Sony’s sequel Spider-Verse film, Spider-Man: Across The Spider-Verse, has made landmark impacts on this year’s box office and the minds of superhero fans around the world. What began as a stellar success in 2018 with Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse has cascaded into even newer territory that pushes the boundaries of both animation and comic book adaptations. What is Sony doing that Marvel Studios seems to neglect? Prepare to dive into the multi-verse while we examine what made the latest addition to the Spider-Verse so impactful. Warning: spoilers ahead!!

Peni (Kimiko Glen), Spider-Gwen (Hailee Steinfeld), Spider-Ham (John Mulaney), Miles Morales (Shameik Moore), Peter Parker (Jake Johnson), Spider-Man Noir (Nicolas Cage) in Sony Pictures Animation’s SPIDER-MAN: INTO THE SPIDER-VERSE.

It’s safe to say that after 2019, the future of superhero films hung in the balance of movie theaters and die-hard fans of the genre. Combined with the onslaught of the pandemic and mediocre additions to the Marvel timeline, many filmmakers and writers in the industry began to speak out against the genre, saying how it’s mostly popcorn entertainment that it never challenges the audience to think critically (special shoutout to Martin Scorsese). But more than famous auteurs speaking out about the end of cinema, the genre did eventually start to teeter between thrilling entertainment and CGI cotton candy (Thor: Love and Thunder, specifically). Also, the only Marvel movie to be nominated for an Oscar other than for visual effects is 2018’s Black Panther, and arguably it won more for its cultural significance than its seriousness as a film. So when Sony jumped onto the scene with Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse and won for best animated feature that same year, the studio secured itself as a competitor in the superhero film scene for the first time since Toby Maguire’s cult classics in the 2000s. The innovative visual style, dimensional characters, and stellar soundtrack made for a memorable experience that contained all of the color and fun that a multi-verse film should have.

While the studio was busy developing its sequel to Into the Spider-Verse, Marvel produced an onslaught of shows and movies that each categorized the multiverse in different ways. Spider-Man: No Way Home was the closest the studio came to laying out a foundation that the multiverse was built on, but it was quickly swept away by Doctor Strange: Multiverse of Madness and Sam Raimi’s complete overhaul of the concepts. Along with shows like Loki and WandaVision, it quickly became clear that the filmmakers helming the new generation of Marvel projects had no trajectory for the future of the multiverse, not to mention the emotional impact they wanted to leave on audiences. Sony, on the other hand, took five years to develop their next multiverse addition, pouring $100 million dollars into their next iteration of animating style that was all the rave in its first installment.

It’s also worth noting that the film was developed and marketed for movie theaters only and was not banking on a quick release to a streaming service to secure its box office numbers. And now, much like the first film in 2018, both critics and audience can’t find enough say about the second Spider-Verse installment, and I think it is because it’s the first time structure and diversity actually help the film achieve its full potential instead of dragging it down like in projects released by Marvel Studios.

The screenwriting is especially notable in Across the Spider-Verse because emotional stakes are established in the bedrock of the plot and come to fruition to create refreshing twists and new perspectives. It’s evident that they don’t take their young audiences for granted and feel they have to lay the entire plot out in the first half hour. They know audiences will stick around if they care about the characters and find the material accepting of all kinds of people and backgrounds. But how is it that a web-slinger jumping through different dimensions is so dang relatable?

Miles Morales in Sony Pictures Animation’s SPIDER-MAN: INTO THE SPIDER-VERSE.

Because at one point in everyone’s life, we all wonder if there’s another world that exists where someone we lost or an identity we hide from has the chance to thrive and be free from the hardships from our own reality. Miles himself is told he is a mistake when the other Spider-Man characters reveal his poisonous spider was from another dimension. And if he keeps his canon events from occurring, it could end the entire multiverse as they know it.

This is a plot twist that is rooted in character struggle and pushes Miles to decide what he’s willing to fight for. Does he submit to fate or stand up for his identity that has woven itself into his world? The fact that Sony has the guts to ask these kinds of questions and trust that audiences will care reminds me of films like Captain America: The Winter Soldier and Avengers: Infinity War, where character decisions make or break the future of their world, and the biggest thing standing in the way is themselves.

Across the Spider-Verse takes this premise to the extreme when Miles literally finds himself in another universe where he’s become the Prowler– A.K.A his literal own worst enemy. This sets up a host of future problems and storylines that will surely get audiences to show up in another five years (potentially) for the last installment. Again, much like Marvel used to be, the filmmakers are taking their time with the story, visual message, and script, which is partly due to the long animating process but also the dedication to deliver an incredible story. Sony continues to reinvent the superhero by giving them structural ground to stand on and morals that force them to walk through fire to defend them. The visual elements support instead of distract from the story, and the representations of culture (as seen in Spider-Man India and Spider-Punk) give texture to the characters instead of background context that’s not relevant to the plot. The layers of characterization and imagination that Sony has been able to give to the long-running Spider-Man character would surely make Stan Lee proud. Maybe not in our universe, but perhaps in another– with the same eye-squinting grin.