by Mike Lunsford, Editor-In-Chief Great Geek Refuge

“Mike, you’re just now seeing this? I figured you would have seen this in the theaters!” Yeah, well you were wrong. I didn’t. I wanted to, but when it came to seeing a movie in the theater, I allowed my son to pick between this or Wreck It Ralph 2. He chose Ralph. I don’t get to see movies in the theater as much as I used to. So when I do take the time and money to go to the sticky, nasty, full of gross people movie theaters, I want to share the experience with him, not force the kid to see a movie that I want to see. That’s a jerk move.

Spider-Man has seen his fair share of big screen representation. As of the release of Into the Spider-Verse there had been 6 feature films featuring the web-headed wall crawler, and that’s not counting his inclusion in Captain America: Civil War or Avengers: Infinity War. Despite his overwhelming popularity, I never considered Spidey one of my favorites. I loved the first two Raimi directed movies but that 3rd one left a LOT to be desired. That might have been what turned me off a bit because the Andrew Garfield Spider-Man flicks didn’t strike me as “must see.” Unfortunately, Into the Spider-Verse fell into that category as well. I would catch it on Netflix/Hulu when it came out. Here’s the other thing: my son did mention on several occasions that he did want to see this movie. I refused to go see it or watch it online without him. So…we waited for the Netflix release.

If you’re looking for a one word review, here it is: WOW. It is safe to assume you’ve already seen this movie but if you’re in a similar “Dad movie watching mode” as I am, here’s a real quick breakdown:

Teenager Miles Morales is your average kid. He is new to a boarding school and is struggling with fitting in and living up to the expectations of his father, police officer Jefferson Davis. One night, Miles sneaks out and goes to his uncle Aaron’s house. While there, Miles and his uncle discuss how his father forbids him to do graffiti. Uncle Aaron is more understanding and takes Miles to an abandoned subway station to do his artwork. While in the subway station, Miles is bitten by a radioactive spider and gains spider-like abilities.

Miles returns to the station to search for the spider and discovers a particle accelerator called "The Super-Collider" built by the Kingpin himself: Wilson Fisk. Fisk hopes to access parallel universes to find alternative versions of his deceased wife and son. Miles notices Spider-Man has arrived and is attempting to disable the collider and saves Miles. He senses their similarities even stating “you’re like me.” As Spidey fights to shut down the collider, Fisk’s enforcer, the Green Goblin shoves Spider-Man into the collider’s particle beam, causing an explosion that causes strange occurrences throughout the city. Wounded, Spider-Man gives Miles a USB drive to disable the accelerator and warns that the machine could destroy the city if reactivated. (There are lots of spoiler bits that I am purposely leaving out of this quick synopsis).

Miles in his store bought Spidey suit, sold to him by Stan Lee in a wonderful cameo.

When Green Goblin pushed Spider-Man into the particle beam, it used his DNA as a sort of homing becon, causing other spider-folk to be drawn to Miles’ universe. As Miles learns about his new powers and attempts to use the USB drive to stop the Super Collider, he starts meeting the other “Spider-people.’ We meet Peter B. Parker (an older, out of shape Spider-Man) “Spider-Gwen” Gwen Stacy (the radioactive spider bit Gwen instead of Peter in this universe), Peni Parker (a young Japanese-American girl from an alternative anime-like universe who co-pilots a biomechanical suit with a radioactive spider that she shares a telepathic link), Spider-Man Noir (a film noir version of Spider-Man from the 1930s) and Spider-Ham, Peter Porker (An alternate version of Spider-Man from an anthropomorphic cartoon animal universe, who was once a spider, bitten by a radioactive pig.) Together, they must work together to stop Kingpin’s Super Collider and save the multi-verse from utter destruction.

