Who's Who in Across The Spider-Verse's Spider Society

When we catch up again with Miles Morales (Shameik Moore) more than a year after the events of Into The Spider-Verse, he’s working alone and missing his Spider pals from other universes, especially Gwen Stacy (Hailee Steinfeld). We saw his origin story in the previous film, but in case you need a refresher, Miles is bitten by a radioactive spider and decided to become a superhero. He was initially trained by the original Spidey, Peter Parker, until Peter dies saving him from a collider explosion. Not long after, he meets an older version of Peter from a different universe, who reluctantly agrees to continue his training. Miles also discovers that one of his classmates, Gwen Stacy, is a Spider-Woman from yet another universe. They team up with a handful of other Spider heroes, ultimately defeating Wilson Fisk before everyone returns to their proper universes, leaving Miles on his own. Miles has the same abilities as Peter, with the addition of invisibility and the power to emit blasts of bio-electricity from his hands.

In the opening sequence of Across The Spider-Verse, Gwen Stacy says, “Let’s do things differently this time.” We get a little of her point of view at the beginning, before the story moves on to Miles. Gwen, alias Spider-Woman, still hasn’t gotten over the death of her best friend, Peter Parker, who never became Spider-Man in this universe. Gwen’s father, Capt. George Stacy (Shea Whigham), blames Spider-Woman for Peter’s death and has been hunting her ever since, unaware of how close she really is. Gwen enjoys playing the drums, but can’t get along with anyone long enough to be part of a band. Miles was the first person she opened up to after Peter, and she ended up losing him too, when she had to return to her own universe at the end of Into The Spider-Verse.

We got our first glimpse of Miguel O’Hara (Oscar Isaac) in the post-credit scene at the end of Into The Spider-Verse, testing a device that allows him to jump into different universes by dropping into the Spider-Man pointing meme. Now he’s back in full force, as the founder of the Spider Society, an organization responsible for tracking and correcting anomalies throughout the multiverse. With the help of his virtual assistant, Lyla, Miguel coordinates the missions and keeps tabs on the Spider heroes in every universe. He’s a stern leader, known for being the one Spider-Man who doesn’t have a sense of humor (although he can be inadvertently funny). When describing him to Miles, Gwen says he’s “like a ninja, vampire Spider-Man, but a good guy.” He doesn’t care much for Miles Morales.

Jessica Drew, a.k.a. Spider-Woman (Issa Rae), has been a character in the comics since 1977, but we’ve never seen her quite like this before. This version, voiced by Issa Rae, does have a few traits in common with her comic-book counterpart, though. For one thing, she’s pregnant, echoing a storyline from a popular 2016 comic series written by Dennis Hopeless. Unlike in the comic books, the Spider-Woman featured in Across The Spider-Verse is second in command to Miguel O’Hara—if there’s anyone he listens to and whose advice he values, it’s her. Seeing Gwen’s potential, Jessica advocates for her recruitment into the Spider Society and becomes her mentor.

Peter B. Parker, the older, more jaded version of Spider-Man we met in Into The Spider-Verse returns in the new film (once again voiced by Jake Johnson), this time with a baby in tow (more on her later). It’s a major turnaround from the guy who claimed he didn’t want kids and had divorced Mary Jane before being sucked into Miles’ dimension and becoming his mentor. Peter B’s story follows the usual Spider-Man track, except we see where that road eventually leads and what happens when superheroes stay in the game for too long. It takes meeting Miles to change his trajectory. At the end of the film he goes back to his universe with renewed passion for his calling and a hope of fixing his relationship with Mary Jane. By the looks of it, that worked out pretty well for him.

May “Mayday” Parker is the daughter of Peter B. Parker and Mary Jane Watson. In the comics, she grows up to become a superhero in her own right beginning in her teenage years, calling herself Spider-Girl (you may spot a grown-up version of her in the film). At the time Across The Spider-Verse takes place she’s just an infant, tagging along with her dad in a baby bjorn. He even takes her into battle, which she clearly loves. She appears to have inherited some of his powers too, including the ability to climb up walls. She’s basically just a cute Easter egg in this film, but perhaps in the next one we’ll get to see more of her in action.

In a multiverse of cool Spider folks, Hobie Brown (Daniel Kaluuya) might just be the coolest of them all. Depicted in a chaotic and constantly fluctuating art style that fits his anarchic personality, he carries a guitar around on his back, and even uses it as a weapon. Hobie comes from a totalitarian world, so he’s all about rebellion and doing your own thing. He occasionally works with the Spider Society, but only when it suits him to do so. He’s close to Gwen, and even lets her crash at his place sometimes.

The bustling city of Mumbattan has its own Spider hero in the form of Pavitr Prabhakar (Karan Soni). Based on the character created for the Spider-Man: India comic series created by Sharad Devarajan, Suresh Seetharaman, and Jeevan J. Kang, he shares a similar origin story as Peter Parker, but with Indian influences (for instance, his Aunt May is called Maya Auntie). He’s welcoming to all visitors who come to his universe, and seems to have a perfect, balanced life, which Miguel envies a bit.

In the comics, Ben Reilly, also known as the Scarlet Spider, is a clone of Peter Parker created in a lab. He was initially intended to be an adversary to Spider-Man, but eventually they teamed up and became allies. He tends to be more of an anti-hero than Spider-Man, walking closer to the line between good and bad than the real Peter Parker ever did. The version we meet in Across The Spider-Verse (voiced by Andy Samberg) can be overly dramatic at times, and likes to narrate his actions in corny, comic-book style.

While other heroes travel to and from the Spider Society headquarters with the help of Miguel’s trans-universal wristband technology, Spider-Byte (Amandla Stenberg) only visits virtually. That’s common in her universe, where virtual reality exists in parallel with the real world. A genius in the field of computer science, she’s had a few brief appearances in the comics, mainly fighting crimes in cyberspace. In Across The Spider-Verse she works closely with Lyla to keep the Spider Society running smoothly.