Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse, Unity in uniqueness.

Spider-Man once used to be a symbol of coming of age, and taking responsibility, about doing the right thing even when it hurts, especially when it hurts because unfortunately everyone in this world wants good things to happen to them, for a Hero to come and save them but they don't want to step up and be that person.

And when that person does come in they just take that person for granted, after all they are a Hero, a Symbol, that is their job, no one thinks of the real person behind the mask, a mask that most Heroes wear to protect their identities and ironically, the very thing that dehumanizes them to the people who they save, that was the intention I guess... for the villains but oh well...

And this harsh treatment by the people who do not step up justifies them not stepping up in weird self fulfilling prophecy.

The unfortunate reality is some people do not have a choice...

Even more than the responsibility thing, someone with extraordinary abilities is just going to stand the fuck out...

And what's worse, this emotional turmoil and anguish often comes out in their everyday life, not to mention the increasingly common disappearances that cost them friendships and jobs and the whole lot...

As a result...

Which is why it is so poignant that this movie begins with a solo narration by Spider-Gwen about her own back story.

We see how she is trying really hard to get out of the state she is in, how hard she tries to connect but in the end her anger and frustration comes out in ways that are both self destructive and isolating.

And of course she can't tell anyone even if she wants to because... if she does then that's a huge deal... you can't un-reveal your secret Identity...

This struggle to not be able to express yourself properly comes into full swing when she is dealing with her Father, because from his perspective, he found Spider-Woman at the death scene of his daughter's best friend and so that makes her a suspect.

In his grief and need to take control of the situation and hopefully get closer to his daughter in the process, not realizing of course that these attempts are exactly what's pushing her away.

Can I just say though, this universe is incredible, the way the paint strokes and the changes in the colors as the seep through the screen like paint on a canvas express so much more than anything else ever could.

And that is all well and good because in this movie, she is the emotional core, even though she isn't the protagonist, that is still definitely miles.

Regardless, all of the above make it very understandable why it would be so difficult for her to move on from the brief time she spent with the other spider-people, and especially miles.

Narratively speaking her and Miles are very similar, they are both people who saw peter die and then took on the role of Spider-Man/Woman, they both feel inadequate for the role, have loving fathers who are in the police force and yet can't exactly connect to because of their job.

Well Actually Miles is connecting with his father as Spider-Man quite a lot, he is also a lot more easy going and a lot closer to the usual Spider-Man Archetype as in his initial stages he had a lot of guidance where as Spider-Gwen only had intense loss.

But speaking of being easy going, this time Miles is fighting yet another villain of the week whose only power apart from stealing ATM machines and being extremely annoying while insisting he is Spider-Man's Nemesis is creating portals, both on his body and around him, unfortunately as a former Dorky scientist he finds controlling all of this pretty fucking difficult and so he kicks his own butt...

Straight into portal space...

Or into himself???

I don't know...

This villain of the week is called the Spot, a scientist present during the collider incident who got hit with dimensional energy and now is stuck as a cow or a Dalmatian forever, he is also the reason the spider that bit Miles got here, so in his mind, he created Miles and Miles created him, and so they are meant to fight each other to the death.

Yeah, so he was correct, because this Villain of the week goes on to become so much more powerful than before, I mean I still remember being sat in the theatre and all of a sudden this goofy ass Villain became a straight up demon from hell...

But why did he do it?

He did it because like the Spider-People he didn't feel seen, except he went about in a completely self destructive way of doing it, not just self destructive, destructive to a lot of other people...

The strangest thing is all he needed to do in order to be seen is join the multiversal Spider-Society, sure, he isn't a Spider-Person, but he could have been useful...

Speaking of the Spider-Society, the Spot isn't the only antagonist in this movie, in fact he isn't even the main one...

The main one is conformation to expectations, also known as Miguel O'Hara or Spider-Man 2099.

Miguel O'Hara was teased in the after credits of the last movie, and at that time, it just seemed like he would be yet another goofy alternate Spider who probably has a better way to traverse the Multiverse than with a massive and massively problematic Collider.

It was somewhat obvious that if this sequel is going all in and showing every permutation and combination of Spider-Man/Woman that exists, then Miguel is probably the best option on how that happened...

This time none of them glitch because of specialized multiversal stabilizer bands, which also double as travel devices.

Now that he is able to traverse the multiverse, he obviously took some notes from Mr. Fantastic and made a multiversal Council of Spider-Men who go around solving Multiversal problems.

This Papyrus Vulture has Hammer Space y'all.

Strange thing is though, he pretty much forgets that he himself caused a little multiversal problem of his own, when he tried to go to a universe where his daughter is still alive and then made the whole universe collapse in on itself.

