“With Great Power”: the Existentialist Spider-Man in Into the Spider-Verse
Writers Phil Lord and Christopher Miller’s newest release, Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse is an action-packed, deliciously aesthetic addition to the Marvel film canon. More than just a piece of visual art, the film offers many existentialist themes hidden within its playful presentation. Among the most obvious in a film that is based upon the classic Marvel line “With great power comes great responsibility” is the existentialist theme of radical freedom and the situated nature of that freedom—the responsibility and commitment that power necessitates. Particular to this film, however, are even more distinctly existentialist topics—the acceptance of reality as it is, and the consequent need to respond agentially, the Kierkegaardian leap of faith, and the notion that “anyone could wear the mask” (SV): that is, everyone has an amazing power, as well as the responsibility to wield it in a free, situated commitment (“Existentialism” 9).
Spider-Verse is a classic bildungsroman that follows the journey of Miles Morales, a charismatic kid from Brooklyn. He has an inner “spark,” of which his father says later in the movie, “It’s yours. Whatever you choose to do with it, you will be great” (SV emphasis added). Morales is plagued with the fear of the power he receives from the radioactive spider-bite, and deals with feelings of inadequacy and a culturally conditioned distaste for abnormality, seeking to follow the herd. “Am I the weird kid, now?” he questions in panic, as people start noticing his strange behaviour at school (SV). He chooses to leave his shoes untied as a certain act of defiance against mediocrity, clearly seeking to develop some type of unique identity. Yet, when he is presented with just such an opportunity to become truly great—to become an ubermensch— Morales is hesitant, as he tries to dismiss his weird, radioactive bodily changes, insisting, “It’s just puberty. I’m a normal kid!” (SV emphasis added). Soon he meets the other Spider-people from alternate dimensions, making a Spidey squad of seven web-slingers. In learning from this new community, as well as being confronted with the seemingly insurmountable task to stop a supervillain, he realizes the absurdity of his reality and the responsibility given him with these new powers. However, he is still paralyzed by fear and a feeling of inadequacy: “I’m just tired of letting everyone down” he bemoans halfway through the film (SV). In this can be seen the problem of a man presented with his own potential for greatness—for will to power—being thwarted by a socially impressed feeling of fear: he experiences the crushing weight of commitment before fully embracing the power and freedom offered him as Spider-Man.
The turning point of the film revolves around a scene that is clearly existential: the choice to make the leap of faith. Earlier in the film, around 33.59, Morales tries to jump from a building to test out his new webby powers. At this point, however, he is still crippled as an inauthentic man or the burdened “camel” (Huskinson 57), and he falls to the pavement. He’s been running from his responsibility and from accepting the absurdity of his situation, despite his mother's reprimand: “Our family doesn’t run from things, Miles” (SV). She encourages him to face his problems head-on: that is, to embrace life, in its terrifying absurdity, on its own terms (Kierkegaard). Morales is finally able to embrace his will to power in a Kierkegaardian leap of faith (Huskinson 4). Morales asks his mentor, a wiser, older Spider-Man from an alternate dimension, “When will I know I’m ready?” (SV). Morales wants to know everything, something like Nietzsche’s “last man” who knows everything about reality and history and is completely happy and satisfied in will to truth (Huskinson 60). However, his ultimate freedom—his ability to embrace his responsibility—lies in taking that “last step” into faith (“Fear and Trembling”). “You won’t (know). All it takes,” replies alternate Peter Parker, “is a leap of faith” (SV).
