Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse: A Packed House of Comic Book Creatives Says 'Excelsior!'
By John Kirk
Rating: A
If you see a comic super-hero film, the best way to see it may be with about 100 comic artists and writers in the theatre with you.
It’s a bit of a cheat, but to watch them watch the film gives you a pretty good idea if it succeeds or not. And, by all indications, they loved the artfully animated sequel Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse.
FanExpo Canada was a co-sponsor of the pre-screening event. They invited Canadian comic artists and writers to the show including Ramon Perez, Adam Gorham, Jim Zub and the RAID Studio to name a few. Also in attendance was Comics Lead Programmer, Kevin Boyd. The audience was essentially a miniature Artists’ Alley.
Let’s talk story. In this film, our hero Miles Morales (Shameik Moore) is simply trying to be the best Spider-Man he can be while also trying to get by at school. His parents, Jeff (Brian Tyree Henry) and his mother, Rio (Lauren Velez) think he’s isolated and don’t know what he does with his free time.
The death of his criminal Uncle Aaron, whom he idolized, has created a void. He misses his friends from the other Spider-Verses, namely Ghost Spider, aka Gwen Stacy (Hailee Steinfeld) and the original Spider-Man a.k.a. Peter Parker (Jake Johnson) after they saved the multiverse from disaster in the previous film.
He can’t visit them and his loneliness becomes apparent to his parents, but not knowing the reason causes tension. When he learns that there is a Spider-Verse protected by a group of Spider-Man variations, including his friend Gwen, he wants in. However, he clashes with the Spider-Man from 2099, aka Miguel O’Hara (Oscar Isaac) in charge of the group, over dealing with a villain known as The Spot (Jason Schwartzman). Miles is on his own and has to deal with them too.
If you don’t know who this Spider-Man is, here’s the back story. In the early 2000’s Marvel Comics decided to re-invent themselves with a grittier, more earthy version of the most recognized heroes. It was called the “Ultimates Universe” and the heroes were darker, more realistic and in some cases, far different from their counterparts in the regular Marvel Continuum (known as the Marvel 616 Universe, by the way).
The Ultimates, or the 1610 Universe, included Miles Morales, a 13-year-old of Puerto Rican and African American heritage who first appeared in 2011. Unlike Peter Parker, he came from a complete family, and his cathartic moment of knowing when to be a hero came from his criminal Uncle Aaron who he looked up to.
But, in all other ways, he was essentially Spider-Man. Bitten by a radioactive spider, great at science - this is the Spider-Man we met in the first film Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse and in the sequel.
Too nerdy? Sorry, but a bit of background helps explain why this film overwhelmingly sold the nerds in the audience.
First off: it’s the animation. The film wasn’t just some cleverly drawn cartoon – the animation in this film flowed at the same pace as a comic lover would read a favourite book. Action sequences were paused to appreciate the movement of the characters in motion or to allow for the experience of classic heroic inner monologue.
It was like reading a comic the way a comic should be read. Any comic nerd would have appreciated the opportunity to pore over an action frame to see the combination of visual art and text married to deliver the storytelling experience the way a comic book does. The audience was completely mesmerized.
But there’s also the nod to how great a character Miles Morales was when he was first introduced. While the other characters in the Marvel Ultimates capitalized on violence, it was the opposite with Miles. He was just a kid, trying to get along with his parents, getting his homework done on time and above all, simply trying to grow up and do the right thing.
That was the essence of Spider-Man in that universe and it is completely captured in the film. This just isn’t a nerd thing, it’s a real thing that all kids can identify with, whether they have super powers or not.
One of Spider-Man’s most prominent hallmarks is his irreverent wise-cracks in the heat of the moment. Every version of Spider-Man has their own brand of humour, but while it’s discriminated enough to fit each variation, it’s the version of Spider-Man from the Indian version of Manhattan, known as Mumhattan, that really shines. The dialogue is so fast but witty that Pavitr Prabhakar, or Spider-Man India (Karan Soni) could end up everyone’s favourite.
That this film is a two-parter doesn’t detract from its entertainment. The entire audience erupted in an enthusiastic burst of applause at the end, even after the initial groan of recognition of the “to be continued” message on the screen. There were no objections to be heard. In fact, it’s a measure of the film’s storytelling that the audience enthralled didn’t seem to realize the passage of time until it was too late. Many of the audience members were actually taken by surprise that they’d reached the end of Part 1.
You don’t need to be a comic book nerd to enjoy the film though. It stands on its own merits well enough. But, go see it with one anyway. Watching them enjoy the film is almost as fun.
Oh hell – see it twice. It’s worth it.
Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse. Directed by Joaquim Dos Santos, Kemp Powers, Justin K. Thompson. Written by Phil Lord, Chris Miller and David Callaham. Voice cast: Shameik Moore, Hailee Steinfeld, Brian Tyree Henry, Luna Lauren Velez, Jake Johnson, Jason Schwartzman, Issa Rae, Karan Soni, Daniel Kaluuya, Oscar Isaac.
In theatres Friday, June 2.