Or is it just me? I know I’m 53 and probably slowing down a bit, but when a friend posted a link to the newest Spider-Man Miles Morales animated film, Across the Spider-Verse my reaction was “I’m sure I’ve seen that one…”
The films are entitled:
Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse (2018)
Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse (2023)
Spider-Man: Beyond the Spider-Verse (TBA)
The live action ones with Tom Holland are equally confusing:
Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017)
Spider-Man: Far From Home (2019)
Spider-Man: No Way Home (2021)
I ended up watching Spider-Man: Far From Home twice because I thought it was the new one. Perhaps this was Sony’s plan all along.
Also, wasn’t there one called Spider-Man: Home Alone, in which Aunt May goes on holiday to Paris leaving Peter Parker behind and his home gets invaded by Doctor Octopus and the Green Goblin?
In the case of the Tom Holland films, they were thematic.
Homecoming was a bit of a play on the idea of Spider-Man coming “home” to the MCU from Sony. That tied in with the High School theme of homecoming.
Far From Home was a play on the idea of Mysterio allegedly being far from his own Earth (which we know how that played out) as well as Spider-Man being overseas, thus far from his home.
No Way Home was thematically relevant to the ending, which I won’t spoil here just in case someone hasn’t seen the film by now. That theme played out even without the ending, of course, with how the events in the second film led to the events of the third film. Sort of like “No way back now, given what happened …” That became thematically final with the film’s resolution.
The Spider-Verse film creators were always adamant they didn’t want a “Part 1”, “Part 2” kind of thing going on. The “Into” (entry point), “Across” (broadening out the idea) and “Beyond” (taking it to whatever the next level is) seem like at least okay choices, I suppose.
That makes sense to me. It is like swimming a river. First you go into it, then you swim across it, then you get you and walk around beyond it on the other side.
These on the other hand… Why was homingcoming first? That makes no sense.
I have to admit it does kinda make sense, provided you can remember where you are in the river. If I’m following four or five movie franchises and half a dozen TV shows I find it hard to remember whether I’m halfway across or going over Niagara Falls in a barrel. But that’s just me!
Well, that first one is a bit meta, and given the way the character hovers uncertainly between the franchises, Spider-man: Halfway Home might have been a better title. And I agree with @The_Pixie - the order makes no sense out of context!
Indeed on the meta thing! But comic fans are often all about the meta! And it was directly stated at the time in a lot of interviews, albeit it was never the “official” line or anything. It was more just a “wink, wink” type of thing. The trailer for “Captain America: Civil War” played on that heavily.
But, really, the “homecoming” was very much a reference to the High School event, which is a key part of the film. The night of the dance is when Peter discovers the relationship of Liz to the villain.
I do agree the titles make sense only in context. But that thematic context is kind of the whole point: Spider-Man / Peter Parker is home but gets further and further from it. It’s meant to indicate a progression and, if you take the series as a whole, it actually turns on the notion of tragedy or being tragic.
Thank you for this! I thought I was experiencing the Mandela Effect.
You’re spot on. Sony did this on purpose to confuse. It’s not an artistic choice. I wonder how many parents have bought duplicate movies for their kids? Probably accounts for 10% of the sales.
Anyway, Dolly had braces! That grainy VHS tape playing on the small, fuzzy television picture showed she clearly had braces!
Probably not many. If you truly had a conspiracy to confuse parents, you would probably release the movies closer together to capitalize on the confusion. And then hope wherever they bought from had no return policy at all. And then realize kids probably streamed the movies themselves anyway!
Now, if you think that’s bad, consider the comics. As just a few examples:
Spider-Men (2012) [ note the plural ]
Spider-Verse (2014)
Spider-Verse (2015) [yes, same title ]
Web Warriors (2016)
Spider-Geddon (2018)
Spider-Verse (2019) [ yes, same title again ]
And then don’t forget to read across Amazing Spider-Man, Superior Spider-Man, and Spectacular Spider-Man. You also have to throw in Peter Parker: The Spectacular Spider-Man Oh, and Ultimate Spider-Man!
You also had to catch Edge of the Spider-Verse and End of the Spider-Verse.
Compared to the comic situation, the movies are about as plain as day!
Given some of the titles, I don’t know if they’re only “fast” in some but not “furious” (and then sometimes “furious” but not “fast”). Or if they’re always both? Or maybe sometimes ambiguously neither (such as with F9)?
I still don’t know why “Fate of the Furious” wasn’t marked as “F8 of the Furious”.
Thst reminds me of a German hiphop group who published a music CD with the title “Troy” when the movie with the same name came out. The CD is completely unrelated to the movie and the ancient city Troy, it’s not even in English. I suspect this was a marketing coup, too. Edit: That CD went extremely popular in the US afaik!
So, curse on all evil marketers.
Something else: Do you remember the movie where Peter Parker gets stranded on a foreign planet and tries to “phone home”?
At least you have an excuse in that VHS tape; I have watched Moonraker on silver screen when it first came out and I remember telling my friends about that scene where she smiles at Jaws when they first met and the braces she was wearing.
Edit: It’s also interesting that “of the Tomb” is centered more so under the word “Guardians”. This is by design. It’s as if the “7” is less relevant. This is done deliberately. You are more likely to read “Guardians of the Tomb” as the title and make the subconscious association even more so. You might not have noticed, but your brain did.
I’ve read a few accounts of people saying the exact same thing. People remember joking with their friends afterwards about that scene with the braces. One thing that can’t be argued is that, in our dimension, that scene was clearly better written. It sucks that this dimension has such crappy screen writers.
I even had to look up the Mad Magazine spoof 00$ Moneyraker. There is a panel where her and jaws are gabbing amongst the wreckage in the comic, but I never found a clear picture of it online. I know it’s a fruitless endeavour, but damn. This one got me good.
Pretty sure I have that issue of MAD around somewhere…I too saw the film on the big screen but my memory isn’t good enough to make a statement one way or the other.
I mean, if they really wanted to confuse/piss people off, they could have just called them all “Spider-Verse” the way the first three Peter Gabriel albums were all called “Peter Gabriel”…
If you truly had a conspiracy to confuse parents, you would probably release the movies closer together to capitalize on the confusion. And then hope wherever they bought from had no return policy at all. And then realize kids probably streamed the movies themselves anyway!
