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I think it was Morbius. I bought the Amazing Spider-Man game and it has a character profile on him, even though he apparently didn't make an appearance in the film. Here's what it says:

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Not finished the game, but I'm betting that Morbius will still be hanging around by the end of it. If not, I guess I'll throw in an update for y'all.

But there he is, interested in the same kind of research as Connors, even continuing it to create animal-human cross species in the game. The problem faced with Oscorp researchers was that their formula was incomplete, and Richard Parker was the only one with the knowledge to finish it. Connors used a rushed version of the formula, which led to his sporadic transformations, yet Morbius should have access to the real deal.

What makes me think that?

When Spider-Man was shot on his way to Oscorp, he wound up staggering on a rooftop. When he vaulted over a wall, he left a perfect, bloody handprint that got about 2 seconds worth of close-up time. He was bitten by one of the spiders that his father created, which was a spectacular success, according to Connors. His blood is a template for cross species genetics.

I noticed that this film borrowed a few plot elements from the 1990s Spider-Man cartoon, specifically that Peter Parker was partly responsible for the creation of the Lizard. In the cartoon, he helped Connors with his neogenic experiments, while in the film he provided the formula that Connors needed. It should be noted that in the comics, Connors was already the Lizard by the time of his introduction, and in fact lived in Florida.

The depiction of the Venom symbiote bringing out the negative aspects of its host's personality while attempting to take over also comes from that same cartoon. It's been copied in every Spider-Man media showcasing Venom ever since.

So with this precedent set, it's not unreasonable to assume that Morbius has a similar origin story to his cartoon counterpart. In the cartoon, Morbius stole a sample of Peter Parker's blood from his locker at ESU, thinking that it was part of Parker's science project. He could tell that it had been altered, but couldn't determine how, and an accident involving the neogenic recombinator, a vampire bat, and his hand transformed him into the living vampire.

It's possible that the bloody handprint will be returned to in the next film. Morbius, realising Spider-Man's true nature and discovering the blood (after all, the fact that Spider-Man was injured was made very public on television) uses it in his experiments. And given his position as being a biochemist in a similar field of work to Richard Parker and Curt Connors, he could well be in a position to know the truth about Parker, which is what he confronts Connors about in the post-credits. Morbius would use Peter Parker's blood as a template for his own experiments, and get a more permanent transformation than the Lizard.

There's also the issue of resemblances. Here's what Morbius looks like according to the game:

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And here's a link to the post credits scene:

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Close enough!

Let's not forget that the films are supposed to be a trilogy. They're probably going to keep up certain themes, so I think they'll be using cross species genetics as the origin for the next set of villains. Or at least the same technology.

Plot Predictions:
ASM2 - Morbius is the main villain. Introduces Norman Osborn. Possibly introduces Mary Jane and Harry to add conflict with the Peter/Gwen relationship.
ASM3 - Green Goblin is the main villain. Gwen Stacy dies before Act 3.

In Ultimate Spider-Man (the comics. I've stopped watching that bad, bad cartoon) Osborn combines his genetics with a dosed up version of his own DNA to become the Goblin. It's all very similar to cross species genetics, so it's probably going to be the same situation. And the Ultimate Green Goblin would be a lot cooler looking than either the Ditko Green Goblin or the Raimi Green Goblin.

They're probably going to expand on the villains during the trilogy, but hopefully avoid overdosing like they did in Spider-Man 3. The problem with that film (well, one of the problems) is that the villains were crammed into the plot, instead of sewn in. You know, weaved in naturally. They were just there being loud.

What I mean is like, how they had Doc Connors show up in Spider-Man 2 and 3, except he wasn't the Lizard at that point. They could still use Spider-Man villains without putting them into a supervillain role.

But yeah, Morbius has vampire powers. Going to assume he uses his superhuman reflexes to know just when the lightning was flashing, and his superhuman speed to bust out of there. Or something, I dunno. It might have just been over the top theatricality.

