The Amazing Spider-Man 2 wasn’t on the same level as a Marvel Cinematic Universe movie with its in-jokes and Easter Eggs, but it certainly had its share of surprises. From future film teases, cameo appearances by characters from the comics, and blink-and-you’ll-miss-’em references abound. Check out 15 of the best ones below.
Spoilers, obviously!
Black Cat
While she’s not much more than a particularly loyal office assistant in The Amazing Spider-Man 2, Felicity Jones’ character is actually a pretty major character in the Marvel universe. She’s referred to as Felicia multiple times, a reference to Felicia Hardy (aka Black Cat), a villain/antihero and occasional love interest of Peter Parker.
She even has this scene with the Green Goblin, cut from the final film, but present in some of the trailers:
Director Marc Webb has previously confirmed that Jones’ Felicia is indeed Felicia Hardy, although he hasn’t revealed just how big of a role the character would have in the next movie.
When asked if the Black Cat alter ego would be appearing in The Amazing Spider-Man 3, Webb replied:
We’ll see. We’re still sort of conjuring that tale. But we wanted to build out the universe and acknowledge the little, sort of dark corners of the Spider-Man Universe, because we’re all such fans of the comics, so we wanted to find whatever nuances and see what takes hold.
Sinister Six
Sony has confirmed that a Sinister Six movie is in the works, and you can already see the groundwork being laid.
If you Shazam the Alicia Keys song playing in the credits, you’ll be treated to a sequence of images teasing the six members of the Sinister Six. They are (from top to bottom): Vulture, Rhino, Doctor Octopus, Kraven the Hunter, Mysterio, and Green Goblin.
Additionally, the Vulture’s wings and Octopus’s octopus arms appear in the film proper, inside of Oscorp’s secret project bunker.
Alistair Smythe
BJ Novak’s role in this movie boiled down to basically being as big of a corporate douche as humanly possible, but his character’s name may hint at some future appearances. In the comics, Alistair Smythe creates a robotic suit to become a supervillain named “Ultimate Spider-Slayer.”
Cheesy? Sure, but Marc Webb is obviously a fan of super-powered suits of armor.
The Mysterious Man Revealed
The Amazing Spider-Man 2 finally reveals the identity of that mysterious man from the end of the first film. His name is Gustav Fiers, and in a trilogy of Spider-Man novels, he’s a super-criminal known as the Gentleman who assembles a team of villains under the Sinister Six moniker.
Ravencroft Institute
In the film, the Ravencroft Institute is a secret Oscorp facility. In the comics, a facility of the same name exists, although it’s a government funded psychiatric hospital for supervillains. Think Marvel’s version of Arkham Asylum.
Kafkaesque
Aside from arguably being the film’s most over-the-top character, the Ravencroft scientist who experiments on Electro is a male version of Dr. Ashley Kafka, the founder of the institute in the comics. An actual doctor in the comics, she’s treated villains such as Electro, Vulture, Carnage, and Doctor Octopus in her career.
SUNY Maritime College
The film features a little real-life tie-in with the SUNY Maritime College, where the Ravencroft exteriors were filmed. The distinguished researchers plaque that appears in these scenes are names of actual past naval officers from the school.
Venom
The Venom symbiote appears briefly in early trailers for The Amazing Spider-Man 2, but strangely, it was later replaced with Doctor Octopus’s arms.
One mention of the character still remains in the film though. When Harry Osborn is browsing through Oscorp’s database of secret projects, one of the files is titled “Venom Storage.”
Some fans are speculating that instead of Venom being an alien in the Webb version of things, it’s instead created from the Spider venom that Harry injects himself with to turn into the Green Goblin. It would definitely be more in line with the new franchise’s idea of Oscorp as the source of all of both Spidey’s powers and his villains.
Even More Villains
That same computer screen also features a bunch of other Easter Eggs.
There’s a reference to Experiment Oct 32A (Doctor Octopus has appeared 32 times in the Ultimate Spider-Man comic series).
There’s also a file titled Dr. Morbius. In the comics, Dr. Michael Morbius became Morbius the Living Vampire, a Spider-Man villain who later got his own series.
Happy Birthday Electro
Max Dillon’s birthday is green and yellow with little lightning bolt decorations, a nod to Electro’s classic costume.
Adorable.
A Reference to Raimi?
This one is a little iffy (I’d have to rewatch the film to confirm it), but according to Redditor mi-16evil, the film has a little nod to the Sam Raimi trilogy that preceded it.
Did anyone else catch that reference to the Tobey Maguire Spider-man movies? When Peter was searching ‘What is Roosevelt?’ The computer showed a picture of a gondola with big red letters on its side saying ‘Roosevelt.’ In the first Tobey Maguire spider-man movie he saves a bunch of kids who were in the same gondola.
Rhino Loves Rhinos
The film’s first action sequence ends with Spider-Man pulling down Russian mobster Aleksei Sytsevich’s pants, revealing some underwear with an interesting design.
It seems that even before he got that badass suit, Sytsevich had a thing for Rhinos.
The Vault
Speaking of Rhino, towards the end of the film it’s mentioned that Aleksei Sytsevich was broken out of “The Vault.” In the comics, the Vault is a prison designed for housing supervillains.
Musical Spiders
It wasn’t exactly subtle, but if you missed the reference, Peter Parker’s ringtone is none other than the iconic theme song from the original animated Spider-Man TV series.
If you hated how on-the-nose that one was, you probably weren’t a fan of the fact that Electro played “The Itsy Bitsy Spider” on those power conduits in his climactic battle with Spidey.
“I hate that song,” Spider-Man quipped. You and me both, buddy.
Death of Gwen Stacy
Staying surprisingly true to the source material, The Amazing Spider-Man 2 featured the abduction of Gwen Stacy by the Green Goblin and, subsequently, her death after Spidey’s attempt to save her breaks her neck.
In a fitting tribute to the original comic, Emma Stone wears the same outfit that Gwen Stacy had on in Amazing Spider-Man #121.
Additionally, during the battle, the clock tower’s hands were spinning, stopping on 1:21, as in issue #121.
