The Writer's Take, Take Two

Across The Spider-verse

Spider-Man, Spider-Man, Friendly neighborhood Spider-Man, Wealth and fame, He's ignored- oh hello there. I bet you're confused to see me? I know, I know I promised to publish my take on Avatar this week, but like many things in life, we lie, and are disappointments to our fathers… I mean mothers… I mean- god damn it, I guess I need to go back to therapy. 

Anyway, as I was saying, actually, before we get there I just wanted to call out that we normally pump these out from the brain factory every Tuesday, but since today is my birthday, we decided that we rather share this on my birthday as a present for you from a sarcastic me.

So I know you thought you were going to be brought into the world of Pandora this week, but I just saw Across The Spider-verse and HAD to make an audible this week. NEXT Week, we'll travel to Pandora, regardless of what Movies I watch this week (The Blackening, The Flash, Asteroid City…). Oh also, Silo on Apple. Just wow, well, almost-wow, let’s see how they wrap it up, ok right, Miles? 

So if you haven’t seen Into The Spider-verse I'm unsure why you are subscribed to this newsletter, or maybe you're subscribed because you need to be told to see Into The Spider-verse, well this is me telling you to go see it, stop reading now, and do it. I’m serious, now. 

Two hours and sixteen minutes later…

Wasn’t that freaking incredible!!!! The story, the departure from the status quo, the innovation in animation style, it was just magnificent. I would go as far as to say, it’s the best-animated film ever made. It's truly that good, (I know, you didn’t pause, and you just kept reading through, so why don’t you go watch it now.) 

Anywho, we are here to talk about the follow-up, the sequel, the next iteration of Miles Morales and Gwen Stacy, in Across The Spider-verse, now, what I am about to go into both will spoil the film, and perhaps be a departure from the mainstream perspective of the film. 

YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED

Writer’s Take: Across The Spider-verse

So the film opens with Gwen for nearly 10 minutes, maybe more. I was enjoying California’s finest so the timing may be a bit off. But the opening sort of (but honestly not really) sets the stakes for what’s going on. I guess Gwen running from her father because in her universe her dad is the cop hunting spider-girl, and that’s her sets up her emotional arc, but it actually does not, (at least not yet, well get to what I mean there later), because it’s never paid off by Gwen loving Miles parents. So it’s kinda just a character-building moment with no payoff.

We then get to Mile’s main story arc, and we see he’s fighting an inter-dimensional being, after being treated like Harry Potter in The Chamber Of Secrets, and was cut off from all his trans-dimensional friends, for reasons beyond his understanding. Ok ok, I am just going to come out and say it, right now, right here, at this moment- I don’t think the writing of Across The Spider-verse, hit the way the writers were going for. The villain known as “Spot” was not really developed to a point where I cared about his motives, or cared that his motives would really destroy other things I cared about, Spot was kinda just there, and used as a device to get Miles back in the trans-dimensional game, it was a fine device, but not at the quality level of the film as a whole.

The animation, the innovation, and the visual spectacle was sensational, as Deadline’s chief said, “it’s one above a masterpiece, it’s art.” From an animation point of view, I don’t think anyone can objectively disagree with that. The film looks unlike anything we’ve seen before, dare I say it one-upped the ante on its former’s glory. The decision is up for you to decide, but on this aspect of the film, you’ll have no arguments from me.

However, from the point of view of the story, the meat of the writing, I would be lying to you, if I said I thought it lived up to the original’s gravitas. The stakes, the characters, the flow of the story was sluggish, at times nonsensical, and half-baked. Gwen became a multiverse James Bond, and Spider-man 2099, voiced by Oscar Isaac (who is sensational btw) has a character arc that makes him half villain, half savior, with very little character development, 2099 Spidey is moody, intentional, smart, broken, all the things you want to see in a complex character like a “half villain-half savior” makeup, but why is he? What happened to him? His build was cast aside as if we were all supposed to just understand his motivations. Speaking about cast aside.

Miles became a side character in his own film, because of the structure of the events of the story. One mission, one team, one unit, the fate of the multiverse- that was Into The Spider-verse, and it was perfection.

This story was convoluted, elongated, and flashy for moments, rather than for pushing a story forward. The shining light of the film was Spider-punk, voiced by Black Panther star, Daniel Kaluuya, and this character is a ray of sunshine in the entire film, hilarious, focused, intentional, and purposeful, everything you’d want from a core character introduced in a sequel. Unlike sophomore character Spider-man, voiced by Jake Johnson, whose story was shoved aside, irrelevant, and nonsensical. While carrying the baby would-be-spider-kid, was hilarious, he brought no meaning or actual motivations to the plot, and most of all, he did not shape Miles’ decisions like he did in the first Spider-Man, which was his entire purpose for being involved. The moral compass. Sure, you could say he broke his moral compass to bend for 2099’s vision of a multi-verse, but even that is a stretch and extrapolation i’m making with no actual plot to push that hypothesis forward.

After the film ended, I realized that a sequel was nearly done, (yes, I mean a sequel to this sequel, a threequel if you will) and this was part one, of a two-part film. Like with Dune, I find this to be unfortunate. I wish the films could stand on their own without the need of the subsequent edition, a two-parter means there will be a lot unanswered, and while cliffhangers are fantastic, there is a clear difference between something setting up a sequel, and something just being cut in half. 

Like this post.

I will give the back half of my thoughts on the full story, in 2024, once I see the second half of this film.

Case Study: Building History

I wanted to end this second edition of The Writer’s Take with something that I do with all my stories, history building. As a genre world builder I find it mission-critical to create history. To be able to look into a character’s persona, and understand why that character may or may not do something, putting them in a situation in your mind, or on paper, that is not your story, and being able to articulate what they would do in that situation because you understand your character so well, is extremely undervalued in the world of genre writing. 

This is something that I actually think The Spider-verse films do exceptionally well. Miles and Gwen are so perfectly developed that you really understand what they would do before they do it. That is a testament to the incredible understanding of these characters that the writers have. If you can’t teach a 9th Grade History course on your world and characters, then your world is not developed far enough for you to really be the master of your own universe.

Hope you enjoyed this Second Inaugural Writer’s Take-take, keep a look out as we will have more spread-out writing tips coming up in between the big movie or tv show breakdowns! 

and yes, yes, yes next week we will arrive in Pandora. I know, you’re itching with anticipation.

So am I.

Stay Curious, and Keep Writing, 

Matthew Medney

Herø Projects, Gungnir, and other musings…

I wanted to take a moment during our intermission here to shamelessly and directly promote my two companies. Gungnir Entertainment, a genre-focused publishing company with best-selling titles from yours truly hitting shelves nationwide this Fall.  With books focused on classic sci-fi ideas like “What does it mean to be human” and “Is the bible right?” “Adventures throughout the stars” are just a few of the prompts for the books you can dive into with Gungnir. Gungnir’s website will launch this summer, and you can stay up to date on the forthcoming titles on my Instagram, @matthewmedney, or at my author page on Simon & Schuster. 

And then there is Herø Projects. The Perennial leader in custom comics and animated services, Herø is a state-of-the-art creative studio that has worked with talents such as Floyd Mayweather, Shaggy, Nghtmre, and brands such as Remi Martin, Live Nation, and Rolling Loud. If Branding through storytelling isn’t your thing you can check out our original titles, the Onyx line with books such as Stable, Remnant, and Best Selling Comic The Red.  To learn more about Herø Projects visit us at heroprojects.io