‘Into The Spider-Verse’ Brilliantly Utilized NYC to Don Miles Morales Patron Saint of Bodega Cats

If you haven’t seen Into The Spider-Verse, you’re late. Stop what you’re doing, and go see it right now! Into The Spider-Verse did quite a few things right, most relevant to me: Miles is realized as a complete human being, and the movie used New York City to do it. This movie will definitely make him a household name and get him ordained as the patron Saint of Bodega Cats. Miles Morales is many things to many people. He himself is an Afro-Latinx, more succinctly, Afro-Puerto Rican – and it shows! My guy Miles is out here codeswitching between his interactions with his African-American father, Puerto Rican mother, various Black and Brown homies, and a white homegirl from around the way who is into the kid. All of this happens in the first few minutes of the movie! The filmmakers were able to humanize a high-profile, marquis character in a few moments, by grounding him in all of his cultural practices. Normal for many hyphenated Americans, brand new to the melanin-deficient. No shade, just tea. As in Arizona iced tea from a Brooklyn bodega! Miles is really out here in these motion comic book streets.

Miles is fleshed out in these tiny moments: sneaking a spoon of arroz y habichuelas (rice and beans) before walking out the door, getting kissed by his mom (no matter how old he is), and whipping down the block hollering at the neighborhood homies in Spanglish. All of these are staple parts of the Latinx experience in New York City. They don’t require two hours of exposition,…