The movie/book that I am comparing to the odyssey is Spider-man Into the spider-verse.
This movie is about a young boy and how his life was flipped upside down in an instant. I believe that Miles (The main character) deserves to be called a hero more than Odysseus does because Miles is only 13 years old and has absolutely no past experience with a situation like this.
The first step of the hero’s journey is the Ordinary World. Odysseus’ ordinary world was him living his everyday life in Ithaka. He was a very wealthy person while on Ithaka. Miles’ ordinary world was living in an apartment in New York with his two parents. He was just recently transferred to a new private school and he dislikes it very much. Miles’ dad is a cop and he is embarrassed by him all the time. For example, when he is dropped off at school on the first day his dad says over the intercom of his cop car “Miles, say I love you back!” Overall Miles’ life is rather hectic.
The second step of the Hero’s journey is the Call to adventure. Odysseus’s call to adventure starts with the Trojan war. When the Greeks are attacked by the Trojans, Odysseus must travel to Troy to lead the armies. At first, Odysseus refused the call, because his firstborn, Telemachus, had just been born. It is a fatherly instinct that causes him to stay. Miles’ call to
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adventure is rather different than Odysseus’. His call to adventure never really gave miles the choice to deny it or not. Miles visits his Uncle Aaron and he decides to take miles to the subway and show him a perfect spot to do some graffiti. While miles is down there he is bitten by a radioactive spider which then turns him into Spiderman.
The third step of the hero’s journey is Refusal to the Quest. The way that Odysseus refused his call was that he acted like he was insane. He did so by acting like a psychopath in the middle of a field. This was later proven to all be an act because he was asked to sacrifice a family member and no sane person would do so. Miles never really had a proper refusal of the call. He never chose to be spider-man but instead, he was chosen to be Spiderman.
The fourth step of the hero’s journey is Accepting the call. The way Odysseus accepts the call is that he comes to a realization that he has to follow thr orders because he has no way of getting out of them. Even though Odysseus does not want to do this he has to cooperate and do it. The way Miles accepts the call is that he also comes to a very sudden realization that he has to do what is right and help his allies fight against the evil Kingpin. Miles is a very good person for doing this because he easily could have just had fun with his superpowers and completely blew off his allies but he chose not to.
The fifth step of the hero’s journey is entering the unknown. Entering the unknown for Odysseus was him going off to new lands and running into different people such as the Cyclops, Circe, and Scylla and Charybdis. Entering the unknown for Miles is when he meets his so-called partners like Gwen, Spider-ham, Peni Parker, and Spiderman Noir. This was a new experience for Miles because these people were not from his time and they all were very unique characters. For example, Spider-ham is a pig version of spider man.
The sixth step of the hero’s journey is Tests. The way that Odysseus is tested is that he runs into many enemies such as Circe, The Lotus Eaters, and the Sirens. The way that Miles is tested is that he runs into many problems just like Odysseus did. His main problem is trying to defeat the evil Kingpin. This character is able to open up portals and pull different versions of spider man from different dimensions into his.
The seventh step in the hero’s journey is the supreme ordeal. The supreme ordeal is basically the climax of the story. The supreme ordeal for Odysseus is getting back home to Ithica and reuniting with Penelope and Telemachus. The supreme ordeal for Miles is much more complex. Miles and his team are met with a very big problem. This problem is that Kingpin is trying to collide dimensions and mess with time. The way that Miles and his team have to stop this is that they have to plug in something to the machine to make it stop. The one person trying to put a stop to this plan is Octavius. The squad eventually defeats Octavius, but still has to get past Kingpin. Once Miles is met with Kingpin, his only ally left is Peter Parker. This happened because of all of the other allies of Miles had already gone back home through the portal that the machine had opened up.
The eighth step of the hero’s journey is the return home. The return home for Odysseus is when he cleans his house of the stains of the vile blood of the suitors and removing their bodiesmfrom the outside. After this is done Odysseus goes to see his sick father bring his spirits back to life. Miles’ return home was him calling his dad and telling him that he is okay and that he is safe. Miles’ dad does not know that his son is Spiderman so Miles later goes up to his dad after he gets off the phone with him and says “ I look forward to working with you.” while in his suit.
The ninth and final step of the hero’s journey is returning to the status quo. The way that Odysseus returns to the status quo is that he continues to live his regular life on Ithica with his family. The way that Miles returns to the status quo is that he continues to be the amazing spider man but he also continues to live his everyday life as Miles Morales.
In conclusion Miles and Odysseus, both had very similar yet different hero’s journeys. Miles had a more action-packed and exciting journey with a happy ending. On the other hand, Odysseus had a rather sad ending to his journey with all the men that he had lost. I think that both characters had very, very interesting journeys and both had an important meaning, but Miles still is the better hero. He is the better hero because he had to do such hard and mature tasks at such a young age. Miles was able to fight off many villains and save many lives while also being an everyday student and maintaining a good education. On the other hand, Odysseus still had an amazing journey defeating many villains and having the will power to move on after losing friends and loved ones. Odysseus was also able to defeat bigger and worse villains than Miles ad his team did. I the end Miles Morales is the better, stronger, and braver hero.
Citations
- Hamilton, Edith. “The Adventures of Odysseus.” Mythology, by Homer, Little, Brown, and Company, 1998.
- Homer, and Robert Fitzgerald. “The Odyssey.” Prentice-Hall Literature: Timeless Voices, Timeless Themes, Gold ed., Prentice-Hall, 2000, pp. 860–916.
- Ramsey, Peter, et al., directors. Spider-Man Into the Spider-Verse. SONY, 2018.
