Date: December 2017. A new trailer for Spider-Man is announced, a film known as Into the Spiderverse. The trailer looks insane and I’m already hyped. I can’t wait to see Peter Parker in his first theatrical animated feature…. Oh, it’s Miles Morales, the guy who was in a lot of really, really bad comic books… O-Oh, okay. Well, from what I see, Sony is making it. What other animated features did they make this year……… You all know what. So yeah, Sony, Miles, my confidence in Hollywood at its lowest point possible… Yeah, I see nothing but good. But wait… Phil Lord and Chris Miller, who worked on The Lego Movie and Clone High, the greatest gift to mankind, worked on Spiderverse… Well… Okay, but can that save this movie- Yes!



So after the disasterpiece that was The Emoji Movie which no one liked, Sony Pictures was given the rights to an animated Spider-Man film. Needless to say, I had a sudden sense of dread rush over me since the reveal trailer. But boy, was I wrong. This movie isn’t just good. It’s a borderline masterpiece. There’s a reason why this film defeated Disney and won the Oscar for best animated film. Spiderverse follows Miles, a young black boy who just wants to be himself and make a choice in life. And then he gets Spider-Man powers and then a dimensional warp sends other Spider-Men to his world so now they gotta fix this big space and time boo boo. So let us describe all those reasons, right now. And please bear with me, it’s 4 AM on a Monday and I want to gush about this film and then go to bed. Oh, and also, there will be tons of spoilers, so…
SPOILERS FOR SPIDERVERSE! PLEASE WATCH THIS MOVIE AND GIVE IT YOUR MONEY INSTEAD OF AQUAMAN, THOUGH BOTH MAY NOT BE IN THEATERS BY THE TIME THIS ARTICLE COMES OUT

I: Sight and Sound

So I don’t get to read many comic books. I was always more of the type who read those visual novellas or those rumored mangos from the country of Jay Pan. But I always had a desire to read Spider-Man comics. Ever since the great old days of Spider-Man 2, I was always fascinated with getting as much Spider-Man content I could. I wasn’t the biggest fan, but I still consider Spider-Man my favorite superhero. So that being said, the visuals of this movie are a sight to behold. You ever look hard at a comic and take notice of the little dots all over the pages. Well this movie has the same thing. You’ll barely notice it as you watch the movie, but when you do, it is never distracting. And it doesn’t look like an overlay either. Every object seems to have these little comic dots on them and it is just a charm. But that’s just the small things that could be missed. How about the real visuals. The little striking onomonopia when objects make a sound, the shift of animations between characters or worlds, or just the sheer insanity of the fights and backgrounds of this movie. So much is going on in this movie, but it never feels distracting. Signs in the background, little gags and references for fans, and a ton of action going on without making you sick. I can watch so many scenes in this movie a hundred times over and still feel like I am missing something. And there is so much effort in the sheer skeptical. Unlike Ready Player One, which had a massive fight that is just there to flash the movies budget and was filled with nothing but reference after reference that didn’t matter and why am I still talking about this film… I’m sorry, I just.. Really hate Ready Player One… ahem… Anyway, the music in the movie is also a pleasure. I like rap music. Not crazy over it like others, but I like it when there is some flare in it. And I definitely can’t say I’ve listened to much modern rap music (Cause why would I?). But the music choice is the perfect choice for the urban setting of New York City. And for Miles, a young child of… color, the music fits perfectly. And since I brought up Miles himself, let’s talk about him.

II: How Spiderverse Made Miles Great



Yes, I am sure there are plenty of click bait videos on Youtube that tells this, but forget that. Cause I am a nobody on the internet, so let me talk about it as well. So Miles did not really have much in the comics aside being a Black Spider-Man. And he was kinda there in the PS4 game. I love the video game a lot, but come on, aside from that one segment with Rhino, his sequences were just the Mary Jane parts… the worst parts. But Miles, in this movie, feels like a real kid. Just a young and impressionable child who just lives his life in a new school under a parent who wants him to achieve things that Miles doesn’t feel right for. That is until he gets thrust into this whole superhero nonsense. And suddenly, he is just scared and worried about screwing up. He’s got a lot on his shoulders to not upset his father, and now he’s got this added on being the new Spider-Man and being a hero that the city needs, but he doesn’t feel like he deserves it… But we’ll get to that later. Instead, let’s talk about Gwen Stacy.

