You know, in a movie that's wild enough to include a T-Rex Spider-Man, a Cat Spider-Man,
a Lego Spider-Man and Peter Parkedcar, the spider-mobile. You'd think they'd be smart
enough to include literally the single best Spider-Man ever put to screen. I am,
of course, talking about Supaida-Man, the Japanese Sentai Spider-Man with
the single best costume, a giant robot. He's also got himself a theme song that slaps.
We were robbed, I tell you. Robbed. Robbed!
Hello Internet! Welcome to Film Theory the show that will put its hand on your shoulder and say,
“Hey”. So Spider-Man's kind of in an interesting spot in cinema,
isn't he? The whole franchise has some of the best, as well as some
of the worst superhero movies ever made. Even if the memes are always top shelf.
But one movie I don't think anyone saw going as hard as it did: 2018’s animated Into the
Spider-Verse. Telling the story of Miles Morales as he takes up the mantle of Spider-Man after
his Peter Parker is killed. Thankfully, he gets himself a ton of help figuring out what
to do in the form of Spider-people from various different universes dragged into
Miles's dimension by the movie's big bad. What felt like it could easily have been a
cynical cash grab turned out to exceed everyone's expectations. And it's considered to be one of the
best, if not the single best Spider-Man movie ever made. It's beloved by critics. It made a killing
at the box office. It won all the awards. So when we all heard that it was getting a pair of sequels
in Across and Beyond the Spider-Verse, let's just say that those movies had a lot to live up to.
And thankfully the recently released Across the Spider-Verse is great. Seriously, when this movie
first got teased, I was concerned that it was just going to turn into a cameo-fest with too
much fan service. And while it did lean In more on the cameos and fan service than the previous one,
it also managed to be a worthy sequel to one of the best superhero films ever made,
even if that cliffhanger at the end did leave me a little bit disappointed.
Also, I don't think this was a problem with the movie, but just one with the
theaters that I saw it in having really bad audio mixing. I had a hard time hearing a
lot of Gwen and Hobie's dialog at various points. I thought it was just a me thing,
you know, I am getting older these days maybe my hearing's going. But then I started seeing other
people bringing it up online. Anyway, here’s hoping that they get the whole thing resolved.
Even considering those minor hiccups, though, the movie was a visual masterpiece, throwing
us into multiple new universes and showing us hundreds, literal hundreds of new spider-men,
each with their own unique visual aesthetics and styles. For me, the standouts had to be
Spider-Gwen's watercolor world and the incredible eighties paper cut out animations of spider punk.
Also, biggest laugh clearly goes to the Lego Universe, which turns out was animated by a 14
year old? Kids these days, man. You guys are so talented. Without a doubt Across the Spider-Verse
took all the ideas from the first film and turned them up to 11. Spoiler warning for
Across the Spider-Verse in case you didn't figure it out by this point. After the events of several
recent movies, including Into The Spider-Verse Spider-Man No Way Home and Doctor Strange in
the Multiverse of Madness, which yes, Doctor Strange is specifically called out in this movie.
Holes have started showing up throughout the multiverse. These have let bad guys slip into
alternate dimensions and wreak havoc. In response Miguel O’hara, the sci fi Spider-Man 2099,
has set up the Spider Society to help police the multiverse and bring all these villains
home. But when Miles wants to join the Spider Society, Miguel refuses him at every step because
Miles is actually part of the problem. He unintentionally created the Spot,
a multi-dimensional villain, and the events of Into the Spider-Verse were never supposed
to happen. Miles was not supposed to be bitten by the radioactive spider. His
world's Peter Parker was not supposed to die. Miles was never supposed to take on the role of
Spider-Man in the first place. What's even worse, that spider that bit Miles, wasn't even from
his universe. So Miles is the original anomaly that started knocking over all these dominoes.
So to help set things straight, Miguel and his Spider Society are trying their best to, quote,
“restore the canon”; to make things right by ensuring that the big events that are supposed
to happen to every Spider-Man across every world actually happen. And if they don't, well,
then the multiverse itself could collapse. You know, no pressure. But you see loyal theorists,
I have a problem with his line of logic. It doesn't sit right with me given everything that
we see both in this movie and throughout the wider multiverse that this movie sits within. I think
Miguel is making a huge mistake here. I think he's wrong about the whole Canon Events thing. I also
think he's wrong about Miles being the real danger of all of this. And that error is ultimately going
to destroy everything that we love about every superhero movie if they don't set things right.
