Sandbox / Spider Verse Miguel O Hara

Miguel O'Hara

Miguel O'Hara / Spider-Man 2099

"You have a choice between saving one person, and saving an entire world, every world. To me, that's an obvious choice."

^{Click here to see Miguel's appearance in Into the Spider-Verse}  "I was gone for less than 2 hours. What happened?"

Homeworld: Earth-928B

Voiced by: Oscar Isaac ^{Foreign VAs} José Luis Rivera (Latin American Spanish), Tomokazu Seki (Japanese), Mathieu Kassovitz (French), Danilo Bejarano (Swedish), Björn Schalla (German)

Appearances: Into the Spider-Verse^note In The Stinger | Across the Spider-Verse

"I don't always like what I have to do. But I know I have to be the one to do it. I've given up too much to stop now."

The Spider-Man of a futuristic Nueva York. He has a very unique background compared to most Spider-People; rather than being bitten by a radioactive spider, his genetic code was modified, which gave him enhanced speed and strength, fangs, and claws (at the cost of lacking Spider-Sense or the natural ability to stick to surfaces and create webs).

Miguel recently developed reliable multiverse travel with the help of his AI assistant, Lyla. After disastrous events brought about by his use of this technology, however, he was left traumatized. He theorizes that these events were caused by his disruption of the timeline, so he recruits Spider-People from various dimensions to help patch anomalies.

