Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse will see Miles Morales exploring new universes, meeting a literal army of alternate Spider heroes throughout the multiverse. However, there is some critical set-up in past movies that’s worth remembering before the new sequel releases. Likewise, Into the Spider-Verse wasn’t the only movie that set the foundation for the greater multiverse story that’s about to be told.
In Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, Miles Morales became Spider-Man while also meeting several versions of the Webslinger from across different universes. However, both Venom films andthe MCU’s Spider-Man: No Way Home helped lay the groundwork for the upcoming Spider-Verse sequel as well. Here are 10 things that will be helpful to keep in mind before watching Across the Spider-Verse.
10 Miles Morales Gains Powers From Project 42
During a secret outing with his Uncle Aaron, Miles Morales is bitten by a radioactive spider created by Alchemax who were attempting to recreate the powers of Spider-Man. While Miles did indeed gain the Webslinger’s typical abilities, he can also turn invisible and can fire bioelectric “venom blasts” as powers all his own. Naturally, Into the Spider-Verse sees Miles training to control and use these new powers as the brand-new Spider-Man of Brooklyn.
09 Kingpin Builds A Collider To Access The Multiverse
Miles’ attempts to discover how he got his powers lead him to the massive super collider built for Kingpin by Alchemax. Seeking to bring back alternate versions of the wife and son he lost, the collider granted Kingpin access to the entire multiverse, albeit with large amounts of instability. This explains why so many Spider heroes end up arriving from other universes (outside their or Kingpin’s control).
08 Miles Morales Becomes Spider-Man After Peter Parker Dies
Failing to destroy the collider, the Peter Parker of Miles’ reality was killed by Kingpin. However, he entrusted Miles with a device capable of destroying the collider before he died, symbolically passing on his mantle to Miles. Determined to honor the original Spider-Man’s last wishes, Miles worked to become the next Spider-Man of his reality. Thankfully, he’d soon receive the perfect multiversal guides to help him step into the original Websligner’s shoes.
07 Miles Morales Meets 5 Multiversal Spider-Heroes
First meeting Gwen Stacy at his academy without realizing she was a Spider hero from another universe, Miles met Peter B. Parker from another reality who eventually agreed to help train Miles and help him shut down the collider. After Gwen finally revealed herself as a version of Spider-Woman from yet another reality, the trio then met Spider-Noir, Peni Parker and her robot SP//dr, and the Amazing Spider-Ham. Together, the collected Spider heroes did their best to train and get Miles ready to be a true Spider-Man.
06 All Spider-Verse Heroes Return Home & The Collider Is Destroyed
By Into the Spider-Verse’s final act, Miles becomes Spider-Man by finding his own path and a “leap of faith”. In doing so, Miles was able to send his fellow Spider heroes home through the multiverse before shutting down the collider. He then defeated Kingpin, cementing himself in the eyes of the public as the next Spider-Man. However, Miles’ multiversal adventures have only just begun as evidenced by the trailers for Across the Spider-Verse.
05 Gwen Stacy Returns To Miles Morales’ Universe
Just ahead of the credits for Into the Spider-Verse, it was revealed that Gwen somehow made it back to Miles’ reality. While it’s since been confirmed that there’s now a way to safely travel the Spider-Verse, this was one of the film’s bigger mysteries. However, it was exciting nonetheless to see that Miles and Gwen had a means of continuing their new relationship.
04 Spider-Man 2099 Becomes First Spider-Verse Traveler
As seen in Into the Spider-Verse’s post-credits scene, Spider-Man 2099 made his debut with a device that allowed him to make stable jumps from reality to reality without endangering his own existence. Now, Across the Spider-Verse has confirmed that 2099’s goal was to recruit a Spider Society of heroes from across the multiverse, though for some reason Miles Morales will be excluded from the team. This also explains how Gwen was able to revisit Miles as she’s also a part of this new alliance of Spider-People.
03 Venom’s Universe Connected To Spider-Verse
Having released before Into the Spider-Verse, Sony’s first Venom movie starring Tom Hardy featured a post-credits scene that was a clip for the upcoming animated movie showing Miles’ first meeting with Peter B. Parker. However, it opened with a significant tag: “Meanwhile in another universe…”. This confirms that the Venom franchise and its connected films such as Morbius and perhaps Kraven all exist within the same multiverse as the Spider-Verse movies. As such, Spider heroes might not be the only ones who could make appearances in the upcoming movie.
02 Venom Has Spider-Verse Knowledge And MCU Connections
As seen in Venom: Let There Be Carnage’s post-credits scene, Eddie Brock’s symbiote confirmed it holds “80 billion years of hive knowledge across universes” a tease that the symbiote hive mind Venom is connected to spans the multiverse itself. Case in point, Venom and Eddie’s inadvertent jump to the MCU saw the symbiote recognizing Spider-Man, even though the Lethal Protector hadn’t met or seen any version of the Webslinger to that point.
01 MCU Spider-Man Almost Destroys Multiverse With Doctor Strange
In Spider-Man: No Way Home, the MCU’s Peter Parker (Tom Holland) accidentally ruined a spell he’d asked Benedict Cumberbatch’s Doctor Strange to cast, meant to make the world forget that Spider-Man was Peter Parker. However, Peter continually asking for exceptions mid-cast caused the spell to go haywire, bringing in classic villains from the multiverse and two Spider-Man variants played by Andrew Garfield and Tobey Maguire. However, the greater fallout would have damaged the entire multiverse had Peter not sacrificed his own identity, having no choice but for the entire world to forget Peter Parker in order to stabilize the chaos.
Humorously, this multiversal crisis in the MCU was referenced in the trailer for Across the Spider-Verse by Spider-Man 2099. As such, perhaps a cameo from Holland’s Spider-Man is in the works for this new sequel. Either way, it’s clear that Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse is ready to delve into the multiverse even further, especially with Miles leaving his own reality for the first time.
