Spider-Verse 2: Miles Accidentally Creates A Temporal Paradox – Theory Explained

Spider-Man 2099 seems to have it out for Miles in the first trailer for Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse (Part One), and his reasoning might just concern the stability of not only the multiverse but the fabric of time itself. Since debuting in the pages of Ultimate Comics back in 2011, Miles Morales has been on top of the world, with secret links to the MCU, various cartoons, and even his own video game. However, beyond a shadow of a doubt, the character’s greatest success has been 2018’s widely beloved Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, a movie that used brand new innovations in animation and computer-generated effects to weave one of the most impressive superhero stories ever spun.

And now the creative team is set to do it all over again, promising to bring fresh ideas and even more breathtaking visuals to a story that will upend Miles and bring him to the Multiverse this time around. With so many Spider-Man releases coming to theaters in the next few years, the creative team is working above and beyond to make the sequel fresh and exciting in every way possible for audiences. This includes exploring worlds and variants from the comics that fans have been begging for, to even behind-the-scenes developments such as modifying Miles’ character model to add the appearance of aging.

Even with the arrival of the first trailer generating massive amounts of hype from fans, nobody knows exactly what to expect from the film, especially in regards to Spider-Man 2099’s seemingly antagonistic presence. However, based on 2099’s knowledge of the past and his understanding of the relativity of time, he just might be aware of a problem facing Earth-1610’s Spidey that not even Miles is aware of yet.

Spider-Man 2099 Is From The Far-Flung Future

If it wasn’t clear based on the character’s post-credits appearance in the first Into the Spider-Verse, Spider-Man 2099 is a futuristic variant of the iconic hero from the year 2099. The character was introduced in the 90s by Peter David and Rick Leonardi, as part of an ongoing line of stories set within the same cyberpunk future, and was revealed to be a scientist named Miguel O’Hara who worked for the secretly evil research company Alchemax. In Miguel’s timeline, superheroes were near-mythic beings worshipped as part of an era known as the “Heroic Age,” and Alchemax took advantage of their cultural status by experimenting on human beings in an attempt to replicate the powers and abilities of certain heroes. Miguel was unfortunately one of them, and his DNA was merged with that of a spider, causing him to grow talons on his arms as well as fangs that disperse a non-lethal paralytic. Along with these new abilities, Miguel also has classic Spidey powers such as the ability to cling to walls and an organic webbing that spins out of his wrists.

Amongst all of the heroes worshipped from the Heroic Age, the legacy of Peter Parker as Spider-Man is one of the most important. In fact, after Miguel made his first debut as Spidey, a fanatical Spider-Man religion started in his name. Since beginning his crusade as Spider-Man, Miguel has actually crossed path with his hero several times, most notably in the multiverse-spanning battles known as Marvel’s Spider-Verse and Spider-Geddon events.

The Spider That Bit Miles Was From Alchemax

In the early days of the 2099 series, Alchemax was portrayed as a company that didn’t really take off as a huge company until after the Heroic Age, although recently Marvel has retconned this and shown Alchemax’s origins in the modern-day. Into the Spider-Verse takes the latter route and introduces us to Alchemax as a corrupt research facility owned by Wilson Fisk, aka The Kingpin, in the modern-day. One of the movie’s most iconic scenes, in which Miles learns how to web-sling, takes place during a daring exit from the Alchemax facility.

However, this isn’t the first time Alchemax is referenced in the movie, and that first reference is arguably of even more significance. The spider that bites Miles while he’s spray-painting in the sewer is labeled with the number “42” and the word Alchemax, heavily implying that the genetics company is responsible for him getting his powers and becoming Spider-Man. This is a huge switch-up from Miles’ comic backstory, where he’s bitten by a spider enhanced by the Oz Compound. While the movie doesn’t slow down and take the time to outright say this or show us directly that Alchemax has been experimenting with spiders, we don’t know exactly when these experiments may have taken place; meaning the spider that bit Miles could have been created in the past…or the future.

Miles’ Origin Could Be Creating A Temporal Paradox

It would be a shame to introduce Spider-Man 2099 without the corporation that has consistently been his greatest threat, so it’s a safe bet to assume that Alchemax will be a presence in the future timeline of Across the Spider-Verse (Part One). And while Miguel is usually portrayed as an alternate universe Spider-Man variation instead of existing in the mainstream Marvel Universe, there’s always the possibility that the movie could switch it up and have Miguel come from the future of Miles’ dimension. If this somehow were the case, it begs the question of whether or not the spider that bit Miles could have come from the future, either deliberately or entirely by accident.

If Miguel comes from a future where Peter Parker is known as one of the greatest superheroes of all-time, and Miles somehow got his powers by the result of chronal interference from the future, his existence as the Wall-Crawler could inadvertently be altering the stability of Miguel’s timeline. This might explain why it seems as if Miguel is hunting and attacking Miles in the first trailer, as well as why he tries to teleport Miles back to the future that he comes from. The timeline incongruity between the two of them could also form the basis for Miles’ journey across the multiverse, as his quest might be tied to the search for someone or something that could safely untangle the temporal web that the two Spider-Men have found themselves stuck in. While the theories surrounding the movie are nothing more than informed speculation at the moment, there’s one thing that fans can be sure of: although Miles and Miguel will find themselves at odds in Spider-Man: Across The Spider-Verse, it won’t be long before the two heroes decide to put their power together in order to save the entire multiverse.

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