Spider-Man 2 features a number of familiar Spider-Man supervillains, but there’s one conspicuous by his absence: Rhino.
Spoilers for Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 follow.
Spider-Man 2 revolves around the arrival of Kraven the Hunter in New York. Kraven is hellbent on finding a foe worthy of his might as part of his 'Great Hunt', and to that end goes on a surprisingly violent rampage that sees a handful of supervillains disposed of.
During the course of the game Kraven takes on the likes of Scorpion, Mister Negative, and even Venom (check out IGN's list of Spider-Man 2 supervillains for more). But fans have wondered why Rhino, who was so prominent in Marvel’s Spider-Man and spin-off Miles Morales, fails to make a proper appearance in Spider-Man 2. Perhaps Aleksei Sytsevich got wind of Kraven’s arrival and thought he’d better go into hiding. Smart.
One fan, however, managed to get out of bounds in the virtual city of New York, and uncovered what appears to be a cut Kraven trophy room. In it are four heads displayed on a wall, one of which belongs to poor Rhino.
Redditor Clkzins explained how they achieved this: “I was trying out some glitches that worked on Miles Morales and found out that one of the out of bounds bugs still worked so I started exploring the underground world and found a strange structure that at first I couldn't get in but after a while i found a way in and went forward until a pipe with a invisible wall, using the photo mode and the little hole underneath the pipe I got the camera to bypass the invisible wall and entered a secret room that never appeared anywhere in the game with a throne supposedly from Kraven and trophies of the heads of the villains that were killed and even a Rhino head.”
The other heads appear to belong to Shocker, with untextured Vulture and Scorpion. In Spider-Man 2, Kraven kills Scorpion with his own stinger on-screen, but also appears to have killed Vulture, Electro and Shocker off-screen, based on items and comments during the mission Good Men.
It’s worth remembering that developer Insomniac does not intend for this trophy room to be accessible to players, and so we cannot say for sure that, story wise, Kraven killed Rhino off-screen. Perhaps the developer intended for that to be the case but decided against it. Perhaps Insomniac intends to bring Rhino back for the inevitable Spider-Man 3, or potential Venom spin-off. Time will tell!
There’s a lot going on in the world of Marvel’s Spider-Man 2. IGN has covered the comic-book that references the lack of superheroes in the game. We also investigate whether Spider-Man 2 should take fall damage, according to science and lore. And are we 100% sure Spider-Man isn’t killing people?
If you're playing, check out our list of Spider-Man 2's best skills to get first as well as all of the Spider-Man 2 suits in the game.
We wrote in our Spider-Man 2 review: "As a sequel in a spectacular series, Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 is both blessed and cursed... Insomniac refines a successful formula of combat and web-swinging without revolutionising either in major ways, making them comfy and familiar with just enough new tweaks and abilities to elevate them to fun new heights. The part that feels like it actually needed a radical rethinking is the open world of New York City, which has been made bigger but not better, with an exhausting checklist of mostly repetitious side activities."
Wesley is the UK News Editor for IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.