‘Marvel’s Spider-Man’: Christos Gage Credits ‘Amazing Spider-Man’ Writer for Inspiring Heartbreaking Scene

Comic book author and screenwriter Christos Gage, who served as co-writer on Marvel’s Spider-Man, extended his thanks to former Amazing Spider-Man writer J.M. DeMatteis for inspiring the game’s emotional denouement.

“I can’t speak for the whole writing team and I’m being vague to avoid spoilers but there’s a scene in #SpiderManPS4 that’s being widely praised and my work on it was heavily influenced by @JMDeMatteis so I want to say thanks,” Gage wrote on Twitter Saturday.

The scene — spoiler warning — comes after Spider-Man has defeated newly-created supervillain Doctor Octopus, who unleashed the devastating Devil’s Breath bioweapon on an unprepared New York City.

Among those affected by the attack was Spider-Man’s Aunt May, whose life hung in the balance as the superhero battled mentor Otto Octavius for the cure.

The day won, and now possessing a small amount of antidote that would have saved May at the expense of a citywide cure, Spider-Man watched helplessly as the woman who raised him succumbed to her sickness.

May told the masked superhero to show his face, telling him, “I want to see my nephew.” After revealing she’s known of his heroic double-life “for a while,” May told a distraught Peter Parker she was proud of him — and his late Uncle Ben would be, too.

The moment pays homage to 1995’s The Amazing Spider-Man #400, penned by longtime Spider-Man writer J. M. DeMatteis and drawn by Mark Bagley.

In ‘The Gift,’ a sickly Aunt May speaks with her beloved nephew atop the Empire State Building’s observation deck, shocking him when she reveals she’s long denied the truth that he’s the web-swinging Spider-Man.

Later, in bed with fever, May tells Peter it’s time to say goodbyes. Holding May’s hand, Peter’s Aunt May quietly passes away, leaving her nephew sobbing as he recites from Peter Pan — stories May would read to Peter as a boy.

This comic book death would later be reversed and the “Aunt May” who bid tearful farewell to Peter before dying was later revealed to be a genetically-altered impostor who was part of an overarching scheme put into motion by Spider-Man’s long-believed-dead arch-enemy Norman Osborn, a.k.a. the criminally insane Green Goblin.

Marvel’s Spider-Man is now available to own exclusively on PlayStation 4.