Insomniac Games’ two most recent projects, Marvel’s Spider-Man and Spider-Man: Miles Morales, benefit from the same extended Marvel Comics universe to utilize as a reference point that the hit Marvel Cinematic Universe does. For instance, the New York in Marvel’s Spider-Man references the Avengers, while the recently released Miles Morales also has exciting collectibles for X-Men enthusiasts to discover.
One particular collectible was mentioned by Fifth Dream in a post on Twitter, who found a pair of tickets Miles kept from a concert he attended dated September 22, 2015. The show was a joint performance of Alison Blaire, who is an X-Men heroine with the alias Dazzler; and Lila Cheney, a mutant who has the ability to teleport across intergalactic spaces. Dazzler also made a cameo in the 2019 film X-Men: Dark Phoenix.
Based on the Marvel fandom wiki, Cheney and Blaire have performed along with each other in the comic book canon, which makes this a deep-cut reference to introduce in Spider-Man: Miles Morales for any fans whose love about the universe goes beyond Insomniac Games’ projects.
So #MilesMorales saw #Dazzler and #LilaCheney live. #XMen game confirmed.#PS5Share, #MarvelsSpiderManMilesMorales pic.twitter.com/C2HUsHBQoJ
— Fifth Dream (@FifthDream) November 14, 2020
Both games have a decent of villains and supporting characters for comic fans to love, but the development team has also referenced other methods with additions such as the Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse costume in Miles Morales.
The developers of the game have also taken the chance to include additional references to memes in its promotional advertisements. In the lead up to the game’s launch as a release game for the PS5 last Thursday, Insomniac Games released a GIF of Miles Morales with Spider-Cat shake-dancing, utilizing models from the game to mirror a now-iconic Shaquille O’Neal meme.
Typical interest for the new Spider-Man game has been taken advantage of in various other ways as well. For instance, Adidas is selling Spider-Man: Miles Morales-inspired sneakers that mirror the hero’s in-game attire – though one of the trademarks of the franchise is being able to switch out Spider-Man’s outfit for a different one of a kind looks.
Overall, Spider-Man Miles Morales has been receiving positive reviews along with the Ultimate Edition’s Marvel’s Spider-Man Remastered which was released on the PS4 in 2018. The latter game has been the subject of controversies thanks to the developers changing Peter Parker’s model, but beyond several complaints about how this will affect particular dramatic scenes, there have been apparently nominal problems.
Fans will certainly spend a lot of hours playing both games to discover more references that the developers might have included in Spider-Man: Miles Morales.
