The multiverse, a realm of infinite potential, where anything that could happen has happened. Comics love it because if something goes bad, just say it was an alternate universe. Superman was raised in Communist Russia? Alternate universe. Spider-Man is a more confident Porky Pig? Alternate universe. People can agree on things like the state of Bumblebee and if Star Wars The Last Jedi was a good movie or not? Alas, alternate universe. At times, writers want to use the Multiverse for something other then ignoring mistakes, such as the Spiderverse arc. A series of Spider-Man comics where every single possible version of Spider-Man that you can think of is called into battle. Noteworthy inclusions were characters like 1930's Spider-Man, Spider-man but a Loony Toon, Spider-Man but from the Ultimate Spider-Man cartoon that was airing at the time (maybe in a year or two, depends on how much you want me to suffer with Fantastic 4), Gwen Stacy but with Spider-powers, Uncle Ben but with Spider-Powers, gender-flipped Peter with Spider-Powers, anime Spider-Man, Spider-man from the year 2099, Doctor Octopus but in Spider-Man's body (that was the cannon Spider-man during that arc for the record), Miles Moralis, Toby Mcquire and Andrew Garfield's Spider-Men (pretty sure at least), and so, many, more! Alas, I'm not sure if Toei's Japanese Spider-Man was in it...
When Sony said that they wanted to make a movie based on this concept, many people were sceptical, especially as the directors are still very unknown in the directorial scene. Bring in the people who made The Lego Movie what it is, gives it a vibrant style unlike anything else seen at the moment in children's animation, and you now have my interest Sony because it looks like something on the ooze lik body is screaming "There is still creativity here! We're not all like The Emoji Movie!" Alas though, it has one major problem, but more on that later. Welcome to the Spider-verse.
So, starting from the beginning, for real this time. The Kingpin, while working with Dr Olivia Octavius, has developed a Supercollider that can search the multiverse, and plans to use it to bring his wife and son from another universe into this main universe. In a battle where it's first prototyped, Peter Parker (Blond Peter from now on) is killed by Kingpin, but not before the Green Goblin, probably thinking it would kill him, puts Blond Peter into the beam, and accidentally summons five other Spider-people, and a radioactive spider that bites Miles Moralis. Blond Peter is killed by Kingpin after the Goblin's actions cause major damage to the device, and Miles barely escapes from the villain Kingpin gets to hunt him down, The Prowler. Miles finds another Peter Parker (Brown Peter from now on), the two are rescued from the Alchemex building by Ghost Spider (Gwen Stacy from another universe) and eventually run into the other three spiders pulled into this dimension, Peter Porker, Peni Parker, and Peter Parker from the 1930s, aka Spider-Man Noir. Being pulled into this movie's universe, Brown Peter, Gwen, Porker, Peni and Noir are quickly dying from cellular degeneration, so the goal is to stop Kingpin, avenge Blond Peter, train Miles, and get the other five home. The multiverse is saved, Miles becomes the new Spider-Man, throw in a few teases of a sequel including Spider-Man 2099 having a pointing contest with 1960's cartoon Spider-Man, and that's that.
The story is basic, it's clean, it gets to the point and knows where to keep the focus, combine that with excellent writing and I can honestly say I have almost nothing but praise to give this movie. The character interactions are great, and each of the main characters is clearly defined. If you're a fan of Porker, Peni and Noir, you're going to be disappointed as they are secondary characters in this story, but I can overlook it as the focus of the story is Miles. Miles was the important one to get right, and thankfully they do, especially when he's working off Brown Peter and Gwen. I will say though that a standout is Noir, simply because it's Nicholas Cage, however, I'm not a fan of how he was animated, just because it doesn't look like he's drawn in a noir, black and white style, but rather that he's just wearing a black suit. On the subject of animation, this movie looks gorgeous in every sense of the word. While Noir's black style is a minor flaw, each of the universes has a distinct visual appeal that their characters represent. From things like Porker moving like a Loony Toon, to Peni having bad lip sync cause she's animated like an Anime character, to the surreal flares of Gwen's world, like that world came straight out of the comics. Even the Post Credits Scene where we get a taste of 2099 before going back to the 60's cartoon for a choppy, rough, repeated animation scene that looks like it belongs in that cartoon. Truth be told, Tom Holland has to do one Sony Spider-Man movie in the current agreement between Marvel and Sony. Am I the only one who wants that to be the sequel to this movie? Remember, the multiverse means everything's canon.
While this movie has already been confirmed to get a sequel, a spin-off focusing on Ghost Spider, Spider-woman, and Silk (just look up the comics, it's why I'm ignoring the backstories for most of these characters), an maybe a series of shorts focused on Spider-Ham, what I really hope for is Sony to make this their primary focus on Spider material. The Multiverse means that you can have a director-driven cinematic universe, this is leagues above Venom, the Amazing Spider-Man movies, and I'd even go so far as to say it's better than the Sam Raimi movies. Do I think they will? No, cause Filming's already happening on the second live-action movie to follow Venom, Morbius (I'm surprised no one called me out on that cause I genuinely thought next was Kraven). What I hope doesn't happen to this movie is the fate of Batman: Mask of the Phantasm, a movie that many fans believe to be the definitive Batman movie, lost in obscurity due to it being animated. Will that happen? I don't think so as this is a different time, but I can't say for certain. If you haven't watched this movie, go out now and buy it. I cannot recommend it enough. I'll see you on Sunday for Deadpool 2, next week MAYvel really begins with Avengers: Infinity War, and if you'd excuse me, I'm
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