Oops!
All Spideys!
The new trailer for "Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse" is lousy with wall crawlers.
So what did you miss during all those blinks?
The trailer is deliberately light on villain action, but what it lacks in antagonists,
it more than makes up for in Spider-themed heroes.
Clearly, the wealth of Spider-folks in "Into the Spider-Verse" was just a light warm-up.
The trailer is packed with dozens of different Spider-folks from different universes, and
the task of recognizing them all will no doubt keep fans busy for quite a while — especially
because some of the cuts are as deep as they come.
Sure, it makes sense that we're getting a prominent Spider-adjacent character like Miguel
O'Hara, but did you expect to see Maybelle Reilly, the steampunk-influenced Lady Spider
of Earth-803 in there?
How about a Spidey who's happily rocking a version of the Bombastic Bag-Man costume,
or perhaps Spider-Monkey?
A Spidey donning the Spider-Armor MK II?
Spider-Man Unlimited, from the 1999 TV series of the same name?
The Spidey from the PS4 "Spider-Man" game?
All of them and many, many, many others, are all present and accounted for, slinging webs
and duking it out.
It remains to be seen just how deep the movie's cuts will be, but for a movie series that
started out with Spider-Ham, it seems that anything is possible.
A huge part of the trailer is, understandably, Oscar Isaac's Spider-Man 2099, aka Miguel
O'Hara.
The muscular, sharp-fingered superhero from the future is painted as something of a threat
in certain parts of the trailer, but a certain moment makes it clear that this is merely
a Spider-Man who has a whole bunch on his plate.
We see Miguel watching a futuristic holoscreen that displays a happy scene of him and a young
girl who appears to be called Gabriella.
In the comics, Miguel has a half-brother called Gabriel, so the implication here is that the
young girl is related to him — though it's not yet clear if it's his daughter, or the
original character reworked to be his much younger sister, or perhaps an orphan he's
looking after.
Regardless of their exact familial relation, it's clear that the two are close — and
the fact that we see this happy image in the trailer implies in no uncertain way that Gabriella
plays heavily into Miguel's motivations in the movie.
Gwen Stacy isn't the only familiar Spider-person that Miles Morales finds himself interacting
with during the trailer.
His old mentor Peter B. Parker can be spied at several points in the trailer, wearing
a bathrobe — and sporting what appears to be a baby carrier on his chest.
Has he finally become a dad?
After all, the ending of "Into the Spider-Verse" did see Peter realizing that maybe he liked
the idea of being a parent more than he thought.
Yep, not only have Peter and Mary Jane Watson healed the fractures of their relationship,
but they've also officially settled into parenthood.
Even better?
Their daughter has been confirmed by the screenwrtiers to be May "Mayday" Parker, a fan-favorite
character who — if the comics are any indication — will inherit her father's powers and one
day become the amazing Spider-Girl.
The "Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse" trailer also gives us our first look at Issa
Rae's Jessica Drew, aka Spider-Woman, in a stunning new costume that takes cues from
her comic book look while being unafraid to do something different.
The character looks to make quite the introduction as we see her burst through a multiversal
portal on her motorcycle.
From the looks of things, she seems to be working closely with Miguel O'Hara, seemingly
confirming the friendship reported on in the footage Sony showed at CinemaCon.
We've known that Issa Rae was going to be playing Spider-Woman since back in 2021, when
"The Hollywood Reporter" broke the news, and while there have been a number of Spider-Women
in the comics, most notably, Julia Carpenter and Mattie Franklin, it's only fitting that
Drew, the most prominent Spider-Woman of the comics, will be the one to appear first.
That said, expect to see a lot more of her soon.
The studio is planning to make a female-led "Spider-Verse" spin-off featuring Drew, Ghost-Spider,
and Silk.
When we get our first big reveal of the Spider-Verse for "Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse,"
amidst the numerous Spider-People on-screen, we see a version of the hero wearing a paper
bag over his head.
This character then returns later, at which point it's apparent he's animated in a comic
book art style, indicative of his comic book origin.
Those familiar with Spider-Man's Marvel Comics history will recognize this as a suit that
Peter Parker wears in the issue of "The Amazing Spider-Man" in which the Fantastic Four first
separate the alien Venom symbiote from Peter's body.
Following that procedure, in the comics, he wears this goofy outfit, from that point referred
to as the bombastic Bag-Man, in order to disguise his identity.
However, while the paper bag is straight out of the comics, the rest of the outfit is different.
Because on the page, he simply donned a spare Fantastic Four outfit.
Here, in "Across the Spider-Verse," the bombastic Bag-Man appears in a standard Spider-Man suit,
instead.
This is almost definitely because Disney now owns the movie rights to the Fantastic Four,
meaning that Spider-Man film rights holder Sony cannot incorporate a Fantastic Four outfit
into their "Spider-Verse."
So, while the bombastic Bag-Man remains a pertinent comic book reference, the character
will be lacking his Fantastic Four duds, probably as a simple way to avoid the scariest threat
of all: legal complications.
One key moment of the trailer sees Spider-Woman take down a winged villain.
This being a Spider-Man movie, we all know which bad guy has big, creepy wings, and that's
Adrian Toomes, also known as the Vulture.
He's an iconic foe that was a favorite of both Sam Raimi and Jon Watts.
It's unlikely that Vulture plays a major part in the film, especially given that Vulture
was already the big bad in the recent Spider-Man film "Spider-Man: Homecoming."
Still, ths continues a trend from the first film of finding small parts for all the classic
members of Spider-Man's rogues gallery.
Remember how "Into the Spider-Verse" featured cameos of such villains as Green Goblin, Scorpion,
and Tombstone, while also giving bigger roles to Doc Ock, Kingpin, and Prowler?
It's likely we will see something similar here.
"This is pretty standard Spider-Man stakes, you get used to it.
Watch this, he's gonna say, 'You've got 24 hours.'"
"You've got 24 hours."
In all fairness, it's only right that Vulture makes at least one appearance in this series.
The villain has been a staple of Spider-Man comics since his introduction in "Amazing
Spider-Man" #2 in 1963, where he was the first superpowered foe that Spider-Man ever faced.