Spidey Is Coming to the MCU!

On February 9^th, It was reported that Sony Pictures and Marvel Studios have struck a deal that will allow Marvel Studios to intertwine Spider-Man into the Marvel Cinematic Universe. The two major film studios have also decided to reboot the Spider-Man franchise…yet again. Theories are being thrown around that your friendly neighborhood web-crawler will make his MCU debut in the upcoming Captain America: Civil War (Captain America 3) and receive his first stand-alone movie on July 28. 2017, which sets back a few of the MCU films that were slated to come out like Thor: Ragnorak (Thor 3) which held that release date until Monday. Sony will have final say on what happens to one of their most lucrative franchises and Marvel is allowed to use the face of their company in their upcoming movies. Win-Win for everyone right? WRONG!!!

Let me start by stating what I actually like about this deal:

1.       Spider-Man is back where he belongs (sort of). Kevin Feige (President of Marvel Studios) is the mastermind behind the MCU and all of its success. Feige will show the same love and respect to this character has he has shown to the Avengers.

2.       It will be very cool to see Spidey next to Cap in the new Captain America film, especially since Spidey is a major character during the Civil War storyline that happened in the comics.

That’s it. Yep that is all I like out of this deal.

1.       We, as the audience, are going to be put through yet another origin story! If anyone has seen a Spider-Man film in the past 15 years, I am sure you know how Peter Parker becomes Spider-Man. Do we really need to go through all of that again?

2.       This deal just goes to show that Sony really has no idea what they are doing when it comes to making movies. They have had a few successful movies, but to string sequels into a franchise is proving quite difficult for Sony. Spider-Man is being rebooted for the second time in 4 years. Men in Black couldn’t get past the third film (which wasn’t a bad thing!) and the 007 franchise isn’t really theirs.

3.       I liked Andrew Garfield (and unbeknownst to me the only one) as Peter/Spidey. I thought Garfield had the lankiness and the quick-wit that Spidey needed from Toby Maguire. Now we get to wait in suspense has they cast another Peter Parker.

4.       Marvel may bring diversity into Spidey and go the route of Ultimate Spider-Man and use Miles Morales, the African-American/Hispanic character who is Spider-Man. Let me make this clear right now, I am not upset about Spidey’s race! I don’t care about that. What I care about is the use of any other character as Spider-Man. Bruce Wayne is Batman, Clark Kent is Superman, Peter Parker is Spider-Man…PERIOD!

5.       Rumor has it that Marvel and Sony want to bring Spidey back into high school. On its own, this is fine, but I don’t think I will ever take middle aged Iron Man or 70+ year old Captain America seriously if they are “fighting the good fight” with a 14 year old high school student. That just doesn’t sit well with me.

My recommendations:

1.       Leave the world that was created in the last two Spider-Man films alone. Integrate that world into the Marvel world. Sony wants to still produce a Sinister Six (group of Spider-Man villains) film anyway, why do we need to start from scratch with that also!

2.       Keep Garfield as Spider-Man. As mentioned, he did fine has Spider-Man, can’t fire him just because Sony don’t know what the heck they are doing. Plus, like Ben Affleck as Daredevil, can’t blame the guy for a crappy movie. He didn’t write the god awful script.

3.       Put Spidey in Captain America: Civil War. Spidey is a major player in that storyline and it is the soonest Marvel film to come out. Don’t drag out this “search for the new Spider-Man” out any longer than a few weeks. Principle photography is starting in April for CA: Civil War so let’s get this over with.

4.       Use Parker over Morales. Wayne=Batman, Kent=Superman, so on and so on. The cartoon on Disney XD even uses Parker as Spider-Man. My 9 year old knows Peter Parker is Spider-Man. Marvel hasn’t done a very good job promoting a new Spider-Man, so to throw this new guy in will only confuse the audience that is already in place.

5.       SKIP THE ORIGIN STORY! Radioactive spider, parents dead, uncle dies, all equals life of vigilante.

6.       While skipping the origin story, can we have him not be in high school either (still weirds me out), but at least starting college or maybe the seasoned crime-fighter but just has been over-looked due to the popularity of the Avengers.

I hope and pray to all of the film gods above that this turns out for the best. Maybe I am just a pessimist at heart or I just have been scorned too many times when film studios translate comic books to film (Nic Cage as Ghost Rider or Superman spawning a child in Superman Returns come to mind). Let me know what you guys think, am I just crazy or do you agree with me.