My Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales Headcanon Lives Rent Free in My Head
I'm frustrated about my girl Phin and need to write about it.
Spoilers for Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales.
I said I wouldn’t write about it.
Then I beat the game.
This isn’t a review of the game. This, my friends, is a headcanon, my own personal fangirl take on what I would’ve loved to see happen. Every good fangirl has one … or ten, but I’ll just stick with the one until I fall down the fanart/fanfic rabbit hole.
Thoughts on canon events
As much as I enjoyed this game I found myself incredibly frustrated with the relationship between Miles and Phin. At the start I adored Phin, but as the game progresses she succumbs to that angry character syndrome that removes all common sense. I’m not saying she’s not allowed to be angry, no, never that, but there are moments where her actions cause the utter destruction of innocent lives and she refuses to believe it because, “Nope, my plan’s still fine.”
Speaking as someone who’s lost their older brother I completely understand that level of hurt, but as we got closer to the end of the game her decisions became more illogical, making it real hard to sympathize with her. I’m nowhere near the level of genius that these kids are at but even I could tell that her reactor was gonna vaporize the entire city just by LOOKING at it. And it sucks that that’s how she’s gonna be remembered by the entire city when she’s got valid reasons to be angry.
Like, she and Miles are in the middle of fighting in a crumbling building, the city streets cracking, the light from the reactor evaporating things around it and this girl’s still like, “Nu-uh, Simon Krieger (the actual villain of the story) isn’t smart enough to change my device to make it effect more than this one building.”
G I R L!
You’re too smart to not realize that there’s nothing more dangerous than a charismatic white man with money and influence. This man covered up your brother’s death and keeps selling people on this dangerous substance (Nuform) to the point that employees who work there are still on board with it. Stop getting in your own way, Phin!
Also, I’ve grown weary of the “you didn’t tell me your secret identity therefore I’m mad at you forever” trope in superhero stories, but it’s especially grating in this case because Phin has secrets, too! How are you gonna be mad at Miles when you ALSO didn’t tell him that you’re the Tinkerer? So now, not only will she be seen as being completely irrational, she’ll be seen as a hypocrite.
Then, she insists on this “no one would care” narrative when Miles points out that they have evidence to put Krieger away. Phin. Sis. Miles’ own MOTHER is running for office, WINNING in the polls, and is most definitely AGAINST Krieger and his militaristic goon squad. If there hadn’t been anyone else trying to stand against Krieger that’d be a different story, but there’s an entire podcast calling him out on his shit. Why this lone wolf narrative? Why this epiphany at the very end that leads to her obliteration? LITERALLY, y’all, because she gets vaporized by her best friend because he had to absorb the Nuform from her reactor and it made his power explosive.
No.
I refuse this ending.
So here’s my headcanon.
In which communication happens
Everything plays out like normal (Phin and Miles reconnecting, Phin being the Tinkerer, Miles infiltrating the Underground, Phin finding out Miles is Spider-Man, etc.) but Miles spends more time in the Underground, the two actually rekindling their friendship instead of that being regulated to the time capsule side quest in the game.
(Side note: Why is learning about Miles’ relationship with Phin a side quest? Shouldn’t part of the main story be learning about his best friend turned enemy?)
Anyway, Phin spends more time at Miles’ house, more time with his mother and Ganke, and actually walks the streets of Harlem with Miles to interact with the people there. Basically, she gets to see that she’s not the only one trying to put a stop to Krieger. Because she’s absolutely not. Also, she gets some much-needed comfort after the death of her brother.
When she finds out Miles is Spider-Man she’s surprised, maybe even angry, but not to the obnoxious point of hanging it over his head every time he tries to have a conversation with her. After all, she’s been keeping secrets, too. Instead of having her snap at him about lying to her, she realizes what anyone playing did: she was also hiding something from her friend, therefore, she has zero ground to stand on in this “you’re a liar” accusation she constantly throws at him.
She also gets to realize the weight of her actions, like when The Underground (the group she runs as The Tinkerer) disrupted Rio’s (Miles’ mother) campaign rally.
(Side note the second: I’m actually kinda miffed that Miles never points this out, he spends the whole time trying to apologize for lying to her when she lied to him AND did something that hurt his mother).
We can still do the part where The Prowler (Miles’ uncle Aaron) cuts that deal with Krieger to try and keep Miles safe, but instead of Phin, once again, blaming Miles for everything, they T A L K and… you know what? My headcanon is basically “make Phin more open to communication.”
She can still be angry at Krieger and absolutely should be, but this narrative of “antagonist won’t listen to reason” is so exhausting when there’s plenty of obvious signs around them that they’re in the wrong.
Instead of Phin becoming the final battle in the game, Krieger is, or whatever supervillain he recruits because this isn’t the kind of man who fights his own battles. In my headcanon, Miles and Phin team up, Ganke offering assistance from the sidelines, and they take down Krieger together. Phin gets to see that she still has a family even if her brother is gone because she has Miles. Phin herself says, at one point, that when her parents died her brother basically became her dad and Miles became her brother. If y’all truly are that close then sit and listen to what the other has to say.
I hate that the final battle is against Phin. I hate that she finally gets it when it’s too late, forced to sacrifice herself to make up for it. There’s no reason why she couldn’t have been given the love and support that Miles gets from his mother and Ganke. We’re constantly told that Miles and Phin are close, do that in the actual story. By the time we play through the big flashback that really highlights their friendship, the game’s almost over.
In my headcanon? Phin lives to see Krieger being carted off to jail. She lives so she can pester Miles about his budding crush on Hailey, or maybe nudges him about how he and Ganke have such a good vibe together (Miles and Ganke would be an adorable best friends ship btw). Instead of being punished for her anger, she gets to use it in a way that actually gets her what she wants: Krieger paying for his crimes.
Phin wanting to destroy his research? That’s too simple for someone as smart as her, besides, as Krieger says in the final battle, he’s just gonna turn what she did into an opportunity. He doesn’t even care that their main base of operations is being destroyed! This entire plan is pointless! Phin is SMART and would KNOW THAT HE WOULD DO THAT, so to hell with blowing up a building, she and Miles take down the man himself.
The game ends with a celebration meal with Miles, Phin, Ganke, and the newly elected Rio Morales.
Phin deserves a happy ending, dammit, and in my headcanon, she gets one.
(Image: Sony Interactive Entertainment)
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