Spiderman: Into the Spiderverse Spins it Verse and Let’s it Flow

The Death of Gwen Stacey was the comic book moment that hooked me on Spider Man. Her death and the subsequent mourning of her by Peter Parker aka Spider-Man was the kind of plausible tragedy that Uncle Ben’s too precious and too on the nose death was not. Gwen Stacey, like Uncle Ben, haunted Spider-Man from there on after because from thereon after she stayed dead. Except, of course, in parallel universes. In parallel universes Gwen Stacey lives as Spider-Gwen, some guy named Miles Morales is Spider-Man, unless it’s Spider-Ham aka Peter Porker or Spider-Noir, or Penni Parker…

I was hooked on mainstream Spider-Man and not at all that keen for the designer knock-offs, the alternative timelines that like to posit; What If? Mainstream comic books are already a pretty big what if, but I’ve also never been fond of other people or beings inhabiting a superhero persona. Steve Rogers, in my opinion, is inseparable from Captain America, Tony Stark inseparable from Iron Man and Peter Parker inseparable from Spider-Man. I’ve never wonder what if Gwen Stacey had Spider-Man’s origin story, or a guy named Miles Morales?

These are some of the biases I owned going into Spider-Man; Into the Spiderverse. To make matters worse, the Peter Parker featured in Into the Spiderverse has become a layabout spider-slacker, the kind of character Jake Johnson would tend to play. I like Jake Johnson, but do I like Jake Johnson as Peter Parker/Spider-Man? It turns out I do. I like it very much. It also turns out that I like Miles Morales (Shameik Moore) very much and Gwen as a Spider-Woman (Hailee Steinfeld) is pretty cool. Of course, no amount of color popping eye candy is going to make me like Spider-Ham (John Mulaney), and a Manga chick as Spider-Man? No thank-you, but Spider-Noir is interesting.

In writing this review I keep thinking of some leftist journalist who wrote a piece about taking his young son to see Spider-Man: Into the Spiderverse lamenting how the animated film was “problematic.” It cracks me up even now thinking about how this guy thought it wise to use a Spider-Man cartoon to lecture the world on the importance of intersectionality, micoaggressions and what not when what is “problematic” about this otherwise perfect Spider-Man cartoon is the writers, Phil Lord and Rodney Rothman don’t seem to know what to do with the spider pig and Manga chick with her “BFF” a spider robot. Apparently they felt that Miles Morales, slacker Peter Parker, Spider-Gwen and Spider-Noir weren’t enough alternative timeline Spider Men and at least two more were needed.

Actually, the spider pig and Manga chick aren’t the only problematic elements of this animated film. Never paying attention to the comic books of the Miles Morales universe, I was not aware that Miles Morales wasn’t the only Spider-Man and that Peter Parker was the Spider-Man in this universe too, only for some reason the King Pin is able to do what no other King Pin in all the multi-verse could do and that’s kill Spider-Man. What is problematic about Miles ascension into the role is that he is bitten by a radioactive spider (a numbered radioactive spider) in a sewage drain. No explanations as to how that happened, just there when you need a friendly neighborhood radioactive spider.

Then there is the added power of invisibility and electrosparks surging through his fingers. What the hell is that? Since when do spiders turn invisible upon command, and electric stingers? All the other alternative Spider people are just lamer versions of Spider-Man (although Spider-Gwen is pretty cool)

Despite the “problematic” aspects of the film, it never-the-less soars. The animation is not just good, it’s great and reminds comic book superhero fans that these superheroes are works of graphic art. A comic can have mild to even bad writing but the artwork so good it makes the comic book over all a pretty good comic book, but no matter how good the story and script, not matter how good the writing, if the art work is mild to bad that comic book is also bad. The transition into live action comic book movies somewhat changed that equation becoming more reliant upon well written scripts and the graphic art.