Marvel's Spider-Man 2 fans are hoping that an unintentionally hilarious scene from a 30 year old cartoon will make a return in the upcoming sequel.
This week's PlayStation Showcase introduced us to Marvel's Spider-Man 2 with a lengthy gameplay trailer. Star of the show was Peter Parker and his fancy new suit - the Venom symbiote seems to rear its head early in the game, and Peter's new abilities come at the cost of his manners.
Elsewhere in the trailer, however, we get a look at a map that shows off all the Spider-Man 2 villains confirmed so far. Among those is Shocker, returning from a small role in Marvel's Spider-Man and apparently freed from his stint on supervillain prison The Raft.
That grouchy new Peter and his returning foe have got some fans eyeing the possibility of a very funny call-back. The 1990s cartoon Spider-Man: The Animated Series is somewhat credited with the idea that the Venom symbiote not only affects Peter's powers, but also his personality, and it's in this cartoon that a Shocker picks a fight with Spider-Man, leading to the scene below:
I need the sequel to this badly pic.twitter.com/gsfpGnNdG1 https://t.co/Lhhizlu57OMay 24, 2023
It's a scene that gets funnier every time I watch it, particularly Peter's anguished scream of Shocker's name, and his threat to "chase you to the ends of the earth." Interestingly, I've learned that the context of this scene is simply that Shocker picked a fight, decided he didn't want Spider-Man's symbiotic smoke, and tried to run away. Peter, however, was having none of it. The scene has gone down in Spider-Man history, and now fans are hoping we'll see some kind of homage in the upcoming sequel.
Marvel's Spider-Man 2 could be pointing to a very different take on Venom.
Sign up to the 12DOVE Newsletter
Weekly digests, tales from the communities you love, and more
I'm GamesRadar's news editor, working with the team to deliver breaking news from across the industry. I started my journalistic career while getting my degree in English Literature at the University of Warwick, where I also worked as Games Editor on the student newspaper, The Boar. Since then, I've run the news sections at PCGamesN and Kotaku UK, and also regularly contributed to PC Gamer. As you might be able to tell, PC is my platform of choice, so you can regularly find me playing League of Legends or Steam's latest indie hit.