Back to the Spider-Verse

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Coming next on The World and Everything in It: Marvel’s friendly neighborhood Spider-Man swings back into theaters with Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse. Here’s arts and culture editor Collin Garbarino.

COLLIN GARBARINO: Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse is the much anticipated follow up to 20-18’s Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, which won the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature. The original movie was groundbreaking in both its animation and narrative. And fans of Into the Spider-Verse won’t be disappointed with this sequel.

Across the Spider-Verse picks up where the original movie left off. In the first movie, a variety of Spider-Men from different dimensions come together to defeat a bad guy who risks collapsing the multiverse with a giant supercollider. The Spider-Team prevents the collapse, but at the beginning of this new movie, we learn that their battle poked some holes in the multiverse, letting both good guys and bad guys travel between dimensions.

The hero of this story is Miles Morales, voiced by Shameik Moore. This version of Spider-Man is a science-loving 15-year-old of African-American and Puerto Rican descent.

GUIDANCE COUNSELOR: Miles’s grades are pretty good. “A” in AP Physics.

MOM: That’s my little man!

GUIDANCE COUNSELOR: And AP studio art.

DAD: He takes after his uncle.

But trying to balance the responsibilities of family and school with his secret identity as Spider-Man is proving to be a bit of a challenge for Miles.

GUIDANCE COUNSELOR: And a “B” in Spanish.

MOM: What?!

DAD: Whoo. OK.

MOM: Miles!

Brian Tyree Henry and Luna Lauren Vélez voice Miles’s parents Jeff and Rio, and their scenes are some of the best in the movie. The movie taps into something real with its depiction of a father and mother struggling with how to parent a teenager who’s trying to make a life for himself.

Then Miles’s sort-of girlfriend Gwen, voiced by Hailee Steinfeld, steps back into his life through an interdimensional portal. Gwen is the Spider-Woman in another dimension, and she introduces him to the wider Spider-Verse.

MILES: Wait, wait, wait. Hold on! There’s an elite society with all the best Spider-People in it?

Thousands of Spider-People from thousands of worlds are teaming up to keep the multiverse from collapsing. They need to plug those holes that were left after the supercollider exploded in the last movie. They’re led by Miguel, the Spider-Man from 2099.

MILES: And who’s Miguel?

GWEN: He’s like a ninja, vampire Spider-Man, but a good guy.

MILES: A vampire good guy. I’d pay good money to see that.

Besides Miguel, Miles meets Jessica Drew, a pregnant Spider-Woman who rides a motorcycle; Hobie, a punk rock anarchist Spider-Man who carries a guitar; and Pavitr Prabhakar, an Indian Spider-Man who defends a city that’s a synthesis of Mumbai and Manhattan.

PAVITR: Being Spider-Man is so easy. I fight a few bad guys. Quick break for Chai with my auntie.

MILES: I love Chai tea.

PAVITR: What did you just say? “Chai” means “Tea”—You’re saying “Tea Tea”!

Phil Lord and Christopher Miller return as the creative power behind this sequel. Besides the first Spider-Verse movie, they’re also responsible for the two Lego movies, which are also stellar.

Lord and Miller cover familiar Spidey territory with ideas like, “actions have consequences” and “our hardships define us.” But they add an interesting thought experiment. What if we could erase those hardships in order to alleviate the suffering of others? Would we? Even though that might redefine us?

MIGUEL: You have a choice between saving one person and saving every world.

MILES: I can do both.

In the old days of comics, the conflict lay between a hero and a villain who had obviously wicked motivation—greed, lust for power, revenge. We get that villain in this movie.

But the real conflict—the more interesting conflict—comes between Miles and Miguel. They both think of themselves as the “good guys.” But plenty of evil has been wrought by people who believed they were on the right side of history.

MILES: Everyone keeps telling me how my story is supposed to go. Nah. I’m going to do my own thing.

If you’re thinking about seeing Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse, there are a couple of things you should know. First, the movie ends on a cliffhanger. The third installment is due early next year.

Second, the movie is rated PG, but parents need to exercise some discernment. It has a couple of mild profanities. And while many viewers won’t catch it, the movie has a subtle endorsement of the LGBT agenda. Gwen’s not trans, but she has a sign above her bedroom door that says “protect trans kids.” We also see her clash with her tradition-minded father, and one could view a teenager’s coming out as a Spider-Person as a metaphor for coming out as LGBT. There’s also a scene in which a girl swipes through pictures of women online—it’s not clear whether she’s looking for a new hairstyle or looking for a girlfriend.

These issues aside, Lord and Miller have created a worthy sequel for the 20-18 movie. After seeing so many movies, I almost always see the plot twist coming. I’m happy to say this movie had a twist that genuinely surprised me.

I’m hoping Lord and Miller can stick the landing with next year’s finale to the story.

I’m Collin Garbarinio.

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