An excerpt from my script review for Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse which will be available 12/05/23:
2.) Plot Stability
Borderline loved it.
There were a few issues I had with it, and we’ll cover that in a moment, but I thought the idea of Miles, Gwen and friends breaking the multiverse instead of fixing it at the end of the last film to be a pretty cool idea.
This film takes the “alternates” to a whole new level, giving us classic versions of Spider-Man and villains we’ve seen before, and some new imaginative reincarnations.
Part of this is also for the character section, but bringing in Spider-Man 2099 was a great touch.
Back when I read comics, I had the first couple of issues and that reboot was an interesting take on a familiar story. Very similar to Batman Beyond.
(Sorry I just went down the rabbit hole trying to figure out how the “vampire” shit the characters talk about fit in with Spider-Man 2099. I didn’t remember that, and couldn’t find anything before needing to get back to this review.)
Okay, so Gwen and Miles share a “family” theme in the story.
Gwen reluctantly telling her dad that she’s Spider-Woman, and Miles toying with the idea of telling his parents.
This part of the plot was cool for Gwen, as we get her back-story that her Peter Parker (“Friend zoned” apparently) was her universe’s version of The Lizard.
He dies, and her dad, Police Captain George Stacey, blames Spider-Woman for Peter’s murder.
(Peter changed back to a normal human before George saw what really went down.)
Anyway, her honesty with him isn’t exactly rewarded, so when given the chance to become part of Spider Corps, she joins.
Now flash to Miles, missing Gwen and struggling with his own “double identity” problems.
This is one of my main issues…
Every version of Spider-Man we’ve ever seen has struggled with friends and family leading a double life, but here we’re given what felt like too much time with Miles and his mom and dad.
Look, his mom is bilingual, but it almost feels likes we’re beat over the head with that fact.
If America is a “melting pot” of people and cultures, then the Five Boroughs are a melting pot of that melting pot.
We get it, the Morales family is multi-cultural, that’s great, but this almost felt like pandering to a growing Latino audience.
The initial scene of being late for the school meeting, Jeff’s promotion party, the countless “you’re grounded” scenes.
It became repetitive to me, when there’s definitely cooler shit to get to like multidimensional travel!
Second, I completely forgot that this ended on a cliffhanger…
At first I thought Sony had cut the script short for copyright issues, but then I remembered what the Cap’n said in his review.
Finishing this section on more “good”…two other things really struck me as worthwhile.
First, the idea of Miles saving people is actually bad for the “canon” (in this case meaning the stability of the multiverse, not some meta bullshit like they know they’re in a comic book).
When he saves someone in another timeline…dimension…I feel redundant constantly using “universe”…it actually throws things out of whack, leading to unstable portals that kill more than just a single person.
That adds consequences, and when Mile’s dad is the target of such a choice, can Miles do the right thing?
Second, I loved how they dropped the **SPOILER** truth bomb on Miles that he was never meant to be Spider-Man.
His radioactive spider came from Earth-42, and because of that hiccup, 42 doesn’t have a Spider-Man so their world is shit.
(You realize that we don’t have a Spider-Man either here on Earth-1218? No super heroes, in fact.)
I always wondered how there could technically be two Spider-Mans with more or less the same origin story.
Glad they cleared that up.
Oh, and one quick “throwaway” good bit…the fucking “Spider Point” where groups of 3 Spideys throughout the Citadel of Spideys all point at each other confused when Miguel orders them to, “ Get Spider-Man!”
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