Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse · reception & legacy
2023 · Kemp Powers
How Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse has been received, argued over, and remembered.
The arc
It landed in June 2023 as that rare sequel greeted as an instant classic — rocketing into Letterboxd's all-time Top 250 within days — though the glow has since been complicated by reports of a brutally grueling production and grumbles about that to-be-continued ending.
What's debated
The forever-debate: does the abrupt 'part one' cliffhanger make it half a movie, or is docking a masterpiece for ending on a dash just cowardice?
Its footprint
It gave the internet 'canon event' — Miguel's line escaped the film entirely and became 2023 TikTok shorthand for any unavoidable rite-of-passage mistake ('it's a canon event, I can't interfere').
Where it stands
A Letterboxd darling of the highest order — one of the most beloved animated films on the platform and Exhibit A in the 'animation is cinema' argument.