Spider-Man has one of the best rogue’s galleries in all of comic books. From Doctor Octopus to Green Goblin, from Vulture to Rhino, there was no shortage of great baddies to pick.
Who did we get? The Spot. Some random baddie that only shows up every few decades as a background villain.
And thank god we did. Because I love him.
The Wound: Villain of the Week
Spot’s life leading up to Across the Spider-Verse was a rough one. First the dude gets hit by a bagel. Then he gets turned into faceless abomination. Then his friends and family all laugh him out of their circles.
Thus did he turn to a life of crime. And wouldn’t you know it? On his very first ‘heist’, he runs into the person responsible for all his troubles: Spider-Man. How does this hero, who has caused Spot so much misery, react to meeting him?
By laughing in his face and treating him like a complete joke. Way to kick a guy while he’s down, Miles.
The Want and the Lie: Holes
At this point in his life, Spot has nothing. No job, no family, no friends, nothing. The only thing he has left to validate his existence is Spider-Man, who considers him nothing more than a villain of the week.
So he made it his goal to make his nemesis respect him. Luckily for him, his new portal powers came with a little bonus: trans-dimensional travel. Meaning that he could find a fully functioning super collider and give himself a power boost. Maybe then he’d be a villain worth fighting.
His powers are essentially an addiction. Initially, he blamed it for ruining his life, like an alcoholic blaming the booze. But then he started to drown himself in it. It became his coping mechanism.
Spider-Man made him feel empty. So he embraced that emptiness and made it his new identity. All for the sake of revenge.
The Need: Validation
All Spot wanted was to be taken seriously. Not because he was some terrible criminal with world dominating ambition; in fact, he was an innocent, goofy kind of guy. He just wanted validation.
Put yourself in his shoes for a moment. You’ve lost your job, your family, all your friends, even your own body. No one respects you, not even the guy you consider responsible for it. In fact, said guy is cracking jokes at your expense every moment of your encounter.
He doesn’t want to be Spider-Man’s nemesis because he’s an evil mastermind. He just wants to be acknowledged. Unfortunately, the only method he found of doing that is become a multi-dimensional god creature and destroy everything.
Well, if he wanted people to take him seriously, he sure got that.
Conclusion
Spot is an interesting take on Spider-Man villains. Most of them never really care for Spidey’s jokes. But we never got to see one who was actually hurt by them.
Who knows where Spot is gonna go in the next movie. Is he really going to go full cosmic horror? Will he finally find the validation he craves and chill out? Just how is Miles going to stop him on top of dealing with Miguel?
More importantly: how are the animators gonna deal with all the crazy shit they’ve been dealing with?
*Sigh* Can we get ONE animated project with reasonable working conditions?!
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