Warning: The following post contains Spider-Man: Across The Spider-Verse spoilers.Fans and critics alike are loudly praisingSpider-Man: Across The Spider-Versefor its feat in visual storytelling in the weeks following the film’s release. However, that’s not all that fans are celebrating the movie for. In a franchise that has been consistently praised for its visual cues,Easter Eggs, and subtle foreshadowing tactics, fans are flocking to social media to celebrate one of the more overt implications thatAcross The Spider-Verseoffers: Gwen Stacy might be trans.
2018’sSpider-Man: Into The Spider-Verseis still regarded among fans and critics asone of the best superhero films of all timefor breaking bounds in storytelling through its handling of a young Afro-Latino lead character.Across The Spider-Versecontinues these themes and amplifies them throughout the film, extending this representation to communities beyond the ones shown in the first movie. From Gwen’s coloring during her more emotionally resonant moments to trans flags shown throughout her and Captain Stacy’s apartment,LGBTQ+fans of the franchise have been openly praisingAcross The Spider-Versefor its inclusion of queer themes and imagerywithout making Gwen an obvious marketing tactic.
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What is Gwen’s arc in the movie?
From the first few minutes ofAcross The Spider-Verse, audiences are made to understand thatGwen Stacy is isolated. She is the only Spider-Person in her universe, Earth-65, and her best friend, Peter Parker, died after his efforts to gain powers turned him into that universe’s Lizard. Following Peter’s death, Spider-Woman is hunted by the newly-elected Captain Stacy and the NYPD as she is assumed responsible for Peter’s death.
Following a showdown between Spider-Woman (voiced by Hailee Steinfeld) and an alternate-universe Vulture (voiced by The Lonely Island member Jorma Taccone), where audiences first meetMiguel O’Hara (voiced by Oscar Isaac) and Jessica Drew (voiced by Issa Rae), Captain Stacy has Spider-Woman in a standoff as he tries to arrest her. In a last-ditch effort to save herself, Spider-Woman removes her mask and reveals her identity to her father. When Captain Stacy continues to try and arrest his daughter for the death of her best friend, Gwen chooses to leave with Miguel and Jessica to join their Spider Society in Miguel’s home universe.
After a series of events that ends in an altercation between Miles Morales (voiced by Shameik Moore) and Miguel, she is kicked out and sent back to Earth-65. When she comes back to her home, she and her father finally hash things out. It’s revealed that Captain Stacy left the NYPD when he realized he could not be a good father to his hero daughter if he remained in the institution hunting her. Gwen resolves to be the heroic symbol her father strived to exemplify and sets out on her mission to save Miles from Miguel and the rest of the Spider Society.
The question of “Is Gwen Stacy trans?” is a bit more complicated to answer when examining her arc in this movie as a whole. The easiest answer is “No” because there is no scene where she’s outed as a trans-girl, whether it’s her saying it or from a character close to her speaking on her identity. There’s no explicit visual or spoken indicator that Gwen is transgender. However, there’s nothing in this movie to explicitly say that she’s cisgender, either.
Gwen’s world, like severalother worlds shown inAcross The Spider-Verse, utilizes varying art styles to create a unique look and feel for each world being built. Where Miles’ world looks like a large-scale comic book page, Gwen’s looks likea watercolor painting come to life. The colors in Gwen’s world shift around her as a visual indication of her emotional state throughout the film, and she is often bathed in light blue, light pink, and white (the colors of the trans flag) when the focus of a scene is shifted to her. This, in addition tothe “Protect Trans Kids” poster in Gwen’s bedroomand the trans flag pin on Captain Stacy’s uniform, are merely complimentary features to her arc mimicking the traditional “Coming-Out” story.
DoesAcross The Spider-Versemimic the coming-out journey?
Short answer: absolutely.Spider-Manis unique among many mainstreamMarvelheroes in that his secret identity is sacred to the character. He doesn’t tell the people closest to him who he really is so he can better protect them. He also hides this identity from them so he can, to the best of his ability, continue to be a “regular” teenager. He hides this massive part of his life from his friends and family, often at the expense of his relationships with the people around him, and that tension eats away at him. When the people in Peter Parker’s life do, inevitably, learn the truth about his identity, it’s hardly met with immediate acceptance.
Across The Spider-Versetakes the allegorical nature ofthe traditional Spider-Man storyand uses it as the driving force of its plot. Throughout the film’s first act, audiences see Miles struggling with balancing his two worlds, often at the expense of his familial and academic lives. He openly struggles with trying to excuse his behaviors to his parents until he finally confronts the idea of letting them in on his secret. However, this nature of the coming-out narrative is most apparent in Spider-Woman’s story.
Spider-Woman wants to be a hero, but inadvertently turns herself into a villain in the eyes of her father. Though Gwen sees her and Spider-Woman as two sides of the same coin, Captain Stacy spends most of his time on screen seeing Spider-Woman as the person who took Gwen’s innocence by “killing” Peter Parker. When Gwen initially reveals the truth to him, Spider-Woman is still a villain in his eyes. He only sees a dangerous figure with his child’s face and holds her at gunpoint. Captain Stacy’s anger and unrelenting conviction to his beliefs, at the expense of his own child’s safety, is something that a lot of young LGBTQ+ people (especially queer children in conservative families or spaces) relate to. Even after Gwen is sent back to her home universe and finally sees her father again, she isn’t embraced with open arms. While his anger and fear have subsided, there’s still an understood worry about how his daughter will navigate this world with her new identity.
Across The Spider-Versehighlights themes of “otherness”
TheSpider-Versefranchise has not shied away from the allegorical nature of classic Marvel superheroes/groups, instead embracing the nature of this subtext and making it even more apparent in its second installment.Across The Spider-VersetakesMiles’ identity as an Afro-Latino teenager– more specifically, a child of a Puerto Rican mother and Black, American father – and uses it as a driving force behind his story. Starting with subtle nods and jokes about his Puerto Rican heritage (saying “I heard he’s Dominican” when his mother claims she thinks Spider-Man is Puerto Rican and his parents’ reaction to hearing he has a B in his Spanish class) to the poignant conversation he has with his mother where she tells him not to let anyone try and make him feel as if he doesn’t belong in the space he’s in, Miles Morales’ identity as a person of color in a traditionally white space is a backbone of his storyline in this movie.
Gwen’s arc centers on her isolation within, and because of, her own identity. Not only does she consider herself an outsider among her family and her peers on Earth-65, but her unwillingness to be an outsider in the Spider Society also jeopardizesher relationship with Miles. Seeing the trans and queer subtext in the details of her story inAcross The Spider-Verseisn’t difficult to do because the movie leans into this allegory. Gwen Stacy doesn’t have to be explicitly trans or queer to be a character that represents the struggles that trans and queer people around the world face. Her story is told through the lens of a young girl struggling with her own identity in a flawed world riddled with systemic bigotry, and the consequences of revealing who she really is to her loved ones could end her. Whether Gwen Stacy is actually trans or is just an ally is purposely left to the interpretation of the audience because the story of Earth-65 Spider-Woman is rooted in her heroism and duality, just likeany other Spider-Person.More:Spider-Man: Across The Spider-Verse – 8 Ways The Movie Sets Up Beyond The Spider-Verse Sequel
