Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, the hit new animated Spider-Man movie following the alternate Spider-Man Miles Morales, is perhaps the greatest Spider-Man movie to ever hit the big screen. Its absolutely gorgeous and unique animation style makes it pop on screen, making the visuals feel abstract and comic-book-like, which is something that no live-action Spider-Man movie has ever been able to accomplish.
Outside of its visuals, the narrative of Into the Spider-Verse is incredibly intriguing, featuring alternate Spider-Men from six different universes. The ensemble cast, featuring Jake Johnson, Nicolas Cage, and John Mulaney, really exemplifies the variety in the different characters who make show up in the story. Almost every character is new and unique enough to be intriguing, whereas the characters we are already familiar with use their familiarity to their advantage to show new sides that we have never seen before to the heroes and villains.
However, much like any movie, Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse is not quite perfect. Though the reviews currently have Into the Spider-Verse at a 98% on Rotten Tomatoes, the movie is still not without its flaws. A few blatant mistakes are made in this animated feature, in addition to a few other aspects of the movie that really don’t make much sense at all when looking back on them. While these flaws don’t necessarily make Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse a bad movie, they are flaws nonetheless, most of which could have been avoided without negatively impacting the story.
With this in mind, here are the 20 Things That Make No Sense About Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse.
Warning: there will, of course, be spoilers for Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse.
Miles’ Dad Shouldn’t Be Carpooling While On The Clock
In one of the movie’s opening scenes, Miles is walking to school when he is picked up by his father, Jeff Davis, who insists on driving him. Davis is revealed in this scene to be a police officer, and appears to be on duty when he is driving his son to school. Right off the bat, this introduced Jeff Davis as a great dad, but taking a step back, the scene doesn’t make much sense.
Davis was seemingly on the clock at this time, yet he still gave his son a ride to school when he should have been patrolling. He wasn’t even trying to be fast about the process, as he took his time leaving when he and Miles finally arrived at the school. Though he may be a great father, this was certainly a misuse of Davis’ time on-duty.
Peter Parker Was Too Willing To Train Miles
Not long after receiving his spider abilities, Miles ran into the Peter Parker of his universe, who had become a well established Spider-Man and was in the middle of an ultimately fatal battle against the Green Goblin. During this scene, Peter realized that Miles had powers like him and immediately offered to train him.
While this was a great moment for Miles that only made the demise of Peter Parker more tragic, it seemed a little too convenient. Though Peter was only a little older than Miles when he became Spider-Man, he was well aware of the dangers of becoming a superhero and should’ve been immediately hesitant about bringing a young kid into the mess.
Spider-Man Noir Fighting Nazis In The Early ’30s
During Spider-Man Noir’s introduction about halfway through the movie, he revealed that he was the Peter Parker from the early 1930s who would fight Nazis. While this immediately made him a cool character, the timeline doesn’t quite add up.
While the political party that eventually became known as the Nazis did exist in the early ’30s, they weren’t yet publicly the evil organization that they were at the end of the decade. Furthermore, though the term “Nazi” did technically exist in the early ’30s, at the time, it was a term used to describe awkward or clumsy farmers or peasants and had not yet been associated with the National-Socialist Workers’ Party in Germany, so was Spider-Man fighting clumsy farmers? In fairness, however, Spider-Man Noir did come from an alternate universe, so maybe the Nazi party rose to power a decade earlier there.
Why Did Gwen Go Back A Week?
During the Super-Collider explosion at the beginning of the movie, the alternate Spider-Men like Spider-Man Noir and Spider-Ham were tossed into Miles’ universe, all seemingly at the same time, with one confusing exception. For whatever reason, Spider-Gwen was thrown a week into the past, which eventually led her to cross paths with Miles Morales.
While this was convenient and was a clever way to introduce Gwen into the story early on, the science of it doesn’t make sense. While the Collider explosion did break space and time, it appeared to break the space and time of the other universes. Sending Gwen back a week early into the same universe where the explosion should’ve broken the laws of time seems odd, but then again, no one really understands time travel, so who knows if this is actually possible or not.
The Spider-Heroes Swung From The Sky
Shortly before the third act of the movie, the alternate Spider-Men left Miles in his high school dorm room in order to take on Kingpin and travel through the Super Collider without his help. In an emotional moment, Miles watched his friends swing off into the sunset without him. However, looking closely at this scene, it isn’t hard to spot one major mistake.
When the Spider-heroes are swinging away, they are swinging over buildings, which means that there was nothing for them to swing off of except for the sky. While this is typically excusable in the LEGO Marvel Superheroes video games, it shouldn’t have been included in an animated feature. The animators probably hoped we wouldn’t notice, but we did.
Aunt May Was Too Approving Of Miles Risking His Life
One of the most beloved Spider-Man characters over the years is Aunt May, Peter Parker’s elderly aunt and guardian who is always there to give him personal advice that inadvertently reflects whatever struggles he is going through with his foes. However, in Into the Spider-Verse, Aunt May was less of an elderly mentor and instead essentially Spider-Man’s version of Alfred the Butler.
