it is the only thing that helps him figure out how to stop sticking to everything. Of course, if you are a big music fan you want to get yourself some great headphones. Sony has subtly given Miles a pair of their Sony headphones. While we can’t find the exact ones he uses, the closest match is the MDR XB650BT EXTRA BASS™ Wireless Headphones. Miles also sports some sick Nike trainers, he just doesn’t lace them up.
10 Post Malone Has A Voice Line
Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse has made sure to include some of the biggest names in rap and hip-hop in its banging soundtrack. Of course, they had to include Post Malone. His song Sunflower featuring Swae Lee was created for Spider-Verse and there was even a music video made combining the two. However, Malone didn’t just stop at being in the soundtrack. He also appears as a Brooklyn bystander, though Sony could not officially confirm if he said the quip about Banksy.
9 Gwen And Miles Save Each Other From Falling
Remember Emma Stone’s bubbly and cute portrayal of Gwen Stacy in the Amazing Spider-Man franchise? Yeah, remember how that ended? In case you didn’t know, Spider-Man fails to save her from a huge fall that ultimately ends her life.
Way to go, guys!
This also occurs in the comics and is something that haunts Peter for a long time. However, in Into The Spider-Verse, Gwen and Miles save each other from falling multiple times in a happy turn of events.
8 The Co-Director’s Family Is Hidden In Graffiti
Bob Persichetti, the co-director of Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse, confessed in a Q&A session at a Los Angeles screening of the film that there are some hidden secrets in the graffiti.
What a cute tribute!
He hid his wife and kids in the graffiti art that lines the tunnels in the movie. This is a sweet way of letting them know he was thinking about them during the long hours he spent working on the film.
7 There Are Multiple Tributes To Sam Raimi’s Movies
Sam Raimi’s take on our favorite web-slinger has gone down in infamy in the movie and comics fandom. From the cringey dancing down the street, to the train saving scene, to the upside-down Spider-kiss, he really did leave his mark on the Spider’s legend.
The train scene must have been hell on Peter’s back.
Some folks were upset that Tobey Maguire was not going to be involved in this movie, but Sony did their best to immortalize these iconic moments in Spider-Verse.