Into The Spider-Verse vs No Way Home: Which Multiverse Film Is Better?
No Way Home has finally been released in theaters, to a massive box office success and critical acclaim. No Way Home isn’t the first in the MCU to look at the multiverse, but it goes into the fun and dangers of the multiverse in a way that previous films haven’t. In fact, No Way Home bears some similarities to the 2018 Oscar-winning movie Into the Spider-Verse, which also features a multiverse and multiple Spider-People. However, even after the multiversal connection, both films are absolutely different in terms of tone and story, which also means that a debate can be had regarding which is better.
Here’s how Into the Spider-Verse Treats Multiverse
Into the Spider-Verse gave fans a first look at Miles Morales, an Afro-Latino kid from Brooklyn who also gets bitten by a radioactive spider. While Peter Parker is fighting Green Goblin, he gets stuck in Kingpin’s collider, only to see the multiverse. Different types of Spider-Man from parallel universes are seen flashing before his very own eyes and getting sucked into his and Miles’ dimension.
Into The Spider-Verse’s stakes are still quite intimate despite the universal collapse that might happen if the collider is turned on again. It is actually an origin story for Miles and his discovery of what it truly means to “be” a Spider-Person. The film also successfully tackles the multiverse, which, while being dangerous, is full of enough possibilities.
How No Way Home Treats The Multiverse
No Way Home is quite a nostalgic trip, drawing on the past two versions of Spider-Man, only to tell the story through the iconic Spider-Man villains and even the two former Spider-Men themselves, Andrew Garfield and Tobey Maguire. In the film, Peter, who always sees the good in people, wants to help the villains when he finds out that they’ll die when they get sent back home. However, he messes up in his judgment.
At the end of the day — keeping the fun banter between Andrew, Tobey and Tom’s Peter Parkers aside — the multiverse is a threat in No Way Home, and its dark consequences outweigh its many possibilities.
Which Spider-Man Film Is Better?
Coming to a decision about which universe-jumping film is better is actually a tough call because both movies are quite remarkable in their own right. While Spider-Verse is a comedic coming-of-age origin story for Miles, No Way Home is a tragic end-of-the-world story of Peter. While Into the Spider-Verse uses animation, Spider-Man: No Way Home uses nostalgic casting to showcase the multiverse. However, which film is better – that’s not by a big margin as both the stories are pretty solid and do different things with their shared concept.
But keeping in mind the way Spider-Verse goes on to write the multiverse, both affirming for the Spider-People and destructive if it gets tampered with for personal gain, thus generating the space for more unique stories that will ultimately explore all the different sides of the multiverse. No Way Home suffers because it only sees the multiverse as threatening and tragic. So, in the end, Spider-Verse’s view of the multiverse makes it the better universe-jumping story.
