Early reviews are in for Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse, the sequel to Sony Pictures and Marvel Studios’ animated collaboration from 2018, Into the Spider-Verse. If Rotten Tomatoes is anything to go by (and usually it is), then that 94% score is looking mighty appealing right about now. Miles Morales returns in this Oscar-winning saga that sends Brooklyn’s friendly neighborhood Spider-Man across the Spider-Verse to team up with Gwen Stacy and a whole host of Spider-People. Even without the statistics to confirm it, that already sounds like a good time.
Now, although Across the Spider-Verse — like its predecessor — is a Sony property, let’s take a moment to talk about Marvel. It’s no trade secret that recent Marvel movies have performed horribly. Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 was the saving grace of Phase 5 thus far, putting the likes of Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, Thor: Love and Thunder, and Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania to shame (albeit the former wasn’t as bad as the two latter). Now, the 60 and 70 range isn’t too shameful, but it still doesn’t compare to Marvel’s recent animated works, many of which are lesser known heroes than our beloved Avengers.
Just look at Marvel’s Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur with 100%, Marvel’s M.O.D.O.K. with a crisp 86, or even Marvel’s Hit-Monkey with 84%.The proof is in the pudding, as the saying goes, but Marvel would much rather pump out endless MCU flops than focus on the real money makers: the animations. Again, if it wasn’t for James Gunn’s Guardians of the Galaxy trilogy send-off, Marvel would be facing severe backlash right now, much worse than anything Quantumania could muster. But even that won’t last, since Gunn is migrating to the DCU to pursue bigger (and honestly, oftentimes better) projects.
Now, I’m no nay-sayer by any means, plus I’ve been a Marvel fan since I was 12 years old, so trust me, I want this franchise to succeed more than anything. However, taking into consideration the fact that my favorite Marvel show is Jessica Jones (the dearly departed, thanks to Netflix), it isn’t hard to understand why I favor the underdog movies/shows over the big-budget blockbusters. Krysten Ritter and David Tennant’s chemistry in Season 1? Hello?
Not to mention, Into the Spider-Verse was a dream come true for me, as I’m sure it was for many other Spider-Man fans. We had the Sam Raimi trilogy (dare I say it, invincible), the so-so Tom Holland trilogy, several incredible PlayStation titles, and then Sony’s own deep-dive into animation, which undoubtedly paid off, if you ask me. All in all, Spider-Man fans have been fed well over the last decade or so, but that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t keep the ball rolling.
If a character called Hit-Monkey is wiping the floor critically with an Avenger as high-profile as Ant-Man, there needs to be some serious conversations happening behind the scenes at Marvel Studios. If we’re being honest with ourselves, when was the last decent MCU title besides GOTG Vol. 3? There are a lot of Marvel fans who think the MCU should have cut and run after Endgame — me included — so that doesn’t bode well for the company in the future. Again, if it wasn’t for James Gunn, it would have been the curtain call for the MCU a long time ago.
And I know what you’re thinking. I’m not stupid, I know that so long as Marvel die-hards keep pumping their hard-earned money into every Avengers team-up that makes the cut, Marvel Studios will keep profiting and throwing back lackluster material to keep the audience hoping for something more down the line. It’s like a dog chasing its own tail. But what happens once the dog catches it? In the same context, what happens once Marvel has delivered all it can on the live-action front? Technology only gets more and more advanced with each passing day, so gone are the days of special effects. It’s the CGI way or the highway nowadays.
And what falls under that technological category? Why, animation, of course. Long after some of Hollywood’s best names are gone forever, animation will keep evolving. It’s the changing of the times, friends, and if Marvel doesn’t abandon ship soon, they’ll be sinking with the wreckage.