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• Absurdly Sharp Claws: One of his features, and something Miles takes notice of.
  Miles: What, are those claws? Dude, are you sure you're even Spider-Man?
• Actually Pretty Funny: Double Subverted, when Miles refers to the connections the Spider-people share throughout the multiverse the "Spider-Verse", Miguel seems bemused for a moment before calling it a stupid name, and instead addresses it as the "Arachno-Humanoid Poly-Multiverse"... which he admits in hindsight is just as stupid as Miles's suggestion.
• Adaptation Personality Change: Let's just say that in the comics, Miguel would not call inventions "goobers" or waste time arguing about the semantics of pointing at someone like Miguel in the first movie does. This is subverted, however, in the second film, where Miguel is significantly more grim, aggressive, and serious-minded.
• Adaptational Curves: Normally, Miguel is depicted as having the same athletic yet slender build as other Spider-Men. Here, he is much more muscular than the rest of the cast, to help him look more menacing and authoritative.
• Adaptational Superpower Change:
  • Miguel's comic counterpart has organic spinnerets in his wrists, much like the Peter Parker of Earth-96283. Here, his webs are made of Hard Light. Similarly, his suit is also made of hard light, while his comic counterpart's suits are made of unstable molecules.
  • In addition, his powers seem to derive on continuous injections of some sort Spider modification serum.
• Anti-Villain: Although he's ultimately an antagonist to Miles in Across the Spider-Verse, Miguel has genuinely good intentions and deep, serious pain driving his actions, leading him to the extremes he takes in the film. His belief that disrupting "canon events" leads to calamity, a belief bolstered by the loss of the homeworld and family he adopted as his own, which may have been caused by his own actions, drives him to enforce certain events in the lives of other Spider-People, such as the deaths of police captains they're close to, to stop such an event from happening again. That this means innocent people like Captain Singh or Miles' father have to die is something Miguel accepts, even if he's clearly far from happy about it.
• Art Shift: Miguel is the only Spider-Person to not retain his art style after traveling to another dimension. He is subjected to Limited Animation and low-fi voice acting like all denizens of Earth-67. Presumably doing a controlled dimension jump with his gizmo has something to do with it.
• Badass Cape: When he first appears in Across, the red parts of his suit are extended into a long cape that trails behind him, making him look even more imposing than usual.
• Being Good Sucks:
  • More than any other Spider-Man arguably as being the only one willing to be the Well-Intentioned Extremist that can make the Sadistic Choice to protect the multiverse, regardless of the cost to himself and others... but he admits repeatedly to himself and others that it is not a life he enjoys—at all.
    Miguel O'Hara: You have a choice between saving one person and saving an entire world, every world [...] Being Spider-Man is a sacrifice. That's the job. That's what you signed up for.
  • It's also a Deconstruction as he's so committed to this trope being a cold, hard fact that it's closed him off to the possibility of Take a Third Option or thinking outside the box and likely makes him a less effective hero than he would be otherwise.
• Berserk Button: He reacts poorly to any Spider-Person trying to invoke a multidimensional crossover. It's played for laughs when he brings up the trouble that Dr. Strange and another Spider-Man caused. It's decidedly less funny when he lashes out at Miles for being the unwitting product of a crossover between universes.
• Big Bad Ensemble: With the Spot for Across the Spider-Verse. While he's not evil and seeks to prevent a worse calamity, his refusal to risk that canon events can be changed safely and insistence on allowing the 1610B Jefferson to die makes him almost as much of a threat to Miles as the Spot, leaving him the main antagonist for the climax of Across the Spider-Verse.
• Broken Pedestal: By end of Across, it is clear that, at the very least, Gwen, Peter B., Peni, and Pavitr have lost their respect for him, seeing as they form their own gang away from Miguel after his Hidden Disdain Reveal.
• Characterization Marches On: Overlapping with Truer to the Text, his brief cameo in The Stinger of the first movie presents him as a bit more goofy and snarky than Miguel tends to be in the comics, as he deems his universe-hopping device a "goober" and gets into a childish argument with Earth-67 Spider-Man. The second film changes him to be much more of a dour, angry, and no-nonsense Anti-Hero. The discrepancy is implied to be a result of him witnessing the destruction of a universe, and erasure of his own daughter, as a consequence of his meddling with the multiverse.
• The Comically Serious: His no-nonsense demeanor greatly contrasts with the occasional wackiness that the other spiders exhibit. While the Spider-Society respects his authority (especially since he was the one that founded it) and his "Fixed Canon" Theory, they clearly don't take his stoic, angsty attitude seriously on their off-hours. Peter B. Parker even lambasts him as the one Spider-Man with No Sense of Humor.
• Contrasting Sequel Antagonist: To Kingpin from Into the Spider-Verse. Kingpin's whole motivation for messing with other universes is to forcibly obtain a Replacement Goldfish for his dead family without considering the potential consequences for doing so. Miguel's Start of Darkness happens due to him successfully integrating himself as a replacement for another universe Miguel's family after their Miguel had died, and suffering the apparent consequence for it, driving him to make sure all other universes are undisrupted to prevent another accident like his. Another thing that differentiates them is that Kingpin was just a natural villain even before he lost his family, while Miguel is a tragic Hero Antagonist who only got set on his path after a tragic cosmic accident.
• Control Freak: He is completely uncompromising in maintaining the status quo of each universe he oversees. In his mind, there is only one way anyone's story should play out due to seemingly witnessing first-hand the consequences of interfering with a universe's canon events, and he gets incredibly aggravated when there's deviations. It fuels his vendetta against Miles, who unintentionally became Spider-Man at the expense of another universe because the spider that bit him had come from the other universe.
• The Corruptor: Likely unintentionally considering how lost in his own head he gets, but he did convince a disconcerting number of Spider-People to let alternate versions of their loved ones die.
• Costume Evolution: Along with getting a redesign that gives him a different build from his first appearance, the red markings on his suit change pattern and texture between Into and Across.
• Cynicism Catalyst: Implied to be the reason for his change in attitude between films. His cameo in Into features him making snarky quips and getting into a childish argument with 1967 Spider-Man, while in Across he's The Comically Serious at best, likely due to losing his family after he disrupted the canon of the universe where he was supposed to die.