But he is the one in charge, its okay when he makes mistakes cause he is trying very hard to fix them right?

And the way he is trying to fix things is by keeping the "canon" intact and preventing "Anomalies" people or objects that threaten their universes by their very existence unless of course, the "Canon" is preserved.

A set of rules that Miguel has accepted and which he uses to go pretty far with what he sees as "justified"

Okay I am being a little unfair putting this picture here, Miguel isn't actually a Vampire, though me and many others were rightfully confused, but the reality is Miguel has an altered Origin.

He is from a future where Superheroes have been all but eradicated and a watch dog organization called the private eye reigns over people in a form of tyrannical government, he was an employee at the Alchemax Corporation before a failed genetic experiment gave him super powers.

Simultaneously though it also gave him some other spider-like traits such as retractable claws and retractable Fangs that deliver paralyzing Venom...

That is what he is trying to do here...

But he, still takes it very far, one doesn't have to be a genius to realize that there might be a part of him that wouldn't listen even if there was irrefutable proof that there are alternatives to preserving Cannon just because his attempts to disrupt Cannon were unsuccessful, and he had to grieve the loss of his Daughter twice.

Cannon Sounds a lot like Absolute points in Time, and just like in the case of Strange Supreme, Miguel broke a universe simply by existing in it...

And while all of that sounds cool and all, Miles isn't exactly comfortable with it, because on of these so called "cannon" Events, is the Death of a police captain close to Spider-Man, and as it so happens, Miles's Father is being promoted to captain soon.

The thing is though, if someone can do something about it, then it is probably Miles, because he was never supposed to be Spider-Man, he was bit by the Spider that was supposed to be in Earth 42 but due to Kingpin's meddling, this Spider came over and Bit Miles.

As a result...

Every single Spider-Person... Dinosaur... Cat.. whatever has bought into Miguel's version of the story...

Not a single person Respects Miles for this, not the other Spider-People, Not Pavitr whose girlfriends father he saved while disrupting his Cannon, not Gwen who actually likes him no matter what happens...

And not Peter...

Even though in the case of these last two their stories were Drastically changed for the better simply because they met Miles.

Gwen doesn't feel so alone in this world anymore.

Peter went back and patched things up with Mary Jane and agreed to have kids with her, in fact Miles is the reason he had her...

All his fears that broke them apart disappeared when he realized that if he did a good job, there was a chance that Mayday Parker may turn out like Miles.

They all chase Miles as he tries his best to escape.

The only people who support him are Spider-Byte, who lets him go as she as a black person herself sees another black person being trapped and she can't go against her conscience.

Spider Woman(Jessica Drew) Who while directly at the right hand of Miguel, is a black woman herself, and has a soft spot for Gwen and by extension for Miles...

Also she is pregnant so, this is speculation, but I am pretty sure her maternal instinct very much makes her lean towards wanting to support two kids who are basically just trying to do the right thing, also the fact that Miguel acts like a fucking Lunatic probably doesn't help his case...

And the third and Final person is someone you would actually expect as the antagonist, the leader of Gwen's New Band Hobie Brown or Spider-Punk.

And he just does not like Miguel's Idea of how to run things at all, he is a total contrarian at all times, giving off the facade of one doing it just because, but Hobie's got a plan...

He is initially introduced as competition to miles, you know being the cool guitarist who is in the same band as Gwen and at whose house she left her Jumper.

But surprisingly, Hobie is the best elder brother Miles could have hoped for, and it is basically his existence that makes me so sure that there is more to the story than Miguel is letting on, he supports Miles silently when he tries to escape, until he can find the right moment to disappear and kick start his plan...

Which is what exactly?

Why, to get Gwen to start her own band of course...

Because, while yes, the story of being unique, of being a spider is very well known and very tragic, it doesn't really have to be this way always does it?

Things can change, even if the univers... multiverse tries to fight you on it, but it seems so far that that is going to be difficult at the very least, and not just because of the fact that disrupting canon creates multiversal holes..

But because one of the people who is supposed to be in her band is on a lone mission to save her dad except the machine that's supposed to send you to your home dimension sent him instead to Earth 42 where the absence of a Spider has cause the universe to completely devolve, Miles's father is dead, his uncle is alive and Miles is the Prowler, and he is not happy about this other Miles...

There have been and always will be two types of people, those who let their stories guide their actions and then those who let their actions guide their stories, who in spite of their profound loneliness forced upon them by their uniqueness chose to connect and choose to be one of the people, and what else is there to being spider man...

Maybe Miguel needs a reminder of that eh?