The Vulture's unexpected appearance in Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse may fix an MCU plot hole created by Spider-Man: No Way Home and Morbius. When Marvel Studios launched the MCU back in 2008, one of the franchise's biggest draws was the fact that everything is connected. What nobody expected at the time, however, was for other studios to get in on the act; an unprecedented agreement between Marvel and Sony that brought Spider-Man into the MCU has evolved, and now Sony's Spider-Man Universe spinoffs are officially part of the same multiverse as the MCU.

So far, the impact has mostly been seen in post-credits. Venom: Let There Be Carnage's post-credits saw Tom Hardy's Eddie Brock transported into the MCU, where his tongue-slavering symbiote swiftly decided it rather liked the idea of snacking on Spider-Man, but he was returned to his own dimension before he had the chance, as seen in Spider-Man: No Way Home's post-credits. The most surprising twist was seen in Morbius' post-credits, however, which revealed Michael Keaton's Vulture had been misplaced in the multiverse in the aftermath of Spider-Man: No Way Home. He'd been transported to another dimension - his memories were confused as a result of Doctor Strange's magic, but he somehow remembered all his problems were tied to Spider-Man.

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Morbius' post-credits scene was clear setup for Sony's Sinister Six, a project the studio has longed to do for almost a decade. However, they also raised a lot of difficult issues for the MCU, feeling as though they contradicted Spider-Man: No Way Home. It may be, however, that simply explaining more about the multiverse will stop this project feeling like it clashes with the MCU - and that Spider-Verse 2 may hold the key to doing just that.

Vulture In Morbius Created A Spider-Man: No Way Home Plot Hole

Split Image: the Vulture appears amidst the flames in Morbius; Michael Morbius (Jared Leto) turns into a living vampire

The core problem, unfortunately, is that Vulture's story just doesn't make any sense. Spider-Man: No Way Home saw the multiverse damaged after Doctor Strange unwisely tried to help Spider-Man erase the world's knowledge of his secret identity, and as a result people from other universes began to emerge in the MCU. At the end of the film, Doctor Strange used another spell to put matters right, albeit at a terrible cost; the world forgot Peter Parker had ever existed, allowing everybody to be returned to their own universes. According to Doctor Strange, this was essential, because the presence of any one person from another dimension risked destabilizing the multiverse.

All that makes Vulture's appearance in Sony's Spider-Man Universe rather problematic. The energy effect associated with his transportation was similar to the one seen when Doctor Strange used his final spell, meaning viewers logically assumed this was a side effect of Doctor Strange's magic. It appeared to suggest Strange's spell wasn't as efficient as he believed - but if that is the case, Vulture's mere presence in this dimension should be causing multiversal instability, meaning it needs to be quickly put right. Making matters worse, if one person has been dimensionally displaced, it stands to reason others have as well. The Vulture's appearance hints the entire multiverse is still in danger.

Spider-Verse 2 Reveals Another Vulture Has Been Transported In The Multiverse

Miles Morales with his Spider-Verse allies

Footage from Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse has revealed Michael Keaton's Vulture isn't the only one to be jumping the dimensions, however. Sony's CinemaCon presentation included the first 15 minutes of the film, with a strange variant of the Vulture attacking Spider-Gwen's dimension, Earth-65; to Gwen's surprise, she soon finds herself backed up by Spider-Man 2099 and a variant of Jessica Drew's Spider-Woman. Spider-Man 2099 explains that Kingpin's attempt to manipulate the multiverse in the first Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse has caused lasting damage to the fabric of reality itself, with the Spider-Totems striving to put matters right. This mystery variant of the Vulture - a sepia-toned character with an Italian accent - has been transported randomly to Earth-65 as a result.

Related: Amazing Spider-Man Theory: No Way Home Curing Electro Saves Gwen Stacy

Spider-Man Theory: SpiderVerse Will Explain All Vultures Have Been Transported

Michael Keaton as Vulture

There are clearly interesting parallels between Morbius' post-credits scene and the clip from Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse shown by Sony at CinemaCon. It isn't just that both show villains related to Spider-Man who have been plucked from their proper dimensions; it's also striking that both involve variants of the Vulture. This raises the possibility the multiversal disruption is centered on Vulture somehow.

Morbius appeared to suggest the cause of all this lies in Doctor Strange's spell, that the Master of the Mystic Arts didn't perform his magic quite so efficiently as he believed - and, as a result, there are still loose ends in the multiverse. The footage from Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse took a different approach, with Spider-Man 2099 claiming the current chaos is a result of events in Sony's first animated Spider-Man blockbuster. But if the disruption is centered upon the Vulture, it's likely the true cause is somewhat different; that somewhere in the multiverse there is a variant of the Vulture who tampered with the multiverse, and the consequences are rippling out across the dimensions, tearing every other Vulture out of his proper place. Presumably, the Spider-Totems will have to take a journey "across" the multiverse to find the variant responsible and figure out how to repair the damage he has caused - although doing so is unlikely to transport the displaced variants back to their own timelines.

Spider-Man getting his Spidey senses in Spider-Man Into the Spider-Verse

Should this prove to be the direction the movie is heading in, then Sony's Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse would technically have been the first movie set in the MCU multiverse - because it is the same multiverse as the one now being explored by the MCU. The difference in genres isn't a problem - there's already precedent for both live-action and animated productions existing in the same multiverse, with Marvel's What If...? serving as an animated series that introduces different dimensions in the MCU's multiverse. But the concept is still a fascinating one, because it potentially opens the way for characters to move from the animated movies into the live-action universes.

This could perhaps tie in to one of Sony's more curious projects, the Madame Web movie now scheduled to release in July 2023. In the comics, Madame Web is very much tied to the concept of the Spider-Verse; her precognitive powers are based on an intuitive connection to the Web of Life and Destiny, allowing her to see the strands of fate that bind the dimensions together. The trailer for Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse featured a shot of Miles Morales blasted across the multiverse, and the artistic style used was evocative of this same Web of Life and Destiny. It really does look as though Sony's live-action and animated movies really are exploring the same multiversal concepts, which is unlikely to be a coincidence.

Related: How Iron Man Learned Peter Parker Is Spider-Man In The MCU

This also serves to move Sony's Spider-Man spinoffs closer to the MCU. After all, both Marvel and Sony are now dealing with different dimensions, variants of the same characters - and even variants of Spider-Man, with different iterations of the wall-crawler appearing in Marvel's What If...? If this is indeed the case, then there is a sense in which Sony is weaving a web of their own, one in which Spider-Man: No Way HomeMorbius, and Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse are all crucial parts.

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