Miles, Peter B. Parker, Spider-Gwen, Spider-Man Noir, Peni Parker, and Spider-Ham: Peter Porker

This movie has everything you could possibly ask for. It’s action-packed, it has a great story, it’s emotionally touching, it has shocking reveals, it’s good for the kids and has plenty of jokes for the adults. On top of that, whether you’re a seasoned veteran or a novice to this whole comic book movie thing, you’ll enjoy the heck out of this movie. And let me callback to earlier in this article when I said I wasn’t a huge Spider-Man fan. It’s shocking to me how much I actually knew about him and his exploits. I’m not sure why I even said that. I know a ton about the character and all of these multi-verse counterparts. In fact, it was a reminder to me that I took Spider-Man as a character for granted. I’m out here looking for other characters to be my favorite when Spidey is right here in front of me. My god, I sound like a cheesy rom-com. Well…it’s true, I love Spider-Man and Into the Spider-Verse reminded me of why.

What makes Spider-Man great, whether it be Peter Parker, Miles Morales or Gwen Stacy, is that you are Spider-Man. You could be this character. We’ve all been an awkward teen. We’ve all been the new kid at school, or the new adult at a job. As we get older, we are now Peter B. Parker; overweight and wondering what happened to our life. “How did we get to this point?” Loved ones have either passed away or relationships have fallen apart and you’re lost as to how to regain what you had. Sometimes that loss is difficult to recover from. This particular character spoke to me, personally. I know how he feels.

With the Spider-verse concept, there’s a Spider-Man that works for everyone. It’s not just the white male that gets to imagine himself as Spider-Man. There’s now a female Spider-”Man” in Spider-Gwen! The multi-verse takes a look at Gwen Stacy’s journey as the Spider-Woman of her universe. In fact, when she showed up in the movie, she saves the day and elicited a jump-off-the-couch from yours truly. Miles Morales is the first person of color to don the web shooters and with a different dynamic with his family, gives a completely different story to tell as his Spider-Man. Miles’ father is a cop, and one who is constantly watching out for his son. How is he going to keep his secret hidden? His father even stated early in the film that he thinks Spider-Man is a vigilante and a menace! What an awesome dynamic! Before Miles, it was Peter and Aunt May. As much as I love that duo, exploring a parental relationship makes for interesting stories but also: every kid can appreciate having to deal with parents who embarrass us and seem to follow us everywhere.

There’s a thread (no pun intended) that every Spider-Person possessed and it’s one of the endearing traits of the character. Spider-Folks don’t give up. They’re scrappy, funny, smart, compassionate, and understand that their gifts mean they should be doing everything they can to help others. Even when things look the bleakest, they find a way.

Into the Spider-Verse nailed what makes this character great but is also an incredibly creative film. When you look at the concept of what the directors Bob Persichetti, Peter Ramsey, and Rodney Rothman did, it shouldn’t work. They combined many different styles of art simultaneously for each Spider-Person. There were many stylistic art choices that showed you that this was inspired by comic books and could have been eye-roll inspiring, yet they all work well. This movie was in the making for 5 years and you can see that it was time well spent. They went through the production with a fine tooth comb and that care is evident. It didn’t fall into any of the clichés that trip up so many other action flicks. On top of the nail-on-the-head portrayals of the characters, it also added some new wrinkles. I mentioned him before, but the Peter B. Parker was something we haven’t seen before with this character. Normally, Peter always has an answer. This Peter didn’t. He wasn’t a great role model, he was disheveled and jaded. He didn’t want to teach Miles at all when they first meet but as the movie unfolds, you see the Spider-Man that we all know come through. Miles had an amazing arc in the movie but so did Peter B. Credit to writers Phillip Lord and Christopher Miller for a well put together script.

Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse was incredible. And I wasn’t the only nerd who thought so! My son, the nerd-in-training, was a big fan of the movie as well. It was the perfect reminder of how much I love that wacky web slinger and his antics. It was also a great introduction for my son to Spider-Man on the big screen and in the end, that’s really what I wanted. Sharing the things I love with him is so much more enjoyable than me watching it alone. Now that we’re seeing the other Spider-folks in the multi-verse, I can’t wait to see what else is in store for Spidey on the big screen. 10 out of 10 stars. Holy crap was this movie phenomenal. It might be the best Spider-Man movie ever made. It easily ranks as my favorite one to date.

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