Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse

The main reason I quit collecting comics is that, even within the world of superhero comics, they got too complex. Realizing that Peter Parker would now be collecting social security, Marvel blew everything up and started all over again. I'm fine with thinking of the Marvel Universe circa 1975.

But time moves on, and the "Ultimate Universe" was created, with multiple universes having multiple superheros. That led to the animated film Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, which won the Academy Award for Best Animated Film and pleased many comic book fans.

I liked it a lot, but the best thing it did for me was make me aware of a character called Spider-Noir. I immediately put the complete collection on my Amazon wish list. But it's also well-written, and the animation is trippy, with the depiction of movement very well done. Las Vegas Weekly recently included it on their best film to watch while stoned.

In our current universe, Peter Parker is Spider-Man. He's trying to stop Kingpin from building a super collider that could wipe out the human race, so low stakes. Meanwhile, a teenager named Miles Morales is trying to cope with his new school, a fancy boarding school in Brooklyn. While on a subterranean adventure with his cool Uncle Aaron, he is bitten by a radioactive spider.

During super collider tests, Spider people from other, parallel dimensions enter this one. A Peter Parker who is middle-aged and bloated, a cute girl, an anime character, and a pig. They all team up to try to stop Kingpin and get back to their home universes.

It's a lot of fun, exciting, and even poignant, especially the relationship between Miles and his father, a cop (a black character weirdly named Jefferson Davis). It shows that it takes some practice to be a good Spider-Man, and the overall message is that anyone can be a superhero (although it also seems to require radioactive arachnids).

The voice cast is very accomplished. Shameik Moore, who voices Miles, is new to me, but Mahershala Ali, Hailee Steinfeld, Lily Tomlin, and Nicolas Cage (as Spider-Noir) are the Oscar nominees among the group. Brian Tyree Henry is very good as Jefferson Davis. Other notable names such as Kathryn Hahn, Liev Schreiber, Zoe Kravitz, and John Mulaney also appear.

The film is also full of Easter eggs. A DVD extra shows some of them, such as all the time Stan Lee appears. More films from Sony Animation are set to come, including spin-offs. I do hope we get a Spider-Noir film. This is the first really good film Cage has made in years.