• Dark and Troubled Past: Implied; while Miguel doesn't give any details, he describes a variant of himself as "happy" in a tone that strongly suggests that his own life has not been. After this variant dies, Miguel is willing to take his place and his role as a husband and father, something that ultimately broke him when he lost this new world and everyone in it because of his disruption to its "canon."
• Dark Is Not Evil: He wears a dark blue suit ^note  it was supposed to be black in his debut comic, but a coloring error turned it dark blue and the color stuck for subsequent adaptations with a red skull-like spider symbol and a menacing mask to match, but he is still a heroic Spider, though downplayed in that he plays the role of Hero Antagonist to Miles in Across the Spider-Verse.
• Dead Person Impersonation: He impersonated a Dead Alternate Counterpart of his and took in the alternate Miguel's family as his own. He believes that doing so is what led to the destruction of that universe and loss of the alternate Miguel's family, which is where his Canon Event theory sprung up from.
• Didn't Think This Through: Played for Laughs; when Miles flees from the Spider-Society, Miguel angrily puts out a call for everyone to pursue "Spider-Man", momentarily forgetting that everyone there is Spider-Man. Everyone who wasn't in the room when Miles ran is immediately confused and Miguel briefly kicks himself before specifying which Spider-Man he wants everyone to go after. It gets less funny (for Miguel, anyway), when Miles reveals that Miguel ordering everyone to pursue him leaves the Society's base wide open, allowing Miles to escape, just as Miles had planned.
• Dimensional Traveler: Miguel and Lyla create a "gizmo" that lets Miguel travel to alternate Earths at will.
• Discovering Your Own Dead Body: He sees an alternate version of himself get killed by a mugger and promptly portals himself to that location after the act. He then decided to take his deceased counterpart's place in that universe and took his family as his own, which seemingly led to that universe's destruction.
• Does This Remind You of Anything?: His treatment and attitude towards Miles, specifically his refusal to recognize him as a "true" Spider-Man, telling him that he was the reason why Earth-1610B's Peter Parker died in the first place, and overall hatred for him for breaking the established canon were specifically tailored to mirror racist fans' reaction and subsequent treatment of the character.
• Early Installment Character-Design Difference: In The Stinger for Into the Spider-Verse, his design is lean and wiry like most depictions of Spider-Man^note Though, given the last second nature of The Stinger it could be inferred that his design in Into the Spider-Verse was simply a Palette Swap of the standard Peter Parker Spider-Man model to save on production time of a whole new model that would only show up for, realistically, three seconds before a sequel was truly greenlit. He was redesigned for Across the Spider-Verse — presumably to help him stand out more physically — being given a more imposing, top-heavy, and muscular build akin to a powerlifter, along with the logo for his suit being changed.
• Establishing Character Moment:
  • In his first meeting with a Spider-Person, he becomes quickly flustered and sidetracked by their shenanigans, establishing how his no-nonsense demeanor is really fragile and easy to crack.
  • A more dramatic example happens when we see him post-prologue in Across the Spider-Verse, where we see him watching old home videos of him happily playing with his daughter. The video ends with a shot of his happy smile only to turn off to reveal present Miguel's very broken and tired face. This is a man who's lost everything and regardless of whether the audience agrees with his actions or not, we understand why he's like this.
• Evil Is Bigger: While he is not evil, he is the Hero Antagonist of the movie and is much more muscular and physically intimidating than your average Spider-Person.
• Evil Makes You Monstrous: Again, "evil" might be a stretch, but when he makes it clear that he's the antagonist of the story and starts gunning for Miles, his appearance will emphasize his more sinister traits (his red eyes, his fangs, his claws, etc.), their chase through Neuva York making his hair unkempt and his suit damaged.
• Fangs Are Evil: Well, he’s more of an Anti-Hero than actual evil, either way the fangs still count as he has fangs that can paralyze an opponent for a few moments.
• Fatal Flaw:
  • His refusal to compromise. Due to a prior traumatic incident, he stubbornly holds to the belief that the status quo of every universe has to be maintained above all else, even though it ends up hindering his ability to actually be a hero. His hostility towards Miles ends up alienating several members of the Spider-Society, fracturing the alliance he tried to maintain for the sake of protecting the multiverse.
• The Fatalist: Miguel believes that tragedies experienced by Spider-People are inevitable and preventing them would only destabilize their universe, to point of causing causing that universe's utter destruction.
• Fighting Irish: He's part-Irish, as his surname indicates, and is shown to be incredibly vicious and violent when pushed.
• Foil:
  • A shockingly exact one for Miles:
    • They're both multi-ethnic, bilingual Spider-Men with Spanish and English as their main languages and finger-based "extra" powers, but Miles is a young man with a lean figure vs. Miguel being a matured and imposingly muscular figure.
    • Both are very particular in relation to the members of the Spider-Society, since Miguel is their leader and Miles is seemingly the only Spider-Man forbidden from joining them.
    • Both are heroes, but whereas Miles is The Cape, Miguel has become The Cowl, and Miles ends up with a Screw Destiny motivation vs. Miguel's You Can't Fight Fate belief.
    • Both of them have blue/black suits with red details and no belt. Miguel's patterns are some kind of geometric tech patterns (originally used for a Dia de Muertos celebration in the comics), while Miles has much simpler self-designed patterns (that people keep making fun of).
    • Finally, as the film reveals both became "anomalies" to their timelines that threaten the multi-verse, but whereas Miles was involuntarily bitten by a spider from another universe released by the same machine he would destroy and in the process accidentally create The Spot, Miguel chose to replace a murdered counterpart to become the father of his now orphaned child, which meant it was his own initiative that doomed his murdered counterpart's universe. Assuming that his conjecture about "canon" is actually correct.
  • Despite being the leader of the Spider-Society, he's also one for the more traditional Spider-People as well:
    • Miguel lacks much of the traditional power set of a typical Spider-Person; as noted below, he uses Hard Light beams instead of web-shooters or spinnerets, he climbs walls using talons on his fingertips rather than an innate stickiness, and he's caught off-guard several times over due to his lack of Spider-Sense. Few other Spiders use arm blades or have fangs, too.
    • Miguel's somber, humorless and aggressive personality contrasts hard with the relentless quippiness of a typical Spider-Person, and what little wise he does crack is caustic and cutting. Peter B. even says to him that "we're supposed to be funny."
    • The circumstances that pushed him to become a hero are markedly different than other Spiders; if his comics origin is still in keeping here, he wasn't even bitten by a spider when he got his powers.
