Miles Morales is easily becoming one of the most popular characters in Spider-Man's supporting cast. He's becoming one of my favorites as well, surpassing Miguel O Hara for me as the best alternate Spider-Man. Ever since Into The Spider-Verse hit our cinemas we have been loving Miles, his comic is doing phenominally well, he has a sequel to his hit movie on the way and he is even the star of his very own video game in a few days. With the new found popularity of Miles a lot of people have been excited about the prospect of Miles eventual introduction into the Marvel Cinematic Universe,That is something that excites me too, however I personally believe that unless some major changes are made to how Miles is and who he is as a character, he will not work following the current Tom Holland played MCU version of Spider-Man, let me explain why.
Issue 1:Miles And The MCU Peter Are Too Similar.
This is something that has been discussed at length by a good amount of people so I won't discuss it too much here, but a common criticisim of Peter Parker in the MCU is that he is too similar to Miles Morales, and that is a criticisim I agree with. They not only share a lot of the same superficial elements, like going to a special exclusive school, having a young parent who can be more involved in their heroics, and need I mention Ned Leeds/Ganke? But there is even a lot of personality traits shared between the two now, traits that Peter never had before. I will display a small set of bullet points to show comic Peter and Miles personality to see where the differences and now similarities with the current MCU Peter lie.
Comic Book Peter Parker:
- Someone Who is so dedicated to the idea of being Spider-Man that his personal life will always take a back seat, even if he doesn't like it.
- Confident when wearing the costume
- Will be on a team if necessary but prefers to be a loner.
- Keeps compusre with other superheroes even ones he idolizes.
Miles Morales:
- Someone who while they enjoy being Spider-Man when things get tough, especially when a loved one or idolized mentor dies they may quit being Spider-Man for a period of time.
- While they will make jokes in the costume they still second guess themselves a lot even while in costume. Always wondering how he stacks up to his hero.
- Loves the idea of being on a team and being with his heroes.
- Up until recently completely idolized Peter Parker and always wanted to be like him and have his love and respect.
Now if you have watched all of MCU Spider-Mans appearances you will notice a shocking amount of similarities to Miles, of course replace his idolizing of Peter Parker to Iron Man and we have a very similar character. Even to the point of quitting being Spider-Man, even temporality when Tony Stark was killed. Now is any of this a problem for right now? No, for right now this Peter Parker is a fresh new take on the character for the movie going audience, however once Miles is introduced and Peter is persumably killed off we're trading one character for basically the same character. There of course would be small differences but I don't think general audiences will like the idea of replacing Peter Parker with....another Peter Parker.
ISSUE 2: Miles WILL MAKE A GREAT ARC FOR PETER, BUT WHAT DO YOU DO AFTER?
Bringing Miles into the MCU inherently is not a bad idea. Depending on how you do it, I am of the opinion that Miles works better with Peter than he does without. More similar to how he was done in Spider-Man PS4 than the comics he originated from. Doing Miles that way could make a great arc for this version of Peter Parker. Sure it will take a long time for us to get to a point where this can happen but hear me out.
This Peter Parker has had many mentors, or at the very least two different ones so far, Tony Stark and Quenten Beck, with a little Nick Furt sprinkled in there, Fans have even become irritated that Doctor Strange appears to be taking another mentor like posistion in Spider-Man 3. However Miles would be the perfect end to Peters arc, Peter has spent his entire MCU film history looking up to other heroes, trying to impress them and trying to prove he can be just as great as them, and trying to live up to the expectations of his mentors.
Miles would allow Peter to finally be the man on the other side, he would finally have someone whom he can show how to be the hero. In the movie with Miles introduction Peter could be hesistant to train Miles due to how Spider-Man has affected his life, but by the end of the film he decides to be the teacher Miles needs, taking his experience with all of his previous mentors and forming his own teachings to help Miles in the way he feels is right. Struggling with teaching him cause nobodies perfect but still trying his best like his previous mentors were.
