Heads up: Spoilers for Across The Spider-Verse in this one.
One thing I really like about Into The Spider-Verse is how it tackles the identity of Spider-Man. Miles Morales is bitten by a radioactive spider around when his world’s Peter Parker dies. So Miles takes up the mantle of Spider-Man and, under the tutelage of some other Spider-People, comes into his own as a hero.
Throughout it all, Miles’ bravado is mixed with self-doubt as he tries to figure out if he really is cut out to be a Spider-Man. When his uncle dies, Miles is wracked with guilt and even more unsure. But the other Spiders come alongside him and tell him that they understand, that this happens. In the end, Miles’ resolve, now tested, is stronger and he comes back swinging to help the team save the day.
On a metatextual level, we, the audience immediately clock what happens when Uncle Aaron dies. The Spider-Man mythos is so ingrained in pop culture that the dying uncle is a confirmation for us that, yes, Miles is Spider-Man. It’s a spin on it, yes — Miles’ uncle is not only a mentor but a villain in this world — but he’s gone through part of the rite of passage: in most every Spider-Man story this is the plot point that spurs Peter to really be Spider-Man and Into The Spider-Verse is no different. This ordeal is proof positive that Miles is Spider-Man.
So, naturally, the sequel, Across The Spider-Verse, builds on that idea. In it, we meet Miguel O’Hara, Spider-Man 2099 of Earth-928B, who has assembled a team of Spiders who contain multiversal anomalies and ensure that important Canon Events take place. These Canon Events are defining events that happen in every Spider’s story — the spider bite, the death of the uncle, the death of the police captain, and so on. Miguel’s mission is to make sure these events happen lest that Spider’s universe comes undone. In Across the metatextual is made real: these plot points we’ve come to recognize as part of the Spider-Man story are integral enough to holding entire worlds together that Spider-Man 2099 has taken it upon himself to make sure they happen.
Miles is not about that. His father is about to become Captain and he’s not going to stand by and let him die, canon be damned. Where Into The Spider-Verse was Miles becoming Spider-Man, in part by accepting the tragedy and responsibility that comes with the role, Across The Spider-Verse has Miles rejecting the script handed to him. Just because Spider-Man has to go through certain things, doesn’t mean he has to.
Across The Spider-Verse is still a story about identity. Part of Miles’ arc in the first movie was learning to be Spider-Man as himself and not as a simulacrum of the Spider-Man that came before him. Come the sequel he decides that just because he is a Spider-Man, what happens to Spiders doesn’t have to happen to him. He’s his own Spider-Man and he gets to decide what that means.
Essays, Not Rants! 