Marvel's Spider-Man 2 best Easter eggs and secrets

There are many Marvel's Spider-Man 2 Easter eggs and secrets in the game that aren't difficult to spot, if you know what you're looking for of course! There are nods to Wolverine, Black Panther, the Avengers, and plenty of other MCU references in plain sight, and if you dig deeper then there are even more homages to discover. In my time with Marvel's Spider-Man 2 I've uncovered dozens of Easter eggs referencing other Marvel properties and much more besides, and while I expect that there's still a lot more to be discovered over time, here are the ones I consider to be my favorites - these are the top 10 Easter eggs in Spider-Man 2 and where to find them.

Be warned: some spoilers for the plot of Marvel's Spider-Man 2 ahead. 

Farley Stillwell, Madripoor, and Trask industries

A note in the Hunters' lair during the "Bad Guys on the Block" story mission reveals notes on a Farley Stillwell, detailing that he helped create Scorpion, as well as spending time somewhere called Madripoor and might've had some connections to something called Trask Industries.

All of this is reference gold! Aside from Stillwell being the actual name of the scientist who modified Mac Gargan into Scorpion, Madripoor is a famous Marvel comics location - a fictional Southeast Asian island that's often a hub for adventure and misadventure alike, and which shows up in the MCU show "Falcon and the Winter Soldier".

Finally, Trask Industries is more associated with the X-Men - in both comics and movies, this is the company that built the giant robots known as the Sentinels, which governments and villains have used to hunt mutants.

The Wand of Watoomb

The Wand of Watoomb is hardly an easter egg, per se - it's stolen by Black Cat in the "Make Your Own Choices" story mission when she uses it to escape Kraven's Hunters. However, it's not just a colorful macguffin, but a slice of comics history, as this is one of the many, many magical artifacts that Doctor Strange often finds himself guarding, hunting or fighting at any one time - which makes it appropriate that Wong and Doctor Strange reclaim it (albeit from off-screen) at the end of the sequence.

Man-Spider

In the mission "Where Have You Been", Peter's fighting some cultists when they scream that there's some prophecy involving him. Peter asks what the prophecy involves: "Endless fighting? Death by building? Grow four arms and become a giant man-spider?"

Assuming you don't leap to it being an "It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia" reference, that joke doesn't come from nowhere - the Man-Spider has been a recurring idea in Marvel comics and, perhaps more famously, in the animated series of Spider-Man. Peter has turned into the Man-Spider or something like it at least three times in the comics by my count - and it rarely ever goes well.

Spider-Man theme remix

During the "Master Illusionist" story mission, Miles Morales heads into the first of many Spider-Man 2 Mysteriums made by Quentin Beck, aka Mysterio, for a slightly baffling sequence wherein he becomes a DJ at a nightclub and you play several minutes of guitar hero.

Still, it's worth listening closely to what Miles is actually playing - assuming you don't hit too many wrong notes and render it into nonsense, it's actually an electronic dance version of the main theme for Insomniac's Spider-Man games.

Dazzler

Dazzler, aka Alison Blaire, is one of the X-Men, and while her ability to turn sound into light is cool enough, she's more famous for being a pop star and music icon when she's not helping save the world. While she started off making disco music (it was the '70s), her preferred genre has often changed over the years to better reflect contemporary music trends and keep her on the cutting edge, though her association with disco is still strong.

Why bring her up? Because during the Coney Island sequence in Marvel's Spider-Man 2, you can find something called Dazzler's Stage, which appears to be an open-mic night for any aspiring musician - however, this isn't one of the many Spider-Man 2 Fairground rides you can chose to have a go on. Dazzler herself is not in attendance, but the name is a clear homage - and it wouldn't even be the first time recently, as the 2021 Guardians of the Galaxy game put a Dazzler poster on Starlord's wall.

Speed Demon

Well, this is an obscure one - staying within the carnival on Coney Island, Peter, Harry and MJ all go on a roller coaster called the Speed Demon, with its own helmeted mascot presented several times.

Speed Demon in the comics is a supervillain who originally went by the (not good) name of "The Whizzer", before common sense prevailed and he rebranded himself. In fact, the little mascot icon is a pretty good representation of the character. Speed Demon fought the Avengers more than once, but has also battled Spider-Man on a solo basis.

Amazing Fantasy #15

This is a good one - if you pursue the side mission "Photo Help", you get an extended flashback to Peter's brief career selling photos of Spider-Man to the Daily Bugle and J. Jonah Jameson.

That itself is comic-accurate - Peter famously started out as a photographer, despite his science background - but more notably, the pose and framing of the first picture he sells to the Bugle is an exact match for the pose and framing on the cover of "Amazing Fantasy #15", where Spider-Man made his first ever appearance. It means Peter Parker's photography origins match his comic book origins - a pleasantly cute tribute, even if Jameson doesn't have much nice to say about the photo itself.

The School Backpack

During the mission "Roll Like We Used To", Peter has a flashback to his school days with Harry, where he spends much of it crawling around his old school. At one point he's climbing through a vent and notices something. "Old backpack - forgot I put that here. Gotta start keeping track of these things."

It's a passing comment that doesn't appear to mean much in the moment, but it's actually a joke on the first Spider-Man game in the series, where one of the major side missions is hunting the dozens of backpacks that Peter has left across the city and forgotten about until he finally triggers the tracking devices in them.

Fantastic Four and the Baxter Building

Head to a building in the Hell's Kitchen district and you might notice a very particular sign half-painted on the roof - a giant blue "4" in a circle. 

Yes, it's the symbol of the Fantastic Four! The iconic Marvel superhero family are famously based in New York in a skyscraper called The Baxter Building, which we presume this structure is meant to be. The symbol being half–there, it's hard to say whether the team is just getting started, or shutting down…? Either way, they don't get referenced anywhere else in the game that we can find, with the exception of the questionably-canon "New Blue Suit" that Peter can unlock later in the story as one of the Spider-Man 2 suits.

Knull and the Symbiotes

I've saved the most ominous for last: the meteorite that the Symbiote first makes it to Earth on/in and which becomes an important macguffin for the plot later on, is black and has a janky red spiral carved into it. Not only that, but many of the symbiotes you fight later have similar spirals marked into them.

The spiral - particularly the red spiral - is the signature icon of the eldritch god and creator of the symbiotes, Knull, who also inspires the "King in Black" costume that you can get for Miles. In the comics, Knull created the symbiotes to take over the universe: they would latch onto mortals, allowing him to dominate both symbiote and host. But the symbiotes were freed from his hive-mind control when Knull was wounded in a battle with Thor hundreds of years ago, rebelling against their creator and claiming their freedom. Knull didn't die, however - he was imprisoned in the heart of the planet Klyntar when the symbiotes turned on him, and wouldn't get free until the modern era after some mistakes made by Eddie Brock. 

All this is only comic lore, of course - I don't get any strong sense that Knull will show up in these games, but the Spiral insignia he's known for is a cute homage to the monstrous dark god.

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