There are tons of superhero movies coming our way very soon, both live-action and animated. One of them will be Sony’s Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse featuring Miles Morales as Spider-Man and with a couple of other Spideys too from the short promo we got to see. The CGI animation looks absolutely fantastic and it is great to finally have a good animated adaption of Miles Morales/Spider-Man (we can just ignore that Ultimate Spider-Man garbage). The movie comes out December 14 of this year, so we’ve got some time to wait. Until then, here are six reason why you should be excited about Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse:
6. Introducing the Spider-Verse to a wider audience
What exactly is the Spider-Verse? And how will it let Marvel and Sony capitalize on their most popular superhero? The Spider-Verse is Marvel’s multi-verse for the Spider-Man mantle and Spider-related superheroes. In the comics, the Spider-Verse storylines gathered many different multiverse Spider-Men, Spider-Women, and all around Spider-People starting in 2014. There really were a lot of them; if you check out the alternative versions of Spider-Man or the list of the incarnations of Spider-Man, your head will spin.
Into the Spider-Verse will adapt this 2014 “Spider-Verse” storyline and hopefully open the door for Sony and Marvel to produce a series of animated movies with different Spider-Man characters, especially if the movie does well.
5. The legacy of Spider-Man
Spider-Man, Batman and Superman are the three most popular (and marketable) superheroes to date. Spider-Man was unique and special when he was first created: a kid with superpowers, who was not a sidekick. He was an average teenager with average teenager problems. As a civilian, he was awkward and shy, and as a hero, he rose to the occasion. Peter Parker struggled to find balance between his superhero life and his everyday life all the time- a very relatable lifestyle, even for us non-supered people.
Just as many other teenage superheroes have taken cues from the original Spider-Man in the years since his creation, all the Spideys in the “Spider-Verse” take cues from him too, in one way or another. Miles Morales, Anya Corazon, Mayday Parker, and Spider-Gwen all share the struggle between being a hero and being a teenager. It will be great to see them interact and share their worlds and stories.
4. More of Spidey’s baddies
The main enemy of the multiverse of Spiders is Morlun and his family, the Inheritors, He was created in 2001 by J. Michael Straczynski and John Romita, Jr., but don’t let his newness betray how dangerous he really is. Morlun hails from Earth-001 and his main purpose in life is to hunt Spider-totems, the different versions of Spider-Man, across the multiverse, and suck out their life forces. It would be super cool if Morlun were to be set as the movie’s antagonist, as this would be his out-of-comics debut.
In addition, I’m hoping that we get to see other classic baddies too, like Venom, Carnage, Green Goblin or Doc Ock.
3. Spider-Women! Hopefully…
I will riot if Into the Spider-Verse does not include Spider-Woman, Spider-Girl, Silk, Madame Web, or Spider-Gwen. How can you have a Spider-Verse without the Spider-ladies? The fun thing about the Spider-Verse that the legacy of Spider-Man does not just hold true for male Spiders, but also includes the ladies. Spider-Man has so many alternate versions of himself that the film should highlight a fair share of different genders and ethnicities.
2. Highlighting multiple Spideys in general
Regarding the Spider-Men in the film, I would like to see Scarlet Spider (Ben Reilly), Kaine, Spider-Man 2099, and Spider-Man Noir make appearances. They are some of my other favorite Spideys. The multi-verse of Spiders is so big that we could even see new ones created just for the film. All in all, the more Spiders, the more fun it will be to watch. The team-ups alone would be amazing and could extend into sequels if they choose to go on.
1. A proper film debut for Miles Morales
Lastly, Miles Morales is a fantastic Spider-Man. I actually just finished reading Jason Reynolds’ young adult novel Miles Morales: Spider-Man and he perfectly captured the essence of Miles’ character and role as Spider-Man. Miles struggles with similar issues as Peter Parker, but has his own unique ones as well, especially due to his multiracial background. Just as fellow superhero Kamala Khan/Ms. Marvel tackles the complexities of her identity, so does Miles Morales. It is important for more films to feature characters like them.
I may be alone in thinking this, but I find Miles more likable than Peter Parker (in most incarnations, even though I do love Tom Holland‘s Spider-Man). Miles was younger than Peter when he received his powers and has endured the added pressure of living up to the mantle of the original Spider-Man. I can’t wait to see Miles’ Spider-Man as the main character of an animated movie.
Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse should make for a fun time exploring said Spider-Verse and hopefully lead the way for Marvel to produce quality animated incarnations of their superheroes. If it does well, Sony might just take the Spider-Verse thing to the next level and make more Spider-related animated movies. Either way, I am excited.
What about you, you excited to see Spider-Man: Into the Multiverse? Or is are you too preoccupied with Avengers: Infinity War for the time being? Tell us what you think in the comments or send us your thoughts on Facebook or Twitter!