    • And, most notably of all... he wears a cape. Spider-Man doesn't wear a cape.
  • To a lesser extent, Miguel is one to Peter B.:
    • Both of them were subjected to tragedies involving their personal lives, with Peter B. having to deal with Aunt May's death before divorcing Mary Jane (to say nothing about all the injuries he got over the years coupled with several bad financial decisions that left him living in a crummy apartment after moving out), while Miguel lost the wife and daughter of his Dead Alternate Counterpart along with the entire universe he had come to see as home.
    • Both of them became incredibly cynical as a result of their experiences, but while Peter B. became a Jaded Washout who was content to wallow in his own misery before meeting Miles, Miguel became more of a Knight Templar who stepped up and started the Spider-Society to defend the multiverse.
    • Both of them also differ with how they treat Miles. Peter B. serves as The Mentor for Miles while he was still struggling to get used to his powers, and when it seemed like Miles wasn't ready for the raid on the Super-Collider, he webbed Miles up as a way to keep him safe until Miles mastered his powers through his "leap of faith", and Miles doing so seems to be enough to motivate Peter B. to clean up his act. Miguel also serves as a mentor who wants to help Miles adjust to everything he's learning about the Multiverse, but his theory about "canon events" causes him to believe that Miles' father has to die, ultimately leading to him turning against Miles.
• Foreign-Language Tirade: Has a habit of dropping some Spanish when he gets extremely frustrated. He even manages to slip in an "Ay, coño!"^note Literally "Oh, cunt", but more often has a meaning more akin to "Oh damnit" or "Oh for fuck's sake" in Latin-American Spanish when ordering the rest of the Spider Society to chase after Miles.
• Freudian Excuse: The reason why he's so adamant about the status quo being maintained is that he witnessed several of his loved ones, including his daughter, get erased from existence because he had disrupted the canon of a universe.
• Genre Savvy: When Miguel tells Gwen he'll handle a situation, she sees the Enemy Rising Behind and goes, "Okay. Knock yourself out." By this point, Miguel has dealt with enough Spiders to go, "Why are you saying it like tha-"
• Good Is Not Nice: Similar to his comic book counterpart, he is incredibly dour and aggressive despite being ostensibly a hero like the other Spider-Heroes. He also plays the role of hostile Hero Antagonist to Miles in Across the Spider-Verse.
• Good Is Not Soft:
  • When he's away from the other Spiders and grappling with the Vulture, he voluntarily unmasks to bare his fangs, which horrifies the Vulture; since they're both interrupted by a police helicopter, it's left up in the air if Miguel did it just to intimidate the villain, or if he really was prepared to bite him in the face if need be.
  • He's ruthless in the pursuit of threats to the integrity of the multiverse; beating rogue villains senseless, imprisoning them, and forcibly teleporting them back to where they came from is the merciful option as far as he's concerned. This makes it especially intimidating when Miles is forced to flee him, as Miguel is so brutal and ferocious that it seems he really will force himself to kill Miles if he can't manage to take him down alive.
• Hair-Trigger Temper: Once he had a Hidden Disdain Reveal for Miles Morales, Miguel was in an outright fury as he was taking his aggression out on the latter. Even before that, Miguel gets easily agitated over most of Spider-Men's antics with the Spider Society.
• Hard Light: Unlike the majority of the Spider-Society, Miguel's suit and webbing are hard light constructs, providing him a measure of versatility the others lack. The suit can shift to create blades, claws, and a wingsuit, and the webbing isn't affected by outside forces in the same way physical webbing is (for example, strong winds and gravity). Unfortunately for him, it also means Miles can drain his suit away through physical contact, which he can't do with the other Spiders.
• The Heavy: The Spot is the primary threat of Across, but the majority of the conflict stems from Miguel's creation of the Spider-Society. Deeming Miles an anomaly prevents Gwen from reuniting with him, a major source of the personal discord in the first half of the film, while his refusal to allow Miles to save his dad catapults him into the main antagonist of the film's climax after the Spot makes his escape.
• Hero Antagonist: Miguel actively considers himself one of the "good guys," and is the leader of a large organization of interdimensional Spider-Heroes, some of whom have demonstrated their heroism time and again in their own stories. However, he's also intensely hostile towards Miles, the protagonist, belittling him, leaving him out of the loop, and eventually pursuing him and facing him down in a brutal battle across Nueva York. When he fails to stop Miles, his immediate reaction is to hunt him down rather than dealing with say, the Spot, who poses an even greater threat to the Multiverse. While he is genuinely well-intentioned, he's so dogmatic that even the Spiders who side with him seem unnerved by his calculating methods.
• Heroic Build: He has made some serious gains in the second movie.
• Hero of Another Story:
  • He's been too busy with something else to do anything about what's been happening in Miles's universe, which he's had Lyla monitor for about two hours.
  • Between the events of Into and Across, Miguel had been spending over a year of Miles's universe's time forming an army of at least two hundred Spider-People to protect the Multiverse.
• He Who Fights Monsters: His adamant refusal to reconsider his “Canon Events” theory and determination to enforce it at any cost effectively make him closer to a supervillain than an incarnation of Spider-Man. This is especially noticeable in the climax, where his viciousness and "Reason You Suck" Speech where he reveals his hidden contempt for Miles makes him come across as unhinged and menacing as a genuine supervillain. The worst part is that, with his conversation to Lyla about if his determination to stop Miles is the right thing, his Sunk Cost Fallacy has him admit that he's invested far too much to ''ever'' stop; meaning that he knows full well this trope is in effect, but he cannot stop being a bastard for the sake of a greater good he believes is the only potential reality or else it will All for Nothing.
• Hidden Disdain Reveal: Despite his initial hostility, Miguel shows a lot of sympathy for Miles and his situation - specifically using gentle and non-threatening body language when he explains canon-events to him. Once Miles flees containment and the chase ensues, Miguel corners him and lets slip his disdain for Miles' anomalous nature and wrongly blames him for getting bit, letting his own Peter Parker die, and allowing the Kingpin cause damage to the multiverse - None of which Miles had any control over at the time.
• Hour of Power: From the number of syringes filled with modified Spider DNA seen in his second appearance, it's heavily implied that Miguel's powers are temporary and he needs to keep injecting himself whenever the effects of the previous use wears off.
• Hunk: He's a very good-looking man who has a chiseled, athletic build that looks like it came out of Greek mythology and his skintight suit just highlights it.