We're not only looking at the collapse of the Spider-Verse here, we are looking at the end
of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. So change into your Spider-sonas friends and let's swing into it.
Within the film were introduced to the idea of canon events. According to Miguel,
these are fixed events in time that must happen for a universe to remain stable.
Basically, it's the explanation for why so many different versions of Spider-Man across so many
different stories all experience the same things. They had to happen for that universe to exist.
Now they don't outright give us an explicit list of canon events that have to occur for
all the spider-men. But they do show us images of several others within the web of life and destiny.
The ones I spotted included the spider bite giving someone superpowers, the death of an
Uncle Ben-esque figure teaching Spider-Man the lesson that with great power comes great
responsibility, connecting with a love interest, sometimes with an upside down kiss in the rain,
a wedding to a love interest, a symbiote creating a nemesis, throwing the Spider-Man
costume away and being crushed by rubble before finding the strength to lift it.
Gwen also mentions that in every other universe, Gwen Stacy falls for Spider-Man,
and in every universe it doesn't work out. So that one may or may not be a canon event as
well. But the big one, the one that applies the most to this particular story. A police
captain close to Spider-Man dies usually by trying to save a child from falling debris.
This is where the main conflict of the story comes in. Miles's dad is about to be sworn in
as captain of the NYPD, and obviously he doesn't want his dad to die. But you apparently can't
bypass a canon event and Miguel refuses to let Miles leave to save his father's life. This is
something that Miguel had to learn the hard way. According to Miguel, he wanted to be happy with a
family. And so he found himself a universe where that universe version of him had been killed. He
then stepped in and secretly replaced his dead self. It sounds complicated, but basically he
just pulled a Rick and Morty. In fact, If we're being honest this whole movie is just pulling
one big Rick and Morty: Spider society, Citadel of Rick's much.It’s not a bad thing. I'm just saying.
Anyway, Miguel stepping in was an issue since his death was considered to be a canon event in that
timeline, leading to that universe collapsing. People were erased from existence, including
Miguel's daughter, who disappeared in his arms. By the end of it all, the universe was gone,
leaving Miguel devastated and determined to make sure that it never happened again.
This threat also checks out the movie, too. As soon as Miles saves Captain Singh in Mumbattan
and bypasses the canon event there a dark hole starts swallowing up that world. All of this sets
up a great conflict between Miles and Miguel for the rest of the movie. Just like Miles, we don't
want his dad to die. But just like Miguel, we don't want that universe to collapse either.
But here's the thing. When I really sat down and started thinking about this whole canon
events thing, I'm not buying it. First of all, I have a lot of questions about Miguel’s story
here. He claims that the universe with his family collapsed because he bypassed a canon event. So
does that mean that Miguel's death was a canon event? But who then was it a canon event for?
Was he the Uncle Ben or the police captain in this situation, or was he just some random guy? Was he
the Spider-Man of that world? He has the powers in the title, after all. Would that then mean
that Spider-Man's death is a canon event? That shouldn't be the case, since Miguel later yells
at Miles for getting the Spider-Man of his world killed. And considering how much Marvel, Disney
and Sony want to milk this character until the end of time, something tells me that Spider-Man's
death is not going to be a corporate approved canon event that's going to happen all the time.
Additionally, how many times has Miguel seen this actually happen? We only see the one instance. So
is Miguel working with a dataset of just one? That isn't enough test cases to make
such a weird multiversal big brother organization that's okay with so many people dying. In short,
it doesn't make sense. And the other canon events start falling apart too when you really look at
them. Like, speaking of Miles getting his Peter Parker killed, didn't that disrupt every other
canon event of Miles's universe? Shouldn't that universe have imploded? Or is that universe
self-correcting around Miles? Given how much of an anomaly Miguel makes Miles out to be,
that probably shouldn't be the case if Miguel is truly right in his hypothesis.
Another easy example would be the symbiote attaching to someone and becoming a nemesis for
Spider-Man. What's the problem here? Well, Across the Spider-Verse features a moment where the Spot
briefly pops into the universe of the Tom Hardy Venom movies to steal some gum. But it doesn't
seem like there's a Spider-Man in the Venom-verse for Eddie Brock to butt heads with, considering
Eddie doesn't react to Spider-Man being unmasked when he briefly crossed over into the MCU during
the Post-Credits scene for Let there Be Carnage. Another example would be Spider-Man connecting
with and marrying their love interest. This problem comes with the Amazing Spider-Man films,
which are directly connected to this universe through a cameo with Andrew Garfield. Sure,
he fell in love with Gwen Stacy in his world, but after her death,
he focuses all of his time and energy into being Spider-Man. As he explains in No Way Home.
