In 2018, Sony reinvented what animated comic book movie could be. Five years later, they did it again.

Mistakenly accused of murdering Peter Parker by her own father on Earth-65, Gwen Stacey (Hailee Steinfeld) aka Spider-Woman encounters a group of alternate spider-powered folks like herself from other realities — the Spider-Society — led by Miguel O’Hara (Oscar Isaac) of Earth-928. Meanwhile, keeping a secret identity from his parents to fight crime while going to an accelerated school could take a toll on anyone, even Miles Morales (Shameik Moore), the Spider-Man of Earth-1610. When Gwen reappears for the first time since destroying the Kingpin’s super-collider, Miles thinks it’s just to see him, but she was sent to keep tabs on an up-and-coming villain calling himself The Spot (Jason Schwartzman). Failing her assignment miserably, Gwen is summoned back to the Spider-Society headquarters, unaware that Miles secretly followed her through the dimensional portal…

Writer Phil Lord returns for the sequel joined by Christopher Miller and Dave Callaham while three new directors share the chair: Joaquim Dos Santos, Kemp Powers, and Justin K. Thompson. Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse was a first in many ways, giving Sony a unique franchise separately under their control while still playing in Marvel’s sandbox. Not only was the film a runaway hit with characters like Spider-Man Noir (Nic Cage) and Spider-Ham (John Mulaney), it featured groundbreaking animation creating a surreal three-dimensional comic book on-screen filled to the brim with Easter eggs and details enough to satisfy any Spider-Man fan. The risk-taking mashup of art styles was clearly an influence on last year’s Puss In Boots: The Last Wish, but is it possible to push the envelope even further out into or even beyond the Spider-Verse?

An early scene teased a year ago showed Miles getting a visit from Spider-Gwen, one that plays out a bit differently in the film but set an expectation for the core of the story; in fact, the new film opens from her POV to show exactly what she’s been dealing with. Instead of half a dozen Spider-People running around in the first movie, there are hundreds in the sequel, but what’s noteworthy are the ones who haven’t been invited. While The Spot takes center stage as a super-villain, the secretive Spider-Man 2099 Miguel has his own agenda, and it takes the arrival of Morales at the Spider-Society to start blowing holes in concepts like “canonical events.” Across the Spider-Verse throws as much plot at viewers as it does Easter eggs, but it trusts that fans can keep up. As much fun as Spider-Cat and Spidersaurus-Rex are, there’s dramatic weight being carried as well, especially between Gwen and Miles navigating romantic possibilities while avoiding the consequences of fate that might unravel the multiverse. In the end, it comes down to one idea: hope. A hero has to try, even if they could still lose, because that what heroes do.

Purely from a world-building perspective, nothing else comes close to the level of ambition poured out onto the screen, and viewers are still only treated to a taste of what’s possible. Between last year’s Everything Everywhere All At Once, Doctor Strange In the Multiverse of Madness, and even DC’s upcoming The Flash, messing with temporal continuity to spare victims previously lost is shown to be dicey in the best of circumstances. What sets Across the Spider-Verse apart is avoiding future possibilities: things consistent in every Spider-Person’s history like being bitten by a radioactive spider or the affecting loss of a loved one. At the same time, there are hints dropped no one really has all the answers and there’s no video game option to go back to the last save point. A stand-out character embodying this point-of-view is Hobie aka Spider-Punk — perfectly voiced by Daniel Kaluuya — who comes off initially as a rival to Miles but ends up in kinship. As before, the voice cast is pitch-perfect, including but not limited to a few favorites from Into the Spider-Verse.

While audiences starving for family films and animation flocked to The Super Mario Bros. Movie, it never quite reached the potential for storytelling Across the Spider-Verse wallows in. Viewers feel invested in sharing each success and failure with Gwen and Miles, a far cry from the foregone conclusion “super” Mario will eat some mushrooms before saving the day. Last year’s teaser already hinted at more than a possibility we’d get a cliffhanger at the end, but be prepared for nothing in the way of a mid or end-credit sequence. Just enjoy the credit animation and count the days until next year’s Beyond the Spider-Verse mercifully unknots your stomach.

Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse is rated PG for sequences of animated action violence, some language, thematic elements, and still keeping the secret of Alchemax 42.

Four skull recommendation out of four

---