Is Miles Morales an Anomaly? Did He Ruin Earth-42?

‘Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse’ saw Miles Morales‘ life getting even more complicated as it was. The sequel of the successful ‘Spider-Verse’ movie from 2018 is already hailed as the best Spider-Man movie ever made, and frankly, I agree with that notion. Miles Morales is once again the focus of the ‘Spider-Verse,’ but this time, his superhero aspect of life is being questioned by other versions of Spider-Man, specifically, the members of Spider-Force. Of course, Miles has “none of it” and fights against a predetermined fate of his superhero path, which causes possible ripples throughout the Multiverse. This article will discuss if Miles Morales is an anomaly and if he ruined another universe, Earth-42.

Miles Morales is an anomaly because the spider that bit him and made him Spider-Man was from another universe, Earth-42. When Dr. Ohnn transferred the spider from Earth-42 to Earth-1610, he prevented the spider from creating an alternate version Spider-Man, likely to bite either Miles Morales or Peter Parker of that world. This caused the destabilization of the Multiverse and the consequent dark timeline in Earth-42. Of course, Spider-Force was tasked with preventing the disruption of “canon events,” and Miles’ “accidental” birth into Spider-Man, prompted the group to stop Miles from doing more “damage” to the Multiverse.

Did Miles Morales accidentally ruin Earth-42? Yes and no – it’s more complicated than that. Of course, the young Spider-Man was bitten by the alternate version of the radioactive spider, preventing the universe’s Miles Morales from becoming the protector of New York, but his accidental actions didn’t cause the collapse of the universe. How? That’s what we will discuss in this article.

Is Miles Morales an anomaly?

One of the biggest revelations in the ‘Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse’ movie was the fact that Miles is an anomaly in the Spider-Verse. In other words, he wasn’t supposed to become a Spider-Man, because “his” genetically-enhanced spider came from Earth-42. How? Well, remember in ‘Into the Spider-Verse’ when Miles, Peter B. Parker, and Gwen Stacy escape Alchemax, and the young Spider-Man throws a donut at one of the scientists? It is revealed that the “target” was none other than Johnathon Ohnn, the villain we learn to be Spot.

At first, an innocent scientist trying to earn more money helping Kingpin build a Super-Collider, then “a new supervillain of the week” to the enormous danger to the Multiverse, the Spot is certainly the main and notorious villain of the ‘Across the Spider-Verse’ and Miles with the rest of the Spider-Force, learn that hard way.

The Spot reveals to Miles that he is “his maker” and that the young teenager owes him big time. To repay his “debt,” Spot decides to extend his “Spotted Dimension” (essentially engulfing himself in Dark Matter, becoming one big Black Hole, and having the ability to manipulate Multiverse) and makes sure to make Miles Morales miserable.

Of course, with his mission to jump from one alternate universe Alchemax to another to “power up,” Spot disrupts the whole universe, specifically, Earth-50101, the universe of Spider-Man India. However, afterward, we discover that Spot wasn’t necessarily the one that almost destroyed Earth-50101; it was Miles because he saved Captain Singh from certain death. By saving Pavitr’s girlfriend’s dad, Miles cause the disruption of a canon event that we later learn to be the death of various versions of Captain Stacy’s – or any other significant “captain” in Spider-Man’s lives.

Of course, in the movie ‘The Amazing Spider-Man,’ we saw Andrew Garfield’s Spider-Man seeing the death of Gwen Stacy’s father, Captain Stacy (among many others), which prompts so many questions for Miles – why has no one told him what’s going on?

Miles realizes that he’s been lied to by everyone, including his closest allies and friends, Peter B. Parker and Gwen Stacy. The young Spider-Man also realizes that his becoming Spider-Man in Earth-1610 disrupted the Multiverse, and to “fix it,” he needs to let the newly appointed Captain of NYPD, his father Jefferson, die, which will most likely happen at the hands of Spot.

Understandably, Miles is upset and doesn’t want to let his father just die because of a “canon event,” so he takes matters into his hands and decides to escape. After refusing to watch his father die, and learning his an anomaly, Miles is sent by the “Get Home” machine to another universe – the bleak and dark Earth-42, where his genetically enhanced spider came from.

This takes us to another question of this article – did Miles Morales accidentally ruin Earth-42?

Did Miles Morales ruin Earth-42?

Miguel O’Hara certainly seems to think so and decides to hunt Miles to probably imprison him and let the canon event do its thing. Spider-Man 2099 also suggests that if Miles never became a Spider-Man, the Earth-1610 Peter Parker would still be alive and that the young teenager is at fault for everything, even the dark timeline of Earth-42. However, O’Hara is most probably wrong since his actions, which were much worse, caused the literal destruction of the universe.

Of course, the “Get Home” device sends Miles Morales to Earth-42, where we learn that everything went wrong – Spider-Man doesn’t exist in that universe, and instead of Aaron Davis, Miles’ father Jefferson has died, and has a “spot” (pun certainly intended) on the “to be remembered” graffiti mural.

We learn the shocking truth about Earth-42. During Spot’s heist on Alchemax in Earth-50101, the villain provided Miles with his memories of when he transported the Earth-42 spider to Earth-1610 – just as the spider was supposed to bite Earth-42 Miles Morales; the insect was taken away by Dr. Ohnn.

The spider didn’t bite anyone, even Peter Parker, which caused the timeline without the existence of Spider-Man, and the inevitable high-crime rates in Earth-42’s New York.

The chain reaction of unfortunate events sees Jefferson Davis dying on duty and Miles Morales hanging out too much with his uncle Aaron Davis, turning him into the Prowler of Earth-42. The fact that Spider-Man couldn’t be the beacon of hope for New Yorkers also caused Miles to become a criminal in the New York City underworld.

However, did Miles Morales really ruin Earth-42? I don’t think so. Now, the ‘Across the Spider-Verse’ left us at a cliffhanger and set us up to continue the story in the ‘Beyond the Spider-Verse.’ But not before showing us that Miles’ father doesn’t have to die. There is a whole subplot in the movie (on Earth-65) where Gwen’s father, Captain Stacy, learns about his daughter Gwen being Spider-Woman and tries to arrest her for the murder of her best friend, Peter Parker.

Gwen escapes and joins Spider-Force, but when she returns, she discovers that her father left the force because he couldn’t go against his own daughter, preventing the tragic canon event from happening and essentially changing the fate of the Earth-65 universe, and most importantly, her own story.

Everything happens for a reason, even when that isn’t predetermined, as Miguel O’Hara and his Spider-Force thought. In ‘Beyond the Spider-Verse,’ we will most likely see that Earth-42’s fate isn’t Miles’ doing but part of the timeline that steered that way, unfortunately for Miles and his family.

What are your thoughts on the topic? Let us know in the comments below!