After reuniting with Gwen Stacy, Brooklyn’s full-time, friendly neighborhood Spider-Man is catapulted across the Multiverse, where he encounters a team of Spider-People charged with protecting its very existence. However, when the heroes clash on how to handle a new threat, Miles finds himself pitted against the other Spiders. He must soon redefine what it means to be a hero so he can save the people he loves most.
This sequel to Spider-Man: Into the Spiser-Verse has hit the summer entertainment market by storm. Outperforming the first movie, which grossed $384,256,930 box office worldwide, after 3 weeks it is setting at $494.7 million in worldwide box office money. It is set up to at least double the box office from 2018. The critics, with 336 reviews on Rotten Tomatoes, set at 96% with an audience score of 95%. Some people, and one James Gunn, have called it the best superhero movie ever made. My only disappointment with the film was that it was only part one of a two-part story and we have to wait till March 2024 for the conclusion.
So much for superhero fatigue or any other reason for the drop-off of this genre of movies in recent history; if you put quality out there, people will respond. I will acknowledge that billion-dollar movies might be rare in the future because of the retraining of moviegoers during the pandemic and the rise in the digital market. Some casual movie ticket buyers just wait till it comes out on digital or Blu-ray discs. This may be the new normal of the industry.
That does not take away from the success of the Sony/Marvel Spider-Verse movie. Marvel Comics has capitalized on several multiverse series involving the Spider-Verse, and even something calls the Venom-Verse. Looks like it is a winner for Marvel in general. Writer Dan Slott with art from Ultimate Spider-Man fame Mark Bagley has introduced a character called Spider-Boy in Spider-Man Vol 4 #7. He was revealed in a Spider-Verse story. The Ramos variant cover of #7 is highly sought after by comic collectors and is selling for over $30 on eBay. On the 21st of June, the Edge of the Spider-Verse #3 will feature the origin of Spider-Boy. Available at your local comic shop.
I will discuss the failure of other movies in this genre in another post, but right now I want to celebrate the accomplishment of Sony and Marvel in revitalizing the animated superhero market with Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse. Well done.