Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse Artist Talks Peni’s Anime Diversity

While Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse introduced Miles Morales and “Spider-Gwen” to the big screen, giving them a platform of millions of new fans around the world, the movie also gave audiences a new look into the lesser known character of Peni Parker. Coming from a universe that seems to be far into the future, Peni’s powers weren’t exactly the same as her spider brethren. Recently, an artist who worked on the film gave their thoughts on why Peni brought such diversity to the film thanks to her “anime origins”.

Artist Yashar Kassai’s thoughts on Peni Parker were shared by the Official Twitter Account for Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse, wherein the artist gives some new thoughts on the character who was originally introduced in 2014:

As mentioned earlier, Peni’s powers are quite different from the other Spider folks who appear in the Sony smash hit. Playing heavily into her “anime background”, Peni was psychically linked to a spider that piloted a hulking mech suit, appropriately dubbed SP//dr. In the film, Peni unfortunately loses her mech suit in a battle against a technologically enhanced version of the Scorpion but is able to save her tiny spider friend before ultimately returning to her reality thanks to the combined might of all the Spider-people of the movie.

Whether Peni will be re-appearing in the eventual sequel to this film is still up in the air, but considering the reception she originally received, we’d say it’s a safe bet she’ll be popping up again at some point.

Peni Parker was originally introduced in the comic book storyline, Spider-Verse, which saw multiple Spider-Men and Spider-Women join forces in order to combat the diabolic machinations of Morlun and his horrible brood. First appearing in the comic Edge of Spider-Verse #5, Peni was created thanks to Gerard Way, the lead singer of My Chemical Romance. Way may be a rock star, but he was no stranger to comics, responsible for the creation of Umbrella Academy which went on to be a successful television show on Netflix.

While Peni has yet to receive a comic book series of her very own, she has made a few appearances in the Marvel Comics universe and much like so many before her, we’re sure her time will come to have a comic book series of her very own.

What do you think of the diversity that Peni brought to Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse? Where does Peni rank on your listing of favorite Spider people? Feel free to let us know in the comments or hit me up directly on Twitter @EVComedy to talk all things comics and anime!