Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse (Joaquim Dos Santos, Kemp Powers, & Justin K. Thompson, 6/2/23) Movie • Page 26

She has a protect trans kids poster and apparently her dad's jacket has a trans flag on his jacket, she's at least bi probably because she asks Jess to adopt her

 

Yeah, Gwen was definitely trans coded in this. Aesthetically & thematically, that’s 100% what was going on there; I’d be shocked if it weren’t at least somewhat intentional.

 

Wait. How does asking to be adopted make someone bi? I could see her being bi over trans herself. But not against either for her. I just don’t understand how her asking that reveals either.

 

Deluxe version is out

 

I took the color of Gwen’s world being blue/pink was just a resemblance of her suit colors.

 

recommend listening to the X-Ray Vision podcast from last Friday which features an interview with co-director Kemp Powers

he mentioned that Gwen's world's color changing was meant to act like a mood ring

 

I mean, I don’t think they went into this series planning on making Gwen trans. If they had, they probably wouldn’t have cast Hailey Steinfeld. But, again, I would be shocked if they didn’t see what was naturally happening in the aesthetic and themes and decide to lean into it.

Coding is often unintentional, but like… if no one working on this caught what was happening, then… I don’t even know, lol. It’s just there.

 

The way she said it sounded like a crush

Plus she has pink hair and converse

 

Haha I went to the cinema for the first time in ages to see it because I missed the thrill of watching a film at the theatre...the parking situation was insanely stressful for 20 minutes (so much so i had time to buy a ticket on my phone while my car was in gridlock), I missed some of the opening scenes, someone stole my assigned seat, I in-turn then accidentally sat in someone else's seat because I didn't want to make a scene, had to move again and ended up next to a young kid who cried for chunks of the film.

Having said that, I legitimately loved the film. I'm not a big Marvel fan, thought No Way Home was overrated, but loved the last Spiderverse and loved this. It's just so fun, so vibrant, so colourful, so beautifully created, the meta jokes and easter eggs were great and I just had a blast and now I want to go see it again.

 

Eh. That’s a reach.

 

you should go see it again

 

I’ve twice so far this year gone to the theater and had someone in my seat. So weird. The first time the person immediately it wasn’t their seat (but not in a friendly way) and then moved. The second time was this movie; the couple pulled up a phone, scooted over, looked again, and then went down to another section, like they were checking for other seats that weren’t taken (I bought mine fairly last minute).

 

Walking into the theater there were so many people walking up and buying tickets at the kiosks

what a way to live

 

I can't remember the last time I bought a ticket at the theater itself before the film started

 

Really enjoyed this and I thought it was a good build up to the end, but it took some people off guard in my theater who were not aware of it being the first part of a 2 parter. (Cries of 'what... that's it?' sort of thing).

Animation was superb, the humor was great though I think a bit less forward and less funny overall, and I REALLY liked that it was a true sequel and not just 'more adventures of spiderman'. I thought it was super clever how it wove together things from the first, and made it a direct continuation. Part 3 will obviously do the same thing, more so with the ending. While the first seemed to end all wrapped up with just a hint at a sequel, I was amazed how much it just flowed into this one like the next episode of a TV show. It did a great job of explaining the first as well to where you probably wouldn't be too confused, but I feel like we don't get too many 'true' super hero sequels these days.

RE Gwen: I see what is being said, but I got none of that when watching it and will just wait and see if the movie decides to be more clear on it, or leave it as an underlying message for those that catch it. Even if it's never clear, I won't argue with anyone that read it that way as there's enough there on hindsight that it seems like intentional message (though some people I'm sure will become defensive about it and argue). Also, it doesn't matter anyway, intentional or not if it resonates as a positive message,

However, I often am extremely bad at these sort of metaphors anyway. My favorite book series ever is the Realm of the Eldering's by Robin Hobb and there's a very popular queer reading of the themes of that story that went way over my head on my read of it.

 

THIS is the track I'm sure was playing with Miles and Gwen were hanging upside down in Brooklyn and having that chill conversation. By far my fav song in the film

 

YES, hit so well

 

The discourse around Gwen in this thing is already completely unbearable, lol. Happy pride month I guess?

 

if you don't partake in it does the discourse exist?

this is the only place I've seen mention of it

 

I don't want to yuck anyone's yums but I don't see the Gwen is trans thing at all, would be cool though and I'm glad folks are getting more meaning out of it as a result, just everything I've seen pointed to as substantial proof feels like a stretch. And I'd rather they come out and say it rather then allusions to it tbh.

 

I don't see it as anything more than allegory and I didn't even notice it until I saw it brought up on tiktok after I watched it and I myself am trans. It's not the first time I've noticed people claiming queer-coded characters in animation, I remember a character in Incredibles 2 had a whole series of fan comics depicting her as trans. If nothing official comes out from it I guess it's a largely benign phenomenon, just discourse for chronically online folks like us.

 

I don’t think it’s that easy. In Marvel comics, both Betsy Braddock & Rachel Summers had been pretty clearly shown to be queer in the past, and Marvel is willing to put out annual Pride one-shots… and writer Tini Howard still had to fight to get Marvel Entertainment to approve Betsy & Rachel kissing on page. And, there was a pretty infamous leaked Sony email where Marvel established rules for Spider-Man, which included Peter not being allowed to be gay.

We won’t know until someone comments on it (and even then they might need to play coy), but this really reads to me like a situation where someone saw a chance to sneak queer coding into the visuals and storytelling and went for it.

 

Yeah I think the animators were like this movie isn't for bigots Miles has a blm sticker and Gwen has the protect trans kids one

 

this is one of the most gorgeous looking films I have EVER fucking seen.