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Sony's Spiderman Cinematic Universe
Posted by Labels: Amazing Spider-Man, Amazing Spider-Man 2, MCU, Sony, Spider-Man
Next weekend the second installment of the Amazing Spider-Man is set to hit the big screens here in the United States. The movie is expected to lay the foundation of Spider-Man Cinematic Universe in much the same way that Marvel Studio's has created the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
Doug Belgard, president of Columbia Pictures said "The Spider-Man film franchise is one of our studio’s greatest assets. We are thrilled with the creative team we have assembled to delve more deeply into the world that Marc, Avi and Matt have begun to explore in ‘The Amazing Spider-Man’ and ‘The Amazing Spider-Man 2.’ We believe that Marc, Alex, and Drew have uniquely exciting visions for how to expand the Spider-Man universe in each of these upcoming films."
That sounds great on the surface, but there is one itsy bitsy little problem: who is going to be the "good-guy" in all these films? Not necessarily the "Good-Guy" as in church going, nice guy who drives his aunt once a week to get her hair done, but rather the character on the screen the audience cheers for.
Sony license agreement with Marvel Enterprises is a little convoluted. Basically Sony can make Spider-Man movies until the cows come home as long as they have movie in development, Sony doesn't control the merchandising rights nor actual rights to Peter Parker/Spider-Man himself, they are leased from Marvel, but they do own the rights to the auxiliary characters like Mary Jane, Gwen Stacy, Doctor Octopus/Otto Octavius, Green Goblin/Norman Osborn, (New) Green Goblin/Harry Osborn, The Lizard/Dr. Curt Connors, Sandman/Flint Marko, Venom/Eddie Brock Jr, Vulture, Electro, Kraven the Hunter, and a handful more. The list is long on bad-guys and short on good-guys.
In the Animated Universe generally Spider-Man has been the primary character but there usually is a secondary Hero in the story, from Iceman and Firestar in Spider-Man and his Amazing Friends to nearly every mainstay character in the 1994 Spider-Man series making an appearance, to the current lineup of Luke Cage, Iron Fist, Nova, and White Tiger in the Ultimate Spider-Man.
So why does any of this matter?
It has to do with the audiences attention span as well as who they are going to cheer for while they are in the movie theater.
One of the issues that Sam Raimi ran into during his highly successful run of Spider-Man trilogy
I don't even have to see The Amazing Spider-Man 2 to know how the fights are going to work out. Spider-Man beats some nameless baddies, meets the bad-guys gets pounded...
If you look at the success of other films (and lack of success in others) I think you see a trend where multiple heroes have become successful while single heroes haven't. In Iron Man 3 you have the Iron Patriot and 42 other suits running around. In Captain America: The Winter Soldier you have virtually every shield operative on the planet, even The Wolverine had Yukio. The only super-hero film recently that been high successful without a sidekick is Spider-Man, (you can argue the success of Bat-Man and Superman) but look at the dozen or so other stand alones that have failed in the past decade, most are all solo super-heroes.
Is the Amazing Spider-Man doomed for failure, nope not yet, however it must follow a different path to success, a much more difficult path to success I might add. All kidding aside just imagine Bobby Drake (Iceman) and Angelica Jones (Firestar) in a Spider-Man Movie.
I am not just talking about the issues of having only one good-guy on the screen during a film, its about making a film with a villain set as the hero. That's what Sony is set to do with Venom (no release date) and the Sinister Six.
I just do not see the success for Sony with that plan.
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