Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse: Youth, Race, and the Hypertext

Exploring the dynamic genres of animation and comic book films, this book examines the transmedia role of Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse (2018) and its critical involvement in attempts to diversify representations in youth-oriented cinema and culture.

Five years after the movie’s immense commercial and critical success, a look back on the innovative features of Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse shows how the film’s force derives from its thoughtful depiction of Miles Morales - a young, Afro-Latino superhero who must face systemic obstacles his white predecessor nerver worried about. Engaging a web of pressing topics in the field - from transmedia storytelling to identity formation and minority representation - this book offers an accessible analysis of the hypertextual design and animation techniques, which help this film to sensitively confront the combustible dynamics of racial representation in contemporary American youth culture.

Written in an approachable style, this book is suitable for undergraduates, postgraduates, and specialists in the field. It is a versatile resource for media studies, film studies, animation studies, and cultural studies courses, but will also appeal to fans seeking to investigate the thematic underbelly of Into the Spider-Verse.

Charlie Michael is Assistant Professor of Film at Georgia Gwinnett College. His research focuses on popular culture and media industries in a global context. He is the author of French Blockbusters: Cultural Politics of a Transnational Cinema (2019) and the co-editor of the Directory of World Cinema: France (2013), and his work has also appeared in journals such as SubStance, Transnational Screens and The Velvet Light Trap.