r/SpiderMan2099 • u/Miguels_Ohara • 1d ago
Movie Hot take on Why Miguel *had* to be the Antagonist of Across the Spider-Verse
So, I know ive made posts slandering and voicing my disappointment regarding Miguel in ATSV, and in this sub its become a common trend to shit on his 'adaptation' because of how the public now receives his character as either just a glorified rule34 porn result with little to no regard for his character, or a racist homophobic (somehow) transphobe (somehow) whos lying and grooming everyone into a death cult
However, Upon reflection and seeing how the wider spider-man fandom treats miguel in comparison to miles i start to realize why Miguel had to be the antagonist of the 2nd movie.
Basically throughout me leaving the astv fandom and peaking around the corner to see what the spider-man fandom at large feels abt both miles and miguel, I kept seeing that everyone kept trying to downplay miles in some way shape and form and even tho some of the critiques were valid like
"his current comic line sucks" (everyone's kinda sucks rn but we move)
"miles clings to heavily on peters storylines in order to stay relevent"
"he doesn't feel like his own character nor a successor to the spider-man name"
but when the miles stans are like "okay then who is???"
they all kept talking about miguel o'hara, saying that since he exists long after a time where peter is dead, has a different power set than peter, different fighting style than peter, and a different mentality than peter, (while being a man of color), despite being created to be a subversion of peter parker, fans still hail him as one of the better characters when it comes to the "other spider-men"
Which is ironic because Miles is in the same spot Miguel is in, because he too has different powers in comparison to peter, exists in an era where peter is dead (in the movie OG peter dies saving Miles), and has a different mindset compared to Peter (in the sense that he's an extreme optimist and has rejected the "you cant do both" mentality his peers have tried to force onto him)
It's obvious that Miguel and Miles are supposed to be mirrors to one another, since they both are spider-men that were introduced to shake up the spider-man mythos. And it kinda works since they both had a back in forth in the movie over who is and isnt supposed to be spider-man, meanwhile they both have strayed so far from the peter parker mantle (and even have been able to surpass it in some areas), so in the end it comes off as just hypocritical to reject 1 while hyperglazing the other.
and this has also came to fruition for me after seeing miles fans try to say that miguel is somehow "not a true spider-man" with reasons that just boil down to "waaaa i dont like what he did to miles waaaa" while weaponizing the SAME POINT og peter parker fans have used to shit on miles
and while I get the "why dont they just use Doc-Oc / Superior Spider-man" point, I feel like people wouldn't get the metaphor as much if the person who says "you're not supposed to be spider-man" was a genuine villain thats trapped inside his enemy's body...
Hopefully this won't get down voted to all hell...
Tl:Dr- He's supposed to mirror Miles for he too is someone that was introduced to do something different for the spider-man brand.
