Relationship Spotlight: Peter B. Parker & Miles Morales (Spider-Man)

*Miles-Peter-related spoilers.*

I definitely remember liking Miles and Peter’s relationship when I saw Into the Spider-Verse in theaters, but it took rewatching it ahead of Across the Spider-Verse to make me go, “Oh wait, I love these two!” Nothing like a reluctant/depressed mentor paired with an eager/anxious would-be mentee.

By the time Peter gets pulled through a portal into Miles’ universe, he’s been Spider-Man for a long time. He knows how hard it can be, both physically and emotionally. He has back problems, he’s sick of the grind, and he’s been using food to self-soothe ever since he and Mary Jane split up. He’s burnt out but dragging himself through the day with a lot of apathy. The last thing he needs is to get sucked into another universe that just lost its Peter Parker.

Actually, scratch that. The last thing he needs is a jittery, impulsive teenager who got his spider-powers literal days ago. Miles is at first relieved by his appearance. He feels like he let his universe’s Spider-Man down, and he wasn’t sure how to make it right. Furthermore, his universe’s Peter promising to help teach him was the one thing that calmed his new-power panic. That Peter only knew him for a few minutes, and it was when he was in the middle of a serious fight, but he still took time to reassure Miles that it was going to be okay. But then he died. For Miles, meeting another Peter Parker feels like a second chance.

But then, it quickly becomes clear that this Peter is a very different Peter. He isn’t, not really—although he’s been doing this a lot longer and has been seriously banged around by life, he’s still the same fundamental guy. He doesn’t look or act like it, though. He does everything he can to push Miles away, vowing to destroy the collider but not wanting any sort of mini-me tagging along. And once Miles’ stubbornness and persistence secures him a spot at Peter’s side, Peter vacillates between not wanting to teach him anything and expecting way too much from him at a moment’s notice.

It's a wonky experience for both of them. Miles’ enthusiasm and endless questions irritate the jaded Peter, while this sad, out-of-shape Peter definitely feels like a step down compared to the first one Miles met. But by fits and starts, they begin to help each other. When Miles disobeys Peter’s orders not to follow him into Alchemax, his unexpected power of invisibility comes in handy. Meanwhile, Peter basically drops Miles into the deep end when it comes to swinging lessons, but once they get started, Peter actually does a good job of coaching him through the basics in the middle of a high-stakes situation.

I like this relationship because it’s very one-step-forward two-steps-back. I like that they annoy each other and disappoint each other, that Peter is the one who stands up for Miles with the other Spiders but still acknowledges that he isn’t ready for the collider mission, that Miles has to prove his capabilities to himself before he can prove them to Peter.

In the end, it’s not an overstatement to say that Miles changes Peter’s life. Meeting him is what makes Peter realize that he does want to be a dad, even if it’s scary, and that leads to him reconciling with Mary Jane and having Mayday. For my money, Across the Spider-Verse squanders this relationship a little, along with kind of squandering Peter as a whole. While Miles and Gwen’s relationship experiences some major friction in a complex way, Miles and Peter’s relationship is dealt with almost more as an afterthought. Peter is more in comic-relief mode in this film, and when their own friction arises, they’re not really given anything substantial enough to address it.

Which of course means that I hope we get a lot more of Peter and Miles in Beyond the Spider-Verse. Both Gwen and Peter have definitely realized how badly they let Miles down and are anxious to make it right. I have no doubt that Gwen will have plenty of space to do that, but in what’s sure to be a jampacked movie, I hope Peter gets the chance to do the same.

Relationship Spotlight: Miles Morales & Gwen Stacy (Spider-Man)

*Miles/Gwen-related spoilers.*

The bond between Spider-Folks is a special one. We’ve seen it between the Peter Parkers in No Way Home, a connection that crosses not just universes but franchises and studios! And we’ve seen it of course in the Spider-Verse films, highlighted in the chaotic mentor-mentee relationship between Miles and Peter B., the tight friendship between characters like Gwen, Hobie, and Pavitr, and even the minutes-long encounter between Miles and his universe’s Peter in the first movie. But even with that built-in bond, Miles and Gwen have something extra.

Miles’s closest Spider-relationship in Into the Spider-Verse is definitely his dynamic with Peter B., as Miles gloms onto Peter looking for help with his newfound powers and Peter finds his tired, jaded attitude towards being Spider-Man reinvigorated by Miles’s determination to do the right thing even when he’s not sure what he’s doing. The connection with Gwen, though, is certainly a close second. Like Miles, she’s still a young Spider—more experienced than Miles, who’s completely brand-new, but she’s much closer to remembering those early days of flailing and confusion than Peter or some of the others. When Miles runs into her at his school and accidentally gets his hand stuck in her hair, Gwen tries to explain how he can get himself unstuck, but Miles panics and just tries to yank it out. Which ultimately leads to the asymmetrical haircut Gwen sports for the rest of the franchise.

Even during the moments of Into the Spider-Verse where Gwen doubts Miles’s readiness, she is still in his corner and rooting for him. At the end of the film, theirs is the hardest parting, and when Across the Spider-Verse starts, it’s clear how much each misses the other from their respective universes. Miles is gearing his future college plans towards fields that will allow him to study the multiverse, and as things get harder and harder for Gwen at home, she wants nothing more than to be able to talk to Miles about it.

