Sometimes, less is more. This is true with most things, but it’s especially true with writing. While there are definitely times when it’s fun to get fancy or even downright purple with your prose, the real masters know that when you want a piece of writing that cuts a reader right to the bone and leaves them wondering what the hell you just did to them, you keep it simple. Take, for example, the opening monologue of Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse.

Let’s do things differently this time… SO differently.

His name is Miles Morales.

He was bitten by a radioactive spider.

And he’s not the only one.

He hasn’t always had it easy.

And he’s not the only one.

Now he’s on his own.

And he’s not the only one.

You think you know the rest.

You don’t.

I thought I knew the rest.

But I didn’t.

I didn’t want to hurt him.

But I did.

And he’s not the only one

On paper the prose seems incredibly basic. But there is a cadence to it, and a power that comes from the constant repetition. It’s like a drum beat, growing in intensity. And, when given to an actor like Hailee Steinfeld who absolutely knows how to wring every ounce of emotion out of it?

Which is a weird point to start a review of this film with, because while less is sometimes more, more is also sometimes more. And Across the Spider-Verse is one of the greatest arguments for cinematic maximalism since Ben Hur.

This movie is HUGE. It boasts the largest animation team of any cartoon in history. It has a cast of hundreds of characters and stretches across six universe each with their own distinct artistic style. It is a truly epic work, one of the most ambitious projects in the history of animation as a medium.

And, fittingly, even its production problems were epic in scope. A writer’s strike. A global pandemic. Whatever the hell happened to Shameik Moore. And, of course, the now notorious levels of crunch and overwork that the animators were subjected to. I won’t say Spider-Verse 2’s doctrine of “biggest of all time” extended to the suffering meted out to those who worked on it because North Korea produces animation and they probably have that particular category locked up but STILL. It’s definitely something that shouldn’t be forgotten.

I mean, I’ll still watch it but I still watch The Shining and that movie damn near killed Shelley Duvall, you come to me for movie reviews, not moral guidance.

Jesus, I hope you don’t come to me for moral guidance.

We begin in Chelsea (Earth 65 if you’re interested) where Gwen Stacey is angrily quitting rehearsal with her band, The Mary Janes, because she’s just too emo for this rock group. In narration we learn her backstory. Gwen was bitten by a radioactive spider in this universe and her best friend, Peter Parker, ended up turning himself into the Lizard. Gwen stopped the Lizard going on a rampage but Peter died and now Gwen’s father, Captain Stacy, believes that Spider-Woman murdered him. Then Into the Spider-Verse happened and Gwen met Miles only for them to be separated at the end of the movie. So yeah, our girl is going through it. One of the conceits of the movie is that each universe has its own artistic style. So, while Miles’ Earth 1610 is a brash, four-colour comic book world, Gwen’s is more like a painting, all moody bisexual watercolours. It looks, to dust off an old approbation, fucking smurges.

Gwen overhears her Dad getting called out to a museum to deal with the Vulture and suits up and swings over there. Inside the museum however, she finds not “her” Vulture but an alternate universe variant who looks like he escaped from a sketch drawn by Leonardo Da Vinci. She almost gets killed but is rescued by the walking embodiment of the nineties. The twenty-nineties, to be specific.

So this is Miguel O’Hara, the Spider-Man of 2099. The 2099 universe was an imprint that Marvel ran in the nineties showing versions of their heroes in a future cyberpunk dystopia. It was, as all such things most inevitably be, very hit and miss but Spider-Man 2099 was one of the biggest hits with the character lasting long after Marvel took the 2099 universe out behind the chemical sheds. He’s accompanied by Jessica Drew, a heavily pregnant Spider-Woman riding a motorcycle.

Okay, so, trivia time. The character of Jessica Drew was created in 1977 on Stan Lee’s orders literally so that no other company could trademark the name and for no other reason. After all, what kind of shady operator would do something like that?

BUT! (And I literally only learned this researching for this post) Jessica Drew was actually not Marvel’s first Spider-Woman. Techically.

See, Spider-Man used to cameo on the PBS education show The Electric Company.

