With great power comes great responsibility…it took a while, but, Sony finally realized this.
On February 9th, news broke rather quietly, initially, that Sony finalized a deal with Marvel to bring Spider-Man into the fold of the ever expanding Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU). I mention initially, because once that first *thwip* hit the interweb, it wasn’t long before we were all losing our collective shit over the wish that many of us wished…came true.
Let’s be honest, Spidey is Marvel’s flagship character, there are amazing characters, and tons of fan favorites, but, by and large, Spidey is like Mario to Nintendo, Mickey Mouse to Disney, and so on and so forth. So, with that in mind, it’s truly hard to imagine the MCU not having Peter Parker in the mix, as Spidey has been such an important part in so many comics.
As Spider-Man was bring to the world in Amazing Fantasy #15, way back in 1962, I don’t think anyone could have truly envisioned how iconic this character would come, we’ve seen many iterations over the years; some good, and some, well…awful. However, through it all, we began to see him weave his own web across so many titles in Marvel Comics.
I won’t speculate the route Marvel chooses to go, Marvel themselves, on their own website stated that Spidey will first appear in a Marvel film, and then Sony will release a new movie on July 28 of 2017. Good news, they said to expect a new direction for the iconic character compared to past film versions…Sony will hold the purse string, distribute, own, and have creative control. That last bit sounds somewhat horrifying, but, with the track record of the MCU, it would be hard to imagine Sony destroying the vision of Feige, Marvel, and others. The world has demanded it, I think a partnership is a great route, and hopefully it begins to open doors in other areas (See Also: Fox with X-men and Fantastic Four).
Some are already complaining that “we don’t need another reboot” or “please, no origin story”…I’d like to think Marvel realizes this, and, at this point, there is no real need for a complete do-over. Everyone knows Spider-Man now, he’s been a mainstay in film (good or bad), since 2002. Cartoons play constantly, he’s in books, games, and so on. Peter has 50 years of history, so, no need to reinvent the wheel.
Twitter has been full of info, and probably, mostly misinformation, but…it seems that Andrew Garfield is out, which, makes sense if Marvel is going another direction. I think we will see Spider-Man go back to his roots a bit more, the first trilogy missed the mark in many ways (how can you introduce Gwen Stacy AFTER Mary Jane?), Tobey never felt like Spider-Man (or Peter Parker) to me, Andrew Garfield seemed a more suitable choice, but, personally, I wasn’t impressed with what Sony gave the guy to work with.
So now begins the speculation of who will don the web-shooters…and please, for the love of *insert deity here*, lets really use the web cartridges to create some tension. Give me some running out of web; give me some jamming…something. I know that may sound silly to many, but, I remember playing older games where (back in my day…) you had limited web that you had to manage, and this played out in comics as well. It’s just one of those little things where Peter would then need to use his brain and come up with another way to get out of the jam. I never felt like I saw a truly genius Peter Parker. Always eluded to, but, never really applied.
I have a feeling we will see Spidey hit the screen sooner than later, and as Civil War approaches, there is just no way Marvel could have done it properly without bringing their most beloved character into play. I’m very optimistic, and again, choose not to speculate what is next, my only real concern is who is cast to be the lead ginger as into the mix(wildcard prediction…Scout Taylor-Compton).
Time will tell, so let the rumor mill move to full production as we all eagerly await the next round of news.
EXCELSIOR!
