Spider-Man in Marvel Movies: Cool! But...

I'm sure you've heard/ seen by now that Spider-Man is going to finally get to be a part of the main Marvel Studios films, such as "The Avengers" movies and all that. If you haven't: surprise! Spider-Man's probably gonna be in Avengers 3. It's obviously too late for "Age of Ultron" but I wouldn't count out "Civil War" just yet. But, I'll get into why "Civil War" is unlikely in a moment.

This has been a rumor for a long time now, so, it's good to see this little back and forth come to an end. Spider-Man's in the Avengers! Great, everyone pee your pants and pay your money.

However.

Now, there are a tons and tons of questions that I need answered before I can be mentally satisfied with this movie. I hope it's good, but, much like my initial thoughts on Ultron for "Age of Ultron," I need to see to believe. At first, I thought Ultron was gonna be stupid. His design was weird, his origin was not what I expected/ wanted, but after seeing the trailers, my negligence has been crushed.

Here, I have every reason in the world to doubt.

For instance: who's gonna play Web-Head? Not Andrew Garfield, more than likely. That's probably the biggest factor for me in me concluding if Spider-Man is going to be a good fit with the Avengers team we have now/ the team we will probably have over in Avengers 3. Having Spidey in the films is a great idea, but, what if it's some lame actor who can't pull off any of Spidey's charm and physical abilities? That would suck.

I'm not totally hating on the Tobey Macguire Spider-Man, because he had his moments, but can you honestly see him standing toe-to-toe with the likes of Thor and Iron Man? It's one awkward family picture. Andrew Garfield's I could see a little more.

They don't necessarily need a big name actor, but they need someone who can play the Spider-Man who has been in action for several years, who has probably already lost Gwen Stacey to the Goblin and is a battle-hardened Spidey who still makes funny quips on the side. Do I know who that is? No. Casting decisions these days are almost impossible to call. I didn't even know the Olsen twins had a little sister until she was cast as Scarlet Witch.

Which brings me to my next point: what version of Spider-Man are they going to use?

Recall that the deal struck still gives Sony the ultimate decision in the matter. Marvel is simply borrowing a Spider-Man for their movie(s). Though I do believe that there will be some form of multiverse that exists between Sony and Marvel (with Marvel pushing back all of their movie dates to all for Sony to release their latest Spider-Man movie...so what about Sinister Six or are we forgoing that now...?), it's still unclear if it will be Peter Parker that joins the Avengers, or if it will be the more likely Miles Morales?

I say "more likely" simply because Marvel--and comic books in general--seem to be all about diversity. And that's fine. Heck, many would argue Miles has been the better Spider-Man for a while. Then again, Peter also had his brain swapped with Otto Octavius for the last few years, so let's not forget that was a thing. But he was the superior Spider-Man...ha, get it?

(Yes I'm still holding out for a Superior Spider-Man movie of some kind...no it probably won't happen but you know you want it).

Sony still holds all the cards. I'm not sure on the specifics of the deal, but nothing is for certain other than Spider-Man will appear in an MCU movie. But, which one? And how will he be integrated? Will it be the same on we see in the Sony movies? If Kevin Feige is really producing it, then he's going to riddle the movie with many Marvel Studios Easter Eggs.

The news raises more bad questions than good ones. Are we really going to see our third Spider-Man in sixteen years? Even Batman or Superman doesn't change actors that much! And DC is always loaded with trouble! How will the lore be changed? Has Spider-Man been a part of the MCU this whole time? If so: where has everyone been when Electro took over Times Square? How are they going to integrate him into the movie? If they do two universes, then the common moviegoer's head is going to explode with, "Wait why are there two Spider-Mans (men?)?" How much of the Sony movies will carry over into the Marvel Spider-Man? Is Marvel's version a huge reboot? How are they going to explain Spider-Man's origins in a brand new movie?

If Spider-Man is brought on not in Civil War, then how are they going to be able to establish his character for the other movies? Is he going to cameo in Inhumans? I think that's the best way to go about it. Should the Inhumans movie take place in both Attilan and New York City--the only reason I say NYC is because of where New Attilan currently is in the comic book--then it would make perfect sense for Spidey to show up, but, they could also just as easily have another hero pop in. One that's already established in New York and goes by the name of Tony Stark (billionaire playboy philanthropist).

This could just be me having an issue with the "Civil War" story in general (I've got to get around to reviewing that one of these days...), but, I don't see the point of introducing Spider-Man if you're not going to put him in Cap 3, which has arguably one of the biggest Spider-Man moments in the character's history. I won't spoil what it is for you, but, I'll just say that besides Cap and Iron Man, Spidey has one of the biggest roles in the story, not the least of which because he was indecisive the whole freaking story. But, that raises yet another issue:

Should Spidey do what he does in "Civil War," then, it's just there. In the comic, there was build up because there was years and years of characterization for Spidey, and this was a humongous event that literally shocked the whole world. If it happens here, then, what's the build up? Five really crappy movies...only two if the last two "Amazing Spider-Man" films are still in continuity? It would just feel empty. No real emotional weight to a character that would feel new, because a new actor would be portraying Web-Head.

The best introductory role for Spidey is definitely in the Inhumans movie. Should they go the rout of making the new Ms. Marvel, a popular character known as Kamala Khan, one of the leads in the film, then you could have both Spidey and Medusa (both eventual members of some iteration of the Avengers, by the way) serve as mentor figures. Spidey could divulge his backstory to Kalama and give her the whole "great power, great responsibility" speech, while Medusa teachers her the lore of the Inhuman and the city of Attilan. Boom. You establish Spidey as a main character with emotional ties to our new character while both establishing his backstory as well as what he's up to nowadays, as well as seguing him into the Avengers by having him possibly join the team alongside Medusa. There are issues here and there with that, but, you don't compromise his location, you make him a much stronger character than just having him be some punk with a tragic backstory (having him learn from these experiences help), and the timing works out well:

The next movie Spidey is to be featured in would in fact be an "Amazing Spider-Man" movie, I believe, in 2017. With the Inhuman movie getting pushed back to 2019 to suit that, it leaves two years time for the writers to develop Spider-Man into the Inhumans movie as well as give some hints into that movie with ASM3 in 2017. Two years is about the average time Marvel spits out movies, anyway.

The questions still remain as to who Spider-Man will be, what his backstory will be, and how it's all going to make sense in the grand scheme of things. I understand that things will come in time, but I just can't buy into the hype right now because I have so many questions. I want a good Spider-Man movie, I really do. The most popular Marvel character deserves one really good movie. Sony still makes the final call with this, though, guys, and as long as they're involved, there still may be issues with how Spider-Man is portrayed and the history is given. I understand Marvel has worked magic before, but, they've also given us crappy movies like the last two "Iron Man" movies and Thor: The Dark World wasn't exactly the best movie ever.

Only time will tell when and how Web-Head pokes around in the MCU, so for now, we wait. Let's just calm down a little on the whole "SPIDER-MAN IS IN MARVEL (keyboard smash)"

It gets a little old.


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