Speaking of feels, you will get all of them and more from this movie. Tyree, who should win the “That Dude is in EVERYTHING Award” for 2018 as Miles’ father Jefferson, and Jake Johnson as the 38-year-old “been there done that Spider-Man,” is a hilarious mentor and source perspective in the film. All of the supporting cast in the movie is great, from Spider-Woman—the most competent of the bunch—to Nic Cage’s over-the-top Spider-Man Noir, Futuristic Peni Parker, and John Mulaney’s cartoon Spider-Ham.

Advertisement

Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse is such an economically written film. Every line of dialogue, from how long they’ve each been Spider-Man, to the music choices in the background and the running gag montages, gives each character much more emotional depth and purpose than most movies like this can deliver. Even the Kingpin and his henchmen’s motivations are explored, and after a few plot twists and surprises there are moments in the movie where I’m sure somebody at my screening was chopping onions because a cartoon isn’t supposed to hit you in the feels this way.

So often movies with black leads are just Trojan Horses to tell white-people stories, or worse, the movie is promoted as a black-led film when it’s an ensemble cast (Hancock, and Pacific Rim: Uprising are good examples of this). In Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, Miles Morales is definitely the hero—he has a hero’s arc, the emotional plot points revolve around him, and the action sequences center on his development. Shameik Moore channels all of the nerdy cool style he displayed in his breakout film Dope and chews up every scene, whether he’s cracking jokes, learning the ropes, or growing from tragedy around him.

Advertisement

Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse is a must-see movie that works even if you’ve never seen a Marvel movie, and is full of Easter eggs and continuity if you have. You’ll be amazed that a movie like this just came out this year, a mere eight months after the paradigm shift known as Black Panther. But after this movie, you won’t have to dig through 27 think pieces about what it means that Spider-Man is black and Puerto Rican and attending a charter school. You’ll just have a damn good time.

This movie solidifies that our heroes not only wear black, they are black, and they speak Spanish, and code, and tag walls, and stick to walls, and save the world all before sneaking back into their dorm to get ready for class. Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse is the universe we’ve always imagined was out there, and how it looked, and it has finally been brought to screen.