‘Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse’ Review: Crime fighter Miguel O’Hara unleashes wrath on Miles Morales
LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA: ‘Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse’ offers a chance to its protagonist, Miles Morales, to achieve the status of the greatest superhero in the universe. But firstly, Miles is to clean up his act and behave responsibly. The young Spider-Man from Earth-1610 fights crime in New York but fails to impress his parents with his grades, who only think of Miles as an ordinary child struggling with issues of puberty. He helped save the multiverse by destroying Kingpin Wilson Fisk’s collider but in turn, created a supervillain named The Spot who now wants Miles’ head on a spike. But he’s not the only one that Miles has to fight to save his father, Jefferson Morales.
Turns out, the head of the Spider Society, Miguel O’Hara also known as Spider-2099 has ordered Gwen Stacy to track The Spot who is now jumping dimensions, creating a ruckus for every Spider, wherever he goes. All the worlds are at risk of extinction because of Miles’ action that helped create The Spot. This doesn’t sit well the Miguel who blames Miles for all the destruction that he’s caused until then. However, Miguel informs Miles about the impending death of his father, which will help fulfill a canon event that is a significant moment in every Spider person’s journey. Miles vows to stop it and escapes from Spider Society after fighting multiple Spideys. This makes Miguel use all his force to stop Miles at any cost before he messes with the timeline and raises the threat to the multiverse. Before Miles can fathom it, Miguel emerges as another villain in his journey
Miguel’s ways are beyond Miles’ comprehension
Miguel O’Hara is not your run-of-the-mill Spider-Man. He is a genius in the field of genetics and formerly worked for Alchemax. He received his powers while working at Alchemax. Miguel is half a Spider as his genes were forcibly merged with a spider's DNA and his web-slinging acts are superior to all the Spideys. He works to preserve the fabric of space and time. He’s a watchful protector of the Spider-Verse. For him, Miles was never supposed to Spider-Man since the spider that bit him came from Earth-42 and as a result of that, Peter Parker of that universe had to be eliminated. Earth-42 perished with no one there to help.
Miguel wants to correct that. He wants Jefferson, Miles’ father to die so that the timeline is not altered further. He also wants to kill The Spot but Miles doesn’t see eye to eye with Miguel. He wants to save his father and doesn’t believe in Miguel’s prophecy of saving the multiverse. For Miles, breaking the canon moment that Miguel wants to preserve is possible. Both are good guys who clash over this minuscule difference.
Miguel is not entirely a villain
Miguel works for a higher goal — save the multiverse as he knows it by making that no worlds collide or intervene in each other activities until necessary. So when Miles arrives after saving Inspector Singh in Mumbattan, Miguel tells him that he’s altered a canon moment and if canon moments are broken, tragedy ensues. For every Spider-person to turn into a superhero, the passing of a loved one is necessary. This is what ties all the Spideys in the Spider Society together. Take it away and there will be blood. Miles refuses to believe in it, blinded by the love to save his father at all costs. But Miguel knows that a price has to be paid.
Miles escapes from Spider Society by using the group’s technology and lands in an unknown world of Earth-42 where Jefferson is dead and Aaron Davis, his uncle is alive.
