Spider-Man #1000 Cover Sparks One Piece Gear 2 Comparison

A variant cover for The Amazing Spider-Man #1000 has fans buzzing because Spidey strikes a pose that looks a lot like Luffy's Gear 2 — and DC pulled a similar One Piece nod before.

Spider-Man might be swinging into the Grand Line, because one of his newest covers is giving off serious One Piece energy.

Marvel's The Amazing Spider-Man has hit a major milestone with issue #1000, and as the various covers rolled out, one of them caught the eye of eagle-eyed manga fans overseas. In the artwork, Spidey is crouched low in a coiled, ready-to-strike stance — and it looks an awful lot like Monkey D. Luffy's iconic Gear 2 pose.

For anyone who's watched One Piece, that silhouette is instantly recognizable. When Luffy activates Gear 2, he drops his body low and loads up his legs, and it's become one of the most memorable images in the entire series. So when Spider-Man showed up in a near-identical posture, comic and anime fans spotted it right away and started calling it a tribute.

The Amazing Spider-Man #1000 launched on September 30, and Marvel went big for the occasion. The issue comes with a huge pile of variant covers from a stacked lineup of artists, including John Romita Jr., Pepe Larraz, and J. Scott Campbell. Marvel is treating the milestone as a big moment in Spidey's comic history, which is why there are dozens of different cover versions floating around.

But it's that Gear 2-style pose that's been doing the rounds online. It's the kind of visual wink that crossover-friendly fans live for, and it didn't take long for the comparison posts to pile up.

Here's the fun part: this isn't even the first time American superhero comics have borrowed a page from One Piece. DC got in on the action earlier with a variant cover for Absolute Batman #20, which straight-up recreated Luffy's classic Gear 2 stance. That piece was drawn by artist Dexter Soy, and it was widely recognized as a clear homage to Eiichiro Oda's pirate epic.

So whether it's the Dark Knight or the wall-crawler, it seems like Big Two artists can't resist throwing in a little Straw Hat love. With Spider-Man #1000 already on shelves and packing so many variants, there may be even more hidden references waiting to be found.

Did you catch the Gear 2 vibes on that Spidey cover, or do you think it's just a coincidence? And which One Piece homage do you think pulled it off better — Marvel's or DC's? Let us know in the comments!