Spider-Man: Beyond the Spider-Verse First Look Teases a Major Reinvention of a Major Villain

Sony‘s presentation at Cinema Con came with good news and bad news. Spider-Man: Beyond the Spider-Verse, the third entry in the incredible animated trilogy, will not hit theaters until June 4, 2027, which is bad news (unless you’re one of the overworked animators). However, the good news is that we’ve got our first looks at the movie, and they are amazing. It appears that Beyond the Spider-Verse will continue the standard set by the first two films, creating dazzling worlds unlike anything seen in comics or movies.

The even better news is for fans of the Prowler, a minor villain from Spider-Man comics who continues to be a major character in the Spider-Verse movies. Created by Stan Lee, John Buscema, and Jim Mooney for 1969’s the Amazing Spider-Man #78, the Prowler was Hobie Brown, a brilliant engineer who felt that his talents were unappreciated. Instead he used his inventions to become the Prowler and steal the riches he thought he deserved.

The depiction of African American Hobie perhaps reflected the relatively centrist politics of Stan Lee (see also early Falcon stories in Captain America at the time, in which the Black Power movement is portrayed as illogical and susceptible to Red Skull’s manipulations). Yet Prowler soon found an audience and became a popular anti-hero in Spidey’s stories, even carrying his own miniseries for a while.

Most modern Spidey fans know the Prowler as the alter-ego of Aaron Davis, uncle to Miles Morales and brother to Jefferson Davis. As introduced in the alternate reality Ultimate Universe, Aaron is Jefferson’s ne’er-do-well brother, whose illegal activities clash with Miles’ adventures as Spidey.

The Spider-Verse films, and the recent PlayStation Spider-Man video games, further develop this version of Davis, using Uncle Aaron to represent the dangers posed by Miles’ new adventure. When Uncle Aaron (voiced by Mahershala Ali) dies in Into the Spider-Verse, Miles learns about the loss that binds all the Spider-People together.

Across the Spider-Verse continued that theme in its cliffhanger. After an adventure that paired him with an alternate universe Hobie Brown, now the radical Spider-Punk, Miles landed in yet another reality, one in which Jefferson died, Aaron still lives, and Miles is the Prowler.

Looking at the first images from the movie, Beyond the Spider-Verse will certainly carry this story further. The alternate universe Prowler will be a sort of dark mirror of our Miles, showing what he could become should the Spot complete his mission of vengeance and kill Jefferson.

That’s quite an upgrade for the Prowler from his humble comics origins, both in the mainline and Ultimate universes. Despite the similarities to their masks, Spider-Man and the Prowler were never foils to one another. Peter never felt the same urge to use his inventions for selfish gain, and thus moralized to Hobie more than he related with him. But Beyond the Spider-Verse will alter that dynamic by making the Prowler as literally another version of Miles Morales, aka Spider-Man. The Prowler is now the manifestation of everything that could go wrong for Miles, the suggestion that maybe he doesn’t actually have the ability to continue doing the right thing in the face of tragedy, as Miquel O’Hara claimed in Across the Spider-Verse. Maybe his leap of faith will result in disaster.

That’s a huge upgrade for the Prowler, and a welcome one at that. After years of sitting on the sidelines, the Prowler will finally climb to the top. Well, in two years, that is.

Spider-Man: Beyond the Spider-Verse releases June 4, 2027.

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