Is Miguel the bad guy in Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse?

One of the new characters fans knew would be appearing in ‘Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse’ is Miguel O’Hara, widely known as Spider-Man 2099. In ‘Across the Spider-Verse,’ Miguel acted as the leader of all of the Spider-People from different universes as they worked together to try to prevent multiversal problems from arising.

But we also know that Miguel clashed with Miles Morales during the movie. So, does that mean that Miguel O’Hara is Evil?

Miguel O’Hara isn’t evil. Instead, he is simply a Spider-Man version that’s a lot more serious than the other Spider-People because he comes from a darker timeline. As such, he doesn’t have the usual friendly demeanor and funny personality most Spider-People have.

In a way, the fact that Miguel O’Hara was chosen to be an antagonist to Miles Morales in ‘Across the Spider-Verse’ is remarkable because not all Spider-Man versions tend to have his serious demeanor. Nevertheless, despite his severe approach and scary appearance, Miguel was always portrayed as a true hero. So, with that said, let’s look at whether or not Miguel O’Hara is evil.

Miguel O’Hara is just darker and more serious.

The” Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse” storyline quickly introduced one of the movie’s most important characters. During the Gwen Stacy storyline in the early part of the film, a Vulture variant from the Renaissance appeared to cause problems in her city.

However, Miguel O’Hara appeared from a portal from another dimension to assist Gwen. That was when it was revealed that he was a Spider-Man working with other Spider-People to fix problems related to the multiverse.

As the movie progressed, we learned that Gwen went on missions as part of Miguel’s group. She and the other Spider-People that worked with that group respected Miguel as their leader as he was likely the one that formed his group of Spider-People with the technology of Earth-928.

But the problem was that he wasn’t too kind to Miles Morales when they met.

Miguel told Miles about Canon Events, which all Spider-People must go through in their universes, or their dimension will implode.

He also told Miles he needed to see his father, Captain Morales, dying because this was a Canon Event. Miles didn’t want his father to die for the sake of following a pre-determined event. Thus, Miguel decided to try to keep him in the Earth-928 headquarters until his Canon Event in Earth-1610 had passed.

Nevertheless, Miles used his powers to escape his confinement, and ran away from all of the other Spider-People to return home to his universe.

An angry Miguel sent all of the other Spider-People to apprehend him and even told him that he was an anomaly that was never meant to be Spider-Man because the spider that bit him didn’t come from his universe.

The thing about Miguel is that he isn’t evil. He is anything but evil because he is a true hero in the sense of the word. It’s just that Miguel is darker and more severe than any of the other Spider-People.

Think of him as the Batman of Spider-People because his demeanor can be pretty dark, even though he is a superhero who wants to save as many people as possible.

Peter B. Parker commented on how Miguel is not like all of the Spider-People because he isn’t funny. As Peter said, being funny is one of the things common among all of the Spider-People except Miguel, who seems to be very serious as a superhero. And Peter also told Miles that Miguel is a good guy even though he looks scarier than most people.

Is Miguel Misunderstood?

Spider-Man fans that aren’t familiar with Spider-Man 2099 would immediately think that Miguel is a bad guy. But the truth is that he is just a misunderstood hero. And it is essential to look at his background.

Miguel O’Hara comes from a timeline with no superheroes because all of Earth’s heroes died long ago in a civil war. During that time, Miguel worked for Alchemax, a corrupt company that hooked him on drugs so he wouldn’t quit. And it was due to this that he tried to rewrite his DNA using a backup from before he got addicted to drugs.

With all of those things established, it becomes easy to see why Miguel O’Hara has a severe and dark demeanor that departs from the funny and playful nature of other Spider-People.

Miguel’s experiences in a timeline darker than most others turned him into a severe Spider-Man who wants to get straight to the point. This is why he can be somewhat mean and frank, especially when he calls Miles an anomaly that never should have existed.

But the fact is that Miguel is a true hero. He is trying to find a way to save as many lives as possible with minimal casualties. And he believes that Miles’ father needed to die so that Earth-1610 doesn’t implode due to a Canon Event that Miles was attempting to prevent from happening.

About Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse

Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse is an upcoming computer-animated superhero film focusing on the Marvel comics character Miles Morales/Spider-Man, serving as a sequel to Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse (2018).

Shameik Moore, Hailee Steinfeld, Oscar Isaac will reprise their roles as Miles Morales, Gwen Stacy, and Miguel O’Hara/Spider-Man 2099, respectively. The sequel will have Miles exploring other universes, adding to his team of Spider-people, and facing new threats. 

The film is directed by Joaquim Dos Santos, Kemp Powers, and Justin K. Thompson with a screenplay by Phil Lord, Christopher Miller, and David Callaham. Across the Spiderverse will release on June 2, 2023.