Spider-Man 2: Is Peter Parker as buff as in the first film? An Investigation By Kotaku

Today, October 20, marks the release of the long-awaited sequel to Insomnia’s 2018 action adventure game, Spider-Man. And while there are plenty of reasons to love the game’s incredibly fast-paced fast-travel system, gorgeous opening cut scene, and intriguing story so far, there is one thing that’s stuck in my crawly crawly crawler: Peter Parker.

As I played through the opening cut scene, which sees Peter and Miles fighting side by side, I couldn’t help but notice that the former looked significantly more muscular than he did in the original. And I wasn’t the only one: the replies to my post “Did Peter get on the protein grind?” on X, formerly Twitter, are full of comments about Peter’s physique.

The term "caked up" is being used, and it's not just when Peter's wearing that tight suit. When he's not wearing the spider-man costume, Peter has a neck that looks like he's in a wrestling match. There's no denying the illusion that Peter is buffed up, but is it just because the sequel is a PS5 only release and can only make use of the console's current-gen graphical rendering capabilities? Or is it that Insomniaac, knowing there are going to be some tag-team battles between Peter and Miles, decided to add a bit more thickness to make it easier to differentiate between the two of them in the middle of a fight? Or maybe Peter, who's been having trouble keeping a job, cleaning his recently deceased aunt's house, and generally living a balanced life, decides to add creatine to his diet and start cooking ground turkey with rice.

Read More: ‘Spider-Man 2’ Dev: ‘Insomnia’ Is Open To ‘Venom’ Spin-Off’

But speculation without evidence is irresponsible, particularly for a news outlet. So I set out to prove Peter was more muscular in 2 than he was in the original. As an amateur weightlifter, I can tell the difference between a lat spread and a lat spready in the first game. But that wasn’t enough for me. I asked other journalists (“It’s a real twink-to-twunk moment,” says io9's James Whitbrook), who noticed “Peter has the most definition in his neck and chest.” I wrote an ex-boyfriend who once told me “Don’t add creatine to your diet.” I watched a video comparing images from the first game and the second game. I lingered too long on “Peter’s gluteal folds.” That last part helped me spot the differences in the base costume (“color changes, changes in patterns,” says Whitbrook) as well as slight changes in his body (“It could be because he’s aging, or he’s got a new workout routine.”).