'The Spider Within: A Spider-Verse Story' Review: Miles Morales Takes Great Power Over His Great Responsibility
The Big Picture
- Miles Morales confronts mental health struggles, learns to reach out for help, and shows bravery in
The Spider Within
. - Characters like Tobey Maguire's Spider-Man feel pressure and become overwhelmed by it, while Miles actively seeks support.
- Director Jarelle Dampier effectively conveys Miles' overwhelming anxiety in a visually stunning short.
In last year’s Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse, we learned that there are certain “canon events” that make a Spider-Man “Spider-Man.” These events happen to all Spider-Men/Women/Pigs/etc., like the death of parents and being taken care of by an aunt or uncle, being betrayed by a fatherly figure, and the death of a first love. But one of these canon events that we’ve seen time and time again in Spider-Man stories is learning that with great power comes great responsibility. We’ve seen this idea presented with each new iteration of Spider-Man, from Tobey Maguire’s Spider-Man becoming so overwhelmed by stress that he loses his power, to Tom Holland’s version having to say goodbye to everyone he knows to save the world. But rarely do we see how much the pressure this great responsibility causes on a Spider-Man like we do in the fantastic new short, The Spider Within: A Spider-Verse Story.
The Spider Within: A Spider-Verse Story
Miles Morales experiences a panic attack that forces him to confront the manifestations of his anxiety and learn that reaching out for help can be just as brave an act as protecting his city from evil.
- Run Time
- 7 minutes
- Director
- Jarelle Dampier
- Release Date
- March 27, 2024
- Actors
- Shameik Moore, Brian Tyree Henry
What Is 'The Spider Within' About?
The Spider Within takes place outside the confines of the larger Spider-Verse and where we last left Miles Morales (Shameik Moore). As he comes home, we see what’s going on in his head, memories of fights he’s recently had as Spider-Man, but louder are the pressures he feels as Miles, as we hear his parents discussing him not reaching his potential and stating that he has “no sense of responsibility.” While his dad, Jeff Morales (Brian Tyree Henry) has prepared a scary movie night for him and his son, Miles just wants to go decompress in his room. However, once there, his fears and the engulfing sense of stress take over, with the pressure taking the form of a giant spider, and then hundreds of smaller spiders crawling over him, impossible to ignore. Yet Miles has never been one to adhere to the Spider-Verse rules, and instead of succumbing to the daunting fears in his mind, he decides to go take a walk with his father instead and discuss all the worries that he’s been feeling recently.
The Spider Within: A Spider-Verse Story comes from a partnership with the Kevin Love Fund, which attempts to prioritize mental health wellness, and yet, this short does so without ever feeling like a PSA for mental health advocacy. Instead, The Spider Within works beautifully with the story of Miles as a character who is handling the mantle of Spider-Man on his own terms and by his own rules. Every other person to take on the Spider-Man mantle in the movies has let the great power take the reins until the character almost feels like they’re going to burst. They hide the truth about how they’re feeling from the ones they love—even the ones who know his secret—and there’s a lack of awareness as to how this type of attitude and closed-off nature affects not only Spider-Man, but those around him.
'The Spider Within' Shows Miles Improving on the Spider-Men That Came Before Him
Not so with Miles and The Spider Within. Ever since Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, Miles has known the unbelievable stakes of what he’s being asked to take on, and yet, he’s always kept family central in his mind, regardless of what villains or Spider-Verses he’s had to encounter. He’s seen the impact of what keeping these feelings bottled inside can have on other Spider-Beings, and he actively avoids that by seeking help, even if he still can only tell his father part of the truth. Miles grew up in a world where Spider-Man existed, so he knows the weight that this icon has to take on, even before he met the man under the mask. But as the Spider-Verse movies have shown us, Miles has to do things his own way, and in some cases like this, do them better than those that came before him.
The Spider Within does an excellent job of presenting this in just barely five minutes. Director Jarelle Dampier (who has previously worked in the art department in 2019’s Spider-Man TV show and Young Justice) conveys these ideas almost entirely without dialogue and utilizing the tremendous animation style of the Spider-Verse films. The short even dips into horror, as we watch the shadows coming for Miles, as he seems on the verge of a panic attack as his fears get the best of him. But despite Miles (understandably) getting attacked by a giant spider, and then hundreds of smaller spiders, Dampier captures that suffocating feeling of being overwhelmed in a relatable way. Stress and responsibility can often feel like you’re being hunted by a shadow version of yourself, or taken over by so many small things that you can’t shake them all off. It’s a great way to present these ideas simply through the visual language we’ve come to love from these movies.
‘Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse’ Review: This May Be the Greatest Superhero Movie Series Yet
'Across the Spider-Verse' isn't just one of the best films of 2023, it also cements Miles Morales as one of the all-time great movie superheroes.Also fantastic is the screenplay by Khaila Amazan, who centers these ideas on a story of father and son—a dynamic that the Spider-Verse has always tried to centralize in Miles’ narrative. Again, Miles says so little here, but even without seeing within his mind, where we hear the fears that are taking over, we can tell through his movements and physicality that it’s all becoming too much for him. So when Miles does open up to his father, as they go for a walk at the end of the short, it feels like a victory for Miles—and a victory in a mission we’ve seen many other Spider-Men fail before him. It’s easy to praise what these Spider-Verse films are doing visually, but Amazan’s short but economical screenplay shows just how powerful these stories are on the page as well.
As the Spider-Verse films have so far, The Spider Within: A Spider-Verse Story takes our idea of what we have been shown Spider-Man to be and shifts it in smart ways by having Miles learn from the mistakes of the past. Instead of letting the responsibility break him, Miles allows those who can help him in. Yet this short does this without feeling preachy and in a way that fits perfectly within this incredible Spider-Verse. It conveys an important message, but doing so in a way that seems like a natural progression for Miles in his journey. The only problem is The Spider Within: A Spider-Verse Story only whets our appetite for the eventual Across the Spider-Verse sequel that can’t come soon enough.
The Spider Within: A Spider-Verse Story
REVIEW
The Spider Within: A Spider-Verse Story is a strong update to Miles Morales' story, told effectively via a horror-laced short.
- Miles approaches mental health in a way that is better than his predecessors.
- Director Jarelle Dampier utilizes horror to invoke feelings of pressure and stress.
- Through its stunning animation, The Spider Within says plenty with little dialogue.
- This just makes the wait for the Across the Spider-Verse sequel even more unbearable.
The Spider-Within: A Spider-Verse Story is now available to watch on YouTube in the U.S.
[embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FcGPpwFdE1Y[/embed]
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