#bethany rambles

I really went all out on this one

I can 100% understand Miguel’s mission goals. I understand what he was trying to get through to Miles. That each and every Spider-Man has a journey they go through with hurdles that make them who they’re supposed to be. That’s what each and every one of us have in our lives too. The things that we encounter shape us into who we are supposed to be. Both good and bad. Without Uncle Ben (or an Uncle Ben figure), Peter doesn’t become Spider-Man.

That being said, of course Miles is going to try to stop his father’s death. Hell, Pavitr Prabhakar was moments away from his “Captain Stacy” moment and even he said “I can do both”. Miles would’ve tried to save his father even if he hadn’t known it was how the story was supposed to play out. Just like Pavitr was about to attempt. Miguel was trying to prevent the collapse of Miles’s universe. You can’t change what is fated to happen, which in a way is a callback to the What If episode with Dr. Strange where he was trying to save Christine repeatedly, but she ended up always dying (not always in the same fashion).

However, I do want to point out that Miguel doesn’t have the ability to see into the future. He doesn’t know exactly how Miles’s story is suppose to play out. He is going by how the pattern has worked out so far for other Spider-Men. Even LYLA says that his father’s death will occur in 2 days according to the model. But that model is obviously different for everyone as Gwen’s father was a Captain and was still alive (and since he is no longer a Captain, that Captain Stacy moment won’t happen to her). We have already seen slight variations in each Spider-verse story. It’s not always “Uncle Ben”, it’s Peni’s father, Gwen’s friend Peter, Miles’s Uncle Aaron. So who’s to say how the survival of Miles’s father will impact the canon. Gwen posited him that same question, if he knew what would happen if Miles saved his father. She knows what happened to Miguel, but what Miguel did was different. He slipped into the role of a version of himself who had died (which makes me wonder, what did Miguel do to his body? How easy was it to slip into that version’s role? Did he watch enough to know what’s happening in that universe?). He didn’t prevent something that was supposed to happen. If he had been able to see the future, he would’ve been able to see the consequences his actions would have.

Miguel claims that if the spider that bit Miles hadn’t been taken from Earth-42, then that Earth would have a Spider-Man. But how does he know that? He’s assuming it would because that’s “what the model shows”. He says that if Miles hadn’t been bitten, then his Earth’s original Spider-Man would’ve lived. But how does he know? Again he’s assuming because “that’s what the model shows”. What if Miles was fated to be there? What if that Peter was fated to die at that moment? Honestly I don’t think Spider-Man would’ve fared differently in that fight.