• Implacable Man: Miguel is both one of the most persistent Spideys chasing Miles and one of the most durable. He takes a point-blank Venom Sting supercherged from Miles absorbing the energy from Miguel's Hard Light nanosuit, is promptly sent flying off a speeding bullet train straight into an archway at full speed and then pinballs off the train and painfully crashes through several Spider-People before finally regaining his grip. This does not slow Miguel down by much, as he is seen getting back to the chase immediately and nearly stops Miles' escape were it not for outside factors.
• Ink-Suit Actor: His design in Across the Spider-Verse has been reworked to resemble Oscar Isaac.
• Irony: Miguel founded the Spider-Society to preserve the Multiverse, and his pursuit of Miles is with this intent of preventing a greater calamity in the disruption of a Canon Event. However, in doing so, they're enabling said calamity in the form of The Spot growing powerful enough to threaten the entire multiverse, to the point he likely won't stop at just Miles' universe and has grown far too powerful for even the Society's members to deal with.
• It's All My Fault: He blames himself for accidentally blowing up a universe by trying to take the place of his dead alternate counterpart. While there are hints that his understanding of the situation is flawed, or at least incomplete, there's no doubt that his self-loathing over the incident is what drives his entire worldview and all of his actions in the second half of Across the Spider-Verse.
• Jerkass Has a Point:
  • It's unclear if Miguel's theory about Canon Events is totally accurate, but several other Spider-People, including Peter B., acknowledge that he's right about certain traumatic events being vital to Spider-Man's existence, with Peter B. even pointing out that if Uncle Ben hadn't died, most of the Spider-people present never would have become Spider-Man in the first place.
  • While his hatred for Miles is ultimately misplaced, he does have a point regarding how Miles being a Spider-Man at all is an "abnormality" and a mistake. The spider that bit Miles was from Earth-42, was sent to Miles as a result of the super-collider, and died before it could be sent back. Miles was never supposed to be bit in the first place, meaning not only did this result in Earth-1610B briefly having two Spider-Men before Blond Peter died after saving Miles, Earth-42 never had a Spider-Man as a result, leaving it a Crapsack World where that universe's Miles became the Prowler. By all accounts, Miles Morales of Earth-1610B should not be a Spider-Man, rather the much more competent Blond Peter should still be alive acting as the Spider-Man of Earth-1610B, and more than likely could have been able to stop the super-collider incident, and the mess with The Spot, from ever happening at all.
    Miguel: [to Miles] You're a mistake! If you hadn't been bit, your Peter Parker would've lived. Instead he died saving you. He would've stopped the collider before it ever went off. Spot wouldn't exist. And none of this would've happened.
  • As we know from previous films, meddling with the stability of space-time is indeed — no matter the reason — extremely dangerous to The Multiverse. Miguel is very right to be cautious of it, and his desire to suppress such efforts is completely understandable. The issue is with the methods he pushes being antithetical to Spider-Man's ethos of always helping those in need.
  • Miguel is furious with Gwen for Miles coming to Spider-Society and especially for Miles' subsequent escape with the intent of disrupting Canon, but he's right that, if she hadn't gone to see him after promising she wouldn't, Miles would never have left his dimension (which he did right under Gwen's nose). Jess agrees with him about it, and, while none of the other Spiders are pleased with how he punishes her for it, none of them try to argue about his point.
• Jerkass to One: While he is always aloof and serious-minded, he does show he cares about the other Spider-People in his own way. That is, with the exception of Miles, who he treats with thinly-veiled contempt before turning outright violent when Miles decides not to play ball with the rest of the Spider-Society due to Miguel seeing Miles as an inter-dimensional anomaly whose very existence threatens the stability of the multiverse, even though Miles became such through events outside of his control or knowledge.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Miguel may be a ruthless, joyless and humourless man with little sense of reason and nothing in the way of an open mind, but he is still a Spider-Man; he genuinely wants to protect people, keep The Multiverse safe and his soft side does occasionally make itself known. The heart of gold is buried underneath a layer of trauma, stress, misery and pain, but it is still there.
• Kick the Dog:
  • While pursuing Miles and trying to stop him from saving his father and disrupting the canon is understandable, calling him a "mistake" and telling him that he doesn't belong and shouldn't be Spider-Man is unnecessarily cruel.
  • After he blames Gwen for failing to prevent Miles from escaping the Spider-Society HQ and letting him get involved in the Spider-Society in the first place after he told her not to, he sends Gwen back to her home dimension despite knowing she's considered a wanted fugitive by her own father.
• Knight of Cerebus: The goofiness of the Spider-Society immediately drops when Miguel appears onscreen. He shows little to none of the snark of the rest of the Spiders and is perfectly willing to stop Miles from saving his family for the good of the universe, no matter how ruthless he needs to become.
• Knight Templar: Though not really a villain, Miguel's antagonism comes from his uncompromising belief in his Canon Event Theory and his utter refusal to even question it. And, as the leader of the Spider Society, he expects all of its members to be fully onboard with his views. Miguel does show some doubt in the morality of his actions, but doesn't let it dissuade him.
• Large and in Charge: The leader of the Spider-Society and according to supplementary material, stands at 6'9"/roughly 206cm tall^note Making him quite taller than his comic self's 5'10"/178cm.
• Licked by the Dog: Mayday playing with him shows that he isn’t a BAD guy and at his core is still Spider-Man.
• Mean Boss: He is leader of the Spider Society and and is very grim, unfriendly and authoritarian, fully expecting the other Spider-People to follow his ideals to a T. At the same time he isn't really evil and is kept from being a Bad Boss by showing a great deal of respect and professionalism towards his underlings (such as LEGO Spider-Man). Though his punishment of Gwen for failing to stop Miles was overly harsh.
• Misplaced Retribution:
  • He holds Miles in contempt for having been bitten by the spider that was taken from another universe, resulting in that universe not having a Spider-Man and him becoming Spider-Man against "canon". However, Miles had absolutely nothing to do with that and it was actually the Spot that brought the spider over. He also unfairly blames Miles for the deaths of his universe's Peter Parker, for not being able to stop the super-collider in time and essentially sees him as the cause of the multiverse's current instability by proxy of things beyond his control. If anything, he should be mad at Wilson Fisk for spearheading and funding the Super Collider and Olivia Octavius for being the head scientist that built it.
