Highlights

  • Spider-Verse's impact extends to Batman Beyond and TMNT: Mutant Mayhem, pushing for more unique animated superhero projects in the future.
  • Seth Rogen's R-rated Venom movie could be a highly imaginative and stylish take, potentially overshadowing Insomniac's rumored Venom game sequel.
  • Insomniac's rumored Venom game sequel faces the challenge of standing out against Rogen's movie, needing to carve its own unique path.

Stylish animated movies have been around for decades. Still, Into the Spider-Verse was easily the most popular animated movie in the superhero sphere in the last little while with its sequel cementing that. It’s a shame that the similarly stunning Batman Beyond concept never got off the ground, but there’s hopefully a greater chance of that happening in the future considering how influential Into the Spider-Verse has become. Even the recent TMNT: Mutant Mayhem was illustrated with an art style comparable to that of Into the Spider-Verse, and anything even markedly similar will always bear resemblance and comparison henceforth.

However, it’s unknown precisely how Seth Rogen’s R-rated Venom movie will take shape, though it’s bound to be highly imaginative and stylish. Venom has been relatively prominent in non-comics and non-games media lately thanks to Sony’s movies, but Insomniac’s take on the symbiote made good on the Marvel’s Spider-Man franchise’s earliest tease. Unfortunately, with rumors of a standalone Venom half-sequel apparently in the works now, it may have an equally troubling time trying to get its interpretation of the character some room in an overcrowded spotlight.

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It’s not as if they competed with one another, but Marvel’s Spider-Man and Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales releasing within the same period as Into the Spider-Verse had to have made an impact on both. Into the Spider-Verse arrived only a few short months after Marvel’s Spider-Man, but it got to behave as a whole origin story for Miles in a way that Marvel’s Spider-Man truly only teased.

Miles Morales then had the responsibility of showing how Miles would come into his own as Spider-Man, and sadly it sank beneath the shadow of Into the Spider-Verse with many parallels and inspirations that were either inadvertently or purposefully pulled from the animated movie—a distinct hip-hop soundtrack, an emphasis on Uncle Aaron’s Prowler, a snowy, festive-themed New York City, and so on.

Miles Morales was still wonderful and Into the Spider-Verse didn’t actually affect how successful it was, yet it’s interesting to consider how much greater of a landing it might have had if it wasn’t overshadowed even marginally by the movie.

Insomniac’s Venom Game Will Likely Coincide with Seth Rogen’s Movie

The same fate may befall Insomniac’s rumored Venom half-sequel, too, now that it seems as if Seth Rogen will be helming an animated Venom movie for Sony. If so, there’s also no telling when it could arrive, but the same could be said for Insomniac’s alleged half-sequel.

Even if landing within the span of a few months from each other like Marvel’s Spider-Man and Into the Spider-Verse did could be a boon for both, there’s still the potential for Insomniac to be eclipsed once more. Of course, if Rogen’s hand in The Boys, Preacher, and Invincible’s cookie jars have any effect on how the Venom movie is put together it could be rife with gory, racy humor, and that would certainly draw attention to it more than Insomniac’s relatively tame storytelling could.

They’d both be blank canvases as well since it’s unclear where a half-sequel would pick up the pieces from where the symbiote is left off in Marvel’s Spider-Man 2, while an original Venom movie would obviously have the pick of the litter regarding whatever story it wished to tell. If Insomniac is lucky this time around it won’t bear quite so many similarities with any animated movies releasing around it and can have its lethal protector be a wholly unique interpretation since that’s arguably the only way it might leverage itself against a Venom movie with no holds barred.