One thing I really appreciate about Into the Spider-Verse that I don’t see people talk about very often is how competent they portray Peter B as.
Like, in any other movie, you’d have a similar character whose live has become a mess, and they’re sad and kinda pathetic to look at, and when the time comes for them to step up, they just sorta…flop. They’re held back by everything, and they just become incompetent.
But Peter B is different. Yeah, he’s a sad, lonely, middle-aged man who cries in the shower while wearing a spandex suit…
But despite all that…he’s still shown to be extremely good at being Spider-Man.
He escapes from being tied up while still holding a casual conversation
He takes down Miles in less than 10 seconds.
He strolls along the side of a building like it’s nothing.
And when you think about it, over the course of the movie, he kicks a LOT of ass. He’s a badass super hero, despite his flaws.
You ever notice how, when he puts on the mask, his gut sorta disappears? That’s too big of a detail to be an oversight. That’s intentional. I mean, in-universe, it doesn’t make too much sense, but to us, it’s meant to show that it’s not holding him back from being a hero.
He’s not held down by everything. Yeah, he’s a jaded, depressed, mid-life crisis Spider-Man. But he’s still Spider-Man.
They easily could’ve made Peter B sort of pathetic and had him be more of a hinderance than a help during battles. But they didn’t. And I feel like that was a really good way to pay respect to the character while still showing that he’s a heavily flawed individual.