Hell, he could be Batman. And that's sort of what I've been saying razz Plus it'd be cool if there was a Batman/Spider-Man crossover. I read the first one of those comics and it was pretty good. The second one, not so much.

I don't think it'll be Electro. He's just not very interesting. He's more of a classic villain in the sense that he's very traditional; he's not got a dramatic backstory from the get-go, he just shows up to rob a bank and scrap with the hero. Not like the Lizard, or Morbius or even the Hulk, who've also got conflicts tied directly into their power set. Electro was just some guy who got struck by lightning. No special circumstances or motivations. Just that.

I do like Electro though. Thor sent him into space and it was funny.

I agree that Mysterio might be too much for cinema. Although theatricality obviously works very well on the screen, Mysterio tends to get every one of his tricks explained, and you'd have to be very clever to do that on film since it'd be very longwinded. He could be used, since Mysterio initially presenting himself as a superhero was a pretty good story, but I don't think he was the guy in the cell.

Sympathetic characters work better in general. There's the occasional instance where you don't need to explain a character's motivation, but only when you're making a complete monster character. That was the biggest reason I couldn't get into the Captain America film. There was absolutely no reason to root for Steve Rogers, aside from him being the designated hero. He just came across as a pushy little s**t until he got his powers. Maybe you have to be a hardcore patriot to understand a hardcore patriot, who doesn't have a motivation for being a hardcore patriot.

C'mon, a flashback to a soldier helping him out as a child. Anything! I really don't like being unable to enjoy a superhero film, damn it.

And the game is okay. Don't get your hopes up about the combat being like Arkham's because it's not. It' a similar set up, with the camera and mashing square to attack and hitting triangle to dodge (or whatever the 360 controls are), but it's all superficial. The thing about the Arkham fighting engine was that it was easy to pick up and difficult to master. Like any good fighting game. There were timings that you had to get down and if you failed, then it'd ruin your combo for the entire fight.

In the Spider-Man game, you can keep your combo going even though you're hitting the dodge button when nobody's attacking, something that'd reset your combo meter in Arkham. I think you can even start running around and it won't reset your combo, which doesn't even make any sense. The only thing that breaks your combo chain is getting hit (I got the trophy for a 42 combo chain in one of my first fights)

So it clearly apes the Arkham set up, but is nowhere near as polished. It's not a bad system, but it can get a bit boring to be honest. There's also some Arkham-style room clearing, where you basically crawl around on the ceiling and web people up, then swing away when you get shot at. It's really easy, and just sort of there to be done.

I haven't played Web of Shadows, but I did get Ultimate Spider-Man and Spider-Man 2. Compared to Spider-Man 2, the webslinging is very unsatisfying. It's alright when you get into it, but you swing faster the closer to the ground you are, and there's only one animation for that swing (so he always does the same pose, which really sucks). There's a degree of timing to your swings, but Spider-Man's webs don't attach to buildings, so it feels a bit off. It's not to the degree that the Spider-Man 1 movie tie in game had it, and you can ignore it until you get really high up. Having the system like this does make the giant mecha boss fights more playable though.

But the big disappointment about the swinging is that there's no tension button. In Spider-Man 2, you could modify your swing by hitting L2, and Spider-Man would put more tension on his web. Depending on the timing for the rest of your swing, you could either make him go higher or, if you get the swinging down just right, zip across the city at blistering speeds. It felt really awesome, and it's a shame that this game misses out on it.

In return, it makes positioning Spider-Man during his swings a doddle. You can swing up the side of a building and land pretty much wherever you want to. Sprinting up and down vertical surfaces is also really easy. They've introduced something called the Web Rush Mode, which allows you to slow everything down and view the world from Spider-Man's perspective. From there, you can aim your reticle and see ghostly gold images of what Spider-Man can do if you release the Web Rush button while he's aiming at that point. So you can swing high into the sky, hit Web Rush and web onto a flag pole, which he'll perch on.