  • When Miles escapes via the Go Home Machine, he accuses Gwen of letting him escape, labels her a liability because of her feelings for him, then forcibly sends her back to her home dimension whilst locking her out of the dimensional jump system, effectively stranding her. All of this ignores the fact that none of the other Spider-people, including Miguel himself, did any better in stopping Miles.
• My Greatest Failure: Becoming a Replacement Goldfish for a Family Man Miguel from another universe who had passed away allegedly resulted in that entire universe collapsing and him losing the family he had forcibly adopted and came to care for as his own. The Survivor Guilt from this sparked his "Canon Event" theory and his insistence to keep universes intact and undisrupted to avoid another accident much like what happened to him.
• My Significance Sense Is Tingling: Averted. Miguel is uniquely one of the only known Spiders to lack a traditional Spider-Sense as shown during his encounter with the Renaissance Vulture ending up with him caught repeatedly off guard in ways other Spiders wouldn't. It is also Played for Drama as it's implied significantly that his lack of Spider-Sense sends his paranoia and Control Freak nature through the roof to compensate for his inability to predict danger, worsening his extremism in the process.
• The Needs of the Many: He's willing to let a few people close to Spider-Man die because they are fated to due to how if their fates are changed, the universe they're in gets destroyed. It's implied that he's not completely correct about this by the end of the film, the Captain Stacy of Gwen's universe manages to Screw Destiny by quitting the police force and her universe remained despite it.
• No-Nonsense Nemesis: Unlike other Spider People, Miguel doesn't partake in the usual antics and is focused hard on the mission of preserving the multiverse at any cost; which earns him some ire from others due to his no-nonsense attitude not meshing with the more down-to-earth Spider-Men like Peter B. or fundamentally disagrees with the Spider-Men with conflicting philosophies like Miles and Hobie. His commitment to the mission however blinds him with resentment towards Miles as being a "non-canon" Spider-Man whose very existence "threatens" the multiverse in his mind, and also prevents him from understanding that the issue of canon is far more complicated than he is believing it to be.
• Not So Above It All: He's ultimately more childish than he cares to admit, sometimes even coming across as an overly intense playground bully.
  • He is quickly distracted by the finger-pointing squabble with Earth-67 Spider-Man in The Stinger of the first film, and he even throws a childish temper tantrum when the argument isn't going in his favor.
  • He also seems to have a bit of flair for drama. As he descends down an elevator to meet Miles in the Spider-Society HQ, his elevator moves so hilariously slow to the point that Gwen lampshades it, before adding to Miles that it's his style.
  • Miguel scoffs that Miles's naming of the multiverse as the "Spider-Verse" is stupid, but then fumbles and admits that his preferred "Arachno-Humanoid Poly-Multiverse" is also pretty stupid-sounding.
• Not So Stoic:
  • Gets quickly flustered by Earth-67 Spider-Man's insistence that Miguel pointed at him first.
  • His introductory scene in Across neatly shows how easily his cool exterior can crack; after making a cool entrance and attempting to act mysterious, his backstory spiel gets interrupted by Gwen, then he's caught off-guard by Vulture, and then Lyla screws with him when he attempts to call for backup, causing him to lose his temper.
  • When Miles' evasion of Miguel and the Spider-Society wears out what little patience Miguel had, Miguel flies into a rage, brutally thrashing the teenager and revealing the depths of his contempt for Miles, ranting at him for being the "original" anomaly and blaming him for the original Peter's death and the state of the Spider-Man-less Earth-42. Miguel's rage shocks, at minimum, Peter B. and Gwen and it's implied to shake the faith of many others in the Spider-Society.
• Obliviously Evil: Downplayed as he's more of an Anti-Hero, but Miguel's Principles Zealot nature means that he's frighteningly blind to the possibility of looking at the magnitude of his (and the Society's) actions as horribly misinformed about how the multiverse actually works, meaning his continuous need of enforcing the Sadistic Choice of "preserving" the canon events inches towards being an All for Nothing case.
• Odd Friendship: He's generally pretty angry and short with people, the only real exceptions being Lyla and Jessica. Which makes it pretty surprising that he seems to have a pretty positive working relationship with LEGO Spider-Man, who he calls one of their best. Of course it's possible that the situation in Across made him more tense than usual, and he instead has a pretty good working relationship with most people in the Spider-Society.
• Oh, Crap!: Miguel has a massive one when he realizes not only he's been played by Miles the entire time but that Miles's Energy Absorption abilities essentially make Miles a Man of Kryptonite for his suit's tech and thus, when Miles has him distracted, Miguel's utterly powerless to escape Miles's grip before he gets blasted off the Space Elevator full-force.
• Pet the Dog:
  • Despite his disdain for Miles that comes full circle later on, he does genuinely sympathize with him and tries to reason with him before it becomes clear that Miles will try to stop his father from dying. Even after he tries to imprison him, he genuinely apologizes to him for what's about to happen.
  • He may be a humorless hardass but he’s also incredibly gentle dealing with Mayday: he not only allows her to freely crawl on him without fussing, he is also paying enough attention to catch her when she falls and carefully turn her right side up.
• Principles Zealot: He's utterly persistent in his belief that canon events should never be prevented and must happen and cannot be convinced by others that it might be possible to do so. It's proven near the end of the film that he's not completely correct about this when the Captain Stacy of Earth-65B unwittingly manages to Screw Destiny by quitting the police force and thus averting his own death, but he's yet to find out about this.
• Psychological Projection: It's implied that part of the reason why Miguel unjustifiably shifts so much blame onto Miles is because Miles' flagrant push to Screw Destiny reminds him too much of himself when he was exploring the multiverse for the first time. His "Reason You Suck" Speech towards Miles at the end sounds like he's really berating a younger version of himself for being so irresponsible.
• "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Gives an absolutely savage one to Miles upon his Hidden Disdain Reveal after declaring he was the "original" anomaly in the multiverse — stating that if it wasn't for him getting bitten by the spider from Earth-42, two universes would have had their Spider Men (including Miles's original Spider Man) and the Spot wouldn't exist — affirming that Miles is a know-nothing kid who is threatening the entirety of existence with his recklessness and that he was a mistake that should have never existed. It doesn't quite bite as while Miles is clearly hurt by Miguel's words (and the subsequent Broken Pedestal moment of realizing everyone including Peter B. and Gwen knew the truth the entire time), Miles is quick to gather his bearings and deliver an equally poignant Shut Up, Hannibal! right back at Miguel before blindsiding him in a way no one expected as Miles makes his escape.
