I’m as estatic as anyone about Spiderman being in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. I’ve been a diehard Spiderman fan since I was 6 years old. In the 80’s as a boy I watched anything and everything having to do with Spiderman. When I was younger I kept a notebook with clips from newspapers and all sorts of media that mentioned or had images of Spiderman. If a show even mentioned Spiderman, I’d watch it. That was a time when DC truly dominated with Superman, Batman and Wonder-Woman. A Marvel TV show other than the Hulk didn’t exist. When Showtime began airing the Spiderman TV series from the 70’s, I tried to get Showtime as a premium channel. I was fortunate enough to get involved in the Marvel Tales series comics which presented the original Spiderman stories written by Stan Lee with art by Steve Ditko and John Romita Senior! That truly gave me and fans like me who weren’t around in the 60’s to experience the Spiderman stories from that era just as our parents did.
Which brings me to the modern era, where i’ve been happy to see Spiderman joining the MCU as the biggest story in pop culture. It almost makes me feel like the sadness I went through in the 90’s enduring the Clone Saga and all those horrible Spiderman stories were worth it. They were penance for what is going on now!
That being said, the pure joy I’ve had has slowly been overshadowed. Not by the fact that Sony is maintaining creative control. I figured Sony is wise enough to let Marvel studios do their Marvel thing. No, my concern came from the comments by people online calling for Miles Morales. I brushed it off at first, but then it had snowball effect. Before I knew it, I witnessed a trend developing.
Don’t get me wrong now, I like Miles Morales, and would love to see him develop on the big screen organically. But I’d really want to see Marvel Studios tackle Peter Parker first. I want to see what they do with Peter Parker. I think it makes more sense to establish Parker and introduce Miles Morales in a sequel of some sort.
I liked the Sam Raimi films. I think to this day it’s been the most respectful of the two Spiderman franchises. But it’s still not MARVEL studios take on Spidey. They can take Spidey to a new level. Without the origin story, or the horrible Green Goblins, and without a sappy romance. In one of the Sony email leaks online, supposedly a representative of Marvel studios mentioned that Spiderman should be a young teenager struggling to balance his life in highschool and being a Superhero. I don’t know who would be a great idea to play Peter Parker, but I want it to be him! Miles Morales’ time will come! I can’t wait to see it, but I know now is not the time.
Another thing that is troubling me as a Spiderman fan is that I’m seeing the casting of Spidey slowly becoming a political game. Why is my favorite character since childhood being used now as a political tool? Writers and decision makers from franchise to franchise are finding it trendy to change the race or sex of characters for the sake of it. I’d like to see Idris Elba as a new James Bond, I liked Michael Clarke Duncan as the Kingpin, and I love Sam Jackson as Nick Fury, but the trend is pretty cliche. It’s being used as a shallow device to seem trendy. It’s not representing anything truly progressive. It’s form over function. I would like to see more people of color as directors, or studio heads. I think that can really be seen as progression. There needs to be more of that. But using this to grab attention just for the sake of using a favorite character as a political tool is not fun, and is not cool. It would be distracting and take away from the story. And having a black Peter Parker would be seen as a weak concession that would be a disservice to the Miles Morales story.
I think decisions and changes should be done because the story demands it. Because it adds to the content. For example, the search for the director of Captain Marvel shouldn’t be about finding a female director. It should be about getting the best person for the job. Angelina Jolie is a great director, but if she’s hired because she’s female, that would be an insult to her as a professional. Using her as a tool to push some kind of agenda is cheap. I know this is a shallow industry and everything is about image and perception, but something must be said about this. Tomorrow it would be some other gimmick (ex. all female ghostbusters). If something is to be done, it should be done because it’s the best thing for the story. Period. Since originality has always been on life support in hollywood, everyone is jumping through hoops to do something that seems radical, or aesthetically different.
I’m a traditionalist fan, but not a die hard. I’m glad Josh Whedon didn’t copy the first Avengers story straight from the comics. Their origin story was dumb and nobody would have wanted to see the Hulk hide in a Circus and put on clown make up (read the comic). I don’t mind changes at all, but I would like to see Peter Parker as the Spiderman I grew up with on screen. Please Marvel, don’t make the same mistake as Sony, who tried so hard to modernize Spiderman that they polarized some of their audiences. Trying to shake up Spiderman to appease audiences can backfire.
I think even though controversy and publicity of any kind can be good, I think Marvel and Sony should act fast and cast Spiderman ASAP before the flame war builds and before this all becomes more politicized by people who wouldn't give a damn about Spiderman or the story. There should be action before it becomes a whole force unto itself and gains enough traction to steer Marvel and Sony in a direction they wouldn’t have originally taken. Before this clouds what should be truly important: The heart and soul of what has made Spiderman one of the best pop culture icons of all time!