It’s finally happened. The comic book community can rejoice and simultaneously breathe a sigh of relief. Spider-Man is no longer under monopoly control of Sony Pictures. Sony and Marvel have come to an agreement that lets our favorite neighborhood web-head enter the rather expansive MCU. As much as this is great news to have Spider-Man back to where he very much belongs, there are some cons to the timing of the deal.
Lets start off in another area altogether first. Spider-Man under the Sony model, was constantly being pushed in more of a direction of being about Peter Parker than being about Spider-Man the hero. Understandably, the hidden identity of Peter Parker being Spider-Man has always been a one of, if not THE single biggest conflict he faces, but the personal relationships are always way too far out in front of the plot. It compromises Peter Parker as a character and it makes Spider-Man less of a masked-hero with an identity crisis and more of a person wearing multiple masks. That’s not the worst take on the situation until Sony takes it to edge and can’t help but to hurl it off the ledge.
STOP MAKING PETER PARKER CRY LIKE A SNIVELING BABY!!!
I’ve harped on casting a ton of times since Tobey stepped foot into the Spider-Man onezie. Sony has been pretty terrible at providing a cast suitable for the wall-crawler and his accompanying core characters, Tobey Maguire being right at the top of the list. Andrew Garfield is a step up and admittedly, I praised his casting as Peter Parker but I quickly came around to realizing I was just happy it wasn’t Tobey destroying Spider-Man anymore and that Garfield couldn’t possibly be any worse. He’s not. Sony still blows at writing him, though. With all the of the confirmations we do know about the Sony/Marvel Spider-Man deal, there’s been no official word yet as to whether Andrew Garfield will be cast in Amazing Spider-Man 3. Rumor has it, he will not and maybe this quote in the press release means just that.
“Together, they will collaborate on a new creative direction for the web slinger.”
The biggest pro of Marvel getting a hefty level of creative control over Spider-Man is they will surely revitalize the role and the character. Peter Parker is played out and everyone knows it. We need more Spidey and less Peter. More hero, less high school. More slinging, less soap opera. Rest assured Marvel’s head is not buried in the sand here. Whether Miles Morales hits the scene as the Web-Slinger or Peter Parker is still the man behind the mask, Spider-Man will be the focus. That item alone already makes the story better. To know your hero, you have to know your villain(s). Marvel executes those relationships masterfully; something you could never say about the Sony model.
There aren’t too many cons about the property-sharing deal, but there are some. Sony still has final creative control of the character. That item alone has the potential of meaning we’re doomed to repeat history. Hopefully not, though.
Plot-wise, Marvel has their hands full. The foundation they’ve set with the team of heroes in place is solid and full of depth. For the most part, each hero has multiples of their own individual movies and now the the collective Avengers team is about to put out their second movie. All of which is completely devoid of the existence of Spider-Man. Not even so much as a hint of him lurking around. When Spider-Man steps onto the scene, how are they going to explain his absence this whole time? I can already imagine Tony Stark looking over at Spider-Man and sarcastically taking a stab at him, “So where were you when New York was being over run by aliens and we were saving the world without you?”
In theory, even if Spider-Man was fighting aliens somewhere else in the city, the media coverage at the end of the first Avengers movie was deliberate and made mention of all the extraordinary defenders but him. Peter Parker lives in NYC. He’s got some explaining to do if the Amazing Spider-Man 3 is still the movie on deck.
In the end here, all we have is hope that our friendly neighborhood Spider-Man will finally get a fair shake at being the quality character he always should have been. BUT the time for speculation is now, so hit up the comments and I’ll see you down there!!!
In the meantime, we can partner up as a team to boost our collective geek cred if you hit me up on facebook, twitter and instagram.
By: Eli Rebich
