How ‘Across the Spider-Verse’ Made Us Fall for a Badass British Spider-Man

The off-screen origin stories for nearly every Spider-Person in Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse are mesmerizing in their unpredictability, creativity, or both. Sun-Spider, who uses crutches to help swing around her city, was designed as an original character by a comics fan. Lego Spider-Man was animated by a 14-year-old fan, who won the job after perfectly remaking the Spider-Verse trailer shot-for-shot with Lego. Even the briefly seen Spider-Therapist has a surprisingly rich place in the canon. (The credits reveal he’s actually Ezekiel Sims, a Spider-Man with a uniquely tragic story of his own.)

It’s fun to pick a favorite bit-part Spidey, but the more prominent ones are unsurprisingly the consensus favorites. Spider-Gwen is a queer icon. Spider-Man India, known as Pavitr Prabhakar, is a goofy South Asian gentleman who’s instantly lovable. But no one is cooler than Hobie Brown, a.k.a. Spider-Punk, an anti-fascist (but anti-label) guitarist with the thickest accent you’ll hear. He is arguably the film’s coolest new character, the one who has inspired both the most vibrant fan art and immediate obsession from all kinds of viewers dying to know how this character’s unique, kinetic movement was crafted on-screen.

As voiced by Daniel Kaluuya (in his natural, very heavy accent), Hobie Brown is a superhero completely unconcerned with playing the superhero game. With a wit so casually quick, you’ll only catch every third joke, Hobie is the brooding guitarist that everyone’s got a crush on. Better (or worse) yet: He’s either unaware of it or completely unconcerned by it. Hobie is, as his friend/possible brief love interest Gwen Stacy (Hailee Steinfeld) knows well, the coolest guy you’ll ever know.

Read more at The Daily Beast.