I been loving and dreading this moment for years. It is Thursday 7:45 am and I’m standing out here in a light rain waiting for the doors to open. Work comes for me at 2pm but I’m not thinking about that. All I am thinking about is Spider-Nikes.
Wait. What?
I suppose I should start at the beginning. Before Daryll B became a “villain” truly. Before I met a lot of folks who would change how I act and behave in this literary world, I was a punk. Never had ran from this truth. Not proud of it now. But there were several factors that opened my mind and changed me for the better.
One was Miles Morales. Created by Brian Michael Bendis and Sara Pichelli for this Ultimate Universe line, Miles was the “replacement” for a fallen Peter Parker. With a Earth without a Spider-Man, he was going to be the universe’s gap filler.
He was Afro-Latino.
And I hated it.
I thought this was just going to be checking off boxes. Filling in a quota for minorities and not going to be anywhere as important to me as I wanted...as I hoped. So I thought, I trust Bendis from Powers and Spidey so far, I’ll give it an arc and then that it...
I was WRONG. I am so, SO GLAD I was wrong.
From jump, this was personally relatable on a lot of levels for me. Here’s Miles who sees his hero die literally feet away from him, knowing he had the power to help but paralyzed by fear to act. Then is eaten up with guilt and that spurs him to action. Man if that isn’t a referendum on my life, I don’t know what is. So me being me, I was eager after 10 issues while being in the comic shop to talk with a friend about it.
His response: Yeah but how long before they put him in Spider-Nikes? This just a money grab...
Not the retort I thought I was going to get. I thought that the quality representation was going to be reciprocated but this actually forced me to look at myself. And how I was acting towards other fans. It was literally a broken mirror to myself at that time.
Which brings me to now.
I’m standing in front of my AMC Theater looking at the Into The SpiderVerse poster about to enter and looking at his feet as he is caught mid-flip. Well what do you know? He’s wearing Spider-Nikes. Where did I hear that before?
*Deep Breath As I Enter* Please Don’t Suck....
*Exiting the theatre* OMIGAWD THIS WAS AWESOME!!!!
Firstly, the movie capitalized on the biggest deficiency of the comics: if you say Miles is Afro-Latino, have elements of both cultures. Sorry BrÃan, but you really didn’t take advantage of the Latino side of Miles. The movie did several times and man, I can only imagine how young Latinx felt during that early scene of Miles going to school.
Wait. I don’t have to because all through this I felt seen. I felt like: damn Junior High me been captured on film. From the trepidation to the validation, if I ever got powers, this encapsulated it all. On top of it all, the creators got my weakness for alternate universes and “What If” stories. That is the essence of SpiderVerse, whether comic or movie, What If the circumstances were just a bit different..? Credit to Ramsey, Lord & Miller for not only making this a thinking question but an access point for new viewers/readers.
I have often said that Batman: Mask of The Phantasm was my all time favorite comic book movie but yo...! It has to move over for this! This black kid in a man’s body has to give it up for SONY Animation for this.
(Taking things that I don’t think Daryll would ever say for 1000)
Yes. I said it. From beginning to end, I felt this movie...I LIVED THROUGH this movie. I’m the dude that has the infamous Paul Jenkins/Mark Buckingham “Black Spider-Man” pic as his lock screen. I have always said that ANYONE could be a hero under the mask. This movie was wish fulfillment for me on several levels.
Black Kid-
Loving Family-
Fun Hijinks-
What if? premise-
Cartoon taking full advantage of its medium a la Looney Tunes-
Closest thing to the perfect Daryll movie. Biggest compliment I could give any movie actually. Great job to everyone involved.
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