II.5: How Spiderverse Made Gwen Great

Miles wasn’t the only one who got their image improved thanks to this movie. Think about Gwen Stacy in the other Spider-Man movies. In Spider-Man 3, she was just a girl Peter used to piss off Mary Jane cause he’s a dick. And in Amazing Spider-Man



Yeah, that. But in Spiderverse, she actually contributes. And she’s amazing in this movie. Coming from a different reality and being a Spider-Woman, she has her own struggles and responsibilities. She is also a superhero, and she seems to be more than capable of proving that. However, she has closed herself off from allowing anyone to get close to her. She’s scared of getting close to someone only to lose them because that’s just what comic book villains love. Read any comic book and you’ll see villains love to use a heroes’ loved one to get to them and defeat them. And there’s a 60% chance that the heroes’ loved one makes it out alive. Gwen was the unlucky 40%. Her conversations with Miles throughout are quiet and short and, at most, awkward. And of course they would be, given her past. But soon, she opens up, she starts to open up, and that ending is just the cherry on top and was a real heart warming moment for that character development… Also her world has Clone College, the sequel to Clone High, so clearly she lives in the superior world. Fuck Kingpin’s plan, I wanna cross dimensions just so I can watch Clone College!
So, all the characters got fixed and the movie is really nice visually and the music is bumpin’. I give Spiderverse a better than Godhand outta 10. Thanks for reading.










You didn’t think we were done, did you? We’re just getting started. There’s more characters in this film, and we got ourselves quite a collection

III: The Character Gumbo

So the whole movie has a bunch of characters that are really great. Miles’ uncle Aaron has a great connection with Miles and ends in suspenseful tragedy that is a great contrast to Miles feeling further and further from his dad every day. Aunt May is just a ton of comedy gold in this film for being probably the worst character in Spider-Man 2 and the saddest part of Spider-Man on PS4



But the true characters in this movie that really matter are the grace and the glory, the highlight of this entire movie. Stan Lee being a crooked salesman in his greatest cameo since Amazing Spider-Man 2- Okay, seriously. The real characters, the other Spider-Men. Who is the best character in this movie, in my opinion? Perhaps it is Spider-Man Noir, for being such a great homage to old noir films, being a classic favorite of mine, and voiced by living meme Nicholas Cage. Perhaps it’s Peter Porker for his great cartoon antics and even having his own moments for being a cartoon character. Or maybe it’s Peni Parker because I am human trash



But no, the greatest character in this film, in my eyes, is Peter B. Parker. Peter Parker, in this world, is a hero who had everything. A wife, admiration, fans everywhere, the perfect lover, the whole thing. But Peter B. Parker, despite being a hero, didn’t really feel anything. Yeah, he was a Spider-Man, just as good, perhaps. Definitely a skilled Spider-Man, but he’s not happy. Unlike the Peter Parker that Miles saw, Peter B. Parker is a cynical, sad, pathetic, miserable, and chubby man who just sits at home getting fatter, regrets divorcing his wife, and sees himself as terrible parent material. So when we meet Peter B. Parker, we don’t see a Spider-Man. We just see a walking loser who has accepted the fact that he himself is a loser and the only reason he is here is due to bad circumstances. But throughout the entire film, he goes through almost as great a change as Miles. Almost, of course. He sees himself as a mentor to Miles, then later a friend, even planning to sacrifice his life to get everyone back to their own dimensions, having accepted that he has no life going back to. But Miles knows better than that and refuses to let anyone else die. Miles saw two people die, one a heroic icon, a symbol of hope for the city, and the other was family. And Miles would never let another friend die. This is getting too sappy for the middle of the article. Let’s bring it back, uh, what else do we got… Perfect, jokes and references

IV: Jokes and References



Spiderverse is probably the funniest Spider-Man movie out there…









Okay, the funniest Spider-Man movie intentionally. Ranging from visual gags to dialogue between the characters to even simple slapstick, this film has everything. Rarely do I find myself laughing out loud at a film aside from say Shrek 2 or god’s gift to man, Clerks (May do a NikPiks on that some time), but Spiderverse was a movie that definitely made me LOL many times…. Made me play League of Legends- okay, i’m not funny. The movie is also full of plenty of great gags and references for Spider-Man fans. Unlike… that other movie, this film doesn’t throw references out and expect that to do. These references aren’t thrown in your face, and are funny on their own, but are great for fans who are familiar. Like the dancing scene from Spider-Man 3 or that god awful Spider-Man car being a side gag. Okay, the 60’s Spider-Man pointing meme was totally made for a reference, but the sheer insanity as well as the acting and shouting made it funny on it’s own, so I can forgive it. Spiderverse is possibly the funniest Spider-Man movie out there, which is crazy cause it’s also the most depressing- Oh, goddammit.

