3. Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse
How do you follow up a game-changing animated movie, and a game-changing superhero movie to boot? Across the Spider-Verse went big and broad as it thrust Miles Morales and his friends into an even wider world of Spider-heroes, but it never sacrificed how it used that world to explore Miles’ personal journey of being a hero. Instead it got to expand it just as deeply with characters like Gwen this time around, on top of delivering the gorgeously rendered spectacle one would expect out of a superhero sequel. Even though we have to wait for Beyond to get the full story, Across still successfully manages to feel like it takes its characters on huge, complete arcs, keeping it all the more satisfying in the here and now even as we wait to see how it pays off in the future.