You can also use Web Rush to zip around the city by chaining presses of the button. If you just tap it, you can use the technique without slowing everything down, but it'll be less precise. It's normally enough to get in the general direction of where you want to go though. It's a good system, and really helps out when you want to go to a specific place without swinging around and just missing it each time. You can also use Web Rush in combat, but its effectiveness is really hit and miss.

Spider-Man gets a smartphone early on, which he can tune into police scanners to pick up on crimes in progress. In Spider-Man 2 and Ultimate, these would appear as little blips on your radar that you can ignore or go and swing to the rescue. In Amazing, they're basically big icons on your map, that you might have to swing halfway across the city to reach. It makes New York feel really robotic and less alive than it did in past games. I believe there's a limited number of these missions, and little variety among certain mission types.

Car chases aren't car chases anymore. You have to land on a police car to start them, then it'll fade out to a cutscene where the criminal's vehicle busts onto the scene. Then you use Web Rush to jump onto the criminal's car, mash circle to web up their windscreen and occasionally use triangle to dodge a shotgun blast. That's it every time. Starting the mission is disappointing, since it's clearly a mission separate to the rest of the world, not something you'd stumble across.

There's other mission types, like rescuing victims of the zombie-like cross species outbreak. They're okay for what they are, and you actually can stumble across them. There's still an icon on your map, but I've managed to find mental patients without hooking up the scanner to detect them (there's also a break out at the mental asylum. Not Arkham, but it wants to be)

Spider-Man winds up taking photos for the Daily Bugle, but not in the capacity you might expect. He befriends a reporter who loans him her camera, and is willing to give him good publicity if he helps her photograph stories. You basically get a brief and a location, swing there and take photos of the stuff on your list. It requires a bit of exploration but nothing too taxing. You can also use your camera to photograph enemies and unlock a profile for them. It's a nice touch that helps with the world building if you like reading profiles.

There are extras to unlock, profiles, character models and concept art (if I'm not mistaken), and as you swing across the city you'll encounter comics all over the place. Seriously, when you first start out you won't be able to move without a button prompt flashing up to Web Rush over to a comic. The upside is that when you collect them and reach certain landmarks, you unlock actual comics that you can read in-game. They're generally related to the Amazing Spider-Man story, like reading the original Amazing Fantasy 15, or one of the recent Lizard stories 'Shed'. It'd a good touch if you haven't already read these comics, or if you just want to read them again.

So far, the story has been okay. Oscorp gets fleshed out a bit, with new figureheads appearing along with horrifying new research, but it's mostly introduced within the expositionary first few minutes. Also, I don't know if you've played Deus Ex: Human Revolution, but they stole the entire introduction set-up from that: walking around a super laboratory with your love interest, seeing all the wacky experiments going on, her speaking to her colleagues until sudden disaster strikes. The theft doesn't really bother me, and it works well enough, but it is a bit cheeky.

But Spider-Man is house sitting for Stan Lee. That's pretty awesome. Or rather "Aunt May's friend Stan who is out on vacation". You use his apartment as a base of operations, going there at various points throughout the story. You can use it to replay missions (story missions tend to take place indoors and at specific locations. The controls change, but not by much. There are also hidden items and completion percentages to encourage replay value) and there's an option to change Spider-Man's costume. At first you only get the movie version, and the movie version with a belt, but as you find hidden locations or complete the game, you get more costumes to wear.

All in all, it's a decent game, if a bit clunky. The combat system is serviceable, but its similarities to the Arkham games are only superficial. You unlock new abilities through a menu that's nearly identical to Batman's, and they really didn't bother to hide it. Missions are just sort of there, and pretty repetitive. There are things that you might miss from previous Spider-Man games, but the Web Rush is a pretty cool addition, even if going into slow-mo all the time is a bit disruptive to the pace of swinging about the city.

If you're going to get it, I recommend getting it for the story, which picks up a few months after the movie. It's a good way to get more out of the world, while building it up. Spider-Man makes a lot more quips in the game, and a lot of them are funny. It might be best waiting until you can get the game used, given how expensive it is. But then again, you can also play as Stan Lee, with unique dialogue and spider powers. And that is pretty damn sweet.