Earlier this year, Josh Keaton confirmed that he'd lend his voice to a mystery character in Invincible season 2, part 2, and rumours soon started swirling that The Spectacular Spider-Man star would reprise his most famous role as Peter Parker.
Back when Invincible co-creator Robert Kirkman was still writing for Marvel Comics, Mark Grayson crossed paths with the wall-crawler in the pages of Marvel Team-Up Vol 3, #14. The events of their meeting were referenced in the pages of Invincible and it remains a rare example of two comic companies working together.
The season 2 finale just hit Prime Video and Keaton does indeed play a spider-themed hero...it's just not Spider-Man.
Instead, when Angstrom Levy sends Mark Grayson hurtling into another dimension, he inadvertently finds himself caught in the middle of a fight between Agent Spider and Prof Ock.
Agent Spider sounds, moves, and acts like Spider-Man, and even wears a similar costume. Heck, he even appears to refer to the events of Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse, but the yellow and black colour scheme on his suit is arguably different enough to make it clear this isn't the Spider-Man (so the lawyers won't need to get involved).
Sony Pictures owns the theatrical rights to the web-spinner, but Marvel Studios is developing an animated series, Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man, for Disney+.
Sony, meanwhile, has a deal with Prime Video to bring the likes of Silk: Spider Society and Spider-Man Noir to the platform, so if Spidey was ever going to be in Invincible, all of the above parties would have likely had to agree to it (and, even after cutting through all that red tape, there's the small matter of money).
It's a shame we didn't get a true Spider-Man cameo in this episode, but we'll give Invincible credit for doing its best to at least pay homage to that iconic comic book team-up...
Based on the groundbreaking comic book by Robert Kirkman, Cory Walker, and Ryan Ottley, the story revolves around 18-year-old Mark Grayson, who’s just like every other guy his age—except his father is (or was) the most powerful superhero on the planet. Still reeling from Nolan’s betrayal in Season One, Mark struggles to rebuild his life as he faces a host of new threats, all while battling his greatest fear - that he might become his father without even knowing it.
Starring Steven Yeun, with Sandra Oh, Zazie Beetz, Grey DeLisle, Chris Diamantopoulos, Walton Goggins, Gillian Jacobs, Jason Mantzoukas, Ross Marquand, Khary Payton, Zachary Quinto, Andrew Rannells, Kevin Michael Richardson, Seth Rogen, and J.K. Simmons. The executive producers are Kirkman, David Alpert, Catherine Winder, Simon Racioppa, Margaret M. Dean, Rogen, and Evan Goldberg, and the co-executive producers are Helen Leigh and Walker.