Best Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse Characters

The main protagonist of Into the Spider-Verse, the story follows Miles Morales, a half-Puerto Rican and half-African American teenager raised in Brooklyn with a loving family whose life is suddenly turned upside down when he's bitten by a radioactive spider and gains spider powers. After his universe's Peter Parker is killed by Kingpin and his Super Collider accidentally causes many Spider-Men to come to his universe, Miles must team up with them and learn how to master his newfound spider powers in order to help save New York City and the entire multiverse from the Kingpin's grasp.

Right off the bat, Miles stands out as a Spider-Man protagonist because of his heritage and upbringing, but also because his family dynamic plays an important role in the film. Prior to Into the Spider-Verse, he was never featured as a main character in any previous Spider-Man film.

As a protagonist, the audience can really relate to Miles when it comes to the problems he faces, whether they be typical teenage problems or superhero problems, which he must overcome to find his own place and identity in the world. Overall, I loved how they handled Miles as a protagonist and how they were able to mix his origin story and the Spider-Verse multiverse crisis into one masterpiece of a Spider-Man film.

When the name Peter Parker comes to mind, most people imagine him in his prime fighting crime, happily married to Mary Jane Watson, renowned as a symbol of peace to New York, etc. While that may be true for Miles's universe's Peter Parker, this Peter Parker, aka Peter B. Parker, is kind of the exact opposite.

While Miles's Peter Parker represented Spider-Man as a competent superhero in his prime, Peter B. Parker more or less represents Spider-Man past his prime, having divorced Mary Jane Watson, dealing with financial struggles and the death of his Aunt May, and most of all, becoming an overweight and cynical hobo who binges on pizza. Honestly, these qualities of Peter B. Parker are what make him a refreshing take on the classic Spider-Man character.

I loved how he grew in the movie as a reluctant mentor substitute for Miles in place of his universe's Peter Parker, showing that while Peter B. Parker was past his prime, he still had it in him as a superhero. While he may not have had the same charisma as Miles Morales or Gwen Stacy, he was no doubt an intriguing mentor to Miles and a unique take on the Spider-Man character.

The art design on this Spider-Man was awesome. And just having an old-school noir character so out of place fit into place so perfectly with the others.

I fawn over this Spider-Man like Boba Fett from the original Star Wars trilogy. Not a lot of screen time or dialogue, but he's still one of my favorites. Though honestly, Peter B. Parker was my favorite due to the relatability of having everything, becoming a shadow of your former self, and moving past that.

But I want to give Spider-Man Noir props.

"Where I go, the wind follows... and the wind? It smells like rain." Nicolas Cage, you play a fine Spider-Man Noir. Like Peni Parker, his comic book origin has his character played more seriously. In this film, his character is portrayed as a detective/reporter crime fighter whose nature practically borders on the edge of... well, edgy. But in this case, it's a type of edgy played for laughs.

And like with SP//dr and Spider-Ham, I love it. Okay, maybe not as much as those two, but the love is still out there. I mean, come on. Who doesn't love a black-and-white noir-esque Spider-Man with magical spider powers derived from an ancient spider-spirit who loves fighting Nazis during the Great Depression?

Overall, I didn't really like the way they changed Peni from the original comic version. They changed the robot that she fights with into a weird beetle-styled robot, and they changed the drawing style.

Most of the bad reviews on the movie also happen to be mainly based on the change of characters, particularly Peni Parker.

I'm pretty sure every anime fan and I got hooked when we saw Peni Parker as an anime-esque Japanese-American schoolgirl with her cuteness levels played up to eleven. While she didn't get as much screen time as I wanted in the film, I have to say that for the few scenes she does get screen time, she's both adorable and deadly at the same time.

You just got to love otaku tech genius anime girls like her. Also, her friendship with her partner spider and the SP//dr robot just screams all sorts of cuteness overload! Come on, just look at her!

It's hard to believe her actual comic book origin was that of a reserved and temperamental teenager set in a Neon Genesis Evangelion-like universe. In comparison, Into the Spider-Verse's incarnation of Peni Parker is essentially a Spider-Man Sailor Moon with a Gurren mecha. And I love it.

That, and Kimiko Glenn's performance pretty much sells it.

You can't have a Spider-Verse movie without Spider-Woman, aka Gwen Stacy. Hailing from an alternate universe where she's the one bitten by a radioactive spider and had to kill her best friend Peter Parker when he became The Lizard, leading to her distancing herself from others, Gwen proves to be one of the more, if not, arguably most competent of the Spider-Men gang.