It has been noted that in the leap of faith scene, Morales’ hands still stick momentarily to the glass of the skyscraper, shattering the window as he finally launches into radical freedom (“Spider-Man”). One of the films directors, Rodney Rothman, confirmed that this glass-shattering moment reveals that Miles Morales is still terrified, but makes the absurd jump nonetheless and embraces his freedom (“Spider-Man”). The camera angle is such that Morales looks like he is rising upwards in space, rising to his destiny in the leap of faith. This is not only cinematically and aesthetically brilliant, but it illustrates beautifully the Kierkegaardian process of taking the leap of faith — an apparent jump into death or danger, only to be lifted up in a miraculous way, brought closer to one’s authentic self. Morales falls upward towards his destiny, embracing the will to power, with the punchy hip hop lyric running in the background, “I'm insane but on my toes...Two-hundred miles-per-hour wit' a blindfold on (on)/Mama always askin', "Where did I go wrong?" (wrong) What's up, danger?/ Ah, what's up, danger?” (Blackway, Black Caviar, emphasis added). Morales’ insane embrace of danger and risk have enabled him to become authentic, to step into the absurd flux of life’s risk. Another Spider-Man, voiced by Nicolas Cage and depicted as a class 1930’s gumshoe superhero, speaks existentially when he shouts in the middle of battle, “We don’t pick the ballroom, we just dance!” (SV). Miles Morales, in his leap of faith and choice to be free, has embraced what life has thrust upon him on its terms, and chooses to dance with the absurdity of his reality.
Not even sixteen minutes later, Morales Spider-Man is encouraging his own mentor to take engaged choices in his own life, reminding old Peter Parker, “It’s a leap of faith!” (SV). Morales has quickly stepped into a situated, responsible mode of commitment enabled by his radical freedom. Old Peter Parker, a down-and-out superhero that is failing in every area of his life, is reinspired in the community of other Spider-people. Up until that point, he had become disenchanted with his radical freedom, and fell into the mediocrity of self-pity and self-indulgence, like the Nietzschean higher man who falls back to comfortability (Huskinson 71). His suffering had conquered him, instead of encouraging him to harness will to power. “It’s nice to know we’re not alone, right?” asks Peni, another inter-dimensional Spider-person. It is only through a situated freedom, based in community, that old Peter Parker is able to re-embrace his responsibility, and by reshaping himself begin to shape man as a whole (Sartre 3).
This situated approach to responsibility and power, activated by personal choice and individuality, is a common theme throughout the film, perhaps most clearly highlighted by one dimension’s Mary Jane, as she gives a public eulogy for her Spider-Man: “He didn’t ask for his powers but he chose to be Spider-Man...We all have powers of one kind of another….In our own way, we are all Spider-Man” (SV). This concept of personal power and the choice to respond to seemingly impossible situations is very Kierkegaardian, as the knight of faith stands in the face of the seemingly impossible and still acts in trust (“Fear and Trembling”). The sentiment again is echoed in the last lines of the movie, as a liberated Miles Morales swings among the buildings of an alternative New York City: “Anyone could wear the mask...You could wear the mask. I hope you know that now” (SV).
There are so many elements to the Spider-Verse that could be explored with an existential lens —the interdimensional concept, the fact that although Morales’ uncle is a villain, he still inspires Morales to greatness and is not dismissed as simply bad (reminiscent of Nietzsche’s nuanced approach to morality), and the fourth-wall-breaking mode of storytelling that all the Spider-people employ. However, that is outside the scope of this paper. Suffice it to say that Morales, out of all Spider-Men (and women) to date, exemplifies most effectively some of the key themes in existentialist thought, especially power and freedom, and the radical responsibility that these entail for a human person living in community.
Works Cited and Consulted
Blackway, Black Caviar. “What’s Up Danger (with Black Caviar).” Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse (Soundtrack From & Inspired by the Motion Picture). Track 1, Republic Records, 2018, https://open.spotify.com/track/5zsHmE2gO3RefVsPyw2e3T?si=58lXPel5SgGgHvRjAluEyw. Accessed 7 April 2018.
Huskinson, Lucy. An Introduction to Nietzsche.Hendrickson Publishers Marketing, 2009.
Kierkegaard, Soren. “Fear and Trembling.” Class Handout, PHIL/HIS 3872. Print.
Renfro, Kim. “'Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse' directors confirm a fan theory about this small detail you might have missed in the movie's most triumphant scene.” Insider, Insider Inc., 2019, https://www.thisisinsider.com/spider-verse-miles-breaking-glass-theory-2019-2. Accessed 7 April 2019.
Sartre, Jean Paul. “Existentialism is a Humanism.” Class Handout, PHIL/HIS 3872. Print.
Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse. Bob Persichetti, Peter Ramsey, Rodney Rothman. Sony, 2018. Animated Film.
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