[dropcap]O[/dropcap]h boy! New York Comic-Con is getting ready to touch down in Manhattan’s Jacob Javits Center this week but swinging into town early is a brand new Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse trailer giving out lots of new plot details (some might say too much), as well as showing off a lot more of the spider set pieces and fantastic animation that’s only been teased up until this point.
So how about we do a big old trailer breakdown and go over some of the new information we can glean from this latest offering from Sony Animation Studios.
1. Peter Parker’s Perspective
Unlike the previous trailers which have been largely teasers of the film as a whole or done from the perspective of Miles Morales and his story, this new trailer starts off from the perspective of Jake Johnson’s Peter Parker. Johnson brings his easy-going affable slacker persona that he made famous on shows like New Girl and in the recent comedy Tag to the role of the OG web swinger, stepping into the driver’s seat to reveal that the Peter Parker and this iteration is even further along in his career then he is depicted as in most Spider-Man cartoons and video games. In his own universe this Spider-Man enjoys the fame and notoriety that we would be familiar with in our own real world. Peter Parker in the trailer has comic books written about him, merchandising which are included but not limited to middle-of-the-road subpar popsicle, breakfast cereals, and t-shirts (Worn by adorable little girls of color the world over). This Spider-Man has even recorded a Christmas album which features such classics as “Spidey, it’s Cold Outside” “Joy to the World (That I just Saved) and It’s Beginning to Look A lot Like A Non-Denominational Holiday.
Our Peter Parker is a veteran of the superhero game. Having saved the world dozens of times by his own account and indeed pulling off the two-point conversion of actually getting the girl of his dreams, which seems to be a fashion model Mary Jane Watson, a version of Mary Jane which seems to have fallen out of favor as being a model is not considered a very empowered career for a woman. This could make this version of Peter Parker’s corner of the spider universe, way closer to Marvel Comic’s 616 version than almost any other depiction in recent memory. It is this veteran Parker that is going to be acting as a mentor to the Spider-Man at the heart of the narrative…
2. More Miles Morales!
We don’t get to see a whole lot of new information for Miles but we do get some more looks at his costume and peeks into his mentor-mentee relationship with Peter Parker. Miles’ father, played by the impossibly talented Mahershala Ali, is still hitting home those loving father/judgmental cop/kind of abusing his authority in problematic ways/dramatic irony problems with vigilantes notes that are necessary for Spider-Man family members. In addition we also get a flash of Miles’s mother play by the lovely Luna Lauren Velez who you may remember for her turn as Lieutenant Maria LaGuerta on the Showtime series Dexter. We get to see Miles in his own more familiar suit as well as trying out a hilarious imitation of the classic Spider-Man outfit and we get to see a more full reaction out of him as he encounters some of the other stars of this animated feature such as.
3. Spider Gwen and Friends
Here’s the big reveal: we get tons more footage of characters we’ve only heard about including a Spider-Man Noir voiced by none other than Nicolas Cage, we get splashes oven anime inspired Spider-Man with its own Mecha and a hilarious turn by comedian John Mulaney as Peter Porker the Spider-Ham. Hailee Steinfeld’s Gwen Stacy comes across with the little screen time she gets with all the brash attitude that made her character a fan favorite and together this abridged Spider Crew has more than enough potential to make some of the most stunning and engaging set pieces that have been seen in recent memory. Spider-Ham seems to be played as a pitch perfect comic relief to the gravitas of a sulky Spider-Noir Nick Cage and if the comics are anything to go by then we may see the sparks fly between young Gwen Stacy and Miles Morales…so I guess spoiler alert, maybe?
4. The Villain(s) and the Plot
Based off of what we see in the trailer the Kingpin played by Liev Schreiber seems to have opened rifts to parallel dimensions using their version of the Large Hadron Collider, moving away from the story line in the comic book where multi-dimensional totem hunters tracked spider powered people by use of an inter-dimensional web of fate to which all spider-powered people are connected. I mean…whatever. One flimsy science excuse is just as good as another. But now that we know the idea is the spiders have to team up to defeat the Kingpin and figure out a way to get home you have to wonder what other surprises does Into the Spider-Verse have in store for us. Any single spider can defeat the Kingpin, so I have a hard time believing he’s the big bad. Eagle-eye viewers might catch glimpses of Tombstone as well as the versions of Scorpion
and the Green Goblin from the Ultimate Universe so they definitely are going to have a hand in the plot in some way. Maybe we might just get to see Morlun and his siblings from the comics as well, but even having seen all that is in the trailer, I still wonder if into the spider verse has any more tricks up his sleeve. What gigantic existential threat (besides the tearing apart of the universe due to the Kingpin’s experiment) will our heroes face? And speaking of questions…
5. Questions!!!!
Will Gwen and Miles get together?
Why was Spider-Ham moist in his intro scene?
How ridiculous will Nicolas Cage be in this film?
Are you actually going to make a Spider-Man team-up movie and not include Spider-Man 2099?
Well true Believers, all these questions and more will be answered in theaters on December 14th.
I know I can’t wait and I’m sure you can’t either.
Cameron Crump
cameron@comicattack.net
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