That is years without a love interest, without building any sort of relationship,
without a wedding, etc., etc. And yet, as far as we can tell, the world of The Amazing Spider-Man
still hasn't collapsed nearly a decade after we last saw it. Thirdly, we've got to talk about the
Uncle Ben moment. This death is supposed to be a massive world shaking event that sets Spider-Man
on his path, teaching him all about power and responsibility. Now it doesn't literally need to
be a Ben Parker who dies. For Miles, it was Uncle Aaron. For Gwen, it was her friend, Peter Parker.
From Miguel, it looks like it was his daughter. But here's the issue that I find with all of this.
Tom Holland's Peter Parker operates as Spider-Man in the MCU for literal, actual years before he
eventually has his Uncle Ben moment. Just to make sure that we're all on the same page here,
the writers of the MCU Spider-Man movies have stated that Uncle Ben's death in the MCU did
happen, but it didn't have the same impact on Holland's Peter Parker as the others across
the multiverse. Instead, the importance of this moment was shifted onto Aunt May in Spider-Man No
Way Home. Now you might be thinking; “Hey, it happens eventually, so we're all good.”
But are we just going to ignore the timeline here? In every other dimension that we've
ever seen ever, this Uncle Ben moment happens within months, even days after he's bitten by
the spider. In Across the Spider-Verse Pavitr Prabhakar has been operating as
Spider-Man for just six months. And clearly he's already had his Uncle Ben moment. The Maguire,
Garfield and Miles Morales Spider-Men have all had their uncles die within just days of getting bit.
And yet, the MCU isn't on the brink of collapse because Spider-Man hasn't had his Uncle Ben
moment as quickly as all the other universes. But the thing that really drove the nail into
the coffin for me, one of the biggest of these so-called canon events, has to be a spider
biting someone and giving them powers. So that universe has a Spider-Man to begin with, right?
Well, we see the spider bite as the first canon event that's explained to Miles. And yet at the
end of the movie, when we visit Earth 42, the world where Miles’s Spider came from,
that doesn't have a Spider-Man and it's still there. Sure, it’s not in great
shape. There's a lot of crime, a sinister six cartel that seems to be running things,
massive fires throughout all of New York City. But the world itself has not collapsed. Now,
I can already hear plenty of you furiously typing away in the comments. Just because
these canon events haven't happened yet in these worlds doesn't mean they won't happen. And the
order of the canon events doesn't necessarily need to be the same every time. And believe me,
I hear you. That was one of my initial thoughts when I was crafting this theory too.
But again, it doesn't line up with what we see in the movie, all thanks to that necessary
death of a police captain close to Spider-Man bit that drives the whole conflict. Remember,
Mumbattan starts collapsing immediately after Miles saves Captain Singh,
literal seconds after that event. If Canon events don't have to happen at specific times,
couldn't Captain Singh or another captain have just died later in the story of that world?
And yet here is Miles's world, which is totally fine. It didn't collapse when
Peter Parker died. All of this tells me that what the movie says about canon events and the
fallout of breaking canon is wrong. Miguel has misidentified the problem. What we're
seeing in these movies isn't the breaking of canon. It's incursions just like we've been
seeing in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. And that is way, way worse than any of
these Spider-Man think it is. Now, if you dropped off the main MCU after Endgame,
you might not know what I'm talking about here. We first learn about incursions in Doctor Strange
in the Multiverse of Madness, When Strange is brought before the Illuminati of Earth 838.
Basically, when people from one universe cross into another, the two universes
start getting pulled together. Everything starts breaking down until at least one of
the universes is torn apart at the seams, killing everyone in it. Sounds familiar,
doesn't it? This is an incursion and they are no joke. We see what's left of a universe after its
incursion. And it's a wasteland. It is a void of nothingness. This is such a big threat that
the Illuminati think Doctor Strange merely existing in their universe is a major risk
and that he needs to be dealt with. But hold on. Why am I connecting
this movie to the MCU? Sony is the one that's making the Spider-Verse films,
not Marvel. And that's correct. But Spider-Verse goes well out of its way to make sure that there
is a connection established to the MCU. And it's not a blink and you miss a cameo or offhanded
reference either. Like I said at the top of the episode, Miguel straight up references the events
of No Way Home and Multiverse of Madness within the first 15 minutes of this movie.
