Both “Spider-Verse” films, in what will be a trilogy, create dimension in these kinds of details, and I don’t just mean the animation.
Because what else is adolescence but a confrontation with the various possibilities in life, the infinite selves you can be?
The fact that Miles and Gwen also shoot webs and swing around skyscrapers is incidental to their emotional arcs in the film.
“Spider-Verse” also asks intriguing questions about the limitations of the canon, and whether tragedy is a prerequisite for a Spider-Man origin story — the death of an Uncle Ben or Aunt May or Uncle Aaron.
But “Across the Spider-Verse” is never dull, nor precious with its characters and comedy.
Persons:
Gwen, Joaquim Dos Santos, Kemp Powers, Justin K, Thompson, Miles, Uncle Ben, Uncle Aaron, —, three’s
Locations:
New York, Jamaican, two’s