Jai Guru Deva, Miles

Without Netflix DVDs, we haven't been watching recent (-ish) movies as much. But we do have Netflix streaming (for Great British Bake-Off) and they have Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse (2023). 

Irt starts with Spider-Gwen (voice: Hailee Stanfeild) in her own universe. She misses Miles and doesn't expect to ever see him again. Her police captain father (voice: Shea Wigham) thinks Spider-Woman is a menace and that she killed Peter Parker (she did, but he was the Lizard at the time). Then she has to fight a Leonardo da Vinci version of the Vulture. Then. two new Spider-Heroes show up: Oscar Isaac as Miguel O'Hara and Issa Rae as a black pregnant motorcycle mama. They subdue the Vulture from another universe, but Capt. Stacey discovers who Spider-Woman is. The other Spidies take her with them to the home of the League of Super-Spiders.

Sometime later, in another universe, Miles Morales (Shameik Moore) is moping around, missing Gwen. He runs into villain-of-the-week The Dot (Jason Schwartzman) - an all-white figure with hole all over his body - holes that can be removed and placed roadrunner-style on walls, etc. It turns out that he was the scientist who sent the radioactive spider... Look, never mind. Why go into detail on a villain of the week?

Then Gwen shows up! She's joined the Spider Corps and gets to travel between universes. And after a few misunderstandings, her and Miles joiun the Corps in tracking down The Human Hole. Their adventures take them to meet the Indian Spider-Man (Karran Soni), Peter B. Parker (Jake Johnson) and his Spider-Baby, and Spider-Punk (Daniel Kaluuya). They will also have to face... Their Parents!

That's all the plot we need, I think. There is a lot of plot in this movie, although there aren't as many villains as usual. Spot is a good one, I think - sort of silly, sort of funny. Sort of like Polka Dot Man from The Suicide Squad (shouldn't all Spot-based characters be played by someone who's name sounds like Dalmation?). But cosmically powerful. 

But the cool thing is the art - there are many styles, including 

• Trad comicbook with black outlines and halftone dots. There is even some 3D (?) or maybe just some misregistration
• 80s glitch style, like the old New Mutants (comic not movie). Sometimes Dot Man would be drawn as just a scribble with spiral eyes. Of course, Spider-Punk looks like something out of a punk zine - come to life.
• Paperback cover style, like Robert MacGinnis, where the background is just a few impressionistic brushstrokes. 
• There's even a Lego Spider-Man, in tribute to producers Lord and Miller.

And so on. I'm going to want to watch this again, just for that art.

I wasn't always as interested in the teen angst parts compared to the action and hi-jinks. But isn't teen angst what Spider-Man is about? Actually, that's one of the reasons I don't read much Spider-Man. But I do love the web-swinging, and this movie has that down. 

Of course, we also have to ask - too much multiverse? I guess I'll wait until the trilogy ties up in the next movie.