• Red Eyes, Take Warning: Downplayed, as in the comics. He's a sour and aggressive Hero Antagonist with red eyes thanks to his half-spider genetic engineering. Normally they're dark and subdued enough to mistake for brown, but when he's chasing Miles they turn bright red.
• Risking the King: There are hundreds of Spider-People available to round up villains who'd stumbled into the wrong canons, but Miguel goes out himself after the version of the Vulture who'd incurred on Gwen's canon, only calling for backup after trying to secure him himself - and the backup who comes is his second in command.
• Running on All Fours: During the chase at the climax of Across, he runs with a noticeable lean forward, so he briefly gets on all fours whenever he needs a running start. When he and Miles are ascending the Space Elevator, he's forced to scale it with his claws (while Miles is able to run like normal), creating a similar effect.
• Seinfeldian Conversation: Stuck on the defensive side of one with Earth-67 Spider-Man.
• Self-Made Superpowers: He introduces himself in his first scene much like the other Spiders, only he describes himself as different from them, which is shown later on by his "radioactive spider" being a syringe of serum that gives him his powers. Furthermore, he has to continuously inject himself in order for his powers to work.
• Skewed Priorities: While he does he make a reasonable argument about how Miles trying to save his father would lead to the disruption of a Canon Event that would cause the destruction of his universe. This does not track when Miguel wastes all his forces on stopping Miles and completely ignores the Spot who has become a Cosmic Flaw who has enough power to destroy the Multiverse itself.
• Strange Minds Think Alike: Much like the alternate Peter Parkers, Miguel refers to his invention as a "goober".
• Sunk Cost Fallacy: When Lyla questioned him whether he has gone too far with how he is leading the Spider-Society and preventing Miles Morales from saving his father, he states that he has invested too much to stop now. This is also why he absolutely hates Miles and rejects the possibility that there is another way he could become Spider-Man while still keeping their loved ones. Because if that possibility exists, then that would mean everything he and the Spider-Society have done to enforce Canon events by letting their loved ones die would be All for Nothing and they have actually fallen short of what it means to be Spider-Man.
• Survivor Guilt: The "fixed canon" theory he pushes on the other Spider-People is the result of him watching a universe and his daughter get erased from existence. He blames himself for what happened, as he links the cataclysm that occurred to him deciding to take the place of the Miguel that had died in that universe, even though later evidence indicates that the connection he made was tenuous at best.
• Theory Tunnel Vision: As Across goes on, it becomes clear that his grasp on how the Multiverse works and his "Fixed Canon" Theory is less concrete than he thinks. It's this belief that results in his dislike towards Miles, the Spider-Society labelling him as a fugitive and working to ensure his father's death out of a belief that it's supposed to happen. All of this goes on while they ignore the bigger threat The Spot possess.
• They Died Because of You: Blames Miles for the death of Earth-1610B's Peter Parker since he was never meant to become a Spider-Man in the first place, completely ignoring that Miles had no control over the spider coming to his universe.
• Token Evil Teammate: The most mean-spirited and ruthless of all the Spider-Society. While he is nominally a hero, his one-track mind to upholding canon events means that he knowingly lets people die. The fact that he's the founder and leader makes it much worse.
• Top-Heavy Guy: His design is updated for ATSV, changing his rather slim physique for massive shoulders and arms.
• Trademark Favorite Food: Jessica says that Miguel really likes the empanadas from the Spider-Society's food court. Miles brings him one, but it's an early sign that they're not on good terms when he angrily tosses it away.
• Tragic Hero: Or Tragic Villain, depending on your viewpoint. Miguel founded the Spider-Society after an alternate version of his whole world, along with his adopted alternate family get erased from existence (seemingly) because of his own actions and it seems he's still a moral person who genuinely wants to be the good guy and stop a tragedy like that from happening again. However, his utter refusal to compromise, his tunnel vision towards his goals and his own personal grudges lead him to become an unstable extremist who cannot see or listen to reason even when there is proof right in front of him. Nothing he does is out of malice or outright hatred (though there is a little prejudice on his part), it is all out of a desire to keep the Multiverse safe, something that has caused him no amount of trauma and heartbreak that has clearly made him paranoid, uncompromising and violent, to the point his more loyal society members (i.e. Jessica) begin to disagree with his actions. Ultimately, he's a broken and desperate man sincerely trying to do what he believes is right even if no one else thinks it is.
• Tron Lines: In Across, subtle circuit lines are visible within the red parts of his suit; they become more visible while glowing, like when he opens the "information explaining thing". Fitting with his Mexican heritage, the patterns are inspired by Mesoamerican textiles.
• Underestimating Badassery: His fatal flaw in judging Miles, beyond being uncompromising in his personal beliefs of protecting the status quo no matter what, is also believing that he is also too irresponsible and stubborn to be effective — this ends up costing him big time in their final confrontation in Across The Spider-Verse as while he is Miles's physical superior, Miguel's own stubbornness means that he's entirely blindsided when Miles uses his Venom Strike at the most opportune moment when the Space Elevator reaches its apex to cut off him and the rest of the Spider-Society from chasing Miles altogether.
• Vocal Evolution: He has a slightly deeper voice and a more pronounced Mexican accent in Across compared to Into.
• Well-Intentioned Extremist: Miguel's goals are noble, he wants to safeguard the multiverse from being disrupted, the threat against which is provably real. The issue is that he's completely uncompromising in his belief that the only way to do so is to force every Spider-Person to strictly adhere to a list of "Canon Events", even if they involve innocents and loved ones dying.
  Gwen: We are supposed to be the good guys.
  Miguel: We are... [weakly] We are.
• Would Hurt a Child: He pretty badly brutalizes a teenaged Miles after Miles's constant evasion finally wears out his patience, and that's not also getting to the implications that he was going to kill him when trying to stop the machine from sending Miles home, as seen with Miles' Spider-Sense flaring up for the first time. It causes him to lose the trust of several Spider-People by the end of Across the Spider-Verse.
• You Have Failed Me: After Miles escapes from Spider-Society intent on disrupting a Canon Event, Miguel, rather unreasonably, blames Gwen for not stopping him as well as, less unreasonably getting Miles involved in the first place, kicking her out of the Spider-Society on the spot and sending her back to her own dimension, knowing that she's a fugitive there.

