3 Short Paragraphs (Or Not): Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse

2023,  Joaquim Dos Santos, Kemp Powers, Justin K. Thompson -- download

Its always weird trying to do my usual "in parentheses" bit about previous works a Director has done (usually above) when the work is an animation. Something in the way animated movies are done often requires the work of more than one director. I imagine the nature of the creation requires more, but those are the ones that get to put their names on it.

Never is that more apparent in an animation than in a movie set in the Multi Spider-Verse. The movie really goes a long way to play up the differing styles presented in different universes and with different characters, right down to the music choices made, colour palettes and background art styles. 

Of note, another big movie requiring another multi-day rewatch, to generate the buzz in the brain again.

That opening. The painterly approach taken to Gwen's world that both sets the tone for the rest of the movie and reminds us how utterly creative this whole concept is. And all this is just the before-credits opening!

Yeah, I should have seen this movie on the big screen, like Kent, multiple times BUT but, the movie also needs to be seen multiple times on the small screen so you can do "wut?" rewind & pause, just to look at stuph.

Gwen (Hailee Steinfeld, True Grit) is atypical for Spider-Man canon, given that she is Gwen Stacy and not Peter Parker (like, duh). But she shares the contentious relationship with her father figure, her father, and her experiences on Earth 1610 with Mile Morales (Shameik Moore, Samaritan) have strained things between her and people even more so.

What is atypical? Once we poke our head into Spider Central we see a LOT of different spider-folk, who diverge from the central reality a LOT. I suppose we have to consider Earth 616's as the prime Spider-Man, but what is stranger, what is more divergent, a Gwen Stacy spider-person or a cartoon pig or a .... car?

Boing, over to Earth 1610. Miles is growing up. But his world is still bright and bouncy and full of life, and full of four-colour panels. Alas the tension between his family and him continues to grow, mainly because he continues to play the Spider-Man role without telling them. That distracts him, delays him, has him hiding things from his very aware parents. 

Four-colour? No, not really, more "original Spider-Man animated movie from Sony" colour, which is bright and spray paint. Four-colour literally has its own universe.

But, oh boy, is this re-introduction to Miles fun! The Spot (Jason Schwartzman, Asteroid City) ! Cow Man! Dalmatian! A (not!) Villain of the Week who tries really badly to rob an ATM (machine) from a bodega and ends up playing the clown, while declaring really loudly that he is Spider-Man's nemesis. But he kind of is, given that he is (!!!) responsible for the creation of the Miles Morales version of Spider-Man. Which they quickly, without much fanfare, explain why in this version of Earth there was a Peter Parker Spider-Man who died, and he was replaced by a new Spider-Man with some very different powers, totally breaking with the canon. And breaking with the canon is a Big Deal.

The tension with his family, and how much he misses Gwen (and how much she misses him) has him follow her through one of her Spider-Team ("small elite force") dimension hopping holes. Its typical Miles not thinking things through but doing what feels right to him. Gwen is actually on a mission and visiting Miles was a side-quest; she is tracking down The Spot who, because of his emerging multi-verse affecting powers is hopping one from one reality to the next collecting "holes". The danger this carries is never more apparent when they end up in Mumbattan on Earth 50101, which is basically "India Spider-Man" universe. 

The Spot pops into the Alchemax lab to collect his spot energy and damages the building, causing it to fall onto other structures. Earth 50101 is realllllly vertical and really over-populated. While the Spider-folk do what Spider-folk do, and save lots of people, there is no way they get everyone out of all those buildings that are crushed by the falling lab. No matter, the key event is the Gwen Stacy moment where Pavitr Prabhakar (Karan Soni, Safety Not Guaranteed) can either save his GF or her father, the "Captain Stacy" of this world. Miles intervenes and SCRRRRTCH, "canon event interrupted".

What? No mention of Hobie Brown, aka Spider Punk showing up? He really is my favourite of all the alternate Spider-Folk, from an anarchist vs fasco-totalitarian UK Earth depicted as if comics were made like punk rock zines from the 70s & 80s -- badly photo copied and pasted and collaged together with tape & glue. Totally punk rock, dude.

Is the hole growing ever larger fallout from The Spot's damage or is it because Miles saves Police Inspector Singh? No matter, as a bunch of other Spiders-Men show up with tech thingy stuff to contain the damage and the gang have to return to Spider-Society central, and bring Miles along. 

Spider-Society, in a World of the Future. In fact, its the world of Spider-Man 2099, which is in The Future, and is the home of the leader of the Spider-Society, Miguel O'Hara (Oscar Isaac, Moon Knight). Oh boy, there is so much to unpack in this segment. For one, the place is chock full of Spiders-People, of all shapes and sizes and types and origins. Their goal is to keep the canon, to return anomalies to their home universes and repair issues. But as we get deeper, we get he real story, the real story to Miles, to these movies. Miles had been bitten by a spider from Earth 42. The spider had been found by The Spot, in his original role as just another scientist doing stupid stuff. The spider bites Miles, which, according to Miguel's logic, led to the death of Miles's universe's real Spider-Man and the explosion of the Kingpin's dimensional collider thingie which is causing lots of and lots of Spider-Verse damage. He calls Miles the "original anomaly". Does that mean he found out about dimensions after that event, which led him to destroy a universe accidentally by majorly disrupting a canon event? Either way, they want to do something nefarious to Miles and the rest of the gang seems onboard with it, in that they knew about it, and did nothing to stop Miguel. What are they going to do with Miles, beyond letting his own canon event (death of his father) proceed? Who knows, but no matter, as Miles escapes.

Sooooo much to unpack in this segment. Like constantly pausing to look at all the Spiders-People, who are not even always people. There are sooo many types. Pause, look, pause, look, pause, look. Dinosaur?!? But what the fuck are they all doing hanging out here? Shouldn't they be back in their own universes saving people? Isn't hanging out in Miguel's universe depriving villains of the week from being stopped in their own universes? Also, Miguel's is supposed to be In The Future. Does that mean the universes are tied to points where there is an active Spider-Man? Also, seems like a major canon BREAK for there to be a universe where a Spider-Man dies, and Miguel even implies that Miles caused the death of his world's Spider-Man by being bitten. Did Miguel cause the death of that world's Spider-Man so he could have his family? Also.... vampire?!?!?

Miles escapes back to his.... well, not quite his universe but the Earth 42 caused by a glitch in the Go Home Machine. In this Darker Timeline, they were deprived of a Spider-Man because The Spot stole their spider, and Miles has ended up being The Prowler cuz his dad died but his uncle didn't. And he is not exactly happy to see our Miles.

END. MOVIE. Wait for the follow up.

What ?!?! Oh yeah, I entirely forgot it was a two-parter, as is the way these days. In my first watching, I didn't really catch onto the Earth 42 fake-out but I had some inkling. The colours were just slightly off. 

This movie was surprisingly satisfying follow-up to the ground breaking original animated movie. It is able to keep the humour and excitement and heartfelt nature of the original while introducing sooooo much more. And the visuals, while not as impactful as the introduction in the original (it was just sooooo unlike anything we had seen before) are still a wonder to look at. Just pause ANY scene and just look at it. Each still could be a piece of art. 

New one now please?