Spider-Man 2099 Theory: Why Miguel O'Hara Might Really Turn on Miles Morales in Across the Spider-Verse

The Spot Is Named the Villain, But Miguel O'Hara Throws the Punches

A trailer for Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse revealed that Miles Morales is in a lot of trouble. The villain of the sequel was announced as The Spot, voiced by Jason Schwartzman, otherwise known as Dr. Jonathan Ohnn, a character who uses portals to evade and deceive his opponents. He is reportedly set to be the antagonist of both this film and the follow-up, Beyond the Spider-Verse.

Yet The Spot barely shows up in the trailer at all. The character actually beating on Miles the most is Spider-Man 2099, Miguel O'Hara, voiced by Oscar Isaac. He was introduced in the post-credit scene of the 2018 film, which raises the question of whether that moment was actually unveiling this sequel's real antagonist. "I think it's more complicated than that," is my take. So it is worth breaking down Miguel's plan in this movie, whether he counts as a villain at all, and why he seems so at odds with Miles.

Miguel's "Greater Good" Argument Sounds Like Villain Logic

In the trailer, Miguel O'Hara looks isolated and roughed up, chasing Miles down the Nueva York superhighway and tackling him into the pavement. There is also a voice-over exchange between Miguel and Gwen Stacy: "Who do you think you are, really?" "We are supposed to be the good guys." "We are." That does not sound good. It sounds like the kind of "greater good" argument movie villains make all the time, with Miguel going to extremes and crossing a moral line in the hope that the ends will justify the means.

Phil Lord and Chris Miller explained the setup this way to Gwen's voice actress, Hailee Steinfeld, at an after-party interview: "Basically, you get invited into Oscar Isaac's cool spider force... into this spider society, and Miles doesn't. And you sort of can't tell him why." That leaves the secret reason Miles was left out of Miguel's spider force unanswered for now.

The Name "Spider-Force" Points to a Comic Tied to Spider-Geddon

Spider-Force is the name of a 2018 Spider-Verse comic run tying in with the Spider-Geddon event, in which all the spider people face an existential threat from the Inheritors. That comic run centers on Jessica Drew, who has a kid at that point in the story. Jessica Drew in this movie is shown pregnant, so there may be a connection there.

What stands out about the trailer is that it does not really give anything away about the plot. It is just vibes, introducing the theme of Miles not fitting in with the broader society of spider people while promising a lot of multiversal cameos. The Spot himself is not even shown.

A Daughter Named Gabriella May Explain Miguel's Grief

There is a quick moment in the trailer where Miguel O'Hara looks at a display screen showing a file for who I assume is his daughter, Gabriella. In the comics, Miguel has a son named Gabriel, named after his half-brother, and that son eventually takes Miguel's place. Based on the emotional intensity Miguel is bringing to this scene, my guess is that Gabriella died.

Since Miguel did not seem to be carrying this weight in the 2018 film, my guess is that Gabriella died recently, sometime between the meme moment of Miguel pointing fingers with the 1960s Spider-Man at the end of that film and the point shown here, where he has met hundreds of other spider people and set up an entire nexus and society. Something happened to his daughter in between.

Not a Pure Villain So Much As an Antagonist With Understandable Motives

Given such a sympathetic backstory, it does not feel accurate to simply call Miguel a villain in this movie. Lord and Miller consistently give their characters deep emotional wells and justifiable motivations, the same way Kingpin also lost his wife and kid and was only trying to bring them back.

Really, all these characters are pursuing understandable goals that just collide with each other. It is less a pure hero versus an evil villain and more a protagonist versus an antagonist, which makes for a better story. If Miguel did lose his daughter, it raises the question of how and why that would make him so afraid of Miles joining the society.

Nueva York's Design Draws on Syd Mead and Mirrors the Spot's "Work in Progress" Arc

Two key details came out of Lord and Miller's after-party interview with Hailee Steinfeld. First, Miguel's futuristic Nueva York is based on the art of Syd Mead, which depicted an aspirational future. Nueva York was designed with deliberate artist construction lines left visible underneath, meant to convey it as a work in progress, since all futures are, when you think about it.

This actually shows up in the trailer, where Miguel appears in a freeze frame with animator storyboard lines and notes to the inker specifying colors: crimson red and imperial violet. Those are not just shades of ink but apt descriptions of Miguel's violent approach and his multiversal empire-building ambitions.

This description of Miguel and Nueva York matches director Kemp Powers' past descriptions of the Spot as a character who begins as a work in progress, a rough draft with blue construction lines that get more and more spidered with ink and gradually filled in as he gets a handle on his powers. For a series that celebrates art, ink dots, and frame rates the way this one does, it is notable to see that made into an actual element of the story itself.

A Multiversal Ink Sickness Theory Tied to Gabriella's Fate

Could the ink that splatters onto Dr. Jonathan Ohnn to turn him into the Spot be a multiversal sickness that threatens everyone linked to the Spider-Verse with a similar infection? A second detail revealed by Lord and Miller is that Peter B. Parker, seen with a baby carrier in the trailer, does have a daughter with Mary Jane named Mayday, who has two different colored eyes. Lord and Miller said she inherited her father's spider blood, calling it "a very important rule that they're establishing."

If Mayday inherited her father's spider blood, wouldn't Gabriella also have inherited Miguel's spider blood? That would make both spider daughters vulnerable to any infection threatening all spider things, which could be how Gabriella died, and it could also be the case Miguel would make to pressure Peter B. Parker to side with him.

Why Miles and Gwen Get Scapegoated: The Anomaly Theory

Why target Miles specifically? Miles and Gwen are unique among others in the Spider-Verse because their universes each started with a separate Peter Parker before them, one who died and handed off the mantle. They were not the first people bitten by a radioactive spider, unlike many, if not most, others in the Spider-Verse. That makes Miles and Gwen anomalies, ones Miguel could interpret as mistakes.

The movie could even retcon the term Inheritors, causing a ripple effect across the Spider-Verse that results in black ink holes, with black referring to the absence of all other colors, pockmarking anyone on the arachno-frequency spectrum as a disease spread by the Spot. That could explain the trailer clips showing Miles and Gwen inside Miguel's device, cocooned in a yellow and blue crystalline structure, a device that might erase them by separating their CMYK ink components back into separate wells.

"I don't know, folks." But for a story conceived during pandemic fears, one that tries to use the elements of animation and artistry not just for aesthetic beauty but for tangible plot points, this is one explanation that makes a lot of sense to me. What do you think is really driving Miguel O'Hara's war against Miles Morales?