Featuring a flexible band that fits most kids, this roleplay toy is designed for kids ages 5 and up to imagine suiting up like their favorite wall-crawler and swinging into heart-pounding action in the Spider-Verse. Kids can also imagine re-enacting their favorite scenes from the film and imagining their own web-slinging adventures! The mask includes a pair of eye lenses that feature dotted graphic detailing inspired by the appearance of Spider-Man’s mask.
Despite its claims to inclusivity, Into the Spider-Verse’s use of comic book aesthetics subordinates Miles to Peter Parker and the racially homogenous era of superhero comics that he represents. For example, the prominent placement of the CCA seal at the beginning of the film reveals that the filmmakers are more interested in maintaining the formal intermediality of comics than they are in adapting the complexities of Miles’s world.
The film’s depiction of Miles’s spider bite is similarly illustrative. As if to demonstrate that the spider bite has infused Miles with proportional strength, the filmmakers animate the film’s images of internal anatomy using a style that is reminiscent of a less detailed, hand-drawn version of the comic book visual effects used by Marvel Comics during this era.
This aesthetic choice reinforces the belief that comics are the medium best equipped to document Miles’s world and the events of his story, thus legitimizing the idea that he is an exemplar of the superhero genre and its universally accessible themes. Moreover, the film’s promotion of “colorblind” racial inclusion suggests that as soon as a superhero is Black, it is assumed that anyone can become a hero—thereby undermining the heroic character’s superlative nature and devaluing the need for the genre to address persistent issues of inequality in society. Miles Morales Mask
Into the Spider-Verse: The Miles Morales Mask
Featuring a flexible band that fits most kids, this roleplay toy is designed for kids ages 5 and up to imagine suiting up like their favorite wall-crawler and swinging into heart-pounding action in the Spider-Verse. Kids can also imagine re-enacting their favorite scenes from the film and imagining their own web-slinging adventures! The mask includes a pair of eye lenses that feature dotted graphic detailing inspired by the appearance of Spider-Man’s mask.
Despite its claims to inclusivity, Into the Spider-Verse’s use of comic book aesthetics subordinates Miles to Peter Parker and the racially homogenous era of superhero comics that he represents. For example, the prominent placement of the CCA seal at the beginning of the film reveals that the filmmakers are more interested in maintaining the formal intermediality of comics than they are in adapting the complexities of Miles’s world.
The film’s depiction of Miles’s spider bite is similarly illustrative. As if to demonstrate that the spider bite has infused Miles with proportional strength, the filmmakers animate the film’s images of internal anatomy using a style that is reminiscent of a less detailed, hand-drawn version of the comic book visual effects used by Marvel Comics during this era.
This aesthetic choice reinforces the belief that comics are the medium best equipped to document Miles’s world and the events of his story, thus legitimizing the idea that he is an exemplar of the superhero genre and its universally accessible themes. Moreover, the film’s promotion of “colorblind” racial inclusion suggests that as soon as a superhero is Black, it is assumed that anyone can become a hero—thereby undermining the heroic character’s superlative nature and devaluing the need for the genre to address persistent issues of inequality in society. Miles Morales Mask