Marvel's Spider-Man 2 Ending Explained: Cindy Moon, Norman's Serum and the Secret Spider-Verse Scene

The ending of Marvel's Spider-Man 2 introduces Cindy Moon, better known in the comics as Silk, and sets up Norman Osborn's turn toward the Green Goblin. Those two threads hint at where the PlayStation series could be heading next, along with a secret bonus scene that ties the game to the Spider-Verse films.

Marvel's Spider-Man 2 really makes you feel like Spider-Man, and it had been living in my head rent free. Here I go through the major plot points, the ending, the hidden scene and where I thought it could all be going. Heavy spoilers follow.

Peter and Miles try to balance New York with their own lives

The game begins with Peter and Miles as the protectors of New York, both dealing with how their heroics affect their lives. Peter has landed a job teaching at Brooklyn Visions Academy, and Miles is in his class while applying for colleges. Miles is joined by his love interest Hailey from the spin-off game, and for a moment it seems like they are all finally making their way in the world.

That doesn't last long. The action kicks off with Sandman attacking the city, which I called Anakin Skywalker's worst nightmare, and both Peter and Miles have to go out and handle it. The fallout costs Peter his job, and to make matters worse MJ could lose hers too. The pair are together again, with Peter living in May and Ben's house, and though they don't have much, they at least have each other.

Kraven comes to New York looking for a worthy opponent

The calm doesn't hold. We learn that six months earlier Kraven the Hunter was looking for new challenges because everything had become too easy. He heads to New York's urban jungle, knowing the city is filled with villains and heroes alike and will make for a major battleground. This is sort of based on the Ultimate Spider-Man run, with Kraven wanting to prove himself as the ultimate hunter.

He becomes a major antagonist, made even worse by some of the other villains. As the story goes on we learn Kraven is actually dying of cancer and wants to battle someone strong enough to best him. He isn't the only one gravely ill, either.

Harry Osborn's illness leads to Venom, the Lizard and Scream

Early on we see what has been going on with Harry, which was teased in bonus features from the earlier games. Curt Connors has been working on him, and as you can probably guess, Connors ends up becoming the Lizard. Venom has also been helping to heal Harry, something the other games alluded to. Venom ends up killing Kraven and becoming a major threat in the city, which all ramps up toward the ending.

Peter also wrestles with the symbiote taking control of him, and as always it turns him toward the dark side. But it's the connection to Harry that really shakes things up. The PlayStation universe hasn't had a Green Goblin, and shifting Venom to Harry raises the stakes. MJ gets taken too and becomes the villain Scream, because Venom has been giving symbiotes to people in the city, which leads to a big boss battle with her. I'm pretty sure the symbiote never attached to MJ in the comics, but moving things to a more personal setting really hits home.

In the end the heroes destroy the meteorite that brought Venom in, which takes out the symbiote, but at a cost to Harry. Harry's death was a big thing in the comics too, and there he became the Green Goblin and one of Spidey's big villains.

The secret spider-bot scene ties the game to Across the Spider-Verse

There is a secret scene you only get by completing the spider-bot quest. It opens a Spider-Verse bonus scene with ties to the film universe. The film originally had a deleted scene showing a bar with a bartender, known as the bar with no name, and that bar pops up in the game. A portal opens, the bartender says she'll take the bots back, and at one point she mentions Miguel.

That is Spider-Man 2099, one of the big antagonists of that film, and I would absolutely love it if the game tied in with it further. The Spider-Man from this game's universe also featured in the film, so potentially in Spider-Man 3 we might even get crossover characters coming to this world to help sort things out. The spider-bots in general may also be a reference to Superior Spider-Man, since he invented the technology while in that role.

Norman Osborn readies the G serum after Harry is revived

Miles was given new powers by Martin Li, which allows him to revive Harry, who is then sent to hospital. Norman blames the heroes for his son's poor health, and Harry is taken home and put in a hospital bed. There are traces of brain activity but little else, and there seemed very little chance of him coming back, though I suspected he probably would.

