Into the Spider-Verse vs. No Way Home: Which is the Better Spider-Man Film?

I’ve opted not to use the Deep Dive Disney label for this article since, even though Spider-Man is a Marvel Character and therefore under the Disney Umbrella, both of the films we’ll be discussing were distributed by Sony. That having been said, welcome web slingers, to a very special article. Like many of you, I recently saw the latest Spider-Man film, No Way Home and, also presumably like many of you, I loved it. Speaking as someone who has seen every Spider-Man movie in the last twenty years, it was one of the best Spider-Man movie experiences I have had in a good long while. It was a film that seemed to go the extra mile in order to give the fans what they wanted while still crafting its own unique identity. After the film, I was naturally overjoyed by the experience, but then came the hard question. Which did I enjoy more, No Way Home, or the universally beloved academy award winning animated feature from 2018, Into the Spider-Verse. I thought about it, and, much to my surprise, I couldn’t come up with an answer. This clearly warranted further investigation, so I took to social media and asks my loyal readers what they think makes a good Spider-Man movie. While I got a lot of conflicting opinions, I think I’ve been able to come up with six categories that will accurately represent a great Spider-Man film for the sake of comparison. We’ll be comparing the two films side by side and seeing who wins in each category, the one with the most points in the end will be declared the winner. Keep in mind, like all my articles, this is my opinion and you may not agree, and that’s okay as long as you’re civil about it. Also, since the film is still relatively recent, warning, there will be No Way Home spoilers in this article. All that out of the way, let’s see which is the better Spider-Man movie.

Round 1

Spider-Man:

Well, you can’t very well have a Spider-Man movie without the wall-crawler himself, and fortunately for us, both films deliver. While admittedly, it took a couple movies for me to warm up to Tom Holland, especially since I was such a huge fan of Andrew Garfield’s portrayal, he’s won me over in a big way and I now consider him one of the great Spider-Men of our time. And for his part, Shameik Moore does a great job voicing Miles Morales and crafts a believable tone for a character going through his own super hero origin. Both are a credit to the tights of other Spiders who have come before them. However, if we’re speaking purely about the characters, and I’m well aware that this is a controversial statement, I’ve always preferred Miles to Peter. Something you have to understand is, around the time Miles Morales came about, I was pretty much done with the Peter Parker character, especially after Joe Quesada and his One More Day nonsense more or less destroyed the credibility of the character in the eyes of many. So, the announcement of a new character taking up the webbed spandex was intriguing to say the least. However, there’s more to it than that. The thing is, despite how certain less-than-competent comic book writers may write him sometimes, Peter Parker is still a great character. The problem is, at this point, we’ve seen Peter, in one form or another, headline seven Spider-Man movies before no way home and play a supporting role in three others. Hell, this movie features three versions of Peter! Yes, Spider-Verse has Peter as well, of course it does, but he’s not the focus. In Spider-Verse, we are introduced to this new character who at the time was likely only known by comic book fans. What I like about Miles is, he’s not a genius like Peter. Miles is no dummy, but you have to remember, Peter was a scientific and engineering genius, whereas Miles is just a kid of average intelligence trying to use his new powers for good. Because of this, Miles has ironically become more of the every-man character that Peter was originally envisioned as. He's still a dork like Peter, especially when it comes to the ladies, but he's a more relatable dork. Point goes to Spider-Verse.

Spider-Verse: 1

No Way Home: 0

Round 2

Other Spiders:

Spider-Verse and No Way Home are actually unique amongst their cinematic peers given the fact that our main protagonists are not the only spiders on the web so to speak. Each film sees our main Spider-Man team up with Spider-People from alternate realities. Spider-Verse certainly gets creative with the other Spider-Men it showcases. We have shlubby loser Peter Parker as Miles’ mentor. We have Chris Pine playing a more successful Spider-Man who gets killed by the Kingpin. We have fan-favorite character Spider-Gwen. We have Penny Parker and her get Japanese Robot, we have comedian John Mulaney as the cartoonish Spider-Ham, and my personal favorite, Nicholas Cage as the cartoonishly intense Spider-Man Noir. All of these characters are fun in their own way, but honestly, I have to give the edge to No Way Home for bringing Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield out of retirement. Here’s the thing, all the other Spider-People in Spider-Verse are only implied to have tons of cool adventures, but in No Way Home, we’ve seen their adventures over the course of the past twenty years. While a lot of the Spider-Verse characters can feel like throwaway joke side characters, the Spider-Men of past films are fully realized characters from the moment they appear on screen and seeing all three Spider-Men interact gives us some of the best scenes in the movie. I can see Maguire, Garfield and Holland banter back and forth like brothers all day. Point goes to No Way Home.

Spider-Verse: 1

No Way Home: 1

Round 3

Villains:

Of course, you can throw as many Spider-People into the movie as you like, but it won’t make a difference without some compelling villains for them to fight. Afterall, with the possible exception of Batman, Spider-Man boasts one of the most interesting and diverse rogues galleries in the history of comic books. Fortunately, both films pit our team of webslingers against a whole host of villains. Spider-Verse has its fair share of great foes for the Spiders to fight, including some lesser known ones like Tombstone and Prowler, the latter of whom gets some great development and the moment where his identity is revealed is one of the most chilling in the film. We also have the wonderful Katherine Hahn as Olivia Octavius, meaning that between this and WandaVision Hahn now has two Marvel supervillains under her belt. However, the problem with the Spider-Verse villains is that they’re all ultimately underlings to the real main villain, The Kingpin. Now, Kingpin is, in my opinion, one of the most compelling villains in the entire Marvel Universe, but the version from Spider-Verse is not the best incarnation. He has his moments to be sure and his backstory is very interesting, but his design was far too cartoony for my taste and we’ve seen more memorable antagonists in past films. And speaking of those memorable antagonists, almost all of them make a comeback in No Way Home and it is great to see the likes of Willem Dafoe’s Green Goblin and Alfred Molina’s Doctor Octopus in action again. Even some of a the villains that weren’t so great, like Jamie Foxx’s Electro, are greatly improved from their original appearances. It’s great to see one last hurrah for the bad guys of old, even if Thomas Hayden Church and Rhys Ifans were only able to return for voice roles as The Sandman and The Lizard respectively. Some of them are even given brief moments of redemption, bringing their character arcs from their original films to a close. Point once again goes to No Way Home.