When Gwen gets hooked up with the Spider Society, Miguel tells her about Miles’s status as an “anomaly” who was never supposed to be Spider-Man, and despite equipping her with a universe-hopping portal watch, she’s warned to steer clear of him. But Gwen can’t help herself, and when her duties take her to Miles’s universe, she seeks him out.

As they hang out together, catching up as they both chill out upside-down on the side of a tall building, it really hits home how lonely being a Spider can be. Even though they both learned in Into the Spider-Verse just how many of them are out there, they ended that movie with all of them back in their own universes, once again the lone Spider. Knowing there are other Spider-Folks out there but you can’t see them might be an even lonelier feeling than being truly on your own, so it’s a balm for Miles and Gwen to see each other again. I really enjoy watching them have fun just swinging around Brooklyn together, and when they settle in to talk, we see how Gwen is really the only peer Miles has: the only other person who’s relatively his age and truly understands what he’s going through.

The will-they-won’t-they hints are impossible to deny, but at this point, it’s understandable why Gwen balks at Miles’s shy intimations that he might like to take things further. At the Spider Society, she’s met tons of Spider-Folks and learned all about “Canon Events,” and it seems to her that one incontrovertible truth of every universe is that Gwen Stacy falls for Spider-Man and then dies. Her own universe is flipped—there, she was bitten by the spider, and Peter was the one to die—but she’s in a state of mind where she doesn’t think she can question the Canon, and she’s scared to risk it.

Back at the Spider Society, when Miguel reveals what he knows about Miles, Miles is both hurt and horrified to realize his friends (chiefly Gwen and Peter B.) already knew this and apparently believe it. It’s awful for him to be chased by a crap ton of Spider-Folks trying to capture him, but that’s nothing compared to the sense of betrayal he feels towards Gwen and Peter B. For her part, Gwen is saddened but conflicted, and as Miles pushes back against Miguel and the others, she doesn’t know what to do.

As I’ve said, there are aspects of the Canon Event/anomaly plots that I don’t like, one of which is simply the fact that Gwen would go along with ganging up on Miles like this. Luckily, she’s shaken out of that fall-in-line thinking, and the movie ends with her determined to help Miles, not lock him up. After Miles escapes the Spider Society, she follows him in the hope that, if she finds him before Miguel, there’s still a way to fix things. But as she realizes just how much trouble Miles is in, she reasserts that her greatest allegiance is to her friend.

Miles is in an incredible dicey situation at the end of Across the Spider-Verse, but there are two things that will make the wait for the third movie easier (aside from the obvious—I don’t want the animators to be worked into the ground.) First, Miles has a plan, and I have faith in him. And second, Gwen has assembled all their friends to come and help. Whatever happens next, I’m confident that they’re going to be okay, and whatever they do next, I’m sure they’re going to do it together.

Favorite Characters: Miles Morales (Spider-Man)

*Miles-related spoilers, including for Across the Spider-Verse.*

Oh, so much to love about Miles. After rewatching Into the Spider-Verse and seeing the new movie in close succession, I have all the feels about this kid. He fully is Spider-Man, every bit as much as Peter Parker is. But to paraphrase Frank Sinatra, he’s doing it his way.

Pre-spider-bite, Miles isn’t really much of a “Peter,” not in the classical nerd sense. He’s super into music and artwork, which he graffities onto walls where (he hopes) his cop dad won’t find it. But that doesn’t exactly make him cool or chill. He’s at a new school and nervous about it, not sure he can fit in at a fancy private school and missing the friends from his old one. He’s easily embarrassed, and while he’s eager to prove himself in some areas, he’s anxious to fly under the radar in others.

In short, he’s a teenager who’s still figuring out who he is and dealing with all the weirdness that comes with that. Getting bitten by a radioactive spider is the absolute last thing he wanted on his to-do list, and he freaks out at his new powers.

Or rather, he freaks out when he’s alone. His universe’s Spider-Man has just been killed, but as another pops up thanks to a multiverse-bending collider event, Miles immediately gloms onto the new Peter as a would-be mentor. He peppers Peter with all manner of eager, sometimes annoying questions, begging to be taught the ropes of being a Spider-Man.

Discovering even more Spider-Folks from various universes makes Miles feel even less alone, but at the same time, it can make him feel insecure and inadequate. Because Miles is often scared, he can forget how brave he really is, and his rookie mistakes and fumbles make him fear he can’t do anything, especially when he compares himself to other, more experienced superheroes.

I love how human Miles is. This is a Spider-Man who really does feel like a teenager, which is partly why he (and Tom Holland’s Peter Parker) hits the mark so authentically for me. He screws up. He panics and makes bonkers decisions during stressful moments. He sees the consequences of his mistakes and feels them hard. In Across the Spider-Verse, he texts his parents while trying to nab a bad guy, insisting to them that he’s totally on his way to an important meeting at school. He does rash things and tries too hard. He doubts whether he can do this.

But the beauty of Miles Morales is that he keeps on doing it. He keeps on trying. In the first film, when the other Spider-Folks agree he’s too green and not ready to help them shut down the collider, he steals himself and finally takes the leap of faith he’s been holding back from all movie. In the second, when Miguel tries to tell him that there are certain immutable facts of Spider-Folks’ lives that cannot be changed, certain lives that cannot be saved, Miles refuses to accept that as inevitable. He finds the inner strength to go against the entire Spider Society, including the friends he dearly missed, for the sake of what he believes is right.

He's often in over his head and unsure of himself, but he is still such a hero. Across the Spider-Verse leaves him in pretty dire straits, but I just know that, in the third film, he’s about the show everybody just what he can do.