Spider-Man: Across The Spider-Verse Might Deliver Something The MCU Never Could

As everyone's still recovering from the mayhem-filled spectacle of Sony's newest "Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse" trailer, the ambitious sequel that hopes to recapture the lightning-in-a-bottle energy from the original "Into the Spider-Verse," one can't help but marvel at what both films (and counting) could potentially pull off in the years to come. Not only did the first film go a long way towards establishing the young Afro-Latino Miles Morales (Shameik Moore) as a Spider-Man in his own right, proving beyond a doubt that general audiences would accept someone other than Peter Parker in the title role, but the Oscar-winning feature even helped legitimize animation as a medium (not a genre!) to be taken seriously, something that has proven tricky for certain audiences. With so many accolades and accomplishments under its belt, is it even realistic to expect more from the sequel?

Incredibly enough, the early returns point to a resounding yes. Although the initial footage we've seen only scrapes the surface of what "Across the Spider-Verse" has to offer, this new trailer once again reinforces a key aspect that sets this version of Spider-Man apart from his live-action counterpart. It's become increasingly clear that "Across the Spider-Verse" stands to succeed where the Marvel Cinematic Universe simply couldn't.

Despite the shared multiverse connections, particularly in last year's "Spider-Man: No Way Home," I'm willing to bet that the animated sequel will still manage to tell a proper, laser-focused Spider-Man story — without getting weighed down and distracted by dimension-hopping shenanigans. Here's why.

Is it possible that we've somehow come to undersell the miracle that is "Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse"? Put aside the dazzling visuals and incredible soundtrack and impossibly heartwarming story, as hard as that is to do. Not only did the original film have to serve as most general audiences' introduction to the beloved comic book character of Miles Morales, but it did so while juggling a team of other Spider-People who, in turn, became instant fan-favorites of their own. And through it all, even amid fleshing out various other supporting characters who were equally as important to Miles' story, the focus of the whole picture remained exactly where it needed to: on Miles Morales himself.

Compare that to how the MCU has treated Tom Holland's hero thus far, debuting Marvel's flagship character as a mere appetizer in "Captain America: Civil War." Then, in both "Homecoming" and "Far From Home," the young hero's identity revolved entirely around Robert Downey, Jr.'s Tony Stark. Finally, in "No Way Home," can anyone claim Peter was the main attraction ... or was it the novelty of those two other Spider-Mans? 

To our collective delight, "Across the Spider-Verse" appears ready and willing to pick up the slack. Needless to say, the latest round of marketing is obviously holding back on quite a bit. To date, we hardly know anything about the actual story beyond what the official synopsis reveals. But if the scene that receives the predominant amount of time and attention in the trailer — a quiet bonding moment between Miles and his mother Rio (Luna Lauren Vélez) — is anything to go by, we can expect a Miles-centric arc that will never once become undermined by the plethora of Spidey-adjacent heroes (and villains); just the opposite, in fact.

Let's get a show of hands: Who expected the highly-anticipated trailer for "Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse" to open the way it did? Forget any rapid-fire montages of Miles swinging through New York City or throwing viewers right into the multiverse to remind us of all the most surface-level pleasures of the original "Spider-Verse." Instead, we begin with something else entirely — a moody shot of Miles gazing out at his city, clearly with a lot on his mind.

Now, trailer editing hardly ever correlates to how the actual movie will unfold, but the choice to kickstart the action without any action whatsoever speaks volumes about the confidence the creative team has in this sequel. Tellingly, Miles' mother Rio eases us into what seems like one of the chief concerns of the story to come. It's made abundantly clear that Miles will also have to come to terms with the ideas of growing up from a boy into a man, of remembering his roots, and of finding a sense of belonging no matter where he goes in life. While Rio's words narrate the bulk of the trailer, all the usual comic book mayhem and the plethora of headline-grabbing cameos come across as almost tacked-on in the latter half of the trailer. We wouldn't expect that to come across the same way in the finished product, of course, but it certainly feels indicative of the (correct) priorities behind this sequel.

Just as Peter B. Parker (Jake Johnson), Spider-Man Noir (Nicolas Cage), Spider-Gwen (Hailee Steinfeld), and the rest of the gang helped Miles achieve self-actualization in "Into the Spider-Verse," something tells us that the sequel will remember what got it here. It's still early, but "Across the Spider-Verse" shows no hints of being anything other than a Miles Morales story.