One of the best scenes in Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse. The conclusion to the first Spider-Man trilogy in the MCU and the 2017 Academy Award winner for Best Animated Feature share many similarities in their premises, but a particular moment common to both stands out. While the former is a somewhat closing chapter for Peter and the latter is the beginning of Miles' journey, both No Way Home and Into the Spider-Verse deal with central elements of Spider-Man’s decades-old lore.
Spider-Man and the Multiverse have become intertwined most recently. Before the three live-action Spider-Men and five villains from different films shared the screen in No Way Home, Into the Spider-Verse had introduced to general audiences the concept by telling the origin story of Miles Morales through the Multiverse. Although a product of cinematic language that allows for more comical and exaggerated moments, Into the Spider-Verse managed to combine the playful elements of its animation style with the heart and soul of a Spider-Man story. Four years later, No Way Home has achieved something similar.
Although No Way Home has offered a spectacle of action sequences involving several Marvel characters, the highlight of the film came from a simple conversation. Already one of the most remarkable scenes in Spider-Man’s long cinematic journey, the moment in No Way Home in which the three Peter Parkers grieve together on the school rooftop is very similar to the moment in which the Spider-team from Into the Spider-Verse comfort Miles. Both scenes feature more experienced heroes, who have already lived through their life-defining moments, telling a younger Spider-Man that his world is not over yet. By sharing the pain of losing a loved one with those few who understand it, both Miles and Peter experienced a cathartic moment that helped set the characters on the paths they were meant to take.
The scene in No Way Home also has extra layers of emotion when compared to the one in Into the Spider-Verse. The iconic "with great power comes great responsibility" speech, so important to Spider-Man's lore, was used as the first bonding element between the three Peter Parkers. Hearing Tobey's character complete Aunt May's sentence showed Tom Holland’s Peter that those two strangers knew more about him than he realized and made the Spider-Men become multiversal brothers.
The multiverse plot made it possible for the journeys of both Peter Parker in No Way Home and Miles Morales in Into the Spider-Verse to feature a similar scene in which different versions of the same hero help the protagonist overcome his loss. Each in their own way, both films used fantastical elements to create touching moments that elevated their main characters. As superhero movies start to delve into the multiverse concept, No Way Home and Into the Spider-Verse are great examples of how to do it without ever forgetting that the hero's heart should always remain as the most important thing in the story.