While it would make sense for Aunt May to support a late 20s Peter Parker as Spider-Man, things stopped being believable when she started doing the same for Miles, who was in his early teens at the time. Presumably, Peter opened up to May about his powers long after his teenage years. The Aunt May we know and love would never support a teenage kid putting himself in harm’s way.
None Of The Heroes Were Recognized At The Banquet
Shortly before the climax of the movie, the alternate universe Spider-heroes infiltrated Kingpin’s banquet in order to get to the Super Collider. They did this by simply putting on bowties, blending in almost perfectly with the waitstaff at the banquet, all of whom were wearing Spider-Man masks. While this technique certainly worked for Peter Parker, it shouldn’t have worked for the rest of the heroes.
In the universe they were in, costumes like Spider-Gwen’s and Spider-Man Noir’s had never been seen by the public before. The only people who really had seen them were Kingpin’s goons, who were guarding the banquet, yet, for some reason, they didn’t happen to recognize the alternate universe Spider-people they had just fought earlier that day.
Doc Ock Forgot About Miles’ Invisibility
During the first fight with Doc Ock, the villainess was alarmed when she learned that Peter Parker had an “invisible friend” who was running away with her computer at the time. However, during the final fight of the movie, Miles, using his invisibility powers, started attacking Doc Ock unseen, and Ock’s reaction didn’t really make the most sense.
Rather than putting two and two together to realize that the invisible thing attacking her in her fight against Peter Parker may have been the invisible superhero who she encountered during her previous fight with Peter Parker, she instead shouted, “Who did that?” and became incredibly confused until she was practically defeated. We really expected more out of a super genius like Doctor Octavius.
Miles Saying Peter’s “Don’t Watch The Mouth” Quote
One of the more clever parallels used in Into the Spider-Verse was Peter’s lesson to Miles about watching a person’s hands rather than their mouth. During the final fight of the movie, Miles showed that he had learned from Peter by saying the same quote back to him, surprising Peter in a brilliant way. However, the quote didn’t really apply in the second context.
While the line worked the first time, as Peter was unmasked during his interaction with Miles the first time around, they were both wearing masks when Miles said it at the end of the movie. It should be pointed out that Miles’ mask was almost completely black except for his eyes, which meant that there would be no mouth for Peter to actually watch in this scene, making the line a bit confusing.
Miles’ Dad Shouldn’t Have Survived The Explosion
The final fight between Miles and Kingpin ended with a massive explosion of the Super Collider, much larger than the explosion at the beginning of the movie. Shortly before the explosion, Miles’ dad was present to watch the final battle for emotional reasons, mainly to raise the stakes. However, when the explosion went down, Davis survived without a scratch, which really isn’t realistic.
For comparison, the explosion early on in the movie was enough to end the life of the Green Goblin, who was a massive beast with incredibly thick skin that should have kept him alive. However, when the significantly larger explosion went down, a powerless human with practically no cover managed to survive unscathed. It’s just a bit inconsistent.
Miles’ Last Name
This is more so an issue with the comics, but the confusion carried over into the movie. Miles’ parents have different surnames, with his father going by Jeff Davis and his mother going by Rio Morales, despite both of them being married to each other. While it’s not unheard of for a married couple to keep their original last names, their children almost always end up taking the last name of their father.
It was never really explained why Miles legally went by the name Morales rather than Davis, with most people just assuming that Marvel made that decision to make his name into an alliteration (like Peter Parker and Bruce Banner). While this isn’t a huge issue, it is a bit of a head-scratcher when you think about it.
Why Did Kingpin Shoot Prowler?
In one of the movie’s most devastating moments, Miles watched his uncle, Aaron Davis, pass away in his arms. This was after Kingpin shot him down for hesitating to end Miles’ life only a couple minutes earlier. While this was a vitally important moment for the movie, since it was the “Uncle Ben” moment in Miles’ life, how it came to be didn’t make a whole lot of sense.
Prowler had seemingly proven himself to be a trusted ally to Kingpin, having done a lot for him to help construct the Super Collider, in addition to helping him take down Spider-Man. The Prowler’s one moment of weakness shouldn’t have been enough for Kingpin to want to end his life, especially considering that Kingpin had the perfect shot to shoot Miles instead.
The Spider-Cave
In what was perhaps one of the movie’s best reveals, Aunt May introduced Miles, Gwen, and the alternate Peter Parker to the Spider-Cave, a Bat-Cave-esque headquarters underneath Aunt May’s house that held Peter’s costumes, his computers and, best of all, his Spider Buggy. While this was certainly a cool location, the reality of it doesn’t make much sense.
Aunt May lived in the suburbs, which makes us wonder why there happened to be a large, hollow cave right under her house that Peter was able to take advantage of. While the Bat-Cave makes sense for Batman, seeing as he lives on a huge property that used to have tunnels underneath it, it really doesn’t work in Spider-Man’s case.