Now, Marvel also used to publish a tie in comic to these shorts for very young readers called Spider Super Stories, and one issue features a black librarian named Valerie who dons the mantle of Spider-Woman for one story, making her techincally the first Spider-Woman and Marvel’s first black female superhero.

Miguel and Jessica are part of an interdimensional peacekeeping force called the Spider Society who track down anomalies (the the Da Vinci vulture) and fix them by punching them really hard. In the wreckage of the battle, Captain Stacy pulls a gun on Gwen and when she unmasks, he still tries to arrest her. Realising that her life is over, she leaves her reality and joins the Spider Society.

MEANWHILE.

Back in Earth 1610 Jeff and Rio are waiting for Miles to show up to a meeting with the school counsellor about college applications while he battles a new villain named The Spot.

Spot’s deal is that he was one of the scientists working on the Kingpin’s dimensional transporter and got transformed into a weird hole…guy. He’s obviously just a pathetic starter villain that we’ll probably never see again. Miles restrains him without too much difficulty and races to his meeting. The counsellor says that for his college application they should focus on his story, portraying him as a disadvantaged young man from an immigrant background. None of the family are particularly happy about that because Puerto Rico is part of America and the family is actually doing pretty good.

This is our main theme of the movie. Everyone has an idea of who Miles Morales is and what his story should be and he has to find his own way.

The meeting ends with Miles and Jeff both being called away because Spot has escaped his webbing and is on the rampage. All three end up back at Alchemex and the Spot reveals to Miles that he was the one who brought the spider that bit Miles into this reality, and that Miles destroying the Kingpin’s machine was what turned him into the Spot. As he puts it: “I made you a hero, and you made me…this!”

Spot then attacks Miles, literally kicks his own ass and vanishes into one of his own holes as we all do from time to time. The Spot find himself in a vast void full of portals that can go anywhere in the multiverse. He explores such realities as Lego world (Earth 13122) and the reality that Venom takes place in (Earth 688B).

After getting chewed out by Lego J. Jonah Jameson, Lego Peter Parker puts in a call to Miguel O’Hara who promises to check out the Spot’s activities. Oh, sidenote, EVERY single variant of J. Jonah Jameson in this thing is voiced by J.K. Simmons. It’s a great gag that nothing in the infinite variety of the multiverse can improve on that casting.

Anyway, back on our Earth, Miles has a blow-up argument with his parents at a rooftop party to celebrate Jeff being made Captain. He storms off to his room only for Gwen to invite him out for a swing around the city. She fills him in on the Spider-Society and Miguel, who she describes as a “vampire good guy” to which Miles replies “I’d like to see that!”

They hang out, have a beautiful day together and Gwen tells Miles never to reveal his secret identity to his parents. They go back to the Morales’ rooftop barbecue and Miles asks about joining the Spider Society but Gwen tells him that it’s a super small, super-elite group and they don’t have any openings. Miles’ parents meet Gwen and, after Gwen says her goodbyes, Rio and Miles have a really sweet scene where she admits that she’s having trouble accepting that he’s growing up. She tells him to follow after Gwen.

Miles does, only to realise that Gwen wasn’t actually in this universe to see him. Gwen was actually in Miles’ reality to investigate the Spot, but blew it off to see Miles. The Spot returned to his apartment and built a machine to amplify his power and is now bouncing between different dimensions looking for Alchemex equipment to make him even more powerful. Jessica Drew orders Gwen to sort this mess or so help her and sends Gwen through a portal to a new reality, Earth 50101, where Earth has (or possibly is) an India, with Miles secretly following her through.

Gwen is pissed when she finds out but they don’t have time to argue as the Spot is making a beeline for Alchemex and is already far, far more dangerous and skilled with his powers than he was before. Gwen and Miles are joined by this universe’s Spider-Man, Pavitr Prabakhar and Hobie Browne, aka Spider-Punk. All four join forces but are unable to stop the Spot activating this universe’s dimensional collider. Now insanely powerful, Spot starts giving off serious Slenderman vibes.

