“Let’s do things differently this time” : Spiderman: Across the Spider-Verse begins with Gwen Stacy aka Spider-Woman saying so. What is seen further is these six words becoming the crux of the movie. For many of us, Spiderman was the very first superhero we looked up to. And with the first part, Into the Spider-Verse back in 2018, fans just knew that the Spider-verse alone is bigger than the entire MCU. And the current one backed up the same with Earth-928, Nueva York, a futuristic possibility of Earth-616 followed in the MCU. A multiverse of Spidermen, women, horses, and so much more, each having the ‘great power’ to fulfill the ‘great responsibility of being the ‘friendly neighbor.’

The latest movie opened doors for a variety of possibilities to be explored. And also revealed a new idea of how the multiverse possibly functions.

Spiderman: Across the Spider-Verse has a new plan for Miles

Despite having multiple Spideys of all shapes and sizes, there is one thing common to all of them. Each Spiderman has to undergo a ‘canon event’ to understand their responsibility. Something that has been true to the Spidermans of both Toby Maguire and Andrew Garfield, but it could be different for both Gwen Stacy and the protagonist of this universe, Miles Morales.

But what exactly is a canon event? And does Miles even need one, unlike the others? Before you move on, remember that you will get major spoilers ahead. 

Understanding what is a ‘canon event’ 

As explained by Miguel O’Hara, Spiderman-2099, a canon event is an action that must happen to a Spiderman, otherwise, their universe might not exist. For the previous Spideys, it was the death of someone close, which forced them to stand on their morals and do the right thing from within. It was Aunt May or Uncle Ben for some and, as for Miles and Gwen, it has to be the death of their inspector dads. 

What is important to understand is the fact these canon events are a pre-requisite for Spiderman to own their responsibility and lead to the improvement of their universe. It is also responsible for maintaining the equilibrium of the Spider-verse that can disintegrate without them. 

From what fans assumed, Miles’ canon event was the death of his beloved Uncle Aaron, who also was The Prowler. This pushed him to take his Spidey responsibilities seriously and destroy Kingpin’s collider, which also created The Spot, his nemesis. But according to O’Hara, that might not be the case and Miles’ canon event is yet to happen.

One of the central themes of the theory of the multiverse is that everything is pre-determined and has to happen in a certain way, or else it affects the multiverse. For instance, we saw in Loki, who benched the multiverse by stealing the Tesseract. The same ideology has been applied to the Spider-verse as well: one deviance from the canon event and an entire universe would collapse, something that happened to O’Hara. And that is pretty much the reason that the leader of the Spider Society, Spiderman-2099, is doing everything in his power for Miles to see the death of his father, a canon event his Spiderman needs.

But what is essential to notice is the difference between the fates of both O’Hara and Morales.

Miles’ canon event and his attempt to re-write his ‘fate’

O’Hara tried to play with the rules of the multiverse by replacing himself with the happy version of O’Hara, which led to him losing his life and his daughter. In Miles’ case, things are different. To begin with, Morales was never supposed to be Spiderman. As revealed, the spider from Earth-42 was purposed to bite Peter Parker from its own dimension but ended up in Earth-1610, which is Morales’s home. And the original Peter Parker or Spiderman existed in Miles’s dimension but dies saving the boy. Due to the same, Earth-42 does not have a friendly neighborhood of its own, and the Sinister-6 wreaks havoc in it. 

Although it is true that Miles is the first anomaly who created The Spot, a villain the Spider Society has been fighting to maintain the equilibrium of the Spider-verse, Miles himself did not plan to be a Spidey. If everything in the multiverse was pre-determined, why did Miles become the friendly neighbor post the original Peter Parker’s death? If the Earth-42 spider did not bite Peter Parker in his dimension, then why did 42 not collapse? From the very beginning, Morales’ Spiderman is nothing but an accidental glitch, something the teenage boy has now finally made peace with. 

To put it another way, Miles Morales did not alter his life in any way; he rather accepted his Spidey powers and moved along with it. As a part of this, he had a canon event already. That is when our Spiderman wants to take control of his narrative and prevent his father’s death. And doing so should not affect the Spider-verse as well because first, the rules of his dimension become different when he was never meant to be Spiderman but became one.

And secondly, the universe of Gwen and Pavitr Prabhakar should have collapsed as well because the former prevented her father’s death by staying away from her dimension. While the latter’s universe stayed intact even when Inspector Singh was alive, who was pre-determined to die as a part of his canon event. 

Keeping everything in mind, Miles will be able to re-write his fate the way he wants and not how the multiverse expects him to. “Well, there’s a first time for everything, right?.” Seems like it could be the first time where not only will Miles take hold of his life and prevent his canon event from happening but also the first time Gwen and Spiderman end up together in a good way as they should always have in all universes. 

What are your thoughts on Miles’ supposed fate? Share your thoughts in the comments.