Spider-man is an iconic character that is remembered with the likes of Gatsby, Darth Vader, James Bond, Sherlock Holmes, etc. When handling characters of such iconic stature, it can be a daunting task to try to tell an interesting and fresh story with these classic characters.

In spite of this, “Spider-man: Into the Spider Verse” was able to put a delightful twist to the common Spiderman narrative.

Spider Verse gives us a new angle of Spider-man by introducing Miles Morales, an African/ Puerto Rican teenager from Brooklyn who gains Spider-mans’ abilities and has to take the mantle of Spider-man due to the death of Peter Parker.

As much as I adore the character of Peter Parker, I enjoyed how Miles reacted to gaining the powers of Spider-man. Miles feels extremely relatable since he is a spider-man fan like the audience.

While I could talk about Miles more, he is not the only Spider-man in the movie.

The inciting incident in Spider Verse is that a portal to different dimensions is opened by the villain Kingpin. This leads to multiple Spider-men from different dimensions being able to meet Miles.

The two different Spider-men that have the most development are Gwen Stacy and Peter B. Parker.

Peter is similar to the Spider-man that we all know and love, however, after 22 years of fighting crime, he lost his drive for being a hero. Peter Parker has always been characterized as a person who never gives up even when everything against him. By having this grumpy and cranky Peter we get to see him in a new light. Also, Peter’s pessimistic attitude contrasts well with Miles’s excitement to being a hero.

“I like the new interpretation of Peter Parker because he is usually upbeat and happy[in the comics], but in the movie he was sad and nothing was going his way, so it was kinda cool to see a different way to look at his life,” said Gus Fredenburg 10, who owns the Spider Verse comics.

The Second character is Gwen Stacy, also known as Spider-woman. In her dimension, she is bitten by the radioactive spider instead of Peter. Gwen Stacy is famously known as “Spider-man’s girlfriend who dies.” So the fact that her origin story involves Peter’s death is ironic. Gwen is a companion to Miles, and Miles is able to connect with her more since they are closer in age compared to Miles and Peter.

With everything else that the film does right, it also has a big social significance. This is the first appearance of an African/ Puerto Rican Spider-man and a woman Spider-man in film history. However, those parts are not the movie’s hook, compared to films like “Black Panther” and “Wonderwoman”.

As an audience member, the fact that the movie is subtle about the social implications in real life leaves the viewer to focus and appreciate the film’s story, rather than what the story represents.

With these multiple Spider-men with such different backgrounds and personalities, it really drives home the theme that anyone can be a hero. This quote never made it into the film, but I think it perfectly sums up the message: “What makes you different is what makes you Spider-man.”