The Spider-Verse is expanding from the film that started it all with Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse (2018). It introduced movie audiences to Miles Morales who first appeared in Ultimate Fallout #4 (2011) by Brian Michael Bendis and Sara Pichelli. In the Ultimate Universe, Peter Parker had died, and Miles took up the mantle as the new Spider-Man. In the first Spider-Verse film, Miles was with his uncle, Aaron Davis, when he was bitten by the radioactive spider. It was from the Alchemax lab. The Kingpin was hoping to find an alternate universe with his wife and son still alive; he used a collider that opened the realities. Miles sees the collider, Spider-Man dies saving him, and he later finds Peter B. Parker who helps Miles to become the new Spider-Man. Miles’ unique powers include bo-electric Venom Blasts and a invisibilty like camouflage. Then, Miles encounters Gwen Stacy, Spider-Woman, and the other Spider-people!
The film has a new directing team from the first movie; Joachim dos Santos who directed episodes of The Legend of Korra animated series, Kemp Powers, co-director of Soul (2020), and Justin K. Thompson, production designer of Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse. It is written by the team of Phil Lord, co-writer of the earlier film, joined by his directing partner, Chris Miller, who produced Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse. It opens with the Comics Code Authority stamp. The makers are comic book fans. The narration begins by Hailee Steinfeld who returns to voice Gwen Stacy. She says, “Let’s do things differently” and focuses on her origin. This is on Earth-65, the year that Gwen first appeared in the comics with Amazing Spider-Man #31.
She is playing drums when her riff is interrupted by her band, the Mary Janes hinting at Peter's other girlfriend, Mary Jane Watson. Gwen is kicked out the band and we find Peter Parker (Jack Quaid) bullied at school. Quaid voices Ensign Brad Boimler in the animated Star Trek: Lower Decks. He is invited over for dinner at the Stacy house. At a school dance, Gwen finds the Lizard, she is able to defeat him. Then, the Lizard transforms back to Peter Parker! He had taken the serum to be like Gwen, but Peter ends up dying. Captain George Stacy (Shea Whigham), Gwen’s father, suspects that Spider-Woman is guilty of Peter’s death! Whigham plays Pete Strickland in the dramatic show, Perry Mason.
Gwen is on the run and hounded by the media including of course, J. Jonah Jameson (J.K. Simmons). The actor has played J. Jonah in many Spider films including Spider-Man: No Way Home (2021). Gwen meets with her father at their home and deals with themes of the movie; the tragic consequences of taking the role of a hero. He hears a Superhuman Event on the police radio. Gwen hesitates, but has to help as Spider-Woman so heads to the Guggenheim Museum on the Upper East Side. She webs up Captain Stacy and then continues in to face a Vulture, Adriano Tomino (Jorma Taccone), out of the Renaissance. He looks like he is a parchment sketch. Taccone played Green Goblin in Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse. Spider-Man 2099 (Oscar Isaac) appears from a portal to deal with the Vulture. Isaac reprises the cameo he made in the last film.
Miguel O’Hara was introduced in 1992 with Spider-Man 2099 #1. The best part is seeing a copy of that issue in the film. He has a muscle man shape and in the comics has a regeneration ability. Still, the Vulture proves enough of a threat that Spider-Man 2099 calls on his A.I. LYLA (Greta Lee) for some help. Lee also made a cameo in Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse with Isaac. Help arrives in the form of the motorcycle-riding Spider-Woman (Issa Rae) also known as Jessica Drew. Rae appears in A Black Lady Sketch Show. The comic book character first appeared in Marvel Spotlight #32 (1977). She is pregnant and we will probably see the father and child in the sequel. Jessica is impressed with Gwen’s skills, but Miguel refuses to put her on the team. They are able to defeat the Vulture, but a police helicopter spins out of control.
Gwen is able to web and strain to hold it up. This impresses Miguel enought to allow Gwen on the team. Jessica gives her a watch that can allow multiverse travel. Captain Stacy has his gun on Gwen, she reveals herself, but he keeps his gun on his daughter! Miguel webs Captain Stacy and Gwen can only look as she enters the multiverse portal and leaves. A great introduction to the Spider-Verse, two new, important characters from it, and brings us up to date on Gwen Stacy. We return to Earth-1610, the Brooklyn of Miles Morales, where his parents, Rio (Luna Lauren Velez) and Jefferson (Brian Tyree Henry) are discussing college for Miles with his guidance counselor, Ms. Weber (Rachel Dratch). Henry and Velez return to their roles from the first film, Henry voices Leo Matienne for this year’s The Magician’s Elephant, and Velez is in the upcoming Transformers: Rise of the Beasts. Dratch is known for her Saturday Night Live days and provides voices for the cartoon show Mulligan.
Miles (Shameik Moore) is busy at bodega, there is a spin rack of comics, that was when comic books were everywhere! Moore reprises the part of Miles Morales and was in the superhero dramatic film, Samaritan (2022). A supervillain, The Spot (Jason Schwartzman) in white and black spots is busy robbing an ATM machine. The bizarre villain was introduced in Peter Parker, the Spectacular Spider-Man #98 (1985). The Spot reveals to Miles, “I’m from your past one year ago.” Miles is clever enough to trap The Spot in his own portals. Then, he heads to the school, after quickly changing at his dorm room. The scene where Ms. Weber reveals Miles’ Spanish grade is funny, but that one I felt his mother’s reaction through the movie screen! Miles says he intends to go to Princeton and learn about interdimensional travel. He sees that the Spot has escaped and makes excuses to chase after him. Jefferson also gets an alert and also says he has to leave the meeting.
Miles goes to Alchemax and confront The Spot. He was the scientist, Dr. Johnathan Ohnn, that Miles threw a bagel at during his escape in the last movie! Great, strange connection to Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse. The villain declares, “I am your nemesis!”, but Miles doesn’t take him seriously. The Spot gets himself trapped in his portal. Jefferson talks with Spider-Man, Miles deepens his voice, about becoming captain and about his son. The Spot travels through his portals to different Multiverses, there are a number of shocking cameos in this film!, and searches for a way to increase his power! Jefferson’s rooftop party for his promotion to captain is missing Miles. Spider-Man is busy fighting crime and picking up a cake for his father.
When he does finally reach the party, his parents are angry, and Miles is grounded for a month! He is frustrated about his secret identity and is about to reveal it, but the party is watching the conversation! He returns to his room with his headphones on and doesn’t notice Gwen watching him from a portal. Gwen later meets Miles’ parents, he follows her, and ends up in Earth-50101 meeting Pavitr Prabhakar (Karan Soni). Miles Morales finds himself in the Spider-Verse with countless Spider-People (and animals) including Hobie Brown (Daniel Kaluuya), Spider-Punk from Amazing Spider-Man #10 (2015) and Spider-Byte (Amandla Stenberg), the monitor of the Spider-Verse. Also, the re-appearance of his mentor, Peter B. Parker (Jake Johnson). Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse has a darker tone than the previous movie, sensible with this being the middle film of the Spider-Verse trilogy, but the middle act slows before a strong ending! '
Four Multiverses out of Five!
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