The artwork and animation styles in Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse is full of aesthetic choices which are also Easter Eggs for avid fans and interesting designs for casual onlookers. While the movie is still far away, the makers are surely teasing fans with new images, and other promotional material about the visual delight the feature is going to be. By far we have seen myriad character designs for the amazing Spider-People who are going to be featured in the movie, and we also saw Miles’ world turned upside down, among other things.

In order to hype fans some more, the official handle of Sony Animation revealed a new image of Miles taking a swing in the sky. Behind him is the New York Skyline, and if you look closely, the stencil lines are left in on the buildings to give it more of a storyboard look. Interestingly, this is probably the first image where the skyline is right side up! And the reason becomes evident when you zoom in on the image and look at the graffiti of the building at the bottom right-hand side. It reads SM02, a clear nod to the 1963 comic book The Amazing Spider-Man #2 written by Stan Lee and Steve Ditko, who also illustrated the artwork.

The 1963 comic book was the first appearance of Vulture, and the cover art features similar artwork on buildings as in the new image. Adrian Toomes aka Vulture is one of the primary villains of the web-slinger, an engineering genius who created a suit that allows him to fly at high speeds. He was also a founding member of the Sinister Six and has appeared in several iterations of the super-villain team since. While Jason Schwartzman’s Spot is the main villain of Across the Spider-Verse, the feature also casts Jorma Taccone in the villainous role. It’ll be interesting to see how his story plays out and whether he’ll return for the sequel Spider-Man: Beyond the Spider-Verse.

Across the Spider-Verse stars the voices of Shameik Moore as Miles Morales, Hailee Steinfeld as Gwen Stacy, Schwartzman as Jonathan Ohnn/Spot, Jake Johnson as Peter B. Parker, Oscar Isaac as Miguel O’Hara/Spider-Man 2099, Issa Rae as Jessica Drew, Daniel Kaluuya as Hobie Brown/Spider-Punk, Brian Tyree Henry as Miles’ father Jefferson Davis and Luna Lauren Vélez as Miles’ mother Rio Morales, among many more.

Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse will debut on June 2, 2023 while Spider-Man: Beyond the Spider-Verse is​​​​​​ releasing on March 29, 2024.

via Collider