Spider-Verse Is Criticizing Marvel

I looove the Spider-Verse films. I thought it was a critique of the MCU as it began to expand. But it may be something much more in the larger context.

In the first movie, Peter died and Miles picked up the mantle within his universe. Later he would loose his Uncle during the Collider Crisis that opened the door to the Spider Society in the second movie. The sequel discusses canon events and the one Spider-Man variants, Miguel, argues that death of a cop that’s close to a Spider-Man is an inevitable canon event and attempting to change it will ruin their universe. In this case, said cop he is talking about is also Miles’ dad, but Miguel is unaware of Spot causing all the trouble leading up to their meetup. In an attempt to prove him wrong, Miles goes to save his father by himself while a furious Miguel attempts to chase after him.

Now let’s turn back the clock a bit.

In the original Spider-Man comic book run, Peter and Mary Jane got married. They had a healthy relationship and would go on to have kids. Instead of continuing that arc, like Spider-Verse did, Marvel constantly retcons in any meaningful character development between the two back to the status quo to the frustration of their fans. This is also how we got that stupid Peter and Stark timeline.

Backing up Marvel’s insane choices today are the grifters, such as the Drinker, attempting to argue that Peter becoming a dad is weak and taking his child (who also the same powers) on crazy adventures is reckless. However, Mary Jane in the comics has been aware of Peter being Spider-Man years before they got engaged. She is a party animal with hidden smarts that married Peter because of who he is.

This is what I think Spider-Verse is also discussing. Miguel represents Marvel because they both refuse change. They don’t want Peter to have some resemblance of happiness between adventures. It’s truly amazing that DC does a better job at passing down the torch than Marvel ever could.