Miles Morales" New Spinoff Finally Tackles A Story The MCU Wasted 10 Years Ago

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Summary

Miles Morales will appear in a Spider-Verse short called The Spider Within, focusing on his struggles with anxiety and balancing his personal life with being Spider-Man.
The short film will provide context to the final scene of Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse and explore Miles' panic attack and manifestations of anxiety in a more comprehensive way.
The exploration of anxiety and mental health in The Spider Within will contribute to positive representation in the film industry, addressing a necessary topic in today's society.

Miles Morales is set to appear in a short spinoff from Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse titled The Spider Within, which is set to feature a villain that Marvel Studios tried to integrate into the MCU in 2013's Iron Man 3. Sony's animated Spider-Verse projects have become hugely popular among audiences, focusing on Miles Morales' Spider-Man from Earth-1610 rather than Peter Parker, and the success of 2018's Into the Spider-Verse and its 2023 sequel has led to the development of spinoffs. While a third film, Spider-Man: Beyond the Spider-Verse, is planned, spinoffs including Spider-Woman, Spider-Man: Octopus Girl, and The Spider Within: A Spider-Verse Story are planned for release soon.
Shameik Moore is set to reprise his voice role of Miles Morales in The Spider Within: A Spider-Verse Story, taking place in the sixteen-month gap between Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse and Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse. Directed by Jarelle Dampier, The Spider Within will be a more personal story for Miles Morales, dealing with the pressures of his new role as Spider-Man prior to him meeting Miguel O'Hara and the Spider Society. This short film will help to contextualize some of the action in Across the Spider-Verse and Miles Morales' greater storyline, whereas the exploration of a similar storyline in the MCU's Phase 2 failed to impact the wider story.
Your browser does not support the video tag. Spider-Verse's Miles Morales Spinoff Can Explore Iron Man 3's Mental Health Story Further

As detailed in a recent release from Sony, The Spider Within: A Spider-Verse Story will feature Miles as he must "fight a silent but deadly that many people across the world (and 'Across the Spider-Verse') have to deal with as well: Anxiety." Miles' anxiety sets in as he struggles to balance his personal life with his new role as Spider-Man, though in Miles' case, he must deal with manifestations of his anxiety in a "trippy little jaunt through his subconscious." This won't be the first time anxiety has been depicted as a villain in a Marvel movie, as Tony Stark also suffered from panic attacks in 2013's Iron Man 3.
Iron Man 3 released in the wake of The Avengers, which saw Robert Downey Jr.'s Iron Man fly a nuclear missile through a portal into space and return, almost losing his life in the process. This left him with anxiety issues that plagued his mission in Iron Man 3 and led to some brilliant, relevant, and moving investigations of mental health in the MCU. However, this was never really touched on again after Iron Man 3, but the fact that Sony will be exploring Miles' anxiety in a short film, and have already done so in Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse, suggests a more comprehensive and cathartic interpretation of this infliction.
Why The Spider-Verse Spinoff Is So Important

The idea of an entire short film dedicated to exploring Miles Morales' anxiety and panic attacks helps to provide extra context to the final scene of 2023's Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse. After escaping from the Spider Society and finding himself trapped on Earth-42 - not his home reality - Miles experiences a panic attack, which manifests in giant, illusion-like visions and voice-overs chasing the Spider-Man through the streets of New York City. The root of this experience can be explored in The Spider Within, and this will also help to provide positive representation of anxiety and mental health issues, which is sorely needed in the modern-day film industry.
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