The “I Have A Degree In Chemical Engineering” Lyric
In the opening of Into the Spider-Verse, it was revealed that Peter Parker had released a Christmas album, in addition to a bit of other merchandise. During the credits of the movie, fans actually had the chance to hear one of the songs that Peter Parker performed for the album. One particular lyric from the song, however, felt quite a bit out of character.
The lyric said, “I have a degree in chemical engineering.” While Spider-Man presumably was trying to have fun with the song, he realistically would not have included this lyric. One of the most important aspects of Spider-Man is how much he tried to preserve his identity, and publicly proclaiming that he had a degree in chemical engineering would’ve certainly helped his enemies narrow down who his identity.
Why Did The Alternate Peter Parkers Have Different Voices?
One of the coolest aspects of Into the Spider-Verse was the variety of voice actors. However, the movie may have suffered a bit from having too many actors, at least for the case of Peter Parker. Early on in the movie, when Miles runs into the Peter Parker from his universe, the “successful” Peter was voiced by Chris Pine, whose smooth, confident voice helped to reassure that he was a stable hero.
The alternate, less successful Peter Parker, on the other hand, was voiced by Jake Johnson, whose rough, unsure voice helped to further establish his character. However, as revealed partway through the movie, the two Peter Parkers were essentially the same, only one of them was more successful than the other. Outside of that (and the dyed hair), they were the same person, so why were their voices so different?
SP//dr’s Tragic Passing
During the final fight of the movie, Peni Parker had to say goodbye to her robotic companion in a truly tragic moment. However, looking back on it, it didn’t make much sense. The robot, referred to as SP//dr, wasn’t actually a robot. Instead, it was a mechanical, robotic suit that was controlled by Peni’s spider companion, who was actually named SP//dr.
After the robotic suit shut down, SP//dr himself climbed out unscathed, making the entire scene feel quite pointless. Peni wasn’t mourning the loss of a robot or the loss of her friend - instead, she was mourning the loss of a suit, which she presumably had more of back in her universe. This would be like Tony Stark crying over the loss of one of his many Iron Man suits.
Miles Wasn’t Concerned When His Roommate Saw Him In His Spider-Man Suit
Not long before the climax of the movie, Miles and his Spider-Man companions were in his high school dorm room when Miles’ roommate walked in. The Spider-heroes tried their best to hide, but were quite unsuccessful. However, once the roommate saw them and passed out, no one was apparently concerned about him, not even Miles, who was not wearing his mask when the roommate saw him.
When Miles left the dorm room, he didn’t even try to clean up the webs that were scattered everywhere in order to try to cover up his identity. While it’s fair that Miles did have bigger fish to fry at the time, it still seems a bit too irresponsible for Spider-Man.
Where Did The Spider Come From?
When Miles was bitten by a spider rather early on in the movie, it was implied that it had come from the rest of the Spider-Verse, as it twitched when he touched it the same way that the alternate Spider-heroes twitched later in the movie. However, this timeline doesn’t exactly add up, as the Spider-Man DNA wasn’t added to the nearby Super Collider until some time after Miles was bitten.
While it’s possible that this spider had traveled back in time a week, much like Gwen did, this was never explained. A quick cut to the spider travelling through time along with the Spider-heroes would have been a quick, yet fitting, explanation for how the spider ended up there, but instead, the origins of the spider that started the whole adventure remain a mystery.
Miles’ Parents Weren’t Suspicious That Miles Had Something To Do With Spider-Man’s Passing
Right after Peter Parker’s life was ended at the hands of Kingpin, Miles promptly returned home in an emotional wreck, hugging both of his parents with obvious sorrow. When they asked Miles what was wrong, he asked his dad if he actually hated Spider-Man. About a minute later, Miles’ parents saw on the news that Spider-Man had passed away.
It really wouldn’t have been too hard for Jeff or Rio to put two and two together to realize that Miles may have witnessed the passing of Spider-Man, which would have also partially explained his rebellious actions over the past few days. However, they had essentially no reaction to Miles’ questioning about Spider-Man, which feels a bit unrealistic.
The Twitching Was Inconsistent
The alternate Spider-heroes like Spider-Man Noir and Spider-Gwen would occasionally suffer from twitching, where their bodies became briefly unstable in the universe they were in. This certainly helped to raise the stakes of the movie, but it felt a little too inconsistent at times. The characters would only really twitch when they were already discussing their twitching, or during a high stakes fight when the hero was about to strike a final blow against their enemy or stick the perfect landing.
Outside of these scenarios, the characters rarely ever twitched, making the twitching only serve as a cheap plot device rather than as a consistent aspect of the characters’ realities. Showing the characters twitching more often would’ve helped to make the movie feel a bit more realistic.
Are there any other aspects of Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse that make no sense? Let us know in the comments!
