Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse, the sequel to 2018’s Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, is a multidimensional meditation on the classic themes of any good old-fashioned story about the webslinger: power and responsibility. Miles Morales, our friendly neighborhood Spider-Man from Brooklyn, N.Y. (Earth-1610), is feverishly juggling school, superhero-ing, family life, college applications (the impetus for an amusing and relatable scene early on), and struggling to get over the girl of his dreams — his soulmate (Spider-Mate?) — Gwen Stacy. Unfortunately for Miles, Gwen’s residence in another dimension (Earth-65) is insufficient incentive to move on. Gwen exacerbates Miles’s longing by spontaneously appearing in his universe, opening a portal right above his bed. “Ain’t no mountain high enough,” indeed.
It turns out Gwen isn’t visiting Miles to confess her love, but to capture the Spot: a “villain-of-the-week” rapidly escalating to an interdimensional threat. The Spot eludes Gwen and Miles and harnesses enough dark matter to teleport across dimensions. Gwen, Miles, Pavitr Prabhakar (Indian Peter Parker), and Spider-Punk are dispatched from Spider-Man HQ (on Earth-928B) to capture the Spot (on Earth-50101). Our motley crew of Spider-Men fail to contain the Spot, allowing him to detonate another dark-matter collider.
This is when Across the Spider-Verse delves into its main philosophical conflict: pre-determinism vs. free will. After the collider explodes, Miguel O’Hara, interdimensional leader of the Spider-Society responsible for returning anomalies to their home dimensions, lambasts Miles for saving Pavitr Prabhakar’s version of Captain Stacy from certain death. Miguel explains that such a tragedy is a “canon event,” the absence of which threatens to unravel the fabric of the universe, destroying everything and everyone therein. Miles realizes he must let his soon-to-be-captain father die at the hands of the Spot or jeopardize his home universe — or so Miguel’s AI-synthesized model predicts.
Miles rejects the false dichotomy between individual rights and the greater good: “I can do both; I can save everybody.” Denizens of O’Hara’s technocratic Spider-Society, having drunk the Kool-Aid of utilitarianism, attempt (and fail) to stop Miles from escaping their dimension. These Spider-Men have not considered the possibility that heroes are defined by heroic deeds, and that allowing people to die does not qualify as such.
The movie ends on a cliff-hanger, but we have seen Spider-Men within the Marvel and Sony cinematic universes save the fabric of space-time and their loved ones simultaneously. For example, Sam Raimi’s Peter Parker, played by Tobey Maguire (the best Spider-Man), responds to the trolley (tram, in this case) problem by saving MJ and the children in the tram car that Green Goblin hurls from the 59th Street Bridge in 2002’s Spider-Man. Tobey Maguire’s Peter Parker also teams up with Tom Holland’s and Andrew Garfield’s in 2021’s Spider-Man: No Way Home to save the multiverse from imploding. So, despite what Miguel and his model say, we have canonically seen Spider-Men have their cake and eat it, too.
Even more important, Miles Morales is himself anomalous. According to Miguel, Miles is the “original anomaly” because he is the only Spider-Man to be bitten by a spider from an alternate dimension. Just like all human beings, Miles is endowed with the capacity of free will. His own fate, as well as that of his loved ones and his very universe, is contingent on his decisions. Although other Spider-Men, Peter Parkers, and Miles Moraleses have failed to save their Uncle Bens, Captain Stacys, and Captain Moraleses, the pattern need not entail the same outcome for this Miles. It doesn’t matter that “in every other universe, Gwen Stacy falls for Spider-Man . . . and in every other universe, it doesn’t end well” because, in Miles’s own words, “There’s a first time for everything, right?”
Miles can get the girl, save his dad, and save the world.
At the very least, to be true to himself and the ethos of Spider-Man, he must reject the fatalism of Miguel O’Hara and do what all Spider-Men do: their best.
