Across the Spider-Verse Theory: Is Miguel O'Hara About to Start a Spidey Civil War With Miles Morales?

My brain is still a little blown from the Across the Spider-Verse trailer, and I keep coming back to the same question: why are all these Spider-People dogpiling on Miles Morales? I have a theory that we may be headed into the middle of a Spidey on Spidey Civil War, or as John Watts might call it, a Spider-Man Home War.

If that theory holds up, it changes how fans should be watching this trailer. This is not just Miles meeting a bunch of cool new Spider-People. From what I can piece together, he may end up fighting them.

Gwen Stacy's Multiversal Tech Traces Back to Miguel O'Hara's Post Credits Scene

When we last saw Miles at the end of Into the Spider-Verse, it was revealed that Gwen found a way to reliably travel the Multiverse, and the teaser we saw last December seems to pick up right there, with Gwen stopping by to check on her pal and do some superheroics. The hexagonal portal tech she is using, along with the bracelet she wears, both appear to be inventions by Miguel O'Hara, AKA Spider-Man 2099 of Earth 928. We saw the beginnings of this in the post credits scene of Into the Spider-Verse, where Miguel and his AI Lyla invent autonomous multiversal travel and he begins recruiting a team of web warriors.

Sony's Synopsis Confirms Miguel Is Running the Team and Gwen Is Already In

According to the official Sony synopsis, the movie follows Brooklyn's full time friendly neighborhood Spider-Man as he is catapulted across the Multiverse, encountering a team of spider people charged with protecting its very existence. These are essentially the Web Warriors, or Spider Force, from the comics, who defend the Web of Life and Destiny that connects the Multiverse. It is very clear that Miguel is leading this operation and that Gwen is part of his squad.

Why Miles Isn't Invited Into the Spider Society, According to Lord, Miller and Steinfeld

In the post trailer interview with producer and co writer Phil Lord, co writer Chris Miller, and actor Hailee Steinfeld, they revealed that Gwen is invited into the spider club and Miles pointedly is not, and it is low key because he is not cool enough to hang for a specific reason that Gwen is not telling him. As Lord put it to Steinfeld, "basically you got invited into Oscar Isaac's, AKA Miguel's, cool spider force, you get invited into the spider society and Miles doesn't, and you sort of can't tell him why." The fact that Gwen is keeping a secret from Miles is a very interesting mystery box I plan to circle back to.

Miguel's Rules For the Multiverse Are Where the Trouble Starts

I think we are going to see Miguel enforce the rules of his interdimensional superhighway, guarding the Multiverse from other travelers with nefarious intentions, because with great power comes great responsibility. The first movie already established that multiversal travel can come with dangerous hiccups, from incursions to complete cellular decay, and that is clearly a responsibility that weighs heavy on Miguel. But I think it is how he carries out that responsibility that ultimately leads to his conflict with Miles.

In that same Lord, Miller and Steinfeld interview, Miller notes that the first movie was about the idea that anyone can wear the mask, while this movie is about how do you wear the mask. That tells me this film will explore the methods and degrees of balancing power with responsibility, comparing how Miles handles crime fighting and prevention versus how Miguel handles it.

The Spot Is the Villain Missing From the Trailer, and He's the Center of the Conflict

This is where the villain of the movie, suspiciously missing from the trailer, The Spot, comes in. The rest of the official synopsis tells us that the way Miles approaches the Spot versus how Miguel approaches the Spot is the core conflict of the movie, stating that when the heroes clash on how to handle a new threat, Miles finds himself pitted against the other spiders and must redefine what it means to be a hero so he can save the people he loves most.

In the comics, Dr. Jonathan Ohnn was a scientist hired by Kingpin to recreate Cloak's teleportation powers. His research sent him to a dimension of half darkness, half light, surrounded by portals, which he called Spot World, and after finding his way back to his original dimension, he discovered the portals had stuck to his skin, letting him teleport. The comics mostly play the Spot as a joke, but producer Kent Powers warns that when you really look at his powers, there is incredible potential, and I agree. Wielding a power like that comes with great, great, great, great, great responsibility, as Tom Holland's Peter Parker found out the hard way when he messed up the Multiverse so badly that everyone forgot he existed.

