Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse Ending Explained: Why Prowler Miles Morales Is the Twist I Love Most

The ending of Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse strands Miles Morales in a universe that never got a Spider-Man. There he comes face to face with Prowler Miles Morales, a version of himself who went down his Uncle Aaron's criminal path, and that is the twist I love most. Before I explain why, here is how the film gets there. Beyond the ending, I also want to cover the Easter eggs, the Spot's rise, and the one part of the film that did not ring true to me.

Canon events turn Jefferson Davis's promotion into a death sentence

The film establishes that if canon events are altered, the universe in which they are altered might be destroyed. Here that means being glitched out of existence using the Spider-Verse visuals. It has already happened to this version of Miguel O'Hara. He tried to take the place of a happier version of himself who had been killed in an alternate universe, stepping in to live that Miguel O'Hara's life. He then saw his daughter there glitch away as a result, which is how the idea is illustrated emotionally.

When Miles saves Inspector Singh in Spider-Man India's universe, Mumbattan is also in danger of glitching out of existence. Then it hits Miles like a ton of bricks, and it hit me too, because I did not see it coming. His father is about to make captain, and a captain has to die. I would add a perhaps there, because this never happened in the comics. It is a great misdirect, since the promotion was the reason for the party. Really well done.

The Spider Society tells Miles he has to let his father die because it is one of his canon events. Losing his Uncle Aaron stands in for losing Uncle Ben. Miles does not want to let his parent die, even if that means dire consequences for his universe or even the entire multiverse. At first, he does not care, and we will have to see what he decides.

The Spider Society's DNA machine sends Miles to Earth 42

Miles manages to escape the Spider Society, which quite frankly is starting to seem like an evil organisation, with its cold and calculating efforts to protect the multiverse. By the way, they are basically the TVA. I guess Amy Pascal could not get Kevin Feige to lend them to her. They do have a scary spider machine, which I found very scary and very cool. It uses the DNA of a specimen to detect the universe it came from and belongs to, and that is how the Society sends its prisoners back.

Miles has to use the machine to get home and save his dad, because he is not a member of the Spider Society and has no wristband to travel the multiverse. But there is a wrinkle. His DNA comes from a different universe, because the spider that bit him was brought over from elsewhere. The number on that spider was not tied to some experiment. It was the universe the spider came from. The Spot, who it turns out originally worked at Alchemax with Olivia Octavius, reveals that they brought it over, and I love that little wrinkle. That is how this Miles got bitten even though Peter Parker in this universe had also been bitten, and why both could exist there.

Because Miles has Universe 42 DNA, he gets transported to that universe instead of home. I thought the misdirect was great: when Spider-Gwen entered his room and his parents were not there, I was wondering what was going on. It is very Back to the Future Part II, because Universe 42 never got a Spider-Man after its spider was stolen. There Miles discovers that it was his father who was killed, not Uncle Aaron, and that this Miles has become the Prowler, working with Uncle Aaron. At the very end we meet him in a shot that is right out of Arcane, and it was incredible. "The Swagger was just dripping off of Miles Morales."

Prowler Miles Morales is not the Ultimatum of the comics

I do not want to call him evil Miles Morales, because this is an interesting situation, so I will say Spider-Man Miles Morales and Prowler Miles Morales. An evil Miles Morales has been explored in the comics, where he is not the Prowler. In the comics, Miles came from the Ultimate Universe, the Ultimate comics line that did a lot to inspire the MCU but was not the 616. Marvel Comics eventually combined those two universes, and because Miles originated in the Ultimate Universe, that means there is also a Miles Morales in the 616.

That 616 Miles is much older and legitimately evil, with none of the nuance I am about to discuss. He was never bitten by a spider and is just a regular crime kingpin. It is a little more complex than that, but those are the most important points. After running into the Ultimate Universe's Spider-Man Miles, the 616 Miles went to the Ultimate Universe, made some supervillain friends, picked up a supervillain suit that runs on Pym particles, and took to calling himself Ultimatum.

He is supposed to have become one of Spider-Man Miles Morales's top villains, but not really. I have only read a couple of this character's stories, and I do not really think he worked out. That is not what excites me about this development.

The fork in the road Brian Michael Bendis created finally gets explored

In the original comic book, Brian Michael Bendis brilliantly gave Miles Morales a father in law enforcement with a SHIELD background, which I loved, and an uncle who is a really cool criminal Miles gets along with really well. I think that illustrates the fork in the road where young men of colour in particular often find themselves standing. In the comics, Miles ends up doing good, going down his father's path, but he has more sympathy for criminals like his uncle, because he knows what can happen and sees his uncle in them.

With Across the Spider-Verse, we will actually get to explore and contrast what would have happened if Miles had gone down the criminal path, following in Uncle Aaron's footsteps. It is a very real choice for a lot of young people in real life, explored in an animated superhero comic book movie, which I think makes it very accessible. As I put it, "a little bit of sugar helps the medicine go down." This is not only fascinating but groundbreaking, especially with this creative team, who I think are going to do the story right. I am amazed Brian Michael Bendis managed to pull it off, but I think this team can too, because you do not want a situation like Nancy Reagan's Just Say No, where people ask what she knows about it.