Lyla

Lyla

^{Click here to see Lyla's appearance in Into the Spider-Verse} 

Voiced by: Greta Lee ^{Foreign VAs} Leyla Rangel (Latin American Spanish), Cecilia von der Esch (Swedish), Maaya Sakamoto (Japanese), Franciska Friede (German)

Appearances: Into the Spider-Verse^note In The Stinger | Across the Spider-Verse

Miguel's AI companion who assists him in his dimensional travels.

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• Adaptational Modesty: Lyla's comic counterpart originally dressed like Marilyn Monroe, Sexy Backless Outfit included. Here, though she still has a Monroe-esque outfit, it's a concealing jacket and pants.
• Adaptation Dye-Job: Comic Lyla is an all-yellow hologram. While still visibly holographic with a yellow tint here, she's otherwise colored like a regular woman. She also has short, brunette hair rather than her comic counterpart's long, light hair.
• Adaptation Personality Change: Lyla is sassier and snarkier than her comic version.
• Benevolent A.I.: Miguel has a cheery and helpful AI, Lyla, act as his assistant in keeping the multiverse intact.
• The Gadfly: Lyla loves to mess with and tease Miguel due to him being The Comically Serious. When he asks for backup, she makes him say "please", which aggravates him. What aggravates him more is that she already called for backup and just wanted to see him flustered.
• Hologram Projection Imperfection: To reflect her being a holographic AI, she has a choppier framerate than most characters and '"fizzles" from pose to pose.
• Ink-Suit Actor: Like Miguel, her design was tweaked in Across to better resemble her voice actress, Greta Lee.
• Insistent Terminology: When presenting Miguel with the first dimensional travel watch, Lyla insists that it's actually a "gizmo" when Miguel calls it a "goober".
• Making a Spectacle of Yourself: She wears huge, pink, heart-shaped shades.
• Ms. Exposition: She helps Miguel explain the concept of the multiverse to Miles. It's also lampshaded a bit.
  Miguel: Lyla, do the thing.
  Lyla: Huh? What thing?
  Miguel: Wha-whaddya mean, what thing? The information explaining thing!
• Satellite Character: She essentially serves as an extension of Miguel rather than a full character in her own right.
• Servile Snarker: Lyla apparently has a tendency to call out her creator Miguel for his shortcomings. It really bums him out.