Arguably one of the most impactful animated movies in the past decade, “Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse” delivered the coming-of-age superhero story from a fresh angle decorated with a distinctive comic-esque art style. We got to see Miles Morales, the film’s protagonist, go from a Spider-Man fanboy listening to music and throwing graffiti tags around Brooklyn to becoming his own, uniquely individual Spider-Man character who has permanently left his mark.
But what I see little conversation about is what that movie did outside of itself–an entire era of animation was ushered in from “Into the Spider-Verse” and is still holding strong. The stylistic and visually intense comic book art style captivated audiences around the world, leading to new films being produced in a similar artistic direction.
Going chronologically, “Into the Spider-Verse” was released in 2018 and the first film to continue its comic-style trend was “The Mitchells vs. The Machines” (2021), which focuses on a dysfunctional family of four who get wrapped up in a robot uprising. In 2022, we had three more comic-esque films enter the fray: “The Bad Guys,” based on the book about a team of animal criminals that reform by pretending to be model citizens to avoid prison; “Entergalactic,” an adult romantic comedy that focuses on an artist who struggles to fit love into his personal life; and “Puss in Boots: The Last Wish,” which follows Puss, a cat swordsman, who aims to restore his lost “eight (of nine) lives.”
Last year, “Into the Spider-Verse” had its sequel, “Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse,” come out early in the summer. Yet again, we saw more content following the comic style. Almost a month after the sequel’s release, came the Netflix series “Nimona,” which follows a shapeshifter who helps a knight prove innocence for a crime he didn’t commit, and “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem,” which reapproaches the original TMNT origin story with more relatable elements that, ironically, make the turtles feel human.
These films utilize the comic style in a way that doesn’t feel regurgitated. There is a definition to each film’s usage of the art style that stands by itself and makes the movie unique, but still, at the very core, is reminiscent of “Into the Spider-Verse.” As the third installment in the Spider-Verse story aims for release sometime around late 2025-26, fans are left to wonder whether or not another wave of film and other visual media continues the trend of comic-esque art.