Spot and Miles share a vision (stunningly rendered in black and white line animation) of Jeff dying at Spot’s hands and Spot vanishes, promising to take everything from Miles that he can.

The building explodes and begins to collapse on the city below, with the four spiders having to race to save as many people as they can. It’s an absolutely jaw-dropping sequence but then what in this movie isn’t? Pravitr is forced to choose between saving the life of his girlfriend and that of her father, police Inspector Singh until Miles swings in and saves the cop, despite Gwen’s attempts to stop him. Miles saves the day and for a moment it looks he’s a Big Damn Hero until a massive dimensional fistula appears in the middle of reality.

More Spider-People arrive led by Jessica Drew who tells them that Miguel wants to see Miles NOW.

The Spider-Society Headquarters, bought with the mental health of a hundred animators, is an absolutely stunning sequence filled with just about every single version of Spider-Man across the character’s 60 plus year history as well as some new ones cooked up just for fun. Miles is reunited with Peter B. Parker and Beter introduces him to his daughter May Day which means that this Peter Parker still did not sell his marriage to the devil and good for him.

Miles is brought before Miguel who has, since we saw him at the end of Into the Spider-Verse, gotten around three times as big and around a third as quippy.

Miguel explains that the story of every spider has “canon events”, essentially story beats that can’t be averted without dire risk to the multiverse. By saving Inspector Singh’s life, Miles disrupted a canon event and now Pavitr’s entire universe is in danger of collapse.

Miles asks how he knows this and Miguel explains that he once replaced another version of himself that had been murdered and that by doing so he caused an entire reality to disintegrate. This, by the bye, I have to nit pick. How the hell is saving Inspector Singh enough of a deviation from Spider-Man canon to destroy a universe but SPIDER-MAN BEING MURDERED isn’t? I mean, I’m sure we’ll find out in the next movie that Miguel is wrong and that something else is causing these anomalies but still, bit of a hole in his logic there.

Miles realises that his father has just been made captain and that a police captain close to Spider-Man always dies, and that he did have that vision of his father being killed by the Spot…

Suddenly Miles realises that there is a Spider-army now surrounding him and that this whole thing is an intervention to stop him saving his father and causing another dimension fistula…

I…guess I was so overwhelmed by how amazing this movie looks and feels in the moment the first time I saw it that I didn’t notice just how flimsy the story-telling can be. Firstly, the idea that literally every Spider-Man, including ones like Beter, Gwen and Peni Parker, would go along with imprisoning him to stop him from saving his father and that only Hobie would help him escape? Yeah, that’s bullshit. Hell, Greg Weisman, the creator of Spectacular Spider-Man went on the record as saying that the Spider-Man from that show seen here was a variant because his Peter would never do that. Also, it makes absolutely zero sense for Miguel to bring Miles to the Spider Society and show him all this. Just send him back to his home reality from Mumbaibatton and let events play out as they should. Well, then we’d have no movie, I guess.

Anyway a HUGE chunk of the movie is just Miles fleeing from every Spider-Man in the multiverse and it is AWESOME. So many fun bits. T-Rex Spider-Man, Spider-Cat, Cowboy Spider-Man, Therapist Spider-Man…

During a lull in the chase, Beter finds Miles and tries to convince him to give it up, saying that while bad things happen, there’s also many wonderful things that happen to Spider-Man too.

He tells Miles that he had May Day because meeting him made him want to be a father because Miles is a wonderful person which is a lovely moment. And then it’s off they go again.

The chase ends on an orbital elevator heading to the moon where Miguel seizes Miles and furiously tells him that he is not only an anomalym he’s the original anomaly. That’s because he was bitten by a radioactive spider from another universe, there’s a universe out there with no Spider-Man protecting it, his own Peter Parker is dead and the Spot is now running amuck. Miguel tells Miles Morales that simply by existing he is a threat to reality itself. Fortunately, before Miguel can start frothing about forced diversity, Miles reveals that this was all part of his plan and blasts him with the mother of all venom blasts, coldly tells Gwen “goodbye”, turns invisible and peaces out.

He sneaks back into the Spider-Society and uses the teleporter there which is supposed to send you back to your own reality.

