With Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 teasing an eventual confrontation between a Symbiote-enhanced Peter Parker and an electrifying Miles Morales, fans of the Spider-Man franchise may be frantically waiting for the game’s eventual October 2023 release. However, Spider-Man fans who want first dibs on the much-awaited sequel should consider purchasing the Deluxe Edition of Marvel’s Spider-Man 2, especially with the assortment of exclusive suits it comes with.
Much like the previous entries in the Spider-Man franchise, special suits for both Peter and Miles in this Deluxe Edition appear in a wide variety of designs. However, eagle-eyed fans may want to dive deeper into the creative process of these suits, especially with how they reference not just the Spider-Man mythos but other pop culture phenomena as well.
10 Tactical Suit (Peter)
Among the suits featured in the Spider-Man 2 Deluxe Edition, the Tactical Suit is one of the most recognizable in terms of design motifs. The choice of white-and-red colors makes callbacks to similarly-colored costumes: the first Spider-Man game’s Advanced Armored Suit, Miguel O’Hara’s Parker Industries Suit, and the Miles Morales Track Suit. Given the evolution of Peter’s costumes in the first game, the Tactical Suit seems a reasonable progression to a sleeker outfit past bulky Advanced Armor and criminally dangerous Resilient.
However, comics fans who want to look past previous game costumes may look at Peter’s Tactical Suit as a reference to the shortlived white-and-blue suit from 2020’s “Threats And Menaces.” This departure into a brighter Spider-Man costume came with Peter’s work with the tabloid that practically transformed the webhead into an influencer. In the comics, the TNM suit not only broadcasted Spidey’s fights but also came with features to facilitate polls, read fan messages, and even receive fight reviews from fans.
9 Agimat Suit (Miles)
At first glance, the Agimat Suit in the Deluxe Edition offerings seems like a spin on the Black Panther or the Prower Suit, both of which had a predominant purple theme. Comics fans may even connect the Spider-Man 2 costume with the Blue Beetle with its tech-insectoid motif. However, the Agimat Suit’s design choices begin to unravel once players take a look at its name, with “agimat” referring to the Filipino word that describes an amulet or a charm.
The mix of golden circuitry and purple translucent plating gives the impression of the Agimat Suit having alien origins, making it a premier version of the Symbiote Suit. While the Purple Reign Suit in Miles Morales indeed had a dominant purple color, it’s significantly greyed out compared to the brightness of the Agimat Suit. The name and motif of the suit may be a callback to the Spider-Totems concept that describe spider-esque entities that choose Avatars (such as Spider-Man) as conduits of universal will.
8 Aurantia Suit (Peter)
Peter Parker’s signature Spider-Man suit gets a much-needed summer splash in the Aurantia Suit, this time replacing the traditional red-blue costume with a black undersuit with red padding topped with yellow details. The “Aurantia” name of the Deluxe Edition suit seems to come from the Argiope aurantia, the scientific name of the black and yellow garden spider. The naming convention may also be referenced in the anatomically-leaning eye design as well as a mouth cover that seems to be reminiscent of the traditional spider.
However, franchise fans may also have an immediate association with the costume’s choice of yellow accents: the Iron Spider. Fans may remember this costume having a “Turf Wars” variant in the first Spider-Man game. However, the Aurantia Suit isn’t just another blatant Iron Spider copy, but rather based on the Integrated Suit of No Way Home, where Iron Spider nanites created an upgraded Spider-Man suit after being transferred via Doc Ock’s tentacles.
7 Red Spectre Suit (Miles)
An alternate Gwen Stacy becoming Spider-Gwen or Ghost-Spider became a pivotal moment in Spider-Man fandom, as alongside her distinct white-purple-azure design was also a character who became a feminist icon. In turn, Spider-Gwen becoming a potential love interest for Miles Morales in their current journey in Across the Spider-Verse boosted the popularity of both characters further, making it unsurprising for fans to see a bit of Ghost-Spider in the Red Spectre Suit.
This Deluxe Edition suit gives Miles a bit of pizzazz in his Spider-Man 2 gameplay, with his traditional black and red suit getting bolder white highlights alongside a hood not dissimilar to Gwen’s. Like Peter’s Apunkalyptic Suit, Miles’ Red Spectre Suit also has a top opening that gives space for dreadlocks to flow out like bangs.
6 25th Century Suit (Peter)
As if Peter Parker’s Spider-Man suits don’t look futuristic enough, his 25th Century Suit sends players straight to the 2600s with a retro-future webslinger look. While it’s implied that Peter still wears his signature red suit in the Deluxe Edition costume, the 25th Century Suit in Spider-Man 2 establishes a more prominent silver chest plate and faceplate with blue energy markings.
