Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse

The storytelling genius of Phil Lord and Christopher Miller is but a starting point of the utter joy of 2018's SPIDER-MAN: INTO THE SPIDER-VERSE.  It takes superhero legendry to new places, blows it apart even, while still maintaining the stone faced reverence fanboys take verrrrrry seriously.  Such an amazingly fresh take, here.  And where else could the story of Peter Parker go? Spidey has been rebooted a few times and for me the results have been highly mixed.  The Marvel Comics web slinger was my favorite in childhood and I waited for his ultimate big screen adventure.  It arrived last Christmas.  It's animated.

We all know the story, and this film has its narrator acknowledge that (more than once) with just the right amount of boredom in his voice. Wait, his or her voice.  There's more than one.  Spiderman. Yes.  Check the film's title. There are five super heroes this go round.  They live in different dimensions, but via a "Super-Collider" parallel universes collide and bring them all together where Miles Morales, an inner-city teen with lots of promise, lives.  One night, he's bitten by a radioactive spider.

He becomes spider-like, but has much to learn, and many skills to master before he can even hope to join the fight against villain Wilson Fisk (who has his own sad backstory), creator of that particle accelerator, which threatens to destroy everything.  Miles will make some startling familial discoveries, fall in like with a Spider-Woman, and meet a Peter Parker from another dimension who has lost a wife and sprouted a gut.

The story is fleshed out as a living comic book, with frames filled with text in the margins.  Even without the 3-D, you feel as if you're walking through the pages of one.  There were nearly two hundred animators.  Each character is given its own unique style.  The entire movie subverts the usual animation tactics and looks like something entirely new.  It is visually astounding.  This is CGI (with a hand drawn technique) I can appreciate.  ...INTO THE SPIDER-VERSE cements my theory that superhero tales work best in animation.  Animation at its highest level, which this most certainly is.

And those ancient Marvel tropes are gently lampooned, still within a sweet, family-friendly narrative that employs plenty of heart and just the right amount of corn.  Refreshingly diverse protagonist(s), too.   Is it slightly overrated by some?  Ah yes, but there is plenty here to admire and celebrate. Directors Bob Persichetti, Peter Ramsey, and Rodney Rothman gave me the Spider-Man adventure I had waited over four decades for.

P.S. - The post credits bit is a howl, especially for longtime fans.  And yes, the late Stan Lee has a cameo.