Possessing the finesse of a ballerina dancer in her superhero fighting style, Gwen is no slouch when it comes to being Spider-Woman. Adding to that, she's quite the deadpan snarker you'd expect. And if her interactions with Miles aren't any indication, their friendship could help her be closer to others again.

And that's exactly what I loved about their friendship with each other. Sony, you better make good on that Spider-Woman spin-off.

I don't think any previous or even future incarnation of the Kingpin would be as big as this one. To this movie's credit, it adds to the sheer intimidating nature Wilson Fisk has as the criminal mastermind of Alchemax.

In this film, the Kingpin builds a particle accelerator called the Super Collider in an attempt to bring back his wife and son after they saw him fighting Spider-Man and drove away, only to die in a car accident. Honestly, I don't think there's ever been a more sympathetic backstory, let alone any backstory whatsoever, for the Kingpin in any previous Spider-Man installment. Sure, he's the main villain who killed the original Spider-Man in his universe, but his motivation for using the Super Collider gave a little bit of humanity to his character.

But that's not to say he isn't one tough cookie. If his gargantuan stature isn't any indication, this guy is probably the strongest incarnation of the Kingpin yet, being able to smash through brick walls, shatter the windows of a skyscraper, and even throw a car in a fight. Overall, the Kingpin proved to be a genuine menace as the main antagonist of Into the Spider-Verse.

"It can get weirder!" Meet Porky Pi - I mean, Peter Porker! AKA Spider-Ham! Spider-Ham! Spider-Ham! He's your friendly neighborhood Spider-Ham!

Okay, song's over. Now onto the actual comment. While Peni Parker is essentially the anime answer to Spider-Man, Peter Porker is the Looney Tunes cartoon answer to Spider-Man. Again, I love it.

John Mulaney wasn't lying in his interview when he said he had fun with his role as Spider-Ham. In fact, here's a fun fact: When he was initially recording for Spider-Ham, he went so all-out with his role that he literally used profanity in his lines. The best part? The staff let him curse on purpose without telling him he was recording for a PG-rated film because they wanted him to have fun with his role. And boy, did it pay off! Not only did Mulaney have fun with his role, but so did we as the audience!

It's gotten to the point people are now clamoring for a Spider-Ham cartoon short to be shown before every Marvel movie. That said, anyone know why Spider-Ham isn't in the Christmas selfie with the rest of the Spider-Men gang?

I'm going to be honest, this guy gave me chills down my spine every time he came on screen. Especially since his theme, which incorporates real-life elephant trumpet noises, really gave off the vibes that he was a genuinely deadly threat.

Now if you've read the comics, you already knew before watching the film that the Prowler's true identity was Miles's uncle, Aaron Davis. However, in Into the Spider-Verse, he's portrayed a little differently here. As Aaron Davis, he's a cool, chill uncle that Miles has a close bond with, just as much as he does with his parents, keeping his criminal life as the Prowler a secret so Miles could look up to him.

As The Prowler, he's a no-nonsense, terrifying, ruthless, merciless, cold-blooded predator that will hunt you down without hesitation. All those qualities are cool, but what really sealed the deal for him being such a great character in this movie was his death. While most people already knew the Prowler's true identity if they read the comics, I bet no one saw it coming when he let Miles live because he loves him.

Considering that in the comics, he only saw Miles as a tool to manipulate his spider powers for his own gain, this is a great case of Adaptational Nice Guy. He may not have had much of his villain motivations shown in depth, but he was still a compelling villain nonetheless. RIP Aaron Davis.

Am I the only one who didn't see it coming when the Alchemax Head Scientist revealed herself as Miles's universe's counterpart of Doctor Octopus? That, or I didn't pay enough attention to the foreshadowing details shown throughout the film prior to her reveal. This only shows how much effort and quality Sony put into making this film.

I don't know what to say about TV Tropes, but while it's said this isn't the first time female versions of Doctor Octopus have appeared, I would say this is the first time I've seen a female Doctor Octopus in a movie. In this case, this is probably my favorite incarnation of Doctor Octopus yet. This says a lot considering I loved Doctor Octopus from Spider-Man 2 in the Sam Raimi trilogy.

The way they set up Doc Ock's reveal by making us think she's just an innocent and geeky dork who's a Punch-Clock Villain for the Kingpin, only for her to reveal herself as the Doctor Octopus of her universe, actually took me by surprise. Even so, my love for this villain doesn't stop there. Her ecstatic and geeky tendencies still go hand-in-hand with her sadistic Mad Scientist nature.

At the end of the film, it begs the question: what happens to her after she gets run over by a truck in the collider? Could this be a setup for a sequel where she teams up with alternate versions of Doctor Octopus to get revenge on the Spider-Men?