I never thought I'd be able to do any of this stuff. But I can. Anyone can wear the mask. You can wear the mask. If you didn't know that before, I hope you do now. Cuz I'm Spider-Man. And I'm not the only one. Not by a long shot.
Immediately after leaving the theater all manner of hyperbole flew through my head: "Greatest Superhero origin story", "Greatest Spider-Man movie", "Greatest Animated Super-hero movie", "Greatest Marvel Movie", maybe even.... dare I say.... "Greatest Comic Book Movie"? I don't know... maybe? For know, I will leave those statements to ferment for a bit and let time tell. What I am comfortable saying right now though is that this movie is proudly, passionately, and purposefully unafraid. It isn't afraid of screwing up the continuity of the MCU. It isn't afraid of breaking the rules of movie-making. Most of all, it isn't afraid of being labelled a comic. book. movie.
For decades, we have been inching closer to this realization without ever quite getting there. The early comic book franchises (Batman, Superman, X-Men) just felt like it was enough to make a movie using comic book characters. As much as I liked these movies (some of them at least) they always just felt like the filmmakers were trying to emulate other movies rather than truly translate the feel of the comic art form. The MCU movies made a giant leap by actually telling comic stories and not being afraid to use true-to-source costumes and characterization, but their adaptations still pale a bit to the books they translate. Into the Spider-verse completes this journey by just plain getting it all right. This film is more comic than movie, more heart than head, and more graphically beautiful than CG impressive. Top all of this off with the origin story of Miles Morales, perhaps the most universally relatable (age, race, attitude) superhero to grace the screen to this point, and you have an absolute gem of a movie... I mean comic....
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