Across the Spiderverse lives in a society
Miles Morales as a queer figure, the trojan horse of the metaverse, and the coolest Marvel character of all time (spoilers within)
I honestly don’t have a great intro for this - suffice it to say I adored Across the Spiderverse and I think the story it’s telling is as radical as any animated film I’ve seen in a long time. It’s pretty stunning, to me, that this is a Marvel movie. It makes every recent Marvel movie outside of maybe The Eternals look vapid by comparison. I hope that we get more works of art like Spiderverse - and I also truly wish nothing but the best for the icon, Miles Morales. Now, let’s get into it.
Spoilers From Here On Out
In a reversal from the norm, we’ll begin with the negatives. Let’s ignore the incredible visuals, actors, and character design (we’ll get to those later.) Also, I’m a casual Spider-fan at best so the easter eggs by and large are lost on me and I don’t really care about canon - I’m evaluating this movie on its own merits.
All that being said, I’ll be up front: I think Across the Spiderverse is not quite as good a self-contained story as its predecessor.
Into the Spiderverse, for an origin story, perfectly sets up Miles Morales as a well-meaning vigilante who needs time to adjust to his powers. His journey is straightforward, a constant pummeling that makes his eventual victory feel earned. I compared Miles in his first movie to Izuku “Deku” Midoriya in the first season of My Hero Academia, and not just because they both have killer taste in shoes (pictured below, credit by athena_av_art on Twitter), but also because of the strife each has to face in the early part of their hero’s journey. Deku literally breaks his bones as he strives to improve; Miles constantly makes mistakes, moreso than most superheroes I can recall.
If Into the Spiderverse was an intimate tale of a hero finding his way, Across the Spiderverse appears, from the outset, to be a sprawling blockbuster that introduces Miles to Spider-Society in a formal sense. Miles learns that he is (or, perhaps, is not) part of a lineage that all go through the motions in their own respective universes, overcoming tragedy, learning that with great power comes great responsibility, and beholden to “canon events” that dictate how they become full heroes in the eyes of the world. The central conflict between Miles the outlier and Miguel O’Hara, the keeper of the “right” way to be a Spiderman, is metatextual and honestly kind of boring when taken on its face. A cynical reading of the film could rightfully point out how Miles has yet to receive any shine as a solo hero, and only in the context of other Spidered-Men, Women, and NBs does he star in his own movie (although it should be noted that a live action feature starring Miles is in the works per Amy Pascal.)
Across the Spiderverse also suffers from the suspense department in my opinion due to the obsession with canon - outside of the final 10 minutes of the film, which have a great twist that, admittedly, I did not see coming. Still, nothing hits the tense heights of Miles’ encounter with The Prowler in Into.
However, despite all of those misgivings…I actually think the story of Across the Spiderverse is incredibly radical and unabashedly queer. To be clear, queer in an academic context, not a “gay” context - although searching “Chaipunk” or '“trans Gwen Stacy” on Tumblr/AO3 may hit the latter meaning squarely on the head as well. The metaverse is leveraged as a trojan horse to set the scene of a deeper tale of defying societal expectations. This may actually be the queerest movie Marvel has ever made - right in time for Pride Month.
Queer Theory and Spider-Society
At the start of Across the Spiderverse, more than anything in the world, Miles Morales is lonely.
There he is, languishing in Brooklyn, fumbling through the skyscrapers and streets like he’s the chosen protector of the QWOP universe. He’s completely by himself since the end of Into, left adrift with the almost silent Ganke as his only friend (aside: Ganke got lean in the past year, my guy’s been pulling a Prompto). Ganke speaks maybe three lines in the whole movie, the dude is clearly no help.
The “I can’t tell anyone my secret identity” trope has always read to me as queer, an analogue to staying in the closet while the rest of the world is seen as “normal.” The pervasiveness of this hidden identity and the specificity of Spiderman’s weirdness may be why this character, specifically, resonates with so many members of the LGBTQ+ community. That all being said, the one thing that jumps out with Miles in this context, especially with a modern reading, is how he does not have a single friend in whom he can confide…anything.
Sure, Ganke gets it, but he doesn’t get it, you know? The specific breadth of powers and problems that come with being a member of the Spider Society…Miles will never have someone with whom to discuss those issues. He is a kid with a secret, isolated in his corner of the universe. He’s not bullied, and can blend in OK despite it all, but he definitely doesn’t want to tell his parents. They wouldn’t understand, of course. The parallel is clear - Miles is the only queer kid in town and feels like he can’t talk to anyone.
Then comes Gwen. Her reappearance in Miles’ life is what gives him home. Through their misadventures, he can meet incredible friends like Pravitr, and Hobie (oh boy, we’ll talk about Hobie), and reunite with Peter B. and his new baby daughter, Mayday. With these Spider-friends, and the promise of being initiated into Spider Society at his fingertips, maybe Miles will finally get his confidants he so desperately needs to help him on his own journey.
