Spider-Man has one of the more convoluted cinematic histories for a Marvel superhero. Like the barrage of DC Batman creation story films (with a new one on the way), Spider-Man has had several movie incarnations. The first major film trilogy was in the first decade. That had Tobey Maguire in the titular role, with Sam Raimi directing. This initial trilogy – SPIDER-MAN (2002), SPIDER-MAN 2 (2004), and SPIDER-MAN 3 (2007) – all predate the MCU, which officially began with IRON MAN in 2008. More significantly, despite Spidey’s origin with Marvel comic books, the rights of his cinematic property is owned by Sony whilst the rest of the MCU is under Disney.

Sony rebooted Spider-Man with Andrew Garfield taking over as the web slinger and Mark Webb sitting in the director’s chair. That ran for only two films, THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN (2012) and THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN 2 (2014). After that, Sony and Disney struck a deal that brought Spidey into the MCU with Tom Holland in the role. Holland’s Spider-Man first appeared in CAPTAIN AMERICA: CIVIL WAR (2016) as a precursor to his own Spidey series – the ‘Home’ trilogy: SPIDER-MAN: HOMECOMING (2017), SPIDER-MAN: FAR FROM HOME (2019), and now, SPIDER-MAN: NO WAY HOME, all directed by Jon Watts.

Meanwhile, Sony launched its own independent animated film, SPIDER-MAN: INTO THE SPIDER-VERSE (2018). This opens the door to the Marvel Multiverse, something that’s been explored in the Disney+ streaming series LOKI and WHAT IF? Sony’s Spider-verse introduced three Spider-men, voiced by Shameik Moore, Jake Johnson, and Chris Pine, as well as Spider-Man Noir (Nicolas Cage), Spider-Woman (Hailee Steinfeld), Spider-Ham (John Mulaney) and Peni Parker (Kimiko Glenn). Sony’s anime-verse Spidey is also planned to be a trilogy with SPIDER-MAN: ACROSS THE SPIDER-VERSE (Part 1) coming in 2022 and SPIDER-MAN: ACROSS THE SPIDER-VERSE (Part 2) in 2023.

If that’s not tangled enough, then there’s Venom, a super-anti-hero who first appeared cinematically in SPIDER-MAN 3, and then launched his own Sony-driven two-film (so far) series VENOM (2018) and VENOM: LET THERE BE CARNAGE (2021). The SPIDER-MAN 3 Venom was played by Topher Grace and is a different incarnation than what Tom Hardy is doing with the new film series. Complicating matters is that end-of-credits scene in LET THERE BE CARNAGE which shows Holland as Spider-Man.

If ever Spidey needed the cinematic Multiverse, or the Spider-verse, it’s now. It’s an opportunity to reconcile all these disparate strands of stories and characters. And who better to weave it than the Master of Mystic Arts, Doctor Strange, who had his own film in film in 2016, with the second installment, DOCTOR STRANGE IN THE MULTIVERSE OF MADNESS due in 2022.

The conclusion of the MCU’s Phase Three was a hard act to follow. Not only did it wrap up that phase, but it also marked the completion of the Infinity Saga, a major story arc that crossed all three of the first MCU phases. Bringing the Multiverse into Phase Four is a clever play. SPIDER-MAN: NO WAY HOME is the confluence of the two real universes here – the Sony-verse and the Disney-verse.

The theoretical problem with multiverses is akin to Star Trek’s Kelvin timeline – the time travel paradox. In time travel, what happens if you go back in time and kill your parents before you are born? If you never get born, who kills your parents? The multiverse can bring its own enigmatic inconsistencies. For example, what happens when the same actor plays different roles in the Sony-verse versus the Disney-verse? In SPIDER-MAN: NO WAY HOME, Spidey swing past a billboard for Rogers, a Broadway show based on the Avengers. It’s an Easter egg for Disney+’s HAWKEYE. In this streamer series, Kate Bishop is played by Hailee Steinfeld. Steinfeld also plays one of the best characters in Sony’s animated Spider-verse – Spider-Woman (a.k.a. Gwen Stacy).

