Neon Genesis Evangelion and the Spider-Verse collide in official Marvel comic
Gainax and Tatsunoko Production / MarvelAn eagle-eyed fan found an incredible connection between iconic anime Neon Genesis Evangelion and one of Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse’s stars Peni Parker in a glaring easter egg.
No spoilers: Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse featured a few different iterations of the famous web-slinger. While some were slightly tweaked versions of Peter Parker, others had a completely different take to the character like a noir detective, a cartoonish pig, and a tech driven teenager.
While it doesn’t seem like there would be a strong link between the two franchises, one Marvel Comic artist snuck in an obvious nod to the main unit of Eva which made some fans do a double-take to confirm.
The main characters from the anime sans Kaworu.In a Twitter thread, ‘Misspoofles’ celebrated Neon Genesis Evangelion and Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse being on streaming platform Netflix by highlighting a fun fact about the mech-pilot Marvel hero.
“Since Neon Genesis Evangelion and Into the Spider-Verse are now on Netflix never forget Peni Parker attends school with Them,” Misspoofles said.
The attached image is from the comic book “Edge of the Spider-Verse” which at one point shows Peni standing in her classroom surrounded by other students who look a lot like Eva protagonists Shinji Ikari, Asuka Sohryu, Rei Ayanami, and Kaworu Nagisa.
Peni surrounded by Neon Genesis Evangelion characters.Although they’re simply background characters who don’t have any lines, it was still a much appreciated nod to the legendary anime franchise by the artist.
In fact, Edge of the Spider-Verse artist Jake Wyatt even confirmed the easter egg in a sly reply saying: “I’m very glad I got away with this and also amused that [Edge of the Spider-Verse writer Gerard Way] will be blamed for it until the end of time.”
Anime fans have taken liberties with “Into the Spider-Verse” before
While Wyatt’s nod to the anime is certainly a memorable one, fan artists around the net have also found ways to mash up their favorite series with the Oscar-winning film.
Artist ‘oroxoss’ remade a pivotal scene from the movie but gave it a slight twist by incorporating main characters from the hit anime My Hero Academia.
Even though Edge of the Spider-Verse puts Eva characters in the official comic, it’s those kind of nods to other works that inspire more artists to fuse their favorite franchises together for amazing effects.