Spider-Man: Across The Spider-Verse Easter Eggs

T​his weekend, Spider-Man: Across The Spider-Verse had an amazing opening. The first film was a great buffet of Spider-Man references and easter eggs. With Miles Morales returning to the big screen, we knew there had to be many more references. This one does not disappoint, as just about every frame of the film is crammed full of some eye candy. While we’re a little sad that some of our favorite characters from the first film didn’t make the return trip for the sequel, there are a ton of new characters to get excited about. What kind of Spider-Man: Across The Spider-Verse easter eggs did we find?

W​ARNING!!!!! There will be spoilers for Spider-Man: Across The Spider-Verse!

The Mary Janes

W​hen we are introduced to Gwen’s reality, we learn, just like in the comics, that she plays drums in a band called The Mary Janes. The band is named after Peter Parker’s long-time girlfriend, sometimes wife (depends on the week really), Mary Jane. She is actually the frontwoman for the group as well, and the other members are notable women from Spider-Man history.

Glory Grant is a friend of Peter Parker after he gets his first apartment. She lives down the hall from him and even becomes his co-worker at one point. Betty Brandt is the long-time secretary for J. Jonah Jameson and a supporter of Peter as a photographer. Felicia Hardy is more commonly known as the character Black Cat. She uses her bad luck powers to cause her opponents to fail at whatever they are trying to do. Sometimes she’s a criminal, sometimes, she’s a hero. Her relationship with Spider-Man is very complicated.

J​K Simmons Returns!

D​uring the film, we visit a lot of different realities. It turns out that in all of them, JK Simmons has returned to play J. Jonah Jameson. We hear his voice throughout most of the film whenever the character appears. One line was lifted directly from the Sam Raimi Spider-Man, but the rest are newly created for this film. It was great seeing him return to the character in the new MCU Spider-Man films, but it’s fantastic to see him being a constant across the multiverse.

Lyla

W​hen we are introduced to Spider-Man 2099, we see that he has a virtual assistant named Lyla. Her name is derived from LYrate Lifeform Approximation. This is straight from the comics, although her look has changed a bit. In the comics, she had a sexier look wearing a flowing evening gown and was inspired more by Marilyn Monroe. Here she has a sassier attitude and seems more toned down, which makes sense with this being a kid’s movie.

The Web Of Life And Destiny

M​iguel O’Hara (Spider-Man 2099) explains to the group how all of reality is connected. At first, he pulls up a timeline with branches coming off of it, just like we saw in Loki. Then he overlays this with something that looks like a series of spiderwebs. He mentions how events that happen to all the spider-people are connected through this web and shows how similar events happen to each of them. This is from the Spider-Verse comics. There we are shown a web that connects all realities and is made by someone called The Weaver.

L​ive-Action Spider-Man Films Count

I​n the first film, we were introduced to the idea that all the different versions of Spider-Man from the comics and cartoons show up. In this film, we also see that now all the live-action movies count as well. When Miguel is going over the web or reality, we see a scene from Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man where Peter finds his Uncle Ben shot on the sidewalk. It is shown to illustrate that all of the Spider-Men have a defining event that shapes them into Spider-Man.

Later we are also shown that another event that shapes the course of the character is the death of a police sergeant. A clip is shown from Andrew Garfield’s The Amazing Spider-Man 2. Lastly, when Miguel talks about the multiverse falling apart, he mentions “What Strange and that nerd from Earth 199999 did.” Referring to the events of Spider-Man: No Way Home. This pulls all the animated Spider-Man projects into the same multiverse as the MCU. It’s great to see Spider-Man: Across The Spider-Verse use these easter eggs.

A​SM 90

W​hen it’s explained that an event where a police sergeant dies is a “canon event” that HAS to happen, they call it an ASM 90. This references the comic book The Amazing Spider-Man Issue #90. It is the issue where Sergeant Stacy dies, but he confesses to Spider-Man that he knows he is Peter Parker. He makes Peter promise to take care of Gwen Stacy for him. The event is a significant point in Spider-Man’s history that can’t be changed. We see that it can destroy all that reality if it does.

