A piece of recently-revealed concept art from Spider-Man: No Way Home tips its hat to one of Todd McFarlane's classic illustrations showing Peter Parker at the mercy of Doctor Octopus.

The image was shared by artist Ryan Meinerding, who works as Marvel Studios' Head of Visual Development. The scene was used as a keyframe for the first battle between Tom Holland's Spider-Man and Alfred Molina's Doctor Octopus on a crowded New York City highway. It shows Spidey completely at the mercy of Otto's constricting tentacles in a pose reminiscent of McFarlane's cover for Marvel Tales #224, which was released in 1989.

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Marvel Tales 224

Marvel Tales, published for 291 issues from 1964 to 1994, served as an anthology series that reprinted superhero origin stories and other key tales from Marvel history, though it would eventually focus on Spider-Man reprints. In an era without the internet and trade paperbacks, the series served as an easy way for customers to read hard-to-find comics, and new covers were created by popular artists like Mike Zeck (Spider-Man: Kraven's Last Hunt) and Ron Lim (Silver Surfer). McFarlane illustrated 17 covers for the series, from Issues #223-239, and would carry this momentum on to his stunning debut penciling and writing 1990's Spider-Man #1, which would sell an estimated 2.5 million copies.

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Marvel Tales #224 specifically reprinted the story "Doc Ock Lives!" from Amazing Spider-Man #89, which was published in 1970. In it, Spidey believes that Doctor Octopus was killed in a plane crash that occurred in Amazing Spider-Man #88, but is quickly proven wrong when Otto re-emerges and challenges him to a battle. Their fight knocks over a water tower and ends with Doc Ock wrapping Spidey -- who's all out of web fluid -- in his tentacles and heaving him off of a rooftop. Spider-Man survives by flipping into an office building in Amazing Spider-Man #90which was reprinted in Marvel Tales #225. Notably, Amazing Spider-Man #90 also featured the death of Gwen Stacy's father, who dies from injuries sustained after he saves a bystander from falling rubble during one of Doctor Octopus' attacks.

No Way Home's highway fight between Doctor Octopus and Spider-Man featured similar collateral damage, with Spider-Man desperately trying to catch falling cars as Ock tossed them from an overpass. The scuffle ended with Spider-Man taking control of Ock's arms via the nano-technology in his Iron Spider suit. The pair realize that they hail from different universes, and Doctor Octopus eventually allies with Spider-Man later in the film to defeat other multiversal villains, including Electro, the Green Goblin, the Lizard and Sandman.

Spider-Man: No Way Home is in theaters and on Digital now and arrives on 4K Ultra HD, Blu-ray, and DVD on April 12.

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Source: Instagram