Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse is now playing in theaters everywhere and has brought the return of Miles Morales, Gwen Stacy and Peter B. Parker. Of course, as many expected, the film was chock full of spider-people from all the different corners of the Spider-Verse. One of the first that we’re introduced to is Jessica Drew, the Spider-person of Earth-404. Following the film’s release, however, there’s been quite a bit of unwarranted hate surrounding the character, with a lot of people upset about how she acts towards Miles and also just randomly upset that she is pregnant.
Where The Jessica Drew “Controversy” Began
A lot of the recent backlash, not including the comments made prior to the film’s release, has been regarding the character’s attitude in the film, being particularly cold towards Miles. Of course, as the film progresses we begin to learn more and more as to why exactly Jess and the rest of the Spider-society are against Miles, as he is the reason for their existence and his actions have caused chaos amongst the multiverse, having disrupted multiple canon events, incidents that can cause quantum holes that eventually consume an entire earth, wiping it and all of its inhabitants from existence.
More hate stemmed from the fact that Jess is pregnant during the events of the film, and quite far along when he sees her biking around and kicking ass. A lot of people raised their concerns that the depiction of the character was “horrifically negligent” and “reckless and not empowering” but like who cares, it’s not your body and its not your choice. Just going to note it’s an animated character, stop being such a snowflake.
Unfortunately, a lot of the backlash simply stemmed from the fact that the character’s race was bent and that Jessica Drew was now a black woman and voiced by actress Issa Rae. One user so ignorantly posted “It’s always a black woman with a fro.” imagine having that sad of an existence and being that fragile, that the sight of a black female fictional character upsets you.
Her race is not integral to her character at all, it doesn’t impact her character whether she’s white, black, brown, or Asian. The world is not as bigoted and segregated as it once was, a lot of these characters, if created today, would probably look a lot different and be a lot more inclusive than when they first debuted.
Unfortunately, it just feels like a lot of the hate regarding her being pregnant or her attitude are just ways for people to cover up their racism and try to push it as “valid criticism” when it isn’t; it’s just racism.
Two Sides Of The Same Spider
People are just taking these things at surface level, they aren’t thinking about it at all even when the reasoning itself is literally right in your face, theres a whole flashback justifying these actions. possibly the core of the piece here, Jessica Drew and Miguel O’Hara are on the same path, one finds themself at the beginning while the other has reached the end, and is dealing with the consequences of it. It may be hard to understand with this only being the first part of the story, set to be continued in Beyond the Spider-Verse but it’s there and it isn’t hard to figure out.
We learn that Miguel has set out to protect the Spider-Verse after he himself made the irresponsible choice to try and change the fate of another universe, replacing a version of himself that died and taking the place of his daughter’s father. This ultimately leads to a quantum hole opening on that earth leading to Miguel watching his daughter be evaporated before his very eyes. Miguel is a very rageful person, and this traumatic experience seemingly pushed him over the edge to become the 2099 we meet in ATSV.
Now for Jessica Drew, she is Miguel when he thought he could have the perfect life, and became a parent. Although the situations are different, Jessica is physically going to bring a child into her world; her connection to her child is above all else. Essentially, Jess is seeing Miles as a loose cannon, and a threat to her child, she doesn’t want to experience what Miguel experienced, to watch her, her universe, and more importantly, her child be wiped from existence at the hands of what the Miguel and the Spider-society see as a loose end and a someone who courageously acts on his instincts.
Jessica’s dislike for Miles isn’t unwarranted, its just human nature, she’s threatened by him, and him getting increasingly more involved in multiversal activity such as breaking his Earth’s canon yet again and the whole Spot situation has led her to become cold towards Miles, and she validly blames him for the immediate threat his existence has posed her and her unborn child.
People just don’t understand the dynamic here, and Jess being pregnant helps sell her attitude towards Miles. Not to mention that it works in the context of the character as the 2015 comic run by Dennis Hopeless and Javier Rodriguez, with the character focused on her juggling being an expecting mother and a superhero. So again, people want to cry about a character being “comic accurate” Well, she is, her skin just isn’t the color you want.
