It’s neither a secret nor a surprise that Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse has been flying so high; with the already inch-perfect foundation provided by its predecessor, all the sequel had to do was wear its heart on its sleeve louder than ever before, and the result was one of unprecedented magic.
Indeed, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 may have steadied the comic book movie ship, but Across the Spider-Verse turned it into a plane, and among the film’s many proponents is a legacy member of the Spider-Man multiverse itself.
Like most everyone who’s seen Across the Spider-Verse, Bryce Dallas Howard had nothing but the best to say about the second outing of Miles Morales and company; the actress took up the mantle of Gwen Stacy herself back in Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man 3, and she ended the shout out by piling onto the train of impatience for Beyond the Spider-Verse.
Of course, Howard’s Gwen Stacy is a far cry from the one voiced by Hailee Steinfeld in Across the Spider-Verse, with the latter not only effectively being a second protagonist, but taking up arms in the conflict herself as Spider-Woman. And, if certain theories are to be believed, the differences don’t stop there.
Across the Spider-Verse continues the plight of Miles Morales, whose combined responsibilities as Spider-Man and a teenager are beginning to weigh on him quite heavily, and when his old friend Gwen Stacy tracks him down, he quickly winds up getting involved with the Spider-Society, an organization of Spider-Men from across the multiverse who seek to keep the timelines in balance. With interpersonal, internal, and external, multiverse-threatening problems to contend with, Miles is in for quite the ride.
Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse is now playing in theaters.