...okay, so at the very least the Spider-Verse films are either part of the MCU or are MCU adjacent. Come to peace with it.
Spoiler alert.
Across the Spider-Verse takes place roughly over a year after the events of Into the Spider-Verse. Gwen Stacy of Earth-65 (Hailee Steinfeld) is having some trouble with her secret identity, having to suppress her identity as Spider-Woman even as her father, Captain George Stacy (Shea Whigham) closes in on the elusive Spider-Woman for the death of Peter Parker. When a very Renaissance Vulture pops into Earth-65 by pure accident, Gwen finds herself teaming up with Jessica Drew (Issa Rae) and Miguel O'Hara (Oscar Isaac), the Spider-Woman and Spider-Man 2099 of other dimensions. She gets pulled into some multiverse traveling.
This is also where we get our first MCU connection when Miguel mentions "Doctor Strange and that nerd from Earth-199999", which obviously ties into the ends of Multiverse of Madness and Spider-Man: No Way Home. Now, this was apparently intended to be a meta gag by the directors. If so, they should have cut it considering how much this film does reference the Raimi and Webb films, which also have universes adjacent to the MCU.
Later, Miguel's hologram of the branching timelines looks suspiciously like the breaking apart of the Sacred Timeline from the end of Loki Season 1.
So, yeah... it's connected to the MCU. Can't really reference things at this point without connecting it.
Over on Earth-1610, Miles Morales (Shameik Moore) is dealing with a parent-teacher conference, a new supervillain called the Spot (Jason Schwartzmann), and with feelings of guilt over hiding his double life from his parents as well as missing his friends from the previous Spider-Verse incursion - in particular, Gwen. When worse comes to worse and the Spot manages to escape with new powers that could threaten the multiverse, Miles gets pulled into a universe-hopping adventure to keep him from doing that... if he can. He's brought to the Spider-Society on Earth-928, and learns that he may not be able to save the day this time. Miguel insists that certain canon events must always happen for all Spider-Men.
Can Miles save his father and save his world? And the multiverse?!
One big point in this film's favor is that it continues the same tradition from the previous film of the creative team having dug deep into Spider-Man lore and pulling out obscure things from deep within. There are the variants, of course, and the copious use of stock footage from the Sony Spider-Man films (both the Tobey Maguire and the Andrew Garfield ones see some use), but very obscure things like the Bombastic Bag Man, the Spider-Mobile, and (of all things) Video-Man.
Also, JK Simmons voices J. Jonah Jameson across every universe, which is a lesson even the MCU has learned - when you cast the GOAT, you never recast the GOAT.
As for the plot itself, you can understand both Miguel's motivations for wanting to keep the Web of Life and Destiny preserved with canon events and Miles (of course) wanting to save his father and save the world. Possibly all worlds. Unfortunately, while Peter B. Parker (Jake Johnson) was there for the event that triggered Miguel going all dark and edgy in order to save the multiverse... we really only have that particular incident as any indication that something can go wrong.
Of course, when you're doing a full on draconian stranglehold of the timeline, you are not the good guy in this scenario - see also the TVA from Loki. Seriously, at this point, we can call the various Marvel Cinematic Universes - "A bunch of idiots tripping over each other to screw up the multiverse".
...except for Eddie Brock from the Venom/Morbius universe, who is admittedly one of the few who hasn't gotten caught up in multiverse shenanigans so much as dragged along for them.
Also the Vulture of the MCU, apparently... but that's weird for reasons I already went over in the Morbius review.
Getting back to the film we're talking about, though: Across the Spider-Verse is a pretty good one. I do think the first act does drag on a bit too long and the film ending on a cliffhanger with nothing really resolved between our characters is a bit disheartening, to say the least, although that leaves plenty to work with in the sequel - Beyond the Spider-Verse.
Other than letting you know that there is not a post-credits scene to the movie, there's not much of anything more for me to-oh, right. Mayday.
Yeah, so... in the time between Into and Across, Peter B. Parker went back to Mary Jane, reconnected, and they now have a daughter by the name of Mayday who is toddler age.
A compelling version of an older Peter Parker who is not only married to Mary Jane, but happily so and with a baby.
TAKE A FUCKING HINT, MARVEL, YOU ABSOLUTE STUBBORN DICKS!
But yes, Across the Spider-Verse was an enjoyable 140 minutes and I'd recommend it particularly if you're a fan of Spider-Man in general. You see not only the hero you love, but another bunch of variations ranging from the creative to the outright bizarre. It's a fun ride.
Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse is brought to us by Columbia Pictures, Sony Pictures Animation, Marvel Entertainment, Arad Productions, Lord Miller Productions, Pascal Pictures and Sony Pictures Releasing.
...seriously, do we not have enough production companies, Sony?
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