Anyone could wear the mask... I’m not the only Spider-Man. Not by a long shot. 

Not only has Spider-Man 2 been my favourite Spider-Man film since I was a young boy, but it has been my favourite iteration of Spidey in any medium period. More than that, Sam Raimi’s superlative sequel to my mind was always the single most epic, tactile, technically stunning and soulful comic book adaptation of all time. The way the film tapped into the humility and humanity that makes Peter Parker Spider-Man and makes Spider-Man just one of us inspired me to believe in superheroes and to see them in the people around me on a daily basis.

Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse is now my favourite Spider-Man film.

Centring primarily around Miles Morales - Spider-Man as of the Ultimate Spider-Man series - the film sees Miles become embroiled in a dimension bending plot by Kingpin and the best part of the Sinister Six that results in Spider-Men, women, and a pig from the multiverse coming to Earth and in desperate need to get home and stop Kingpin from tearing apart the space-time continuum. Couple those high stakes with the emotional weight of the death of the original Spider-Man Peter Parker at the hands of Kingpin, and an exploration of the losses across the multiverse that define the Spider moniker, dashed with great humour and self-awareness throughout, and you have the perfect web of intrigue spun to lose yourself in.

What directors Bob Persichetti, Peter Ramsey, and Rodney Rothman have done so well with this bold and ambitious deep dive into the multiple worlds of Spider-Man is pick and choose their inspirations and characters with purpose and respect for source, whilst in the process adding to that illustrious canon with their own creative flourishes. The alternate dimension Peter Parker, overweight and somewhat wearying from a life of fighting crime and losing the ones he loves both literally and emotionally, is employed as a curmudgeonly yet inevitably strong mentor for young Miles Morales as he comes to learn the leaps of faith he must take to live up to the moniker and the mask. His repartee with Miles is sharp and his self-referential quips and observations about established tropes - “and then he’ll say you’ve got 24 hours” “You’ve got 24 hours” - are inspired, yet his burden of knowledge and experience is never undersold or misrepresented. He knows the life of the friendly neighbourhood spider-man, and he knows that the cool suits and special powers are nothing without belief and spirit and soul, and as he and Miles come to know each other better the wisdom exchanged is natural and beautifully handled.

Elsewhere, Spider-Gwen, Penny Parker, Spider-Man Noir, and Spider-Ham all come into the fray with great energy and spectacular stylisation. Spider-Gwen is a badass female heroine who can kick ass and yet keeps herself to herself for fear of losses she can’t stop, whilst Penny Parker is an anime reimagining of Spidey whose robotic partner is equal parts Baymax and Tamagotchi and just as great as that sounds. Spider-Man Noir, voiced by my hero Nicolas Cage, is a 1930s slobber knocker Spider-Man who oozes gritty poetry and whose monochromatic visage is both supremely visually striking and also most clearly evocative of the pain that comes with the position of being New York’s saviour time and time again - he talks of letting candles burn into his fingers so that he can feel something, and though it is comically melodramatic, if you let it linger for a little moment longer the line is undercut with a surprisingly profound melancholy.

And then there’s Spider-Ham. Peter Porker. A Loony Tunes Spider-Man who literally says ‘That’s all folks’, whacks out a huge cartoon hammer, and is voiced in an inspired move by comic prodigy John Mulaney. It’s as weird and as random as it sounds, but if he wasn’t there we’d miss him for sure.

With the story and the characters firing on all cylinders and each facet of the Spider-Man identity coming under intense scrutiny and producing spectacular acts of heroism, this could all have been reduced to something so much lesser were it animated poorly. Thankfully however, Sony’s animators here manage to topple all of the phenomenal character work as the recipients of the highest praise. Spider-Man, his/her world, New York, crime-fighting, web-slinging, and comic book creation has never popped and rocked on the big screen quite like this before. With a refreshing animation style that creates a truly kinetic sense of motion and momentum whilst building a metropolis out of mixed media, Into The Spider-Verse’s cinematographic conception is literally jaw-dropping. Unshackled by the limitations of reality, unencumbered with the immersive constraints of CGI, the film allows every comic panel you ever dreamt of seeing come to life, in every way possible and many more never thought possible before, do so and do so with artistic flair and - most importantly - distinctive and unique characterisation. This is a world you want to cross dimensions to find a way into, filled with characters you want to cross dimensions to find a way to meet and share time with.

The soundtrack is an absolute bop from start to finish, a little phrase I picked up from the cool kids online, and the score that underpins the urban tracks draws on a rich cinematic lineage of Spider themes and emotional motifs whilst breaking forth with a voice and a sound of its own. Daniel Pemberton’s composition is big and bold when the moment calls for it, and sensitive and tender when necessary, moving the emotional emphasis of the story from scene to scene and coalescing with the visual narrative seamlessly.

When I say that Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse is now my favourite Spider-Man film, I say this because it represents the culmination of all that has come before it, be it the classic cartoon series or the Sony Raimi trilogy or the less than polished two Amazing Spider-Man films, even the most recent MCU iteration of everybody’s favourite friendly neighbourhood Spider-Man. This film is steeped in the wildly vast and unfathomably deep lore of Spider-Man but does not sink under the weight of its predecessors. It stands on the shoulders of incarnations each in their own way giants and reaches out to the most simple and most potent truth that has made Spider-Man my hero throughout my life. No matter where you are from, no matter what you have seen, no matter who you have loved or who you have lost or how far you have come or how far you have yet to go, any of us could put on that mask and be Spider-Man. Spider-Man isn’t simply a superhero in spandex who can shoot webs and scale walls. He is a representation of the indomitable human spirit and of the titanic strength that can be found in anybody who cares enough to believe they can be a somebody. He is who I aspire to and who I am inspired by, a hero to himself and a hero to us all. And at a time where maybe we might feel the Superhero cycle in cinema could be at risk of losing sight of the real people behind the masks, behind the products that churn out and the pyrotechnics and special effects, Into The Spider-Verse reminds us of the infinite possibilities that lay before each and every one of us no matter who we are, where we come from, or what we have been through.

With great power comes great responsibility, and the creative team behind Into The Spider-Verse have harnessed a great cinematic storytelling power and wielded it with the most earnest and true sense of responsibility to make something that makes me feel like it’ll never be too late for me to be the hero I see on the screen. That is priceless. And that, surely, is enough to make you believe in the magic of the movies.

I can’t wait to go again, and maybe again, and maybe again after that. And Stan Lee’s obligatory cameo appearance - a divine moment of poetry as he helps pass down Spider-Man to a new generation in a scene recorded just months before his passing. Rest in peace Stan Lee, these guys are keeping your boy safe.

“That person who helps others simply because it should or must be done, and because it is the right thing to do, is indeed without a doubt, a real superhero” - Stan Lee