Warning: This article contains light plot spoilers

It’s easy to orientate our lives to the next deadline, holiday or crisis. Jesus used many word pictures to help us reimagine who we are from a different angle: our orientation to God.  

Imagery captures imaginations and, since we are made in the image of an endlessly creative God, I find film often inspires my imagination to think about him.

Into the Spider-verse shocked audiences in 2018, reimagining the familiar Spider-man story but also revolutionising animation. Its ground-breaking comic book style won it an Oscar, a Golden Globe and a BAFTA. Yet when Sony came to make its sequel, Across the Spider-verse in 2023, they rewrote animation’s story yet again, introducing a unique style for each of the multiverse’s worlds.

We are broken

Teenager Miles (voiced by Shameik Moore) begins this film confident of who he is: ‘My name is Miles Morales. I’m Brooklyn’s one and only Spider-Man and things are going great.’ But when he discovers an elite team of Spider-People, the threads holding his identity in place begin to snap.

‘What’s your story,’ asks Miles’ teacher at a careers meeting. The teacher goes on to answer the question for him, weaving a struggling-migrant narrative that has nothing to do with the Morales family.

Miles is determined to write his story his way. He wants to be a hero, but he’s never been shown the path. All Miles’ role models disappoint him in one way or another. His mentor, best friend and team no longer exist in his universe. He spends much of the film in universes where he is not welcome.

Miles’ mentor from the first film, Peter B. Parker (voiced by Jake Johnson), admits he was a terrible teacher. He let his mistakes define his story and he got lost in despair.

Who are we to get alongside someone when we are broken too?

Peter B. Parker is given a shot at redemption in this film. He now has his own child to raise and he starts to own his responsibility. ‘There’s no play book for raising someone like her,’ Mary Jane tells him, ‘or for being someone like you. You’ve just got to make the right adjustments at half time.’

We aren’t where we belong. We have rejected the hero at the centre of our story to write a new one around ourselves. Only God can make sense of us and everything else. We are far from home, we often feel lost and lonely, and it is tempting to despair…

‘Plot twist!’ yells the writer of our story. In his book, he tells us that he sent Jesus ‘to bind up the broken-hearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners’ (Isaiah 61). We can bring our brokenness into his light and experience healing and transformation.

Jesus re-orients our lives back to God and towards others, giving us responsibility for other broken people.

We are beautiful

The film actually begins in the universe of Miles’ best friend, Gwen Stacey (voiced by Hailee Steinfeld). The animation is stunningly original (inspired by original comic-book covers) with impressionistic streaks of vivid colours, which reflect the characters’ emotions.

Gwen is painted in cold tones and stranded by split screens. She cannot forgive herself for a past mistake, so she keeps her shame hidden from her father and it cuts her off from him.

There are moments when father and daughter connect and the full screen floods with warmth and light. The longing for home is achingly beautiful in this film. We have a God who is prepared to intervene, to sacrifice himself to bring us home.

We alongsiders are not yet home with God, but he has made his home in us (John 1:11-14).

Isaiah 61 paints its own pictures: 

‘[The Lord’s servant was sent to]
bestow on them a crown of beauty 
    instead of ashes, 
the oil of joy 
    instead of mourning, 
and a garment of praise 
    instead of a spirit of despair. 
They will be called oaks of righteousness, 
    a planting of the Lord 
    for the display of his splendour.’

How does the original hero deal with us ‘anomalies’? He takes our shame and despair; he gives us his glory and joy. He makes his home in us and, by the power of his Spirit, we display his beauty.

In light of this imagery, trees have taken on a new meaning for me over the last year. I’ve sought out the shady side of the street in heatwaves. I’ve run under branches in rainstorms. I’ve marvelled at the ridiculous variety of greens in leaves. I’ve listened for birds, knowing they’re nesting and carrying seeds elsewhere.

We are like trees, planted by and belonging to Jesus, which exude the splendour of his love and creativity. As we show someone how we shelter under, marvel at and receive care from his grace, seeds of his home are sown in people’s lives.

We are bountiful

God sees in us the potential to make a forest – a forest of broken but beautiful alongsiders.

Despite there being a Spider Society, the place we see the most effective alongsiders in Across the Spider-verse is family. Miles’ mother tells her son:

‘For years I’ve been taking care of this little boy, making sure he’s loved, that he feels like he belongs wherever he wants to be… Wherever you go from here, you have to promise to take care of that little boy for me: make sure he never forgets where he came from and he never doubts that he is loved, and he never lets anyone tell him that he doesn’t belong there. You’ve got to promise, Miles.’

The Lord’s servant speaks tenderly about us:

‘They are the shoot I have planted, 
    the work of my hands, 
    for the display of my splendour. 
The least of you will become a thousand, 
    the smallest a mighty nation. 
I am the Lord; 
    in its time I will do this swiftly.’ (Isaiah 60:21-22)

Did you notice the difference? Both are rooted in care, love and belonging. But the second depends on God’s promise, not on ours. Isaiah 61:4-6 elaborates on this promise:

‘They will rebuild the ancient ruins 
    and restore the places long devastated...
you will be called priests of the Lord, 
    you will be named ministers of our God.’

God’s promise guarantees the end of our story. Our new identity as rebuilders and restorers, as priests and ministers of God, depends on God’s identity and ability to fulfil his every promise. He is the Lord and we are his family, the work of his hands.

What if…?

What if Peter B. Parker had taken the time to train Miles and invite him into community?

What if Gwen had been able to share her shame with someone and receive healing?

What if Spider-Man had taken someone under his wing (Spot, for instance, the bumbling ink-blotted thief who becomes his nemesis) and given him a place to belong?

It could have been a very different story… What if we helped each other to focus our lives on the one who is always oriented towards us?