Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse (4 Stars)

I almost didn't go to see this film. I dislike animated films and television series, and I particularly dislike the animated versions of Marvel super-heroes that have been made over the last 50 years. The first animated Spider-Man TV series was made in 1967, and I'm unlucky enough to have seen a few episodes. I was surprised to see that it was released on DVD a few years ago, but it's out of print now.

Nevertheless, I enjoyed the film. I knew in advance that I shouldn't try to reconcile it with Marvel canon, because it's set firmly in the post-canon years. Miles Morales is a character who only appeared a few years ago, first in the Ultimate Universe (Earth-1610) and then in the main Marvel Universe (Earth-616). When he first became Spider-Man he was 13 years old, which is presumably the age he's supposed to be in "Into the Spider-Verse". The visual style of the animation is mostly realistic, although I have a few complaints. Wilson Fisk (the Kingpin) looks ridiculous with a head that's lower than his shoulders. Was he ever drawn so badly in the comics? I hope not.

The story takes place in the Ultimate Universe, presumably Earth-1610, although it borrows heavily from Earth-96283. The Kingpin has lost his wife, so he's trying to combine six universes in the hope of finding an alternate version of her in another universe. Spider-Man (Peter Parker) attempts to stop him, but dies in the process. His place is taken by Miles Morales, who has also been bitten by a radioactive spider. Miles has powers that the original Spider-Man didn't have, such as invisibility and electric shocks ("venom blasts"), but he still hasn't learnt how to control his powers. Luckily he has assistance, because the alternate versions of Spider-Man come to him from the other five universes.

An older Peter Parker comes to him from Earth-616. He says that he's been Spider-Man for 22 years, which would mean he's almost 40.

Spider-Woman, alias Gwen Stacy, is from Earth-65. She's approximately the same age as Miles.

Spider-Man Noir is a black and white version of Peter Parker from Earth-90214.

Spider-Ham is a talking pig who comes from Earth-8311.

Peni Parker is a Japanese girl who uses a robot called SP//dr powered by a radioactive spider. She comes from Earth-14512.

The six Spider-Men / Spider-People / Spider-Things have to team up to battle the Kingpin and his super-powered henchmen.

In case anyone doesn't believe that Spider-Ham is really a Marvel character, here's the cover of Spider-Ham #1 from November 1983. The series ran for 17 issues before landing in the trash can where it belonged. I know that it was meant to be humorous, but I find it embarrassing. Even Stan Lee's mid-1960's series Not Brand Echh was better. I disliked the style, but at least it had an element of satire, something missing from Spider-Ham.

If you're wondering why Marvel has all these numbered alternate universes, there's a simple explanation: it's an excuse for poor quality writing. In the early years of Marvel Stan Lee wrote everything. He had everything in his head, and he knew what had already happened to each character. He made a few small mistakes, but they were few and far between. Then other writers came like Roy Thomas and Gerry Conway, who read everything that Stan had written and carried on from it. But as the years went by the amount written, the Marvel canon, was so much that new writers couldn't take it in. How could new writers be expected to read 30 years of stories before writing their own comics? A good editor could have guided them, but another route was taken. Just start again. Write completely new stories with the old characters, and say it takes place in a different universe. The Marvel 2099 Universe was the first major departure from the main Marvel universe in 1992. The Marvel Ultimate Universe in 2000 was another major new universe. I'm not saying that individual comics set in these universes weren't good. What I'm saying is that the whole premise of these universes was the result of lazy writing, lazy editing and lazy everything else. I don't know why Stan Lee allowed it to happen. He probably had too little influence in the company by then.

If you want to read first class Marvel comics, go back to the 1960's. I can't say with 100% certainty at what point canon turned into non-canon – different comics changed at different times – but it was somewhere between 1972 and 1984. I believe that the change was brought about primarily by Jim Shooter when he was editor, but Mark Gruenwald also had a lot of influence. Only a few writers like Roy Thomas and Steve Englehart fought against the changes.