Earth-199999 is a designation of the MCU in Marvel Multimedia, first called out in the
Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe A to Z. No Way Home connected the older Sony Films to the
MCU multiverse. So the projections of both Andrew Garfield and Tobey Maguire Spider-Men
also connect this movie to them too. The Spot briefly visits Mrs. Chen from the Venom movies,
a world also connected through No Way Home, and Donald Glover cameos as a variant of
Uncle Erin suited up as the prowler, the same role that we see him play in the MCU.
But the linchpin that 100% slots this into the Marvel Cinematic Multiverse now, when Miguel
begins his explanation of the Spider-Verse to Miles, he projects a simulation of the multiverse,
one that looks exactly like how the multiverse has been portrayed throughout the MCU. And I'm
not just talking; “oh, it kind of looks like it if you squint at it I guess.”
This is exactly the same glowing, glimmering white threads branching off into multiple timelines,
just like what we saw in Loki, just like what we saw in Quantumania. Having all of
these connections to the MCU, positioning this as part of the wider Marvel cinematic franchise,
means that we have to bring in the MCU logic here. Sony can't have their MCU cake and eat
it too, even if they do buy two cakes. If people from one universe crossing over
into another universe is something that causes incursions, that is what we're seeing in this
franchise. And it explains everything. It solves all of the issues that we've been
having. When Miguel crossed over into that other universe where he died so he could
live a happy life with his family, he caused that world to be erased through an incursion.
It explains why Earth 42, The World Without a Spider-Man because our miles got bit by
its spider is totally fine despite it breaking canon, no extra dimensional visitors have spent
any significant time there, thereby avoiding an incursion. It also explains what's happening in
Mumbattan. Miles, Gwen, Spider-Punk and the Spot basically destroy a massive stretch of the city,
leaving a giant footprint behind. The hole that opens up in Mumbattan is the beginnings
of an incursion, one that the Spider Society is arguably making worse by trying to fix.
And that's the bitter irony in all of this, in Miguel's desire to try and fix the problem that he
wrongly identifies as breaking the canon. What’s he do? He gathers spider-people from across the
multiverse into one place, and then he sends them on missions to realities that aren't their own.
Every single time that he does that, the Spider Society is risking another massive series of these
universe ending events. In short, by trying to help the situation, by forcing things to
fit a proper mold, to be the right correct way, Miguel has made it exponentially worse.
Not only increasing the risk of incursions happening throughout the multiverse, but by
indoctrinating a literal army of spider-people into simply standing by while innocent victims
die. All in preservation of things being done “the right way”, “the correct way”.
And thematically, this theory makes a lot of sense. The story that I suspect that
the Spider-Verse franchise is trying to tell us is that anyone can be Spider-Man,
but that everyone is going to be doing it their own way. Everyone is going to be doing
it a little differently. Everyone's going to carry that responsibility differently. But
that doesn't mean that they're doing it wrong. You are your own person and you can choose your
destiny. You are not the product of a bunch of events that came before you. Miguel getting angry
at Miles for messing up how things are supposed to happen, yelling at him because he's not supposed
to be a Spider-Man? That could be a stand in for a lot of the audience resistant to change.
An audience who wants to see the same stories playing out over and over again “the right way”.
Or it can also be a stand-in for where we are in society today, where certain classes of people are
allowed to do things with their lives that others aren't, just because they're “right” or “correct”,
just like how certain people can and can't be Spider-Man in Miguel's eyes.
But Miles turns that entire idea on its head. Being told that he isn't supposed
to b Spider-Man gives Miles the freedom, the permission to stop trying to be Spider-Man,
to stop trying to think about what Peter Parker or Miguel O'hara or Gwen Stacy would do,
and instead to just be himself, to just be Miles, like he says in this moment.
And that right there, that is the most heroic lesson that any Spider-Man across
any of the universes can possibly teach. But hey! Being Spider-Man has to be rough
on the body, especially with that summer heat coming up. Miles, Peter, Gwen, Miguel, they
all need to stay hydrated to make sure they can fight regardless of the universe that they're in.
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