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. And it's never been easier to do
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just a theory. A FILM THEORY! Aaaaaaand cut.
