Spider-Man Into the Spider-Verse

Episode 248: Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse (2018)

Theme: Spider-Men Month
Hosts: Oz & Curtis

This week, Oz and Curtis dive into the animated, multi-dimensional masterpiece that proves Sony can actually strike gold when they leave Phil Lord and Christopher Miller alone in a room together. It’s Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, a film that brings a breathtaking, comic-book-come-to-life aesthetic to Miles Morales’ journey of discovering his own powers, mourning multiple Peter Parkers, and learning that anyone can wear the mask (except maybe the actual animators who had to draw the Kingpin’s massive, screen-swallowing torso). Grab your bagels and load up your web-shooters because we’re jumping into the Spider-Verse.

The hosts break down:

• Miles Morales (Shameik Moore): The core of the film, a teenager struggling with parental expectations, newly acquired invisibility and venom-shock powers, and the immense pressure of watching his dimension's primary superhero get absolutely pulverized.

• Peter B. Parker (Jake Johnson): A sweatpants-wearing, divorced, older version of Spider-Man who begrudgingly acts as a reluctant mentor to Miles, mostly to avoid going back to his own dimension to confront Mary Jane.

• The Prowler / Uncle Aaron (Mahershala Ali): Miles’ laid-back uncle who secretly moonlights as Kingpin's deadliest enforcer, leading to a heartbreaking rooftop confrontation where he chooses family over a paycheck.

• Kingpin (Liev Schreiber): A massive, visually terrifying antagonist whose sole motivation is using a dimension-breaking super-collider to rip alternate versions of his dead wife and child from the multiverse, no matter the catastrophic cost to Brooklyn.

• Aunt May (Lily Tomlin): A deeply capable, tech-savvy "Alfred" figure to the Spider-family, harboring a literal high-tech batcave beneath her backyard shed (secured only by a single Master Lock).

Final Verdict:

Oz — A Thousand Miles
Curtis — Earth-1610