D​onald Glover Returns

W​hile Miles is touring the Spider Team headquarters, he finds different villains that are jailed there being prepared to be sent back to their own reality. One of them is the live-action character of Aaron Davis in a Prowler costume, played by Donald Glover. This is a return to the role for him as he showed up in Spider-Man: Homecoming. Spider-Man follows him to interrogate him about some alien tech-infused weapons that are being sold. He mentions that he doesn’t want the weapons in his neighborhood as he has a nephew that lives there, referring to Miles.

M​rs. Chen

W​hile The Spot is reality hoping, he makes a quick stop at a familiar convenience store. Behind the counter is Mrs. Chen. She doesn’t seem too phased by the interaction because this is the same store we see in the Venom live-action films. A large symbiote-driven hero is constantly running around here, stopping robberies and general super-heroics. This isn’t her first rodeo.

M​ayday Parker

W​hen we reunite with Peter B. Parker from the first film, we see that he returned to his reality and got back together with his Mary Jane. They, in turn, had a young daughter that he is now taking around on his Spider-Man business. Her name is May Parker which comic fans will be familiar with. Marvel once created a new comic line called M2. This was a possible near future of the Marvel Universe. In this one, Peter Parker had retired as Spidey, and his daughter May took over as Spider-Girl. The line didn’t last long, but the character of May Parker became very popular with Spider-Man fans. She was an essential character within the Spider-Verse crossover in the comics.

N​otable Spider-Men

T​could be a whole website dedicated to identifying all the background Spider-Men that are in this movie, but we’ll point out some of the more notable ones.

S​carlet Spider

T​his character is from the 90s storyline The Clone Saga. He is a clone of Peter Parker, who for a short time took over the role of Spider-Man. His character is labeled as being emo and tortured which fits with his portrayal in the film by Andy Samberg. A great Spider-Man: Across The Spider-Verse easter egg for long time Spider-Man fans.

Black And White Spider-Man

We see a black and white Spider-Man talking with a few others during one brief scene. This would be the Spider-Man from the daily comic strip that used to run in newspapers. Stan Lee wrote those strips for over twenty years.

S​pectacular Spider-Man

The cartoon The Spectacular Spider-Man ran on Disney XD for a few seasons and was a fan favorite. This version of Spidey makes a brief appearance and even gets some dialogue from the original voice actor.

S​pider-Punk

Coming from the pages of the Spider-Verse crossover, we finally get Spider-Punk on the big screen. The character’s name is Hobie Brown. In the original Spider-Man comics, Hobie Brown was the character The Prowler. Here we see what would have happened under different circumstances, and his character is amazing in the film.

Bag-Head Spider-Man

We see a version of Spidey wearing a brown grocery bag on his head. This refers to the issue where he went to the Fantastic Four to get them to remove the symbiote suit that would become Venom. Without a costume, he was lent a Fantastic Four costume and a brown paper bag to protect his identity.

P​eter Parkedcar

O​ne version of Webhead shows that he is a sentient car. Interestingly enough, he looks just like the Spider-Mobile that Spider-Man used for one issue of the comics. Here it drives on its own and can even have other Spider-Men ride inside of him.

D​oppelganger

I​n a scene where a swarm of Spider-Men are chasing Miles, we glimpse a character named Doppelganger. This character comes from a crossover called Infinity War. The evil side of Adam Warlock, called The Magus, creates evil clones of all the superheroes with the intent of them taking over, sort of Invasion Of The Bodysnatchers style. Spidey is able to fight off his six-armed version, but it is revived by a character called Demogoblin. It then became free of The Magus’ hold on it and roamed around in the Spider-Man comics for many years to come.

1​967 Spider-Man

The original Spider-Man cartoon character from the 1967 show makes an appearance. His scene is funny as his animation is very stiff and barely moves. This mimics the animation in the original show. It’s a fun inclusion, as this is where the Spider-Man pointing meme originated.

W​hat Spider-Man: Across The Spider-Verse easter eggs did you catch? Let us know in the comments. Until next time Spider-Friends!