Spider-Verse: 1

No Way Home: 2

Round 4 Supporting Cast:

Naturally, any Spider-Man worth his salt needs a solid supporting cast. While Spider-Verse has some likable characters in their ranks, like Miles Mom and Dad and easily the coolest Aunt May ever, this one absolutely goes to No Way Home. Not only have you got great characters like Ned, MJ, Aunt May and Happy Hogan in Peter’s corner, you also get the return of JK Simmons at the Legendary J. Jonah Jameson and even Doctor Strange along for the ride. We even get an amazing cameo from Charlie Cox as Matt Murdock, almost ensuring that Daredevil will be in a future sequel. It’s not really Spider-Verse’s fault, but the fact that No Way Home takes place within the MCU means it’s simply a larger and more fleshed out universe than the one we have in Spider-Verse. I’m giving the point once again to No Way Home, but before we move on, I want to share a fun little theory of mine. Did you notice how the Aunt May of Spider-Verse refers to Doc-Ock as Liv despite the Doc saying that only her friends call her that? It was then that I remembered that in the comics, Doctor Octopus and Aunt May were briefly a romantic item. Now I’m not saying that the super awesome Spider-Verse Aunt May and Olivia Octavius had a lesbian fling, but I’m also not saying they didn't. Anyway, let’s move on.

Spider-Verse: 1

No Way Home: 3

Round 5

Fight Scenes:

Well, let me first say that No Way Home boasts some of the best fight scenes in the MCU. The fight with Doctor Strange and the grand finale atop the Statue of Liberty being some of the highlights. However, here’s where Spider-Verse being animated has the advantage. Let’s face it, there are some things that one can do with animation that simply cannot be done in live action. Every fight scene in Spider-Verse is an absolute feast for the eyes and even incorporates some comic book things like sound effects and changing art styles. Each Spider-Man has a distinct style that’s backed up by music and the final showdown in the super collider is beautifully animated and something that could never truly be replicated in live action even with the most cutting edge technology. Also, Miles defeating Kingpin with something his uncle Aaron taught him was great. So, while this a very close fight, the point this time goes to Spider-Verse

Spider-Verse: 2

No Way Home: 3

Round 6

Ending:

Well, it all comes down to how things wrap up. And naturally, there will be Spoilers here. So, No Way Home ends with Doctor Strange erasing everyone’s memory of Peter Parker as was the intent of the spell that brought the inter-dimensional visitors to the MCU in the first place. The result causes everyone to forget Peter, meaning that he is now truly alone in the world. While I like seeing him make his own Spider-suit and continuing crime fighting, this is very much a downer ending. Now, this is nothing new for the Spider-Man films, almost all of them end with someone dead, lost love or something depressing like that going on. However, Spider-Verse is a rarity in that regard as it actually ends on a positive note. Whereas No Way Home ends with Peter now truly alone, Spider-Verse ends with Miles taking comfort in the fact that he’s not the only Spider-Person out there. That he is not alone in this new experience and he has friends out there in the multi-verse he can turn to in his time of need. There’s something optimistic about that and call me a sap if you like, but I like a happy ending. Point goes to Spider-Verse!

Spider-Verse: 3

No Way Home: 3

Bonus Round

Post Credits Scene:

Well, crap, we have a tie. Don’t worry, I planned for this. After all, what’s a Marvel movie these days without a special treat at the end of the credits. So, let’s compare the two post credits scenes. So, I have to say, I marked out hard when I saw Oscar Isaac voicing Spider-Man 2099, a character I happen to be a huge fan of. The fact that this meant we’d be seeing Miguel O’Hara in a future sequel got me super hyped. Not to mention the hilarious reference to the Spider-Man pointing meme had me rolling on the floor laughing. That said, none of that could top the sheer awesome hilarity of Eddie Brock and Venom having apparently spent the whole movie getting drunk in a bar in Mexico trying to make sense of the ridiculousness of the MCU. I have always loved Tom Hardy in general but especially in the Venom movies so including him in this film, even in a comparatively smaller capacity was an absolute delight and made No Way Home's celebration of all aspects of Spider-Man's cinematic history feel that much more complete. Plus, the tease that the MCU may soon have a Venom of its own is very intriguing for yours truly. The point, and the victory, goes to Spider-Man: No Way Home.

Final Score

Spider-Verse: 3

No Way Home: 4

And there we have it. No Way Home wins out, but only slightly. Keep in mind this is just my opinion, and if you prefer Spider-Verse, then more power to you. What's important is that we have two awesome Spider-Man movies floating around out there in the world for us to enjoy, both of which have sequels on the way. In any case, I enjoyed this little experiment and I hope you all did as well. Next time, it'll be another Patreon funded article as we look at Tom Hanks and Daryl Hannah in Splash!