Still Marvelous Part 2: Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse

As I mentioned in Part 1, there have been whiffs in the MCU and while Sony has its own Spiderverse, this remains MCU adjacent. Plus, someday, you know the MCU will eventually work in Miles Morales into a live action scenario and hopefully, they will do Miles as much justice as Peter Parker.

Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse takes the wonder and solid storytelling of its predecessor and does it again. Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse is a visionary work of genius; it is also self-contained and stands on it own which the new film cannot do, of course. The second part is due out next year.

This time, though, Miles (Shameik Moore doing an outstanding job!) is older and still trying to bear the responsibility of being Spider-Man and maintaining his grades and of course, dealing with being a teenager. It's a lot.

Also a lot is thinking about what's contained in this film narratively. The multiverse idea has found its apex in Everything Everywhere All at Once, but the feature at hand isn't far behind. Both films embrace the idea that there are infinite numbers of timelines that each of us experience. In the Oscar winner, we follow Evelyn through her variants; in Across the Spider-Verse and the earlier film, we discover that there are myriad variants of Spider-Man; he may be a man, he may be a pig, he may even be a woman; but he is also somewhat delimited by "canon events". That is, Uncle Ben has to die in certain universes. Gwen Stacy, too. But there may be variations; obviously, in some universes, Peter Parker is Spider-Man, in another it's Miles and in another, it might be Hobie or Pavitr Prabhakar. Spider-Man can be British or Indian. 

What happens if a canon event is altered is the decimation/dissolution of that universe, as the mysterious Miguel (Oscar Isaac, embodying a tortured soul through his voice alone abetted by great visuals) learned to his dismay. All of this sounds like gobbledygook, but it actually coheres in a way that other uses of the multiverse do not (see also, The Flash, and to a lesser degree, Dr. Strange and the Multiverse of Madness). 

It's helpful that each Earth is assigned a number. Miles exists on Earth 1610, Gwen Stacy (aka Spider-Woman and voiced by Hailee Steinfeld - awesomely, I might add) is from Earth 65, and so on. But what if a mistake was made? What if Miles was never supposed to be bitten by that spider? What if Miles Morales on Earth 42 was the intended recipient but something redirected the spider? This is the contention of The Spot, a Steve Ditko villain if there ever were one. While testing the collider that exploded and irradiated the spider that bit Miles, the scientist who became the Spot had brought a spider in from another universe. In typical dumbass mad scientist fashion, by the way, The Spot blames Miles for his condition of being riddled with portals in his body that he can move through to other spaces and dimensions. In some of the wackiest visuals ever, the first fight between Spider-Miles and The Spot is a thing of mind-bending hilarity. The mind-bending only grows as the movie goes along.

Gwen has been on the run, by the way. As Spider-Woman, she accidentally kills Peter Parker while he was in the guise of the Lizard on a rampage. Seen with his body, the assumption is, of course, that she murdered him. She eventually reveals this to her father, a police officer who then attempts to arrest her. Well, that's a fine mess.

Gwen also misses Miles and pays a visit to Earth 1610 to check in. There she learns about The Spot but her visit isn't all that it seems. She was recruited, reluctantly into Miguel O'Hara's Spider Society to trap and contain the Spot under the aegis of Jess Drew (the redoubtable Issa Rae). That nothing - literally nothing - goes right is what drives the action in this film. Miles, Gwen, and Hobie Brown find themselves on the trail of the Spot on Earth-50101 in the city of Mumbatten in that world's India fighting alongside Pavitr Prabhakar. Karan Soni as Pavitr and Daniel Kaluuya as Hobie continue the voice excellence already annoyingly mentioned. But mentioned it must be, because as stunning and as fully realized as the visuals are, it wouldn't work with some of the best voice work ever.

It is here that we learn of canon events and it also becomes clear that Gwen's visit wasn't just to see Peter. In fact, she wasn't supposed to see him at all and it appears that everyone in the Spider Society is aware of the fact that Miles isn't supposed to be Spider-Man (or if he is, he's supposed to be bitten by a different spider?) In any case, disaster strikes Mumbatten because Miles saved Pavitr's father which was not supposed to happen and the city begins to fall apart.

The Spot is on a mission to absorb the collider's power in each universe and ultimately, well, I'm not sure he knows. Be that as it may, Miguel tosses Gwen out of the Spider Society, Miles gets back to Brooklyn, and then comes the record scratch. After climbing through his window, he tells his mother that he's Spider-Man only to realize that she has no clue who that is. That's not his Earth 1610 mom; he's on Earth 42 where there is no Spider-Man and Miles Morales is the Prowler. Miles is held in place by his drug dealer Uncle Aaron (who died on Earth 1610 in Into the Spider-Verse) again voiced by the great Mahershala Ali.

Gwen is able to get to Earth 1610 and contacts Miles' parents to whom she promises she will find Miles and bring him back. She assembles the team of Spider-Man Noir, Spider-Ham, Hobie, Peter, Mayday (Peter's toddler daughter!), Pavitr, Margo Kess aka Spider Byte, and Peni Parker the Mecha Spider-Man, uh, Woman.

With all of these different universes, how can we care what happens in one or another of them? That's rather the point. I don't care if the setting for a film or any narrative is a multiverse with rather slippery rules or what; are the characters "real"? Do they have depth, can I care about them? That's the first thing and here it is primary. 

There is no one in this film whose fate I don't feel invested in. The writing is that tight and as I mentioned ad nauseam, the voice performances are excellent. Even with the alternate Uncle Aaron on Earth 42, you feel there's more to him and that Earth 1610 Miles may get through to him. 

We also are deeply involved with both Miles' families, and your heart breaks when you see how adolescent Miles acts toward his dad but also how much keeping his Spider-Man identity away from them tears him up. Similarly, Gwen is going through a mountain of pain with her father who does know her identity but turns down his promotion at the end to avoid having to arrest her. 

And yes, through it all, the visuals are beyond stunning; despite seeing it in 2-D, every sequence had a sense of depth and genuine space. Characters are rendered distinctly, assuming various styles from Japanese anime to almost photorealist portraiture. Background colors shift and change, reflecting the emotional content of discussions (especially between those with Gwen and her dad.) The entire movie is a masterpiece of animated expressionism and stands along with its predecessor as an example of what animation can do as a storytelling medium.

The worst thing I can say about it is that it's a shame we have to wait for the next chapter. Part of me hopes that the next one due out in 2024 is the last of the series, but we know better. I'll have no problem with this if Christopher Miller, Phil Lord, and David Callahan can keep the writing up to these standards and if Joaquim Dos Santos, Kemp Powers, and Justin K. Thompson can continue directing of this caliber.