So, it goes without saying that ACROSS THE SPIDER-VERSE was great, go see it. 4/5 stars. Maybe 4.5/5. I will say that I enjoyed it even more on the rewatch than I did on my initial watch. I caught more of the foreshadowing in acts 1 and 2 that I missed the first time (you really can’t catch some of the stuff if you don’t know the ending…which you wouldn’t know on your first watch, lol).
But, what I really want to talk about here is not the movie as a whole, but one specific character, and that character is Spider-Punk, better known as Hobie Brown, well, actually he’s better known as Spider-Punk. He first came to existence in the Spider-Verse comic (the comic book the first movie sort-of based the movie off of…but not really, it’s way different). The movie version of Spider-Punk is way cooler than the comic version, at least the version we meet in the first Spider-Verse comic. In the comic Hobie’s a comedic buddy of Miles Morales (Miles is not the lead of the comic, Peter Parker is) and they go off and do cute buddy-movie stuff together, cracking jokes and beating up bad guys. In Across the Spider-Verse, Hobie is a smart-mature-dude. He’s a real rebel, who understands powerful systems are not to be trusted, and immediately tells Miles this, and in fact tells him this subtely over and over again. In essence, he’s not just a punk in name and costume, but in spirit. This guy is fucking cool. Anti-establishment to the bone. And lo and behold, he turns out to be right about everything.
And, on top of warning Miles about the evils of the Spider Society, he also teaches Miles how to properly use his electric powers. And, since this is Hobie’s style, he does it simply and subtly. I didn’t even catch that he did it the first watch. Spider-Punk is the opposite of Peter B. Parker, which makes him even more damn cool. The writing, god, it’s so good. In this movie, Hobie Brown is secretly Miles Moraleses new mentor. But since Hobie doesn’t believe in labels, he would say he’s not (but he totally is).
So, how does he teach Miles to use his powers? So, when Hobie first meets Miles, Miles is trying to blow up a forcefield by abosorbing it’s power and shooting it back at it. Hobie shows up and destroys the forcefield with the power of punk rock (also a cool power, right?). Afterwards, he tells Miles, “You gotta use your whole palm, not just your fingertipes.” And then, later in the movie when Miles is trapped by Miguel O’Hara’s forcefield, Hobie spreads his palm out to remind the kid what he needs to do to free himself. Just king shit right there. It’s so subtle I missed it the first time.
He also has one of the best lines in the movie. Miles is getting all worked up as Miguel tells him his dad is going to have to die so the timeline gods don’t get angry. Miles is getting rightfully pissed off. Hobie cheers him on with something like, “That’s it.” Jessica Drew, the new Spider-Woman who’s a loyal follower of Miguel O’Hara says, “Hobie, you’re not helping.”
Hobie responds, “Good.”
God he’s so cool.