Spider-Man: Enter the Spider-Verse – Directed by Bob Persichetti, Peter Ramsey, Rodney Rothman. Written by Phil Lord and Rodney Rothman. Starring the voices of Shameik Moore, Jake Johnson, Hailee Steinfeld, Mahershala Ali, Brian Tyree Henry, Lily Tomlin, Luna Laura Velez, Kimiko Glenn, Nicolas Cage, John Mulaney, Liev Schreiber, Kathryn Hahn, Zoe Kravitz

**** out of ****

Spider-Man: Enter the Spider-Verse is one of the most unusual superhero projects greenlit by a major studio in a long time. It’s one of a wave of Spider-related projects greenlit by Sony as an attempt to get the most out of the license before they decide to re-up their deal with the MCU or not. The previous one, Venom, was a financial hit but met with mixed reception. A lot of the others in development, like a Jared Leto-led Morbius solo film, feel like non-starters. But Enter the Spider-Verse is something different – and it’s one of the most faithful tributes to the world of comic books in movie history.

From the moment Enter the Spider-Verse begins, the first thing you notice is the animation. A stunning divergence from traditional ultra-smooth CGI, it has a gritty, indie-influenced vibe that uses shadows and sudden bursts of bright light incredibly effectively. You can’t take your eyes off the screen, but it wouldn’t work nearly as well without the great characters. It opens in a world with a well-established Spider-Man – a 26-year-old Peter Parker who has found love, acceptance from the public, and financial success thanks to multiple merchandising deals. A running gag about a Spider-man Christmas album had me laughing out loud several times.

But this isn’t his story. It’s the story of high school freshman Miles Morales (Shameik Moore), an awkward teen with a pair of loving, but strict parents who are sending him off to a new school for gifted kids. My teacher-senses went off a little at the depiction of the school – what kind of public school is this supposed to be that students sleep over during the week? – but the relationship between Miles and his parents is one of the most authentic and warm depictions of a family of color I’ve seen in the media in a while. And good on the creative team for not forgetting that Miles is half-latino!

When Miles rebels and goes grafitti-tagging with his shady uncle Aaron (Mahershala Ali), it leads to an encounter with a stray radioactive spider from evil corporation Alchemax. Soon Miles starts developing strange Spider-like abilities, which leads to a series of slapsticky escapades as he tries to manage his new powers. Especially funny is an awkward connection between him and the hair of a new girl at school. But soon, Miles has a date with destiny, as he winds up present at the fateful final battle of the original Spider-Man. When Peter Parker dies fighting against the Kingpin in the middle of a disaster caused by the mob boss’s attempt to find his lost family using a dimension-crossing super-collider, Miles’ new powers take on new meaning.

Surprisingly, the movie takes its time getting to the “Spider-Verse” part of its title. Miles’ coming-of-age story is highly compelling in itself, a great counterpart to Peter’s story in Spider-Man: Homecoming. But the hole in reality that Kingpin ripped eventually comes calling for Peter in the form of Peter B. Parker, a forty-something Spider-Man with a beer gut and some serious depression. This aged Spider-Man has basically given up on life, and he and Miles get off to a rocky start as he has zero interest in training the younger Spider. It’s only when it becomes clear that Peter B.’s presence in this dimension is destroying him that he changes his mind.

From there, the film really takes off as the reluctant mentor and skeptical mentee work together to try to stop Kingpin from repeating his experiment. Along the way, they gain an ally in Hailee Steinfeld’s Gwen Stacy, a punk-rock Spider-Woman who steals every scene she’s in and seems destined for her own spin-off. The transformation of Gwen Stacy from early example of “fridging” to independent hero is one of the best comic book subplots of recent years.

They’re joined by a trio of other Spiders from other dimensions, who are more one-joke characters – Peni Parker, an anime girl with a friendly robot friend; Spider-Man Noir, Nick Cage’s over-the-top private eye; and Spider-Ham, a cartoon pig perfectly voiced by John Mulaney. While they’re all underused, the way they’re all animated in their own unique styles is another point in favor of this movie’s winning visual style. The real surprise star in this ensemble, though, is Lily Tomlin’s Aunt May – the mother figure of the deceased Peter Parker, who winds up being an invaluable ally to the Spider-verse gang. She’s the kind of funny, flinty older female character we rarely see in the media. Can we get a version of her as Spider-Ma’am in the sequel?

If this movie has a weak spot, it’s the villains. Liev Schreiber’s Kingpin is the main heavy, but the film exaggerates his strength to the point where he feels like the Hulk. He’s backed up by Kathryn Hahn’s mad scientist with some surprising accessories, a brutish Green Goblin and Scorpion, and the Prowler. This shadowy masked hitman is the only one of the bad guys to make a real impression, with several scenes where he’s hunting Miles being genuinely terrifying. Those who have read the comics also know there’s a lot more to him than meets the eye.

We live in a bit of a comic book movie glut right now, with Spider-Man: Enter the Spider-Verse being the sixth major comic book movie release of 2018 (with one more still to come). But it’s not like any of those, and it deserves all the attention it gets. It’s a hilariously inventive team-up movie that introduces mainstream audiences to a host of bizarre characters who would never get a movie on their own, and continues Black Panther‘s streak of adding some much-needed diversity to the genre. It also ends on a powerful note that reminds us of what makes Spider-Man so unique among superheroes – he’s the everyman, and anyone can put on the mask. It’s easily one of the best movies I’ve seen this year, and I’m ready for any sequels and spin-offs Sony has planned.