The most recent release surrounding Miles Morales’ story includes elements that have been noticeably missing from 22 years of Spider-Man films.

22 years of Spider-Man movies have failed to include a much-needed exploration of the character, something that the latest Miles Morales release rectifies. With the wait for Spider-Man: Beyond the Spider-Verse‘s release date growing ever longer, Sony Pictures Animation has released a short film centered on Miles Morales. The short film takes place in the continuity of the Spider-Verse films, differing from the timeline of the MCU’s Spider-Man, and makes the wait for Beyond the Spider-Verse slightly easier.

In the short film, titled The Spider Within: A Spider-Verse Story, Miles is shown struggling to balance his personal life with the responsibilities he has as Spider-Man. The story takes place between Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse and Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse, adding context to the upcoming Spider-Man movie that will cap off the trilogy. Interestingly, The Spider Within outdoes the last 22 years of Web-Slinger movies by exploring a necessary topic that has been mostly neglected from 2002’s Spider-Man onward.

The Spider Within Depicts Spider-Man’s Mental Health On Film For The First Time Since 2002

The Maguire, Garfield, and Holland movies have failed to do so as explicitly.

The aspect of The Spider Within that is explored for the first time in detail is Spider-Man’s mental health. The film revolves around Miles’ struggles manifesting as a panic attack, which later builds to him experiencing sleep paralysis and anxiety in the form of a giant spider. This forces Miles to seek out his father to ask if they can go for a walk, so the former can talk about what is on his mind. Given that Spider-Man is an endlessly downtrodden character, it is surprising that The Spider Within is the first film to explicitly explore his mental health.

While some Spider-Man movies have hinted at the character’s mental health, such as Andrew Garfield’s version retiring after Gwen’s death in The Amazing Spider-Man 2 and exploring how that affected him in Spider-Man: No Way Home, The Spider Within is undoubtedly the most direct exploration of the topic. The prior Spider-Man movies mentioned, and even those starring Tom Holland and Tobey Maguire, leave the character’s poor mental health in the background. The Spider Within instead moves it to the foreground for Miles Morales, marking a much-needed change in the representation of mental health.

The Spider Within Marks An Important Step Forward For Mental Health Representation

Future Spider-Man stories could learn from The Spider Within’s message

As alluded to, there is only a small selection of characters who are more downtrodden than Spider-Man. This is such a common aspect of the character that many have come to find it strange when a happy story about the Web-Slinger is told. Given this fact, it is even more surprising that The Spider Within is the first explicit direction of Spider-Man’s mental health. Over the years, a character like Spider-Man has offered several perfect stories and moments to delve deeper into the portrayal of mental health, yet none have done so as openly as The Spider Within.

This marks an important step forward in mental health representation in superhero cinema. While several films released across many industries tackle mental health, it is evident that superhero franchises – like Spider-Man – have failed to on a major level. With mental health affecting people from all walks of life, Spider-Man movies could be a great outlet to explore them. With Spider-Man specifically, future films tackling mental health as explicitly as The Spider Within could benefit younger men, a demographic in which there is often a stigma around mental health.

Note: People of all ages, genders, and races explore Spider-Man, yet younger males typically resonate with specific iterations like Peter Parker and Miles Morales.

How Spider-Man: Beyond The Spider-Verse Can Continue Miles’ Mental Health Storyline

The Spider Within’s story benefits Miles as well as the wider representation of social issues.

Aside from the obvious benefits The Spider Within brings to the depiction of mental health, it also benefits the in-universe story and characters of the Spider-Verse franchise. Primarily, The Spider Within acts as a solid precursor for the story of Spider-Man: Beyond the Spider-Verse. A prominent factor in all Spider-Man films involves the character’s struggle to balance both halves of his life, be it Peter Parker or Miles Morales. This is likely to continue in Beyond the Spider-Verse, a storyline that will now have more context thanks to The Spider Within‘s profound exploration of this aspect of the character.

If Beyond the Spider-Verse continues exploring the duality and the effect it has on Miles, it will be much deeper now that The Spider Within has shown audiences how much of a toll it has on Spider-Man. Secondly, The Spider Within benefits the relationship between Miles and his father. It is expected that Beyond the Spider-Verse will revolve around the seemingly impending death of Jeff Morales, who will only be more important to save after The Spider Within added to his relationship with Miles.

The ending of The Spider Within highlights just how close Miles and Jeff are, as well as how supportive the latter is of the former’s problems. This builds upon their relationship, meaning the audience is now as desperate to see Jeff saved as Miles is. Through this drive to save his dad, the anxiety and panic Miles faced in The Spider Within could resurface, adding more depth, nuance, and emotion to his character arc that is expected of a final installment.

What The MCU’s Spider-Man 4 Could Learn From The Spider Within

Tom Holland’s Spider-Man could take The Spider Within’s story on board for the MCU.

While Spider-Man: Beyond the Spider-Verse could benefit from The Spider Within, so too could the MCU’s Spider-Man 4. The film is currently in development and will continue the journey of Tom Holland’s Peter Parker after the events of Spider-Man: No Way Home. Through this story, Spider-Man 4 could explore more of Peter’s mental health in the aftermath of No Way Home‘s tragic events.

In Spider-Man: No Way Home, Peter not only faced the death of his Aunt May but also had to come to terms with every single person in the world forgetting who he is. This meant that he lost his best friend Ned, his girlfriend MJ, and his superhero friends like Doctor Strange, all after losing loved ones like the aforementioned May, Tony Stark, and Uncle Ben. More so than most other Spider-Man variants, Holland’s MCU version has experiences that could lead to poor mental health.

Tip: Spider-Man 4 is rumored to start shooting in Fall 2024 with directors like Justin Lin reportedly in contention for the film.

In taking lessons from The Spider Within, Spider-Man 4 could feature an extremely compelling story of Peter overcoming everything he has lost. The film could push the boundaries of mental health exploration in live-action Spider-Man cinema, following the precedent set by The Spider Within. this would have all the previously mentioned benefits of mental health exploration while perfectly fitting the character of Spider-Man, all while further proving The Spider Within to be an incredibly important, much-needed, thought-provoking piece of Web-Slinging cinema.