Even though we only see him for a few moments, Prowler Miles Morales was again a brilliant choice. He is not a cartoonish villain, and this is not a clear cut example of good and bad. It is more an example of circumstance and opportunity, either being there or lacking. His policeman father was killed, so he went with his Uncle Aaron, a criminal but one who was there for him and loved him. He lives in a harsher world without Spider-Man, and he did not have the opportunities Spider-Man Miles had, like attending Brooklyn Visions Academy, where in this film Miles is considering going to Princeton to explore the multiverse himself. After all this, I do not know how interested he still is, but maybe.

Look at the difference between these two roads diverging. It is a superhero version of a very real life situation, and I think arguably very specific to the community Miles is supposed to represent and, I think, does represent. It is powerful and groundbreaking, the kind of thing I love to see in movies, and it is where pop culture can still really thrive and be taken seriously. I love it.

Donald Glover returns while Tom Holland's films stay absent

Speaking of Uncle Aaron, what a great Easter egg to see Donald Glover back as the MCU Uncle Aaron, or the Prowler. His costume was not cool, but he is here as a prisoner of the Spider Society, once again hinting that the MCU has its very own Miles Morales somewhere. At the time, Amy Pascal was talking about making a live action Miles Morales movie, and my reaction was for the love of all that is good, Amy, do not drop the ball on this.

While footage from both Tobey Maguire's and Andrew Garfield's films is used, Tom Holland's movies are not featured at all beyond Glover's cameo. As I see it, Tom Holland really refuses to have anything to do with anything that is not directly associated with the MCU. Come on, you are also Spider-Man, and I think the Spider-Verse movies are worthy of Tom Holland's involvement. We are not asking him to be in Venom. Although Venom did have some street credibility, I think Venom 2 did a lot of damage to the brand, so thank goodness the Spider-Verse held.

JK Simmons, the Venom universe and a Lego Spider-Man lead the Easter eggs

Other fun Easter eggs: JK Simmons is back to voice all the J. Jonah Jamesons across the universes, and I loved it. When the Spot first discovers his powers and decides to go universe hopping, he stops in the Venom universe, which was fun. Speaking of stepping up, though, Tom Hardy was busy making a Venom 3 at the time, and he could have been here.

There is also a Spider-Man Lego universe, which got a big laugh at my screening. It is a fun nod to Chris Miller and Phil Lord's careers, since they made the Lego movies as well as these Spider-Verse movies. The Lego Spider-Man is the one who contacts the Spider Society to let them know the Spot is becoming a problem.

The Spot goes from comic relief to genuinely terrifying

Talk about a glow up. The Spot goes from quirky comic relief to genuinely terrifying by the end of the film, and he is an artistic delight. He did not take kindly to being jokingly called the villain of the week, because he feels his and Miles's fates are intertwined. We discover that he worked with Olivia Octavius at this Miles's Alchemax and helped bring over spider 42, so he feels responsible for the creation of Miles as Spider-Man. Then, when Miles, Spider-Gwen and Peter B. Parker destroyed the collider, that was Dr. Jonathan Ohnn, another classic scientist turned Spider-Man villain, becoming the Spot. I thought it was great.

To prove his worth as a villain, after travelling to different universes and blowing up their Alchemax colliders to enhance his powers, which is what he is doing in Mumbattan, he decides to destroy everything Miles holds dear. That implies it will be the Spot who kills Captain Jefferson Davis. In the comics his name is Jefferson, though here they just call him Jeff. I think it all fits together beautifully, because so often something that at first seems inconsequential can spiral out of control and become the biggest threat of all.

The art was incredible across the whole film. Besides Mumbattan, which was also incredible from an artistic perspective, my standouts were the later shots of the Spot and the old school comic book style animation for Ben Reilly, also known as Scarlet Spider, in the rain on Miles's apartment building. That was stunning.

Parenting is a big theme, but keeping secrets is the real lesson

Another big theme in this film is parenting, with not just Miles's parents but Gwen's father and Peter B. Parker, who is now a dad, struggling with how to parent not just a child who is becoming an adult but a super powered one. Mayday is not becoming an adult anytime soon, but she is one heck of an Easter egg. She is one of the first spider people other than Peter Parker to be successfully introduced in the comics and embraced by fans, back in 1998. She was really popular for a while and had her own comic, and I wonder why she faded away. This was before the time some fans saw a female version of a character and freaked out. They loved Mayday, so maybe they can bring her back.

I do not really think this film answered the parenting question, to be honest, though maybe it will in part two. To me, what it really illustrated was what a big mistake it was for Gwen and Miles to keep their superhero identities secret from the people who love and support them the most, their parents. They have great parents, particularly Miles, whose parents are real life superheroes. Peter B. Parker and Mayday have no secrets from each other, and look how well they get along.

The pain Miles causes his parents in particular was hard for me to sit through, because they are such great people. I kept thinking, tell them. You cannot do that for somebody else, but if I were Miles's friend I would tell him he needs to do it now.

Miles grows up, and Gwen assembles her band

What was fun was seeing Miles grow into an adult superhero. He is better learning how to use his unique powers, and his invisibility and his Venom blasts were both fantastic here. I loved that cliffhanger when he was about to blast the chain. He also realises that crushing on Gwen made him vulnerable and that he missed what she was really trying to do, from trying to keep him from saving Spider-Man India's Inspector Singh to stopping him saving his own father. The way he was crushed, and the way he addressed her once he found out, broke my heart, and it broke hers.

She is trying to make up for it with the new band she has brought together, her superhero team, which combines the new spider people we like in this film with the team from the first movie. They swing into action to save Miles from Universe 42, where he is stuck with Prowler Miles Morales, and to defeat the Spot and save Captain Davis and Miles's universe. When I saw it, I was excited. What a setup for part two.

Captain Stacy and Miguel O'Hara make big mistakes with their daughters

I am a big fan of Shea Whigham, and I really like the casting of him as the voice of Gwen's dad. He has a really cool character design, very similar to Miguel O'Hara's, and I wonder if that was an intentional choice. Both of them make some pretty big mistakes when it comes to their daughters, though at least Gwen has not glitched out just yet.

When Captain Stacy tried to arrest his daughter, I thought that was the wrong move. I could not believe it, and it caused her to flee her universe and join the Spider Society. When she comes back, we learn he was so affected by it that he quit the force, so she figures he is not a captain anymore and will not die. At first I was with her on that, but now I am not sure it is that easy, and I am a little nervous about it. I think he might still be a captain in spirit, which I find funny because spirit captain is a cheerleading term.

My theory that Hobie might be a variation of Miles

My other theory is that Spider-Punk, also known as Hobie, might actually be a variation of Miles, as he seems to know about Miles's Venom blast. I also think that might be why Gwen is drawn to him, creating a bit of a love triangle between her, Miles and Hobie, because the Spider Society forbade her from visiting Miles, so she started spending time with Hobie instead.

I ended up loving Hobie, especially when he took his mask off. The character design and animation are amazing. He is revealed to be an antihero, my favourite kind, fighting the system, which here is represented by Miguel O'Hara.

I see no good in Miguel O'Hara or this Jessica Drew

I do not see any good in Miguel at all, and I am curious how his fans feel about this. I thought it was funny in the opening at the Guggenheim when the police said he did not look like a good guy, because he does not. By the time we meet him, after everything he has been through, I see no good in him, and I think that might be the point.

I also did not see any good in this version of Jessica Drew. She was tailing Miles's dad, which I thought was horrible, and I felt she should be ashamed of herself. Jessica Drew is a private detective, and I did not really see her use that skill set beyond the tail.

Why can none of these movies get Ganke right? I was never sure how to pronounce his name, and the film's pronunciation was not the one I expected. He is not an annoying character in the comics, he is a delight. I could not confirm it, but the rumour is that he is voiced by the Pixar director behind Elemental, who had reportedly voiced him in the first Spider-Verse film before being cut. He is a really good actor, and based on the early reviews for Elemental at the time, I said he might be a better voice actor than director.

Sony wins the multiverse, but the Spider Society lost the hope

I will say that Sony has done the best job with the multiverse so far, and Amy Pascal deserves her flowers across the board. That goes not just for No Way Home but for these animated Spider-Verse films, and even for Venom, which dabbled with the Spider-Verse through its end credit scenes.

That said, I found the Spider Society section of this film the least interesting, and surprisingly callous toward the suffering of Spider-Man as a character. I guess that is supposed to be the point, but Spider-Man has always been one of Marvel's most compassionate characters because he is an everyman, and taking that away does not ring true for the character to me. Take the therapist joke, where one says let me guess, your uncle died. My reaction was "that is not something any version of Spider-Man would ever say."

Spider-Man is about sacrifice, which this film highlights a lot, but he is also supposed to be about hope and the idea that the everyman can be the hero. To me, this film focused a bit too much on the sacrifice and not enough on the hope. There was some hope when Miles was on the train, but I do not see a way out for him. Would his universe glitch out of existence? Would it be pointless to try to save his father? I am very curious what they decide, especially since they are diverging from the comics quite a bit, and I hope part two highlights the hope of Spider-Man as a character.

Overall, this is very much a part one movie, but one that does a brilliant job setting up Spider-Man: Beyond the Spider-Verse. When I wrote this, I thought part two could be one of the best Spider-Man, and certainly Miles Morales, movies yet, and I could not wait.

Do you think Miles can save his father without his universe glitching out of existence, or is the Spider Society right about canon events?