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Untethered from the basic physics of live-action cinema, Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse becomes the clearest, purest example of a comic book brought to fully realized cinematic life. A bit of Jack Kirby’s crackle here, a little bit of old school techniques there, and the whole thing is populated with the hallmarks of comic’s more fringe elements that much of the MCU has elided so far. There’s multiple universes, different versions of the same character meeting, and the death of a popular character that sticks and matters to the wider story/universe.
The elastic reality of a comic book’s universe is the foundational idea of Into the Spider-Verse. I mean, the Green Goblin here resembles the Ultimate Spider-Man’s literal goblin-like creature but amped to eleven, maybe even twelve. This version of Dr. Octopus has tentacles that appear to be both firm and spongy at the same time, so the elasticity of the film’s world and comic book ethos pours down into every expressionistic character design or hyperactive imagery.
I’ve never seen anything quite like this. It’s absolutely wonderful to just stare at every frame for the amount of detail and unique artistic choices. This is one of the most original animated films I saw in 2018, so don’t let the fact that it’s another spin around the Spider-Man neighborhood deter you from watching it.
Much of this blast of kinetic energy and fresh air comes from sticking Miles Morales (Shameik Moore) as the film’s central Spider-Man and placing Peter Parker as his older mentor figure. The film manages to add several more Spiders from various universes all while managing to poke fun at the redundancy of origin stories and power sets. It helps that the film manages to also add some differentiation to a few supporting players, like Aunt May (Lily Tomlin, sweet but sour) as one universe’s femme version of Alfred and Q.
Half of the fun is waiting for which versions of beloved fringe Marvel Spider characters are going to show up. There’s Noir (Nicolas Cage, alternately brooding and kitsch in perfect harmony), Spider-Ham (John Mulaney, a great fit of actor/character), Peni (Kimiko Glenn), and Spider-Gwen (Hailee Steinfeld, please give her a spinoff) as imports with individual animation designs and styles. We also get two versions of Peter Parker: this movie universe’s beloved/dead (Chris Pine) and the main Marvel universe’s middle-aged and bitter one (Jake Johnson, a goddamn delight). And Oscar Isaac in a surprise end credits addition that I won’t spoil. Into the Spider-Verse manages to balance all of these characters in a satisfactory way, mainly by knowing which ones to develop (Steinfeld, Johnson) and which to keep in smaller parts (Cage, Mulaney, Glenn).
By the time we get to the dimensional shattering and completely dazzling finale I was ready to proclaim Into the Spider-Verse as the best Spider-Man movie, ever. Then we get to the finale and end credits, and I had changed my mind. This isn’t just the best Spider-Man movie, this has to rank very high in Marvel’s cinematic output across the board.
Regardless if it’s Morales or Parker under the suit, Into the Spider-Verse shows us that the symbolism of Spider-Man is a bottomless well of relatable insecurity, self-assurance, and memorable emotional truth and humor. The balance between humor, action, and heart is maintained throughout by presenting a fully-fledged character before he even gets around to obtaining powers and maturing into the mask. This is a 117 minute love letter to Stan Lee, Steve Ditko, Brian Michael Bendis, Sara Pichelli, Jason Latour, Robbi Rodriguez, and everyone else who’s ever taken the job of scripting/drawing the adventures of Marvel’s friendly neighborhood hero.
