Not that I donât like all the debate and analysis going online about whoâs right and whoâs wrong, utilitarianism vs whatever philosophy it was that says every single life matters/the ends do not justify the means, big picture vs little picture, etc. In the end however, it doesnât actually matter whoâs right.
I think Tom Hollandâs Spider-Man puts it most concisely, âWhen you can do the things that I can, but you donât, and then the bad things happen, they happen because of you.â
Thatâs a core part of nearly every Spider Person, the takeaway in some shape and form from âWith great power comes great responsibilityâ. It stems from the whole idea that Spider Man can be anybody, that anybody can be under the mask, because theyâre simply a person who stepped and did something when something bad happens in front of them. That first quote isnât just for Spider Man himself, but for anybody and everybody. Sometimes, the only thing you can do is to step forward and tell someone to STOP. You might not succeed, you might not be able to affect anything. But doing nothing is also a choice, and choosing to do nothing could make you just as culpable. Itâs not superpowers or genius or the suit, but those small actions and a refusal to back down in the face of wrongs, even if it would be easier. Basically, a (if not the) core point of Spider Man/People is that theyâre the antithesis of the bystander effect.
And most Spider People get that. Or at least, they used to. That âUncle Ben Deathâ tends to be the one that sets them on that path and philosophy after all. This is further emphasized by the other Spider People the movie chose to specifically feature and focus on in Across the Spider Verse. Pavitr Prabhakarâs uncle died after Pavitr walked away from a scene where a group of men was attacking a woman. His uncle stepped in and was stabbed to death. Hobbie Brown spent a lot of his screen time, in hindsight, trying to prevent the Spider Web/Spider-Society from getting their hands on Miles in the first place (âI donât follow orders, and neither does heâ, then the exasperation), encouraging him to run/warning him (that entire scene when theyâre walking to meet Miguel), preparing the emergency watch that he then gave to Gwen (all the things he was pulling from the walls and quietly pocketing during that walk), helping Miles (only one to help Miles try to get out while the others were confronting Miguel), and helping Gwen (way ahead and dropped the watch off). Part of all this is definitely his antiestablishmentarianism views and values, but the way he went about it (including just straight up quitting and fucking off to do his own things rather than even participate in chasing Miles) shows he understands a very basic thing:
There was no other way that confrontation between Miguel and Miles could have gone down.Â
Miguel was pressuring Miles to stand aside and let his dad be murdered.
Miguel was pressuring Spider-Man to stand aside and let a good, innocent man be killed.
What he wanted them to do was pretty impossible for Miles, and the way he kind of had an intervention set up says he understood that.
The whole chase scene was incredibly fun and well-done and amazing, while also being something we donât see as often. Itâs a Chase Scene without the Death and Torture stakes. None of the Spider People really want to hurt Miles, just detain him. Thatâs not who most of them are and it shows, especially with the light-hearted, hilarious tone for most of it. Even the ones who hurt Miles emotionally really didnât mean to so much as they are just really screwing things up. At no point do we feel like Miles is truly at risk of being maimed or killed, except with Miguel. And even Miguel doesnât carry the raw feeling and tension of fear that the Prowler/Uncle Aaron did in the last movie.Â
(Which may partially be because the sheer exasperation on Miguelâs part until he truly loses his temper and tries to choke Miles out while screaming about him being an anomaly. The fact that he didnât start off with this and did try to explain it/had Lyla explain it, tells me that he gets that Miles didnât really have any agenda in this even if his entire existence grates against Miguelâs sensitivities.)
But while the Chase Scene was fun, the actual Stakes is that this managed to probably be even more gut-wrenching than personal, bodily, emotional harm. Itâs betrayal at the highest level, not because nobody told him he was an anomaly and thatâs why none of them came to find him when he was going to dedicate his life to trying to find them, but because theyâre now working at least peripherally to stop him from even trying to save his dad. These are the people that are supposedly able to understand Milesâ pain and troubles and struggles and triumphs the most, that was a big point of the first movie, but look what theyâre doing now? That can barely look him in the eye or even say, âyeah, your dad is supposed to die and you need to stand back and let that happen, sorryâ, even if thatâs whatâs implied. Itâs gut-wrenching to the audience because Miguel has managed to convince an entire organization of Spider People to essentially stop trying to help or even choose to prevent another person from trying to prevent the murder of an innocent. Heâs convinced them to be Bystanders and even force others to be Bystanders. âItâs a canon event and thatâs just whatâs supposed to happen, canât do anything about that!â
Ironically for everybody involved, despite all of Miguelâs rants and screaming about how Miles is an anomaly that isnât supposed to have the role he does...
The fact that Miles stands in the face of it and says, âno, Iâm going to try and I refuse to stop fightingâ, proves he really is Spider-Man.
EDIT: I completely forgot about Spider-Man: Edge of Time, which actually deals with Peter Parker's Spider-Man, Miguel O'Hara's Spider-Man, Alchemax, and timeline stuff. Specifically, it's a similar kind of timeline shenanigans conundrum. Not going to go into detail, but there's a striking quote:
"You can't mean that. You can't just ignore that she's in danger. What's important is not standing by and allowing someone to suffer or die because you do nothing. If you don't get that, then you don't get the first thing about being Spider-Man."