Peter and MJ have been looking out for Harry, but Norman is desperate to heal his son and will never accept that he is going to die. Norman is wearing a green jacket, which hints at the direction he is heading. He grabs Harry's cane and starts smashing things, Peter and MJ clear out, and Norman makes a call telling someone to get the G serum ready. To me this clearly highlighted what was going to happen in the next game, and it would likely lead to the debut of the Green Goblin, finally bringing Spidey's big bad into the limelight. I was surprised they had held him back for so long: by then the series would be four games deep, and "leaving the Green Goblin until then hats off to them."

The G serum gave Norman improved strength, but it also drove him insane. Coupled with his anger and grief, that makes for a highly unstable villain ready to do whatever he can to get revenge on the Spider-Men. The serum could possibly be used to heal Harry, since in the comics Harry was also the Green Goblin. Personally, though, I wanted to see Norman become the big bad, since so far he had only been a villain on a political level, and I thought he would be the one to take the serum and gain the powers to fight the Spider-Men.

Norman visits Otto Octavius at the Raft

Norman has also started reaching out to other villains, which leads to the post-credits scene of him visiting Otto at the Raft, where Otto has been imprisoned since the first game. Norman asks whether Otto will reveal the Spider-Men's identities, but Otto refuses and thinks it's good that Harry and Norman are suffering.

This is kind of like the post-credits scene in Spider-Man: Homecoming, when the Vulture refused to do the same thing. Lucky for him, or unlucky, he ended up out there in the Morbius universe.

The Final Chapter could borrow from two classic comics

Things aren't over there, because we discover something being written called the Final Chapter. My guess was that the next game would be the last in the trilogy, and it could link to the comic books carrying that name. IGN broke down both comics with the Final Chapter title, and I suspected the game would take inspiration from both.

The first is The Amazing Spider-Man 33 from 1965, whose cover is absolutely iconic. In that story Peter is trapped under rubble, and the whole thing is about him persevering to get himself out, which is something we may see in the next game. I was excited to see if that would pop up down the line.

The second Final Chapter centres on the Green Goblin, who initiates a ritual known as the Gathering of Five. It involves five relics granting five people certain outcomes: power, knowledge, immortality, insanity and death, with each participant gambling on their fate. Norman believed he had received power, but in the end we learn he got insanity, and there were some nice twists along the way. The third game might be called Spider-Man 3: The Final Chapter, or it could head in another direction.

Peter steps back while Miles holds the city

At the time I believed we would get another Miles game in between, acting as an expansion like the one that came before, and the ending is why. It closes with MJ starting a podcast and Miles and Hailey talking about how he is trying to live up to his father. Peter is taking time out to be Peter, and Miles is now the one looking after the city.

Peter and MJ are going full force with a foundation named after Aunt May and Harry's mother, with Harry initially joining as co-founder. It was set up to heal the world, and Peter will focus on that while Miles says he can hold down the city. Some people were speculating that this was Spider-Man no more, but I thought Peter would return: "I personally think that it'll be back in the red white and blue."

Cindy Moon arrives as Silk in the making

Miles might also be taking someone under his wing as a mentor. Early in the game his mother Rio says she has been dating someone, and the final scene reveals him: Albert, who has been desperate to meet Rio's son. He brings his daughter, Cindy, and the scene instantly cuts to black, which signals she is important.

This is Cindy Moon, none other than Silk, a major hero from the comics who I felt was going to come under Miles's wing. Cindy was bitten by an irradiated spider and has all the abilities that come with it, along with organic web shooters and a silk sense. Yes, it really is called a silk sense.

I could see a spin-off game with Miles as a mentor to his new friend, leading into the main game and setting up Otto's release along with the arrival of the Green Goblin. That would all go down in the third main game, with Peter returning because of how the threat escalates. Other villains are set up too, with Carnage among those likely to become bigger players. There was a lot coming down the line, and I felt "this is really becoming one of the best comic book game series of all time."

Do you think Peter will be back in the suit for the final chapter, or is this really Spider-Man no more?