Design references also begin with the 25th Century Suit’s headpiece, which is covered by a glass dome that seemingly references Mysterio. However, the suit’s silver-heavy top with a red undersuit seems reminiscent of Ant-Man’s core design aesthetic, which has more red than Spider-Man’s signature red and blue outfit.
5 Encoded Suit (Miles)
Both Spider-Man protagonists had no shortage of black-and-gold suits in their respective titles, with Peter’s Mk. II Armor being a reference to 1999’s “Amazing Spider-Man” #656 where he lost his Spider-Sense, while Miles’ Uptown Pride Suit represents the “Black Lives Matter” movement in 2020. This time around, the Encoded Suit players can acquire in Spider-Man 2 is a bulkier variation of the color scheme, with minimal bold lines and shapes implying a tech theme.
With Peter’s 25th Century Suit as a “partner” suit, the Encoded Suit’s shade of gold bordering on honey may be a reference to Yellowjacket’s suit of MCU’s Ant-Man. Either way, the game giving Miles an armored tech suit seems like a reasonable upgrade to similar suits in the previous game such as Strike Suit and the Programmable Matter Suit.
4 Stone Monkey Suit (Peter)
Among the Spider-Man suits in Spider-Man 2, the Stone Monkey Suit of the Deluxe Edition seems to be the most ceremonial. Characterized by a majorly blue color scheme, the Stone Monkey suit gives Peter an azure oversuit with red details. Key to the design is the ornamental red chest piece adorned with a gold spider that is also duplicated as a circlet. A streak of fur lines the collar, while the eyepiece is gold with a red outline.
At first glance, the Stone Monkey seems to reference Sun Wukong or the Monkey King of Journey to the West, which may be a nod to Peter’s eventual near-mythical status once he dons the Symbiote Suit. However, the suit may also reference 2009’s “Marvel Apes: Amazing Spider-Monkey” which stars the eponymous spider-enhanced monkey.
3 Biomechanical Suit (Miles)
Seemingly an Insomniac original suit, the Biomechanical Suit gives Miles an eerily insectoid appearance. While Miles maintains his color scheme, this suit in the Spider-Man sequel gives the hero a red fibrous undersuit that is covered by a black carapace. Gone is the traditional checkered pattern popular in Spider-Man suits as it’s only retained in the head.
Of all the Deluxe Edition suits, the Biomechanical Suit is the most “organic” in appearance. Interestingly enough, this suit may also call back to 2019’s “Absolute Carnage” storyline, where Miles was forcibly bonded with a Grendel symbiote offshoot. This caused Miles to adopt a six-armed symbiote appearance not dissimilar to the Biomechanical Suit.
2 Apunkalyptic Suit (Peter)
Hobie Brown or Spider-Punk of Across the Spider-Verse is the embodiment of Spider-Man never working with a system that encourages blind subservience, and the Apunkalyptic Suit in Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 gameplay is the closest fans could get to his rebellious streak. The Apunkalyptic Suit adds a red-blue vest with interior belts on top of black shoulder pads, all accentuated with golden highlights and details. Particularly noticeable in the Apukalyptic Suit is an opening on the top for Peter’s hair to flow outward.
While this suit seems to have been teased just in time for Hobie fans, the Spider-Punk suit already existed in the first Spider-Man game. Also based on the alternate Hobie Brown who became Spider-Punk instead of Prowler, the original Spider-Punk suit simply added a denim vest, sneakers, a chained belt, and bracelets, as well as head spikes. With this aesthetic in mind, the Apunkalyptic Suit of the sequel offers a sleeker and cleaner take on the punk style.
1 Tokusatsu Suit (Miles)
Somewhere out there is a spider entity bestowing Miles Morales with its powers alongside the task of helping four other teenagers save the world - or so the Tokusatsu Suit implies. This Deluxe Edition suit references the tokusatsu (“special photography”) genre in Japan that tackles live-action works with special effects. While geared mostly towards children, toku culture gave birth to iconic franchises such as Ultraman, and Super Sentai, with the latter being adapted in the West as Power Rangers. Miles receiving the Tokusatsu Suit is a callback to the Arachnid Rider suit in Spider-Man, which at the time referenced toku franchise Kamen Rider.
Miles’ Tokusatsu Suit’s design in particular seems to reference various pieces of Power Rangers media. The chest piece of the Spider-Man suit alone seems to reference the Dragon Shield in Mighty Morphin worn by Tommy Oliver as the Green Dragon Ranger. Meanwhile, the glowing curvy-thorn details are reminiscent of the evil-aligned Psycho Rangers of In Space, with the core detailed spandex calling back to the alien suits of 2017’s Power Rangers reboot.
Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 is set to have an October 20, 2023 release for the PS5.