V: The Death of Spider-Man

Of all the scenes that shocked me the most, this was the one that really surprised me. The death of Spider-Man, within the first thirty minutes of the film. Spider-Man, beaten and broken, lying on the ground with nothing but the hope that Miles will do the job he requested and do it right, before Kingpin comes and snuffs out his life in an instant right before Miles’ eyes. If I was watching this movie, as a child, being a big fan of Spider-Man, I would’ve cried in the theater right there. This movie does not try to sugarcoat the scene with a dying last word or a bunch of sad music. The music is somber and soft, not some loud dramatic violin that you can’t hear anything else and it drowns out literally everything else. It’s just a shot of the city and it’s residences, as they come to the realization that their hero has died. It’s a scene that was really shocking to see, not even being an hour in. And Miles, already scared of picking up Spider-Man’s task, is now stricken with a sudden feeling of dread, sadness, and overall fear for his life, has to handle this all at once, and keep it to himself. Who can he tell? His uncles is not there, and he certainly can’t tell his parents. He’s just a single child with this whole thing thrown into his lap without a choice. And that is the word that comes back again… Choice

VI: Choice

Since the start of the movie, Miles has felt he had no choice in what he could do. He arrives at a new school, under his father’s wishes, already told from the start that he doesn’t have a choice. He is going to this grand school whether he wants to or not. And once again, he has no say, once he is bitten by the spider and given the powers of one. Already, he feels his powers. He thinks loudly, sweats a lot, and can’t control what he grabs, even turning invisible and conducting electricity at random without his control. And just when he sees Spider-Man killed and has a chip handed to him, he gets involved with this team of Spider-Men from different dimensions, all better than him, all more trained than him. And he knows that. When he thinks he is ready to go, they decide for him that he is just not ready. Even Peter B. Parker, who saw potential, tells him that the choice to leave Miles out of the final mission was his choice. And there, left to think about what to do, Miles finally comes to his own choice for once. As Mary Jane said at the start, Peter didn’t ask for his powers, but he chose to be Spider-Man. And that is what Miles chose, to be the hero that the city and the dimension needed. He took that responsibility, and it was his choice alone. And in the words of a wise old man that you have no doubt heard a million times before, “with great power…”

VII: ...Comes Great Responsibility



Once Miles takes up the mantle of the new Spider-Man, he takes all that he gets from it. The struggles, the beatings, the danger, he takes it all, just so he can keep the city safe. Miles goes through a change that the comics wishes he could go through. We see him change from an inexperienced and scared child thrown into the craziest situation without any help of consulting and become a hero who made the decision to become a hero by his own means. He didn’t want to be a hero because it just happened. And like a wise otaku with a lightsaber, Miles became a hero by his own standards. And the acknowledgement of that from his fellow Spider-Men, really made that a nice touch. In the words of Stan Lee, anyone could be Spider-Man under the mask. Anyone has the potential to be a hero. You just have to make that decision for yourself if you want to be the hero. It was the message that Stan Lee had from the beginning with Spider-Man, and I think this movie perfected that.

Okay, I’ve been working and editing this video for the past four hours straight and I wanna get to bed, so fuck it. Lightning round

!LIGHTING ROUND!

Wasn’t the different dimensions amazing!? Each one has their own different style, and in a subtle manner, Peter B. Parker’s looks almost similar, just with slightly blurry backgrounds which can be missed on first viewing. The dialogue in this film is great too. No one talks like they are an exposition dump in a fantasy game. They all talk like normal people and it feels genuine and I love it. The design of Kingpin is also amazing. Seeing this hulking figure with his black suit could look stupid if done by anyone else but how he towers over other people, and how his body takes up half the screen and his suit making it look like a darkned background is a visual specticle. Speaking of visuals, all the amazing camera work and details, like the thoughts being in little comic bubbles, the work on the camera when Miles and Peter B. have a conversation walking up the wall, and way too much more for me to list… sigh… This movies just good, okay?

VIII: Conclusions

So yeah, there’s a reason the film got an Oscar. Not just because it is a great film, but it’s cause it was the best film that came out. Is it perfect, no. I doubt any movie can be perfect. But this movie has so many great moments around it that I can accept the movie for whatever flaws it may have. The visuals, music, theming, and just spectacle of it all. I feel like I’ve called this movie beautiful enough that I am starting to sound like a broken record, but that is really the best way to describe such a movie. And now, I am going to bed cause I am starting to black out. Goodnight. Next time on NikPiks, we may talk about something that pisses me off. Who knows.