The MCU is no stranger to the multiverse. The idea was first introduced into the movie franchise withDoctor Strangeand later expanded upon by different movies. However, the first time wereallygot to experience it in detail was in the Disney+ show,Loki.
There’s a central body in Loki that’s in charge of pruning variant timelines and stopping people from interfering with time called the Time Variance Authority (TVA). It’s relevant to this conversation because of its similarity to Spider Society. Both function for the ultimate benefit of the multiverse, and both utilize similar methods, not caring about the morality of the issue.
But for all its issues and moral grayness, at least TVA is effective at what it does. The same can’t be said about Spider Society, the parallel of TVA inSpider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse.
For Spider Society, the multiverse is personal. As any HR representative will be more than happy to remind you, never mix your business and your personal life. Spider Society isn’t a group of apathetic individuals monitoring the multiverse; it’s a group of Spider Variants working together to ensure more Spider Variants go through the same tragedies they went through.
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There was a scene in the movie that stuck with me—the chase scene, when the movie cuts away from the intense action to show a therapy session between Spider-Man and his patient, who’s also a Spider-Man. The juxtaposition between the calm setting and intense action, and the collapse of said calm setting as a crowd of Spider-Variants burst through the wall, is played for laughs, but it’s the interaction between the therapist and patient before that event that I found unsettling. Patient Spider-Man says “I looked at my Uncle and-”, and therapist Spider-Man cuts him off by saying “Uh, let me guess, he died?”
It’s supposed to be funny, and it is, to an extent, because they’re both Spider-Men that experienced the same trauma and had the same experiences. But that’s exactly the issue with the organization as a whole.
Having a society full of superheroes that trivialise tragedy isn’t a great idea. Having a society full of superheroes that trivialise tragedy be in charge of keeping the Multiverse in check is ahorribleidea. Tack on the responsibility of watching said tragedies and making sure they happen, and you can see why I think this whole thing is a bomb waiting to explode.
Of course, there’s the rational argument,as told by Miguel O’Hara. Suppose the canon events, events that are ‘meant’ to occur in every multiverse (for example, Uncle Ben dying), are stopped by anomalies (people that aren’t a part of that universe). In that case, reality will collapse in on itself, causing the death of everyone in that universe, including the person you try to save.
However, as Miles eagerly demonstrated, the very existence of superheroes is about going against rationality and defying reason. It doesn’t matter if the evidence supports Miguel’s argument. Superheroes don’t look at rational arguments. They just do what they feel is the right thing. The bigger picture is usually something that the villains use to justify their actions.
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And herein lies the crux of the issue. Whether Miguel is right or wrong, Spider Society is doomed to fail. Miles’ situation isn’t going to be unique. After all, he’s not the only headstrong web-slinger in the multiverse. Other Spider-Variants will eventually rebel against Miguel’s decision to let, or in some cases force, canon events to happen. Even right now, several of them decided to side with Miles in his quest to save his father, choosing togo against the Spider Society.
As more and more Spideys encounter anomalies in their universe, they will join the Spider Society. And as more of them join it, they will balk at the idea of letting their loved ones, even those from other universes, die, and they will take action to stop that from happening.
If Miguel is right, and not following canon events will lead to the destruction of the world every time, then he will have a whole lot of collapsing universes on his hands. If he’s wrong and stopping the canon isn’t the trigger for complete destruction, then the existence of the organization is nothing more than a power trip, and the status quo won’t be maintained for long.
No matter which way it swings, there’s just no winning. Either the multiverse is going to collapse because the people maintaining it are emotionally compromised, or the whole operation is a farce, and Miguel is on track to becoming an even bigger villain thanthe Spot. Of course, more likely than not, Miles’ action will lead Spider Society to change for the better before any of that can actually come to pass. But it’s the possibility that matters.
