Several Spider-Man: Across The Spider-Verse Cameos Will Delight Animation Fans
This post contains spoilers for "Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse."
Spider-Man has almost as long a history in animation as he does in the comic pages where he originated. That's why the "Spider-Verse" films' conceit — placing different Spider-People together and representing them with different styles of animation — is so clever. While the original "Into the Spider-Verse" featured only six Spider-People teaming up, the sequel "Across the Spider-Verse" takes things into overdrive with hundreds of them. This fulfills the promise of a Spider-Verse.
Most of these Spider-People are simple cameos or easter eggs — they're all going about their day in Miguel O'Hara's (Oscar Isaac) citadel on Earth-928 and the film rarely lingers on them. However, knowledgeable Spider-Fans will spot some stars among the crowd. "Across the Spider-Verse" treats all Spider-Man audiovisual media as part of one big web. So, like how "Spider-Man: No Way Home" united the live-action Spider-Man actors, "Across the Spider-Verse" brings back some familiar animated faces both old and new.
Spins a web, any size
Spider-Man was first animated in 1967 by Grantray-Lawrence Animation, who had produced the motion comic series "The Marvel Superheroes" the previous year. This series, which is also the origin of the "Does Whatever A Spider Can" theme song (composed by Paul Francis Webster and Bob Harris), was the first sign that Spidey wasn't just a comic sensation, but a pop-culture icon.
This Peter Parker (of Earth-67) previously appeared in the post-credits scene of "Into the Spider-Verse" when Miguel O'Hara traveled to his universe and they got into a spat, echoing the famous "Spider-Man pointing at Spider-Man" meme. In "Across the Spider-Verse," Peter-67 returns for a brief cameo during the chase scene between Miles (Shameik Moore) and the other Spider-People. He swings straight at the screen but his bluster is soon deflated — he simply can't keep up with the mile-a-minute movement of his counterparts.
"Spider-Man" (in)famously had limited animation. Though more expressive than "The Marvel Superheroes," the characters all moved and spoke stiffly within Hanna-Barbera-esque barebones settings. After Grantray-Lawrence folded in 1968, the series moved to the supervision of Krantz Films and producer Ralph Bakshi. They eventually gave up on crafting new stories — the series' second and third seasons are filled with episodes that are just cobbled together animation from previous episodes and Bakshi's other series, "Rocket Robin Hood."
Spider-Man Unlimited
The weirdest Spider-Man cartoon, by far, is 1999's "Spider-Man Unlimited." J. Jonah Jameson's astronaut son John takes a trip to Counter-Earth, a mirror planet on the other side of the Sun. Venom and Carnage hitch a ride, for Counter-Earth is home to a dormant symbiote army. Spider-Man follows to rescue Jameson and discovers Counter-Earth is ruled by "Beastials," humanoid animals created by the High Evolutionary (who recently jumped to live-action in "Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3"). Spider-Man joins the human resistance led by Jameson while running into familiar yet different faces (in particular, a heroic Green Goblin).
Though "Unlimited" was an ostensible sequel to the successful 1994 "Spider-Man" cartoon, this series had little in common with its predecessor, be it the setting, the animation style, or its popularity — it was canceled after 13 episodes and a cliffhanger ending. That ending remains in limbo, but the "Unlimited" Spider-Man appears in a few crowd shots in "Across the Spider-Verse." You can tell it's him by his distinctive costume: a web cape, darker shading, and no web line patterns across the suit.
Unlike the other cameos, Spider-Man Unlimited doesn't have any lines. (I guess Rino Romano wasn't available.) His one moment of focus is when he's chasing Miles and accidentally punches one of the other Spider-People — there's a close-up reaction shot of him wincing.
Spectacular Spider-Man
The best "Spider-Man" cartoon remains the 26-episode "The Spectacular Spider-Man," which more than lives up to its title. Created by Greg Weisman, the series retrofitted the original Stan Lee/Steve Ditko comics with the modern sensibilities of Brian Michael Bendis & Mark Bagley's "Ultimate Spider-Man." Unfortunately, legal complications between Marvel and Sony kept "Spectacular Spider-Man" from going past two seasons. It doesn't end on an outright cliffhanger like "Unlimited," but the season 2 finale, "Final Curtain," leaves plenty of threads open.
"Across the Spider-Verse" features a brief return by this Spidey. When Miguel is explaining "canon events" to Miles, he cites Uncle Ben's constant deaths. One of the cited examples is from "Intervention," the "Spectacular Spider-Man" episode when Peter recalls his origin story while fighting off possession by the Venom symbiote. Soon after, the man himself shows up to comfort Miles about the hard truth of his father's inevitable death.
The Spectacular Spider-Man has the same design and slim physique, but he's now rendered in three dimensions to match the others. He's also voiced once again by Josh Keaton, who previously said he was unsure if the lines he recorded made it into the final cut — at least one of them did.
There is one undiscussed implication of Spectacular Spider-Man's presence. Captain George Stacy (Clancy Brown) was a supporting character in "Spectacular Spider-Man" — the series all but said he knew Peter's secret identity and so offered cover for him. Does Spectacular Peter's acceptance of canon events mean that his world's Captain Stacy is dead? If only we had a season 3 to confirm.
While more "Spectacular Spider-Man" remains unlikely, Keaton, Weisman, and character designer Sean Galloway all voiced pleasure about "Across the Spider-Verse" and their series' presence in it.
Video game Spider-Man
"Across the Spider-Verse" doesn't just limit its cameos to film and TV. The lead from Insomniac Games' acclaimed "Marvel's Spider-Man" video game shows up as well — he appears in his default costume with the large white spider insignia on his chest. Like Spectacular Spider-Man, Insomniac Spider-Man also has a brief line courtesy of his original voice actor — in this case, Yuri Lowenthal. Insomniac's sequel, "Marvel's Spider-Man 2," is coming in late 2023 so Sony using the Easter egg as cross-promotion makes sense.
Insomniac Spider-Man's cameo is tied together with a nod to a whole other Spider-Man cartoon. The Spider-People's mission is to capture anomalies, or individuals who've fallen out of their home dimension. One of these anomalies is Video Man, an original villain from "Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends." In that series, Video Man was a video game character brought to life by Electro — he twice faced off against the Spider-Friends (Spider-Man, Iceman, and Firestar).
When listing off the captured anomalies, Jessica Drew (Issa Rae) tells Miles they've got a video game guy (Video Man) and then another video game guy: Insomniac Spider-Man, who is standing next to Video Man's containment cell. He asks if they're talking about him but they ignore him. I'm willing to bet that Spider-Man fans in the audience didn't though.
"Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse" is playing in theaters. "Spectacular Spider-Man" and "Spider-Man Unlimited" are available on Disney+. Insomniac's "Spider-Man" is available for PS4 and PS5. "Spider-Man" (1967) is not currently streaming anywhere.