Did Spider-Man: No Way Home Hint At The Introduction Of Miles Morales?
"Spider-Man: No Way Home" arrived in theaters over the weekend, as you may have noticed, and it made quite an impact. Not just at the box office, but on the future of the franchise, not to mention the larger Marvel Cinematic Universe, as well as Sony's continued "Spider-Man" spin-off franchises. It offered a whole lot to process and, that being the case, some things might have slipped through the cracks on a first watch for certain viewers. One such thing was a not-so-subtle nod to none other than Miles Morales! Yes, it seems another seed has been planted for the character's eventual live-action debut, and we're going to talk about it.
Warning: massive spoilers ahead for "Spider-Man: No Way Home." Proceed with caution.
A Brief History of Miles Morales
For those who may not be familiar, Miles Morales is another character within the Marvel Comics canon who takes up the mantle of Spider-Man. Created by Brian Michael Bendis and Sara Pichelli, he initially appeared in the "Ultimate" universe, one divorced from the primary Marvel universe, in the pages of "Ultimate Fallout" #4 in 2011, before going on to star in his own solo series. As a half-Black, half-Puerto Rican superhero, Miles made a big splash and quickly captured the imagination of many readers. His popularity skyrocketed and his profile within the Marvel universe continued to grow.
General audiences became much more familiar with Miles through 2018's Oscar-winning "Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse," which also played with the concept of the multiverse, but with Miles at the center of it all as opposed to Peter Parker. The movie was a huge hit and added to the groundswell of support to see the character appear in live action. That brings us to today and the release of "No Way Home."
The Moment In Question
During the climactic fight at the Statue of Liberty in "Spider-Man: No Way Home," the three Spider-Mans, played by Tom Holland, Andrew Garfield, and Tobey Maguire, are trying to cure each of the villains of the multiverse so that they can be sent home without being sentenced to death. When they get to Max, AKA Electro, played once again by Jamie Foxx following his work in "The Amazing Spider-Man 2," he gets to have a moment with Garfield after the dust momentarily settles.
Garfield takes his mask off, revealing himself to Max. They then have a little exchange, in which, the idea of Miles Morales is all but teed up. Looking over the hero that Max has tangled with, he makes the following observation:
"You from Queens, you got that suit, you help a lot of poor people. I just thought you was going to be Black."
The moment (at least in my theater) got a healthy laugh, and Garfield's Peter Parker apologizes. But it's what Max says next that truly drives home the point, as he adds that there's "got to be a Black Spider-Man somewhere out there."
Revisiting A Key Scene From Homecoming
Let us not forget that this is not the first not-so-subtle nod to Miles Morales' existence. Going back to 2017 and the release of "Spider-Man: Homecoming," Tom Holland's solo debut as Peter Parker in the MCU, we got our first real reference to the character from Donald Glover's Aaron Davis.
In the above clip, we see Spider-Man investigating Aaron, who had previously been seen trying to buy weapons from Vulture's crew. After he is webbed up, Aaron relents to Peter's line of questioning saying, "I don't want those weapons in the neighborhood. I got a nephew that lives here." And boom goes the dynamite, as it were. In the comics, Aaron Davis is Miles Morales' uncle, who goes on to become the Prowler. Those who have seen "Into the Spider-Verse" will be familiar with the character, as he appeared in the movie and was voiced by Mahershala Ali.
So what does this all mean? For now, it's just a couple of references, but Miles clearly exists somewhere in the Marvel multiverse, and he might even be in the main MCU. Whether or not we're ever going to see a full-on Miles Morales live-action movie remains to be seen, but the Vegas odds on it seem to be getting better.
"Spider-Man: No Way Home" is in theaters now.