That balance is essential because while this is an animated film, Miles Morales is one of the most relatable, vulnerable lead characters to appear in a Spider-Man movie. His desire to establish his own identity separate from his father’s, his awkward teenage clumsiness when he meets someone he likes in school, and his frustration that he can’t easily master his newfound skills with ease all create a storyline that echoes the struggles of any teenager battling to discover and establish their identity. These are themes present in most Spider-Man origin stories, but setting them against the backdrop of the multiverse — which allows Miles to learn that there are multiple interpretations of what he can be as Spider-Man, all of them valid — brings the point home further.
It also underscores the importance of this film choosing to focus on Morales in the first place. In movies, the Spider-Man franchise has for far too long focused on the same character doing the same things, often in the exact same way, no matter what strides the comic made in terms of diversity and representation. Into the Spider-Verse shows what a wasted opportunity that has been. In this film, Spider-Man isn’t one particular person; it’s an idea accessible to anyone, no matter where they come from or what they look like. And it’s almost certainly no accident that the older multiverse Peter Parker who Miles teams up with — an out-of-shape, middle-aged white dude who’s totally screwed up his own life, in spite of all the built-in advantages of being a superhero — ends up learning quite a bit from Morales about how to repair his own life and respect other people.
