PS4's Spider-Man makes dozens of references to the stories, allies, and enemies from the wall crawlers' comics. There are quite a fewlittered throughout the game's final moments, which all seem to be pointing towards a specific comic series.
Although Insomniac has not confirmed a connection, most of the characters in Spider-Man are similar to their counterparts from the Ultimate Spider-Man comics. As opposed to earlier stories that used radiation and pseudoscience as the basis for how Spider-Man and his rogue's gallery of super-villains came to be, Ultimate Spider-Mantakes a more modern approach and uses genetic splicing, tinkering, and degradation as the origin story for its heroes and villains. The comic debuted in October 2000 and ran for nearly 11 years, making it the second longest continuous Marvel series that's created by only two people.
Like Ultimate Spider-Man, PS4's Spider-Man gives Peter Parker a larger background in science and mathematics, making him an engineering prodigy. Mary Jane is also the first to find out that Peter and Spider-Man are the same person. Plenty of other characters have similar personalities and appearances to their Ultimate counterparts too, including Aunt May, Rhino, Kingpin, and more.
Admittedly, some of the game's characters do not match up with their Ultimate Spider-Mancounterparts. Spider-Man's Vulture is Amazing Spider-Man's Adrian Toomes, and not Ultimate's Blackie Drago. The Vulture costume is similar in both the game and comics though, as is Toomes' poor health (he's initially not in Ultimate because he dies from an illness). There are enough similarities, though, to use Ultimate Spider-Man to help dissect the final scenes of the game.
Spoiler Alert: The rest of this article delves into the ending, mid-credits, and post-credits scenes of Spider-Man, as well as major plot points from the Ultimate Spider-Man comics.
The Post-Credits Scene: Two New Foes
As stated before, Spider-Man's post-credits scene hints at two possible supervillains appearing in Peter's future: Venom and Green Goblin. There's a lot to unpack in that final scene, including the fate of Harry Osborn. Earlier in the game, Peter and Mary Jane learn that Harry didn't go abroad for vacation but instead left the country to receive intensive treatment for a genetic disorder. In the post-credits scene, we find out that Harry didn't even leave. His father is keeping him in a tank that's filled with green liquid.
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