Thanks to the Disney/Fox merger, Marvel Studios now holds the rights to the X-Men and Fantastic Four franchises. The only set of characters that eludes them these days are the heroes and villains who are part of Spider-Man's world, though an unprecedented deal with Sony Pictures has brought Peter Parker into the MCU.
Understandably, Sony still wants to make use of the characters it owns, and that's led to the creation of a separate Marvel Universe. 2018's Venom was followed by Venom: Let There Be Carnage, and we're now just a few days away from Morbius' arrival in theaters.
We're not getting into spoilers for that movie here, but the trailers alone and what we've already seen from this "Venomverse" are enough for us to know mistakes are being made. Now, we're delving into the biggest blunders and how Sony can go about fixing them.
To take a look through this feature, all you guys need to do is click on the "Next" button below!
8. Trying To Capitalise On The MCU's Success
The Marvel Cinematic Universe has found unprecedented levels of success since launching in 2008, so in many respects, we completely understand why Sony is looking to capitalise. Honestly, we can't help but wonder if the studio is catfishing actors by letting them believe joining a Marvel movie is the same as joining a Marvel Studios movie (it isn't).
However, the worst example of Sony looking to attract MCU fans is what we saw in Venom: Let There Be Carnage and Spider-Man: No Way Home. Those post-credits scenes were completely meaningless, and while a piece of the Venom Symbiote is now in the MCU, we don't see that leading anywhere.
Venom was shoehorned into all that Multiversal madness, with no benefit to the character whatsoever. With Morbius, it sounds like reshoots have completely reshaped The Vulture's role to tie into what happened in No Way Home, likely devaluing what we saw there and muddying the waters in a way we can't imagine the Marvel Studios team is particularly pleased with.
7. Building A Sinister Six Without Spider-Man
Back when The Amazing Spider-Man franchise was still a thing, Sony had some downright baffling plans for the Sinister Six. Those supposedly involved the Savage Land, a Skyscraper-sized Sandman, and Spidey being a member of the team on a heist to steal Pandora's Box, but it looks like the studio is now returning to that well...in the least satisfying way possible.
With no Spider-Man in this "Venomverse," it appears the plan is to bring all these different villains together as quickly as possible, most likely as a team of anti-heroes. There's a possibility they'll battle Spider-Woman or Madame Web, of course, but given the way Venom and Morbius have become relatively likeable do-gooders, this Sinister Six doesn't sound all that sinister.
Common sense says this team should have been saved for an epic Spider-Man movie (like, uh, No Way Home), but if Sony thinks this team-up will be an Avengers-sized event, they're bound to be sorely mistaken. In fact, we can't help but get "Dark Universe" vibes from this whole thing...
6. Putting Avi Arad In Charge
Avi Arad was ousted from Marvel Studios pretty quickly during its inception, and it's not hard to see why. The prolific producer is the one who shoehorned Venom into Spider-Man 3 and spearheaded the disastrous Amazing Spider-Man franchise (with the sequel such a critical and commercial disappointment, Sony had no other choice than to turn to Marvel Studios for help).
It says a lot that Arad has had zero creative input into the wall-crawler's MCU adventures, and we're betting that drives him mad. In fact, it probably explains the laughable message above that was added to Spider-Man: No Way Home's credits in a transparent effort to placate the producer.
Had the Venom movies not been box office hits, the response to them probably would have been enough for Sony to move on without Arad. As it stands, he's attempting to create a shared universe of his own with these characters, and making a complete hash of it. There needs to be a real creative in charge, but we can expect more disasters to follow with Arad continuing to call the shots.
5. Villain-Led Movies
Assuming the decision has been made to leave Spider-Man in the MCU rather than introducing a different version of the character (like Ben Reilly, Miles Morales, or Spider-Woman, for example), why the f*** is Sony so intent on making movies about the web-spinner's greatest enemies? After all, it's not exactly like there aren't plenty of compelling heroes who are part of Spidey's world.
As well as the many different spider-themed characters, you have the likes of Black Cat, Silver Sable, Silk, and countless others who still haven't been adapted to live-action. Sure, there's been talk of that happening, but as things stand, we have Venom, Morbius, and Kraven the Hunter movies, and not a single hero taking centre stage. Instead, villains are being turned into anti-heroes.
It kind of feels like reading the worst comic books the 1990s had to offer. Ultimately, the biggest shame is that we've now been robbed of the chance to see the likes of Venom and Kraven in the MCU.
4. Meaningless Easter Eggs
We all love a good Easter Egg hunt in comic book movies, but they've quickly lost all meaning in this Marvel Universe. Whether it's the endless shots of The Daily Bugle that are clearly supposed to blow our minds ("Peter Parker works there!") or teases that lead nowhere, this is now starting to wear thin.
Venom: Let There Be Carnage cheekily referenced Ant-Man, and included some nods to Spider-Man that led nowhere, including Cletus Kasady killing a spider and a post-credits scene that teased a clash we now know was never going to happen. The Living Vampire references Venom in the Morbius trailer, but it's a cringe-worthy moment that sees him say the symbiote's catchphrase.
Instead of teasing a wider universe or future plans, these cutesy, pointless Easter Eggs have no real meaning. In fact, they drive home the fact that there's absolutely no real plan in place at Sony.
3. Not Respecting The Comic Books
Remember many of the superhero movies from the mid-2000s that tried really hard to not let people know they were based on the comic books that only nerds read? At times, these Sony movies feel a lot like that, with a surface level take on the mythology and Jared Leto's Morbius, for example, avoiding a costume and trying to stay grounded in some sort of realistic heightened reality.
Venom: Let There Be Carnage deserves props for embracing the wackiness of the source material, though, and that's probably why it's the best of these movies. A bigger issue, however, is really the way this Marvel Universe fails to respect the comic books. Origin stories are rewritten to the point where they're unrecognisable, with Venom being the perfect example. He's not the Eddie Brock from the comics; he's a goofy has-been journalist who found an alien costume.
Without Spider-Man in the periphery, these stories are being changed too much and not in a way that does the comic books justice. It looks like Kraven is being turned into an action hero, for example, and Dakota Johnson's casting suggests Madame Web is also getting an unwanted makeover...
2. There's No Plan
We've made reference to this a few times now, but Sony clearly has no real plan in place for this Marvel Universe. We appreciate that putting a slate of movies together is easier said than done, but it's almost as if Venom sent the studio into panic mode, with the movie's unprecedented success forcing them to greenlight everything in the hope of replicating its box office takings as fast as they could.
Whatever the case may be, you wouldn't think it's that hard to build a world around the thousands of characters who inhabit Spider-Man's corner of the Marvel Universe. All they need to do is establish a big bad, introduce a hero, and find a way to get these heroes and villains crossing paths.
Perhaps the potential Sinister Six project we've been so quick