Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse

 

Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse (2018)

A Spider-Man film outside of the MCU, Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse is a superhero movie that embraces the various incarnations and identities of Spider-Man outside of the usual Peter Parker version. After an accident with an interdimensional collider, the original Spider-Man is killed, leaving newly empowered Miles Morales to learn how to be Spider-Man from an array of Spider-people from across dimensions, who are as diverse as they are unique. As Miles receives a crash course in how to be a hero, the group must race against the clock to return the Spider-people home to their own dimensions and destroy the collider before it rips the fabric of reality apart.

Miles rising through the frame as he becomes his own kind of Spider-Man.

Miles receives a lesson on how to be a hero from Peter B. Parker, a Spider-Man from a different dimension.

Spider-Man: Into the Spider-verse is a coming-of-age movie dealing with concepts of individualism, realizing one's potential, and identity, told through Miles' struggle of figuring out how to be Spider-Man. When at first he tries to mimic the other Spider-people, he fails, and constantly struggles to control his own power. It's only when he trusts his own instincts, when he embraces his own way of being Spider-Man, that he finally takes the leap of faith an becomes a hero. The diversity of the interdimensional Spider-people highlight this even further, as each one has their own unique skills that make them their own version of Spider-Man. Through that, this movie teaches us that everyone has potential, everyone has something that makes them unique and special, and anyone can be Spider-Man.

Discussion Questions

1. How does the comic book aesthetic of this movie help further embody the message this movie wishes to convey?

2. Why do you think there were no theatrical films featuring Miles Morales before this movie?