Entertainment
Brand New Day,’ Sony Can Finally Fix Their Ruined Comics Universe
The Sony Spider-Man Universe, or SSU, is effectively dead. It went out, not with a bang, but with a bomb. Or rather, a whimpering dud of a bomb with the release of Kraven the Hunter. Despite the financial success of the Venom trilogy, the SSU could not survive the multiple failures of Morbius, Madame Web, and Kraven the Hunter in such quick succession. And apparently, that was not enough because Sony Pictures Chairman Tom Rothman recently revealed on The Town Podcast that Sony Pictures is planning a “fresh reboot” of its cinematic Spider-Man Universe with “new people.” All of this just mere weeks before the MCU revealed their first trailer for Spider-Man: Brand New Day, boosting excitement for the world of Peter Parker once more. If Sony Pictures is serious about making a new Spider-Man Universe, they cannot commit the same grievous mistakes again, and they need a completely different approach.
Why the Sony Spider-Man Universe Failed
The SSU was a byproduct of the overwhelming success of the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU). Sony Pictures clearly wanted to mimic Marvel Studios’ success, and they already had the rights to Spider-Man and his supporting cast. Spider-Man is undoubtedly one of Marvel’s most popular characters, but the executives at Sony believed they could simply make badly conceived and plotted spin-offs of Spider-Man that were only loosely connected, if at all, to the new MCU version of Spider-Man, starring Tom Holland. Not to mention, it seemed fairly obvious that Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige wanted nothing to do with the SSU. Case in point, that tease at the end of Venom: Let There Be Carnage, and it’s an utterly disappointing payoff.
The lack of interconnectivity was a big problem, as that is a major selling point of the MCU — that it’s all intertwined as a singular cohesive motion picture franchise across movies and television. The other major problem consisted of the spin-offs of obscure characters or key villains in Spider-Man’s rogues gallery, resulting in awful movies like Morbius and Kraven the Hunter. Kraven is one of Spider-Man’s greatest villains, and he does not warrant his own movie. He should appear in a Spider-Man movie where he targets Spider-Man, adapting a seminal comic book storyline like Kraven’s Last Hunt. Forcing the character into such a half-baked plot where Kraven is transformed into an anti-poacher vigilante who tangles with The Rhino, another iconic Spider-Man rogue, was utterly disappointing.
Madame Web was an utter disaster with its attempt to slot a square peg into a round hole, showcasing a contrived, convoluted storyline that attempts to connect Cassandra Webb (Dakota Johnson) to other Spider-Heroes, who are marginalized in the movie, and an unnamed infant Peter Parker. Additionally, Madame Web is another character who is not strong enough to warrant her own spin-off. She’s literally like a soothsayer and a Spider Oracle in the comics and certainly not a superhero who deserves her own cinematic origin story.
The New SSU Needs To Bring in Actual Spider-Heroes
If Sony Pictures is serious about pushing forward with the SSU, they have to take a completely new and fresh approach, avoiding the past failed attempts, meaning villain spin-off movies are off the table for now. Instead, it’s time to make some movies about the other Spider-Heroes. The next natural step is staring Sony right in the face: Spider-Man 2099. The Spider-Verse animated movies have already proven that Spider-Man 2099, aka Miguel O’Hara (voiced by Oscar Isaac in the Spider-Verse movies), can work on the big screen. The easy answer: make a live-action Spider-Man 2099 movie that is set in the far future, so the character is far removed from the present timeline. That eliminates any worries about connectivity and continuity, so the creatives can instead focus on Miguel O’Hara’s story.
Elsewhere, a strong multitude of Spider-Heroes can lead their own movies and beyond. Consider Scarlet Spider, aka Ben Reilly, Ghost Spider/Spider-Woman (popularly known as Spider-Gwen, aka Gwen Stacy), and of course, Peter Parker’s successor, Miles Morales. Sony Pictures should focus on these heroes instead of trying to turn Spidey’s villains into lame antiheroes. Have them fight villains like Morbius, Kraven, and The Rhino rather than crafting obscure minor characters in their own cinematic entries, where they likely won’t even meet or interact with Spider-Man. The new SSU needs to start with the big guns before moving on to obscure characters, attempting and failing to make Hypno Hustler, Rocket Racer, Silver Sable, Cardiac, and The Prowler into their own movies. See the failed attempt at making El Muerto, starring Bad Bunny, for reference.
The Way Forward for the New Spider-Man Universe
Let’s remember how the MCU took off. In Phase 1, Marvel Studios took the time to build out its universe. It focused on the heavy hitters first, the legendary Big 3 with Iron Man, Captain America: The First Avenger, and Thor, who eventually coalesced into The Avengers in 2012. That succeeded because Marvel Studios laid the foundation for the MCU and built equity and audience trust, allowing the studio to eventually attempt Guardians of the Galaxy in 2014—a big risk that paid off. Sony Pictures failed to build out its universe at first, especially considering that it is extremely limited in its corner of the Marvel Universe.
Additionally, if the new SSU moves forward, Sony might want to consider making the movies completely standalone rather than an interconnected shared cinematic universe. The interconnectivity of the old SSU was not well executed anyway, so it would be easier to jettison that aspect completely. Sony Pictures cannot simply view the new SSU as IP that they can will into success because of a loose association with Spider-Man. If the Sony executives repeat past mistakes, except this time with different characters like The Grizzly, The Kangaroo, and Boomerang, the new SSU is destined for another embarrassing failure.
Venom is available to stream on Disney+ in the U.S.
- Release Date
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September 28, 2018
- Runtime
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112 minutes
- Director
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Ruben Fleischer
- Writers
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Jeff Pinkner, Scott Rosenberg, Kelly Marcel, David Michelinie, Todd McFarlane
- Producers
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Avi Arad, Matt Tolmach, Amy Pascal
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