Gwen tries to convince Miguel to just leave Miles alone but instead he casts her back to her own reality. Before she vanishes she stares them down and growls “we are supposed to be the good guys”.

Miguel assembles a team to stake out Miles’ home dimension and ensure he doesn’t save Jeff’s life.

Meanwhile, Gwen arrives in her New York and finds that her dimensional doohickey has been deactivated so she’s stuck here. She returns home and comes face to face with her father. They have a heartfelt conversation where he tells her that since she left he quit the force and is no longer a Captain. Gwen realises that the canon events are not set in stone and that their destiny can be changed. Every scene between Gwen and her Dad depicts them against a background of shifting watercolours, visualising their emotions. And when Gwen finally pulls her Dad in for a hug? The world just goes pure white for an instant.

So, Gwen has to tell Miles that he can save Jeff, BUT she doesn’t have a doohickey but her Dad tells her that some guy with a real problem with authority showed up and left something for her. Realising that Hobie has gifted her a dimensional teleporter she beams away to Miles’ reality.

Meanwhile meanwhile, Miles has arrived back in New York but he quickly realises that this place has a pronounced “Second Act of Back to the Future 2” vibe. Arriving home, he tries to tell Rio that he’s Spider-Man, only for her to look at him blankly.

The movie does a veeeery sneaky Silence of the Lambs-esque editing trick where it cuts between Miles and Gwen’s perspective so that we think they’re in the same place, watching the same event. But, because Miles was bitten by a spider from another reality, it’s sent him back to that Earth. An Earth where Peter Parker was never bitten, Spider-Man never existed and where Jeff Morales was gunned down in the line of duty.

Miles and Gwen realise at the exact same moment what happened just as Uncle Aaron, very much alive, walks through the door. Miles quickly realises that in this reality, he and his Uncle are partners in some shady shenanigans and he has to play along until he can figure out a way to get back home. Suddenly, a figure lunges at him from the shadows and he’s knocked unconscious.

Gwen tells Miles’ parents that he loves them so much, and that she will do whatever it takes to bring him home safe.

On Earth 42, Miles wakes up chained in a warehouse with his uncle watching him impassively. Miles pleads with Aaron, telling him the truth about where he comes from. He tells him that his own uncle did bad things but he wasn’t a bad man, and that this Aaron doesn’t have to be the Prowler.

Aaron replies “I’m not.”

And, the from the shadows, a figure emerges.

With Miles’s face, but very different eyes.

“I’m Miles Morales.”

***

Not quite as strong as the first movie in terms of being a tight, contained narrative. But…uh, who cares? This is one of the most visually spectacular works of animation to come from the North American continent. Every frame is a work of art. If they can stick the landing, this could end up being the greatest film trilogy of all time.

Scoring

Animation 20/20

I really need to review some crap, I’m becoming dangerously comfortable with high quality animation. Anyway, considering I already gave the last movie a perfect score in animation and this one is somehow even better I don’t know where to go from here.

Leads: 19/20

Continues the seemingly impossible feat of keeping focus on Miles and his journey despite all the insane comic book coolness swirling around him.

Villain: 18/20

I have a feeling Miguel will be redeemed in the third movie (if only because Spider-Man 2099 is too valuable an IP to tarnish like that) so that leaves Spot as our main villain. The movie takes him from inept joke character to eldritch abomination and makes it look easy.

Supporting Characters: 20/20

I was going to complain that we don’t get the tight little group dynamic we got in the first film but giving any movie with Hobie Browne in its supporting roster anything less than a perfect score feels ludicrous.

Music 20/20

Oh yes, oh yes, oh yes the music in this series is so fricking good.

The Stinger

Nothing! Zip! Nadda!

And the audience went:

Hey, was that Stan Lee?

That wasn’t Stan Lee. The creators felt that including a cameo from someone who was now dead and couldn’t consent to it felt ghoulish and exploitative.

FINAL SCORE: 97%

NEXT UPDATE: 05 February 2026

NEXT TIME: Okay, what is this thing you darn kids won’t shut up about?