Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse Is Everything the MCU Is Missing

It’s not a spoiler to say that Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse begins with a drum solo. Back in 2015, when Tom Holland was cast as Spider-Man, there had been rumblings on the internet that maybe the next Spidey series could be fronted by Miles Morales, the half-Latino, half-Black teenager who had been wearing the Spidey suit in Marvel comics’ Ultimate line. It may not have the franchise power to bring in the $100-million-plus opening hauls of other MCU films—it’s projected to bring in $80 million domestically this weekend—but no one who does see it will walk out of the theater going “Eh, it’s just another Marvel movie.” Kevin Feige and the Marvel Studios team have spent the better part of a decade crafting a perfect, interconnected franchise. Across the Spider-Verse, meanwhile, looks like no MCU film—or, really, like no comic book film—you’ve ever seen. Where everything in a traditional MCU film has a “cool-but-powered-by-greenscreen” flavor, Across the Spider-Verse looks like a comic-lover’s sketchbook collages come to life.