To many, yesterday became a very sad day for lovers of Spider-Man, the MCU, and comics/CBMs all together, but I did not phase me. Having Tom Rothman attached to any CBM isn't necessarily a good thing, in fact it's tends to be bad, but in this case I find that his involvement with Spider-Man's reboot will not cause any problems for Marvel.
Before I go on, yes I know, another Spider-Man article. Yeah, and while I'm being hyprocrite and making one, even though I too in fact am tired of them, I'm hoping that this one will silence all the Spider-Man articles that are either fearful of this new deal with Marvel and Sony made, or is not fearful of it.
If you don't know who Tom Rothman is, all you need to know is that he had a hand in a lot of the more recent failed CBMs. Daredevil(theatrical), Tim Story's Fantastic Four films, X3, and X-Men Origins to name a few. Now I'm not trashing the man(completely) he has had a hand in some successful films, such as Avatar and Titanic, but his track record with CBMs is terrible.
Every Spider-Man fan knows who Avi Arad is, and while I overall enjoyed Spider-Man 3 and TASM2, Arad is the reason for parts many of the fans did not like in those films.
Another thing that makes fans fearful is the fact that Sony has final creative control over Spider-Man meaning they could possibly muck things up for Marvel.
Now that you've got the idea of why fans may be very sad with this recent deal between Marvel and Sony, let me tell you why I am still excited. While Sony may have final creative control, given the fact that they made this deal with Marvel Studios, it shows that they need/want Marvel's help getting Spidey back on track, and of course get a boost in Spidey's ticket sales, so to be honest Sony will probably just sit in a corner and let Marvel work their magic with Spidey. With the chance that I'm wrong, given what we know about the deal, I'm pretty sure that if Sony tries to muck things up for Marvel, they'll just boot Sony and Spidey out, without going through any financial troubles with Sony, and leave them to fend for themselves. Spidey will no longer be a part of the MCU, but at least his involvement won't screw anything up for Marvel.
Avi Arad was put on as an Executive Producer on the Spider-Man reboot, but do not fear him. Have you ever been in a room with you friends, or maybe your parents, presenting ideas, but they brush them aside and go ahead with their own? If so, Avi Arad is you in this situation, he has no power, no control, just a producer credit. I believe Sony just didn't have the heart to fire the man, so they put him in a position where he couldn't possible mess up this deal with Marvel.
Tom Rothman will be overseeing all the Spider-Man films Marvel and Sony makes going forward, such as Amy Pascal did before she stepped down. This is a nightmare at first glance, but you have to remember that this Sony deal came from above Pascal's and now Rothman's heads, so that means the higher ups want this deal to be successful, meaning they probably will not allow Rothman to mess it up. Rothman, I predict, will basically have as much power and control as Arad will.
In the end, Rothman, Arad, and Sony's final creative control will most likely not be anything to fear with this new Spider-Man deal, so I say chill out, relax, and trust that Kevin Feige didn't make this deal not knowing he will get what he wants out of it.