Spider-Man: Across The Spider-Verse Brings An Amazing Twist To Spidey Canon

This article contains major spoilers for "Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse."

The central gimmick of both 2018's "Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse" and its new follow-up, "Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse," is that — thanks to multiverse shenanigans — any version of Spider-Man can appear and interact with any other version. The films center primarily on Miles Morales (Shameik Moore) and a spider-powered version of Gwen Stacy (Hailee Steinfeld), but incorporate dozens of other Spider-People in supporting roles, including some of the stranger ones, like the anthropomorphic pig Spider-Ham (John Mulaney) or the rumpled-rock-flyer-constructed Spider-Punk (Daniel Kaluuya). Many Spider-Fans entered these films with mental notepads, eager to see their own favorite version of Spider-Man represented on the big screen. Personally, I was chuffed to see the Scarlet Spider (Andy Samberg), the 1990s Spider-Man clone in a ripped sweatshirt. 

The "Spider-Verse" gimmick of "infinite inclusion" also tapped into the movies' thematic underpinnings. The 2018 film stated outwardly that being Spider-Man was a matter of heroism rather than canon. Anyone, it said, could wear the suit. "Across the Spider-Verse," meanwhile, features a character obsessed with Spider-Man canon (Spider-Man 2099 analyzes the Spider-Man origin story from within), and Miles has to heroically state that canon doesn't much matter when saving lives is on the line. Anyone can be a hero. 

Of course, in a world where thousands of Spider-People can meet, which Spider-Man counts as the "main" one? The answer: all of them! 

Every Spider-Man is the canonical center of the franchise. Reboots and parallel universes, then, are a mere element of the character, and not a cynical cash grab by a studio eager to do the cinematic equivalent of publishing "a new issue #1." Reboots are merely a look at a new guy. Thanks to "Across the Spider-Verse," the Sam Raimi films, the "Venom" films, and the Marc Webb "Spider-Man" films are now all officially canonical.

In the middle of "Across the Spider-Verse," Spider-Man 2099 (Oscar Isaac) explains that a Spider-Man can only occur if he loses someone close to him. It is only through grieving and guilt, it seems, that Spider-Man can graduate to a true superhero. In a multiverse of thousands of Spider-People, however, that would mean thousands of Uncle Bens have perished. When taken as a whole, it looks like Spider-Man requires a blood sacrifice to exist. And when a new Spider-Man begins to go through his radioactive-spider origin in a new dimension, Spider-Man 2099 is content to let that dimension's Uncle Ben die just so a new Spider-Man can come into being. It's all very tragic and mercenary when one adopts a fatalistic approach. 

In his explanation, Spider-Man 2099 shows the young Miles that Spider-Man's common theme is the death of Uncles and opens up several historical portals to reveal that every single Spider-Man has experienced such a loss. In two of the portals are, somewhat surprisingly, live-action clips from both Sam Raimi's 2002 film "Spider-Man" and Marc Webb's 2012 film "The Amazing Spider-Man." Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield are seen, both playing Peter Parker, bawling their respective eyes out over a fallen friend. That's two old universes that have now been folded into this one. The precedent laid down by 20-year-old and 10-year-old movies are now a central part of the "Spider-Verse."

Other live-action scenes arise, one of which denotes that "Venom" is also an integral part of the "Spider-Verse" lore.

Earlier in the film, a villain called the Spot (Jason Schwartzman) finds that he can use small apertures on his body (don't ask) as portals into other dimensions. The Spot is amused by this and begins pressing his head through a series of interdimensional holes to see what's happening. In one of the parallel universes, he comes face-to-face with Mrs. Chen (Peggy Lu) the San Francisco convenience store owner who is friends with lead character Eddie Brock in the 2018 film "Venom." Mrs. Chen is nonplussed by the appearance of an animated villain head right in front of her. It's almost like she sees weird, comic book stuff every day. Venom, for those who might have forgotten, is the living black alien glop that lives inside Eddie Brock's body, and sometimes oozes out to turn Eddie into a cannibalistic tar shark. Yes, Mrs. Chen knows that. No, she is not affected by the Spot.

There is also a live-action cameo from a certain actor who has long been associated with Spider-Man, but I will let that one remain a surprise. 

Of course, the use of the "Venom" universe brings up a new question. In a Spider-Verse full of Spider-Men, does Eddie Brock count as one of them? In the original comics, of course, as well as in Raimi's "Spider-Man 3," Venom once lived in Spider-Man's body, and only attached itself to Eddie Brock after, making the character more or less Spider-Man's evil twin. In "Venom," however, there is no connection to Spider-Man, and Eddie Brock has become the alien tar shark by his own means.

The Spot, then, has officially declared it: the 2018 Venom is also a Spider-Man. I suppose we can look forward to another cameo in the upcoming "Spider-Man: Beyond the Spider-Verse."