Society, though, has other plans in mind.
Miguel O’Hara, or Spiderman 2099, is a great antagonist in this movie because of his role as the “moderator” of the Spider canon, officiating that every single Spiderperson, Spiderplace, and Spiderthing has to go through the same types of tragedies in order to ensure that the universe does not burst apart at the seams. This means that, in certain cases, people must die for the sake of the many. It’s the trolley problem on a massive scale. Miles flaunts convention in Pavitr’s universe by helping him save both a bus careening off a cliff and the police captain of Mumbattan. This creates a black hole in the world that O’Hara must clean up.
The conflict O’Hara draws with Miles is, as noted earlier, portrayed as the need for a clean and perfect canon vs. the irregularities that can be brought to the table when heroes fall out of line. I think there’s a reading where this entire plotline is metatextual for how the comics community first welcomed Miles as the new Spiderman - spoiler alert, it was not received well. I also gauge, from the jokes in the film, that the writing staff is treating the hundreds of Spidercreatures with the respect they deserve - a minimal amount, if any. Canon is thrown out the window once one of your heroes is a T-Rex that switched bodies with a mother fucking pterodactyl. I keep seeing reviewers say that Across is a “love letter” to Spider-fans, and I kind of disagree. If it is a love letter, it has a bite to it, like the parent who cares about you but wants you to get your shit together. It has Easter Eggs for sure, but also points fun at how dumb some of those Easter Eggs are, and how silly it is to try and say that certain spiders are “right” while others are “wrong.”
More striking to me, though, is how Spider Society forces Miles, and all of the heroes, to fall in line and only take part in a prescriptive form of heroism that, by its nature, is limiting. Miles is actively prevented from following his own path. He’s told to keep his desire to save everyone at bay, even if it means that people will die. Peter B. Parker even reinforces this - these are millenial men talking to Gen Z heroes and reinforcing Boomer societal structures. It’s imposing polite society on Miles and his friends, even though their way may be objectively better.
Thankfully for Miles, one character in particular pushes him to do the right thing.
Hobie Brown - Heavy Spoilers From Here On In, You Have Been Warned
Hobie (we won’t call him Spider-Punk here out of respect) is a character that is literally the id of 2023. He’s inconsistent, hates authority, throws labels around while asserting that labels are for posers, and is generally wonderful. The way he’s animated is brilliant and encapsulates his character to his core. Every scene he’s on screen is delightful. In a movie with great acting performances (Miles’ parents and Jason Schwartzman as The Spot stand out), Daniel Kaluuya is a cut above.
Miles is initially taken aback by Hobie’s swag and confidence, but in reality Hobie is the Spider-person impressed by Miles the quickest across BOTH movies. In Into, Miles’ cohorts try to double-cross him up until the climax of the film. It takes Hobie about five minutes of real time to immediately know Miles doesn’t care about canon, has a good heart, and is someone he wants in his circle. He literally does not leave him alone for the rest of his screentime in the film, and it’s heartwarming to see.
Even though Miles’ desire to be accepted outweighs Hobie’s caution for him to not join Spider Society, Hobie stays patient, now a big brother working behind the scenes to ensure that Miles can make it through things. He pushes Miles to think about how he loves his parents at home, instigates the authority figures who talk down to the group, and eventually reminds Miles how to escape from his prison (“use your palms, not your fingers”), engineers a makeshift dimension hopping watch for Gwen, and then quits being a member of the Spider Society. He has about five minutes of screentime in the entire movie and steals every second, all the while serving as the big brother Miles needed. Hobie reminds Miles that his way of heroism, while not conforming to the norm, is valid and perhaps even better than the way prescribed by Spider Society.
This strikes me as analogous to queer people trying to find their place in the world as society tells them they’re less than or have to navigate via one prescribed way of living. Hobie is serving as the gay uncle, helping Miles figure out what his path should be as he comes of age in a world that does not see him as a “real” hero. The great thing, though, is Miles is so inspirational in his actions that he’s already built up a group of allies - between the indebted Pavitr, Gwen, Spider-Byte (who saves him at the end of the movie), and his friends from Into, there’s a core of folks who are willing to help him stand up against the establishment in an incredibly powerful way.
And you know that Hobie is going to be there stirring shit up along the way. I know that Hobie will have an appearance in the next movie, but we deserve more of this incredible character. My intuition is that we are about to see a LOT of incredible Hobie Halloween costumes and Hobie cosplays in the coming years - he feels like the breakout star of the film. Hopefully we get some sort of zine or zine-style visual novel featuring Hobie as well. It should be free, though, as would be his wish (capitalism is a black hole, after all.)
Conclusion
I got nothing else. Movie very good. I can’t wait for the third one.