Amazingly, SPIDER-MAN: NO WAY HOME resolves all the Spider-verse with humor and sensitivity. It brings together all those strands and ties them into a neat bow just like your friendly neighborhood Spider-Man would ensnare bad guys in his sticky web. It’s a rollicking masterpiece, full of laughs and feels, the culmination of so many story arcs in that marvelous way that only the MCU can manifest. However, it's a culmination film. The only way to fully appreciate it is to have seen all of the aforementioned films, and more. You have to be fully conversant in the Sony-verse and the Disney-verse to truly get it.

This year, 2021, has been the year of Phase Four. SHANG-CHI AND THE LEGEND OF THE TEN RINGS built a whole new franchise on the ashes of Iron Man. The breakthrough success of the film brought a breath of life to movie houses, and embedded martial arts, specifically Kung Fu deeply into the MCU canon. Then THE ETERNALS struggled to break free of the MCU formula. It was refreshingly inclusive, yet it overreached, minimally capitalizing upon the MCU lore. And now, Phase Four’s fourth film SPIDER-MAN: NO WAY HOME takes us the deepest into the post-infinity arc, while honoring the complex legacy of Spider-Man films and more. It's like the even films are the blockbusters - akin like Star Trek motion pictures, but before the Abram's Kelvin timeline. As the late great Stan Lee would say “Excelsior!”

Fast Forward to the Fight Scenes

KungFuMagazine always keeps its eye on the fight choreography. While most of the fights are CGI, that can still require a Fight Choreographer, especially when the CGI is modelled on the mo-cap (motion capture) of live actors and stuntpeople.

Spidey’s Fight Choreographer is Jackson Spidell, who has been working as a Hollywood stuntman since 2006. His credits as a stunt double are impressive. He doubled for Chuck Norris in The Expendables II (2012) (never mind all those Chuck Norris memes - Spidell did his heavy lifting), Chris Evans as Captain America in CAPTAIN AMERICA: CIVIL WAR, and most impressively, Keanu Reeves in all three John Wick films: Part 1 (2014), Part 2 (2017), and Part 3: PARABELLUM (2019). This is the second time he’s been credited as Fight Coordinator. The first was for this year’s Netflix film RED NOTICE starring Gal Gadot (a.k.a. Wonder Woman), Ryan Reynolds (a.k.a. Deadpool), and Dwayne Johnson (soon to be a.k.a. Black Adam). Spidell, who ironically goes by the IG handle ‘jspider’, is an accomplished Sport Karate champion, renowned for his aerial tricking kicks and acrobatic skills.

Beyond those laughs and feels, SPIDER-MAN: NO WAY HOME is action-packed. It delivers ballistic superhero/villain fights, where bodies are tossed through walls like baseballs through windows and physics is only a suggestion. While most of Spidey’s fights are CGI animation, there’s plenty of mask-off digitally enhanced scenes and a hefty amount of wire work, or perhaps better said web work. All that must be conceived and choreographed and while it’s difficult to say how much was Spidell’s work and how much that of computer animators, Spidell’s intimate knowledge of tricking colors how Spider-Man swings through the air and fights. Spidey does an inordinate number of kip ups, a mainstay move in Sport Karate and Modern Wushu.

And after all the super powered fights, the finale fight comes down to good old-fashioned fisticuffs. Ultimately, fighting mano-a-mano, hero versus villain, provides more emotional punch than being thrown off a skyscraper. The choreography is simple, especially compared to the previous melees, yet effective and satisfying. Spidell earns his Fight Choreography chair with just two films, and we look forward to his next project.

Phase Four has eight more films queued in 2023, plus eleven more TV series at this writing. But can we still call it the MCU? That stands for Marvel Cinematic Universe and now it's the MCM - the Marvel Cinematic Multiverse. Whatever the case, if it can keep up the momentum of SPIDER-MAN: NO WAY HOME, we’re in for a great ride.