‘Into the Spider-Verse’ Tops List of Most Fun Marvel Movies

Tue, August 25, 2026 at 4:23 PM UTC

Spider-Man has been swinging across the big screen since Sam Raimi’s first film back in 2002, with Tobey Maguire, Andrew Garfield, and Tom Holland stepping into the web-slinger’s suit. But it’s a different Spider-Man—one named Miles Morales—who just outranked them all. 

2018’s Spider-Man:Into the Spider-Verse was just ranked #1 on Collider’s August 2026 list of The 8 Most Fun Marvel Movies of All Time, besting the live-action Spidey flicks, as well as Marvel Cinematic Universe behemoths like Guardians of the Galaxy, Avengers: Infinity War, Thor: Ragnarok, and Wolverine & Deadpool. 

The animated flick, its 2023 sequel, Across the Spider-Verse, and Raimi’s first Spider-Man are the only non-MCU movies on the list. The Spider-Verse movies are produced by Columbia Pictures and Sony Pictures Animation, in association with Marvel, but have not fully crossed over with Marvel’s live-action films. 

Per Collider’s explanation, “a good fun flick is one that can make audiences laugh, cheer, smile—leaving them walking away from it like they just went on a wild rollercoaster.”

That’s certainly the case with Into the Spider-Verse, which introduces moviegoing audiences to Miles Morales, a teen who—in the comics—is the Spider-Man for the Ultimate Universe, a Universe separate from the main Marvel timeline.

Voiced by Shameik Moore in the movie, Miles is bitten by a radioactive spider and takes on the Spider-Man mantle after his universe’s Peter Parker is killed by Kingpin. He then meets other variants from other dimensions, including Peter B. Parker, Gwen Stacy, Spider-Ham, Peni Parker, and Spider-Man Noir (voiced by Nicolas Cage, who later played the character in a live-action Prime Video series).  

Released in December 2018, the movie was a smash hit for Sony—banking $395 million against a $90 million budget. It also went on to win Best Animated Feature at the Oscars, Golden Globes, BAFTAs, and Critics Choice Awards—beating Disney flicks Incredibles 2 and Ralph Breaks the Internet. 

The movie was also a critical success, with a Rotten Tomatoes rating of 97%. Most of the reviews praised the sketch-like animation style, something Sony would translate over to Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and The Mitchells vs. the Machines as well.  

“The scale feels vast, yet the spirit is joyous. It’s as if everyone had set out to make the best Spider-Man movie ever, which is exactly what they’ve done,” wrote the Wall Street Journal in its review, while Rolling Stone added, “Who’d have thought that animation could turn a whole army of interdimensional webslingers into something fresh, funny, fierce and revolutionary? With a mixed-race hero at its core, this is the greatest Spider-Man epic of them all-and the coolest.”

Confident they had a hit on their hands, Sony began developing a sequel before Into the Spider-Verse even hit theaters. Initially planned as one film, screenwriters Phil Lord and Christoper Miller later announced it had been split into two separate movies—with Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse hitting theaters in May 2023. 

Like its predecessor, the sequel was a box office smash—grossing $690.8 million against a $125 million budget. It, too, was a hit with critics, and currently sits with a 95% rating on Rotten Tomatoes. 

The third film, Beyond the Spider-Verse, is scheduled for a June 2027 release.

This story was originally published byMen’s Journalon Aug 25, 2026, where it first appeared in theEntertainmentsection. Add Men’s Journal as aPreferred