That to me sounds like a fantastic character arc for Peter Parker, but my issue lays in where does Peter go from there? With how Peters character has been in the MCU so far that would be the way to perfectly end his arc, Similar to Tony Stark in Endgame that at least to me feels like the way to end Peters stories, so where do you go? If Miles is used as Tom Hollands exit pass from the role of Spider-Man and the MCU you can't have him be a supporting character in Miles's movies, If you kill Peter off and leave Miles alone than you have the issue I mentioned before of leaving one character for another very similar one. Perhaps there would be a way to allow Peters role to continue but personally I do not see it.
ISSUE 3: MILES'S ARC IS THE SAME AS MCU PETERS.
I know this seems like something that should have been included in the first point, however this is an issue I feel is big enough for it's own section. The issue to put it bluntly is this, Peter has already learned the big lesson Miles has learned in all previous incarnations.
Peter Parkers big lesson in Far From Home, and possibly homecoming depending on who you talk to is to not try to be like another hero. "You're not Iron Man, you've never going to be Iron Man.You'll be the first Spider-Man" to paraprahse Happys line in Far From Home if I may.
This arc worked really well for Peter in Far From Home, allowed him to finally expand out to his own hero and stop worrying about what the rest of the world and the other heroes think. Miles on the other hand has had that arc in every other medium he has been introduced in, That was his exact arc in Spider-Verse, it was his arc in the comics, it will even most likely be what his character will go through in Miles Morales Spider-Man on PS4 and 5.
There would of course be small differences between Miles and Peters arc if he were to be brought into the MCU, mainly replacing Iron Man in Peters arc with Peter in Miles arc. Wanting to live up to Peter and show him he can be just as good as him. A way you could do it would be to show how Miles is a different Spider-Man to Peter Parker, however that may cause an issue as not only is that the exact arc Miles has always had, but with their personalities being so similar it would have to be with very superficial things such as his powers, which honestly for me wouldn't be very interesting to see Far From Home just done again. This could all be fixed if Miles's personality is changed for his introduction but as of right now that is a big issue for Miles as a main character in the MCU.
Now I've spent this whole time explaining why I feel Miles at least as is would not work in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, however there is more to this article than just that as shown by the title, while I don't feel he would work in the MCU there is a live action Spider-Man franchise where I feel he would fit, and it all stemmed from a little rumor that had been circulating along with all the most recent Spider-Man 3 news. That franchise would be...
THE RAIMI/TOBEY MAGUIRE SPIDER-MAN FRANCHISE
Rumors have been circulating that within a Spider Verse movie set after Spider-Man 3, the Tobey Maguire Spider-Man will make a Tony Stark style sacrifice.and Miles Morales will take over in that world and continue on into a possible Spider-Man 4. Now of course ignoring the parts of this that make it seem unlikely, such as the high chance that Sam Raimi would be unlikely to want to do Miles Morales, I do think that if you were to have Miles and this version of Peter together that you could have some interesting stories.
This Peter parker is one who has never had another hero around, there is no Avengers, no Xmen, not even a Doctor Strange, it's always him as the only superhero and protecting this city, but now here is this kid Miles Morales who has the same powers as him and may even be able to take some of the weight of being Spider-Man off his shoulders. Of course he wouldn't take it as a means to quit or be Spider-Man less, but it would be an oppurtunity for change, and it would allow for a new interesting story we haven't seen from this Peter Parker before.
Plus it would allow Miles to deal with something he wouldn't have in the MCU, if this Peter were to be around as his mentor first, and then die Miles would not only have to live with the idea of living up to his mentor, but also now he is the only superhero around, before he shared responsibility with Peter, but now it's all on him, how does that affect him and his relationships? That's something we could do in a non MCU Spider-Man world. Whether or not this is what we would get is hard to say, but I see the potential more with this sort of thing than having Miles come into the MCU.
I say all of this with love, I love Miles as a character, I love Spider-Verse and I will hopefully love his game when I get the chance to play it. Do I want the MCU to use Miles and blow me away? Absolutely, I'm sure Kevin Feige and company have plans on how to use that character and make him as good as he's ever been. I'm just stating my issues as of right now, and something that hopefully will give the people some thought. What do you guys think? List your thoughts down below, I would love to get this discussion going.