How exactly do “Children of Men” and Spider-Man go together? It doesn’t sound like this would be based on any existing Marvel Comics storyline. What’s more, that is not an obvious combination, considering “Children of Men” is a gloomy sci-fi story about a future world where humans have become infertile, whereas the Peter Parker version of Spider-Man notoriously has no children since his marriage to Mary Jane was undone in the Marvel Comics universe. But therein lies the reason why this makes a lot of sense.
Simply put, Spider-Man is Marvel Comics’ king of depressing storylines, whether it entails losing his uncle and then his girlfriend, swapping bodies with a dying Otto Octavius, or lots and lots of clone drama and the death of his best friend. If “Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse” taught us anything, it’s that Spider-Man is synonymous with tragedy. Maybe the episode would simply remake “Children of Men” but with Peter Parker in the Clive Owen role? Who knows.
Regardless, it is probably for the best that the episode wasn’t produced. In the same year when Miles Morales showed us that no, Spider-Man doesn’t have to be tragic and they can forge their own destiny, it’s better to avoid putting Peter Parker in yet another dark and depressing story.
Besides, “What If…?” season 2 has enough dark stories as it is. You can see as much for yourselves now that the complete season is available on Disney+.