Miguel's Brutal Methods vs. Miles's Sympathy Could Be the Actual Split

A character with the power to jump dimensions without Miguel's tech, consent, or safety precautions is automatically a multiversal threat in Miguel's eyes, and Miguel's job is to eliminate threats. How does he do that? With excessive force, from the looks of it. Not only do we see him ragdolling Miles across dimensions in the trailer, but the comic version of Miguel is brutal, and the crew of Across the Spider-Verse reportedly nicknamed him "Property Damage Spider-Man" because everything gets destroyed in his wake. Miles, on the other hand, will likely take a more sympathetic approach. Producer Kent Powers says the Spot and Miles are connected in surprising ways, which leads me to believe the Spot they are fighting over comes from the same universe as Miles.

My Theory: This Spot May Have Been Created by Fisk's Collider, Just Like Miles's Villains Before Him

Like his comic counterpart, I think this Spot was likely a scientist working on Fisk's forays into dimensional travel, and he may have even been an unseen casualty when Fisk rebooted his particle collider, possibly trapped between dimensions when Miles shut it down, another villain inadvertently created by a Spider-Man. A Variety article from June 2022 reported that the Spot's character design will evolve as the character does, describing a design meant to call to mind an unfinished sketch with blue construction lines, evoking a comic book artist's rough drawing before the work goes to ink, with the design evolving over the course of the film into a more fearsome shape as he learns to better apply his powers. To me that sounds a lot like Dr. Ohnn slowly being regenerated back into reality, similar to Dr. Manhattan when he first got his powers. If Spot's powers were the result of an accident like they were in the comics, Miles would understand where he is coming from, especially since Miles did not know how to control his own powers either.

Could the Spot Be Connected to the Death of Miguel's Daughter?

I think the interpersonal spider drama goes deeper than Miguel simply trying to kill the Spot while Miles tries to help him. In the trailer we see Miguel gazing at an old photo of him and his daughter Gabriella eating ice cream, which combined with the fact that every Spider-Man experiences a tragic loss, hints that she is most likely deceased. It would not surprise me if the Spot turns out to be somehow partially responsible for Gabriella's death.

But what if Miguel's Spot is not Miles's Spot? As far as we know, only two dimensions have successfully invented the means to jump into the Multiverse, so I expect the Spot to slowly come into his powers the same way Miles had to learn to control his. My theory is that the Spot's powers somehow directly or indirectly caused the death of Miguel's daughter. If he ran into Miguel and Gabriella while he was still figuring out his powers, he could have made a mistake that cost her her life. I want to be clear this is speculation on my part, and the person who actually killed Gabriella may not be the Spot we are getting, voiced by Jason Schwartzman. It could have been an earlier version from Nueva York, whose powers came from Kingpin's busted portal explosion, thrusting him into Spot World just like his comic counterpart, and perhaps that dimension is even connected to the Web of Life and Destiny. If that is true, he would have instantly gained the ability that took Miguel years to invent, which could explain why Miguel is so determined to control interdimensional travel. If the person he loved most was killed by careless space warping, I could see him making it his life's mission to prevent that from ever happening again.

Sokovia Accords Energy: Miles May Side With the Spot Against Miguel's Team

This is where the second part of my theory comes in. If Miles learns that Miguel wants to kill or punish the Spot for his inability to control his powers, Miles could take the Spot's side, especially since he just spent the entirety of Into the Spider-Verse struggling to master his own powers. If Miles is also struggling to fit in with the cool crowd at Spidey Central, he might turn a sympathetic eye to a fellow outcast. If Miles protests against Miguel's harsh rules in favor of a more compassionate approach, we could have a Spider-Man Civil War on our hands, in the same way Tony and Cap fought over the Sokovia Accords. Miguel may see taking the Spot out as part of his duty to protect the Multiverse, while Miles argues to give the guy a chance, and both would have valid reasons for their beliefs without being able to compromise. It is possible this is when Miguel calls the rest of the Spideys to turn against Miles as the party crasher.

We do know that Gwen eventually calls Miguel out, saying "we are supposed to be the good guys," so my guess is she eventually sees that his methods are not as heroic as she and the others thought. Miles will not be alone in this fight for long, and after clashing with Miguel over how to handle the Spot, they may need to work together to stop this portal jumper from growing strong enough to break the Multiverse.

My Bottom Line: This Movie Is About How Each Spider-Man Wears the Mask

Ultimately I believe the theme of this movie is about how each Spider-Man chooses to wear the mask. Are Miguel's more aggressive tactics against the Spot the right way to handle things, or is Miles's non judgmental, more understanding approach better? Will Miles's naivete and past experiences blind him to the Spot's capacity for harm, and will Miguel find humanity in his nemesis? We are going to have to wait until 2023 to find out.

Do you think Miles ends up siding with the Spot against Miguel, or is there another explanation for why the Spider Society turns on him?