Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions' alternate costumes revealed

Comic-Con has come and gone, and with it a multitude of panels and press releases, which we’re still catching up with. For example, though we covered the most important Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions news (namely theUltimate universe andNeil Patrick Harris), during a Comic-Con panel over the weekend Activision revealed many of thealternate costumes the four Spider-Men can wear throughout the game.

Above: Negative Zone Spider-Man (left) and Scarlet Spider (right)

Since this is my story I’m starting with my favorite, the Scarlet Spider. The only part of the horrid Spider-Clone saga of the mid-‘90s worth remembering, the Scarlet Spider has almost as many haters as fans. But most are won over by his simple red bodysuit and sleeveless hoodie, even if underneath the threads is the hated clone of Peter Parker. Next to him is Negative Zone Spider-Man, which out of all the alternate costumes is probably the least worn by Parker in the comics. Spidey’s classic red and blue switched to black and grey when he battled bad guy Blastar in the Negative Zone during Peter Parker: Spider-Man #90. Needless to say, not my favorite outfit.

Above: Spider-Armor (left) and Mangaverse Spidey (right)

The other two revealed were the Spider-Armor and the Mangaverse Spider-Man. The Spider-Armor has almost as little time on the page as Nega-Spidey, but at least it has the honor of gracing the shiny green cover of Web of Spider-Man #100. Story-wise, Spidey wore it to go into battle against some powerful foes, and the suit was quickly destroyed in said battle, never to be worn again. Meanwhile, the Mangaverse was created in the early ‘00s as Marvel tried to jump on the boom in Japanese comics. Spidey got a manga version of himself like other heroes, and this version of the webslinger was 3000 times more ninja-y.

These go great with the previously announced Iron Spider and Cosmic Spider-Man costumes pictured below. Now some of these are attached to pre-orders at select retailers while others aren’t, and it can get very confusing, so I’ll clear things up now.The most important partis thatthe Cosmic Spidey outfits that are offered by Gamestop are not naturally unlockable in the game and are exclusive to Gamestop. All the other pre-order bonuses out there give you a code to unlock the outfitfrom the start, but you can eventually unlock all of them in-game no matter where you buy the game from. These are thecostume codes being given away, with theretailer offering them in parentheses: Iron Spider (Amazon), Scarlet Spider (Kmart), and Negative Zone Spider-Man (Best Buy). Meanwhile the Spider-Armor and Mangaverse Spidey seem to just be normalunlocks within the game. So please, please, when the game comes out September 7, don’t spend$100 on eBayfor any of those codes.

Above: The Iron Spider costume

Above: Cosmic Spider-Man in (left to right) the Noir, Amazing and 2099 universes

Jul 28, 2010