I present to you two contradictory facts. Firstly, I loathe the character of Spider-Man with a passion, and have done for over 25 years. Secondly, Spider-Man: Into The Spiderverse is one of the best films I have seen in a long time. How can both these things be true? Well, to understand that, we must first examine why I came to loathe Spider-Man so vehemently in the first place. We must examine my biases.

For me, Spider-Man has been the embodiment of everything this very column rails against every fortnight. I am aware that his comic books include a great many other characters, and a great many other versions that are far more interesting than Peter Parker, but adaptations of those comic books and that character on both the big and small screen have always reflected the same thing: a white, male tee...

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