This article discusses major spoilers for "Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse."

Imagine you're an everyday citizen living in the biggest city in the Marvel world. You wake up, head out to grab some coffee, and make idle chitchat with your neighbors while minding your own business. Suddenly, you glimpse some brightly-colored figure swooping overhead and pay it absolutely no mind. It's just Spider-Man, likely on his way to save the day once again.

Every world in the Spider-Verse has its own spin on this typical series of events, from Miles Morales (Shameik Moore) in the Earth-1610 universe to Peter B. Parker's (Jake Johnson) Earth-616 to Gwen Stacy's (Hailee Steinfeld) colorful and impressionistic Earth-65. But while the broad strokes remain the same — there's always a Spider-Person bitten by that radioactive spider, living in the big city, and protecting the people from all sorts of threats — the details diverge in strange and unpredictable ways. "Into the Spider-Verse" gave us a hilarious glimpses into the worlds of John Mulaney's Spider-Ham, Nicolas Cage's Spider-Man Noir, and many others, after all, while the sequel ups the ante even more to give us extended looks through all sorts of different dimensions.

But none quite compare to the coolest of them all introduced in "Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse" — Earth-50101, aka Mumbattan. Home to Pavitr Prabhakar (voiced by Karan Soni), the Mumbai/Manhattan mashup comes straight out of '70s Indian comic books (as explained by co-writers Phil Lord and Chris Miller here), brings a whole new flavor to the high-flying action of the film, and even becomes the setting for the most pivotal moment in the story. And through it all, Pavitr makes an instant impact as one of the best and funniest new additions to the sequel.

No Place Like Home

What is Spider-Man without his home city? Sure, Marvel's flagship superhero embodies all sorts of sacrificial ideals and will forever be known best for his classic origin story, that distinctive costume design, and his plentiful rogues gallery of villains. But there's also a reason why any good "Spider-Man" story all but requires New York City (or stand-ins for the Big Apple) to play an integral role in the action. Sam Raimi understood this when he released 2002's "Spider-Man" in the aftermath of 9/11, adding a corny but cathartic moment when a ragtag group of everyday New Yorkers rally together to pelt the sinister Green Goblin with garbage on the bridge. Jon Watts gave a welcome nod to New York City bodegas in "Spider-Man: Homecoming," but quickly lost interest in any real cultural backdrop as the constraints of the Marvel Cinematic Universe demanded bigger stakes.

That's where "Spider-Verse" comes in … especially when taking the action from the streets of Brooklyn to the skyscrapers of Mumbattan.

We first encounter this strange new dimension when Miles impulsively follows Gwen through an interdimensional rift in pursuit of The Spot (Jason Schwartzman). Here, he meets motormouth Pavitr Prabhakar, who quickly walks us through a brief summary of Earth-50101's South Asian twist on Manhattan. The busy, frenetic design of the city immediately stands out as far different from any other locale featured in the movie, including neat little touches familiar to anyone who's spent any time at all in India. From the groanworthy reference to "chai tea" to the bracelet he wears (known as a Kada) to the fact that his accent is never used as a punchline (unlike "Deadpool," another superhero franchise Karan Soni previously appeared in that relegated him to cheap comic relief), this feels like representation done right.

The Turning Point

One plot point in particular helps justify the setting of Mumbattan as integral and necessary to the plot of "Across the Spider-Verse." When The Spot appears once more and wreaks havoc on his quest to create another dimensional supercollider for his own nefarious purposes, the trio of Miles, Gwen, and Pavitr team up to put down this threat once and for all. Things quickly go awry, however, when The Spot's recklessness can't be contained and the entire city is put at risk of collateral damage. Buildings topple, innocents are put directly in harm's way (including Pavitr's girlfriend Gayatri and her father, Police Inspector Singh), and Miles has to make the momentous choice to rescue whoever he can. But, unknowingly, saving Singh's life — and thus robbing Pavitr of his tragic origin story — ends up putting the entire multiverse at risk.

It might not sound like a big deal, but there's something to be said for the filmmakers making the conscious choice to center an Indian Spidey and his "East meets West" home city by making this the location of the film's biggest turning point. All the chaos that unfolds afterwards, when every member of Miguel O'Hara's (Oscar Isaac) Spider-Society turns against Miles, stems from our hero's selfless actions in Mumbattan. Rather than showing a little too much reverence for an underrepresented culture and treating Pavitr's dimension like an untouchable utopia, "Across the Spider-Verse" promptly makes a total mess out of Mumbattan … and, in the process, allows it to take on as much prominence as New York City has in any other "Spider-Man" movie.

As Miles has proven, anyone can wear the mask. With Mumbattan, "Across the Spider-Verse" emphatically shows that Spider-Man can be forged anywhere, too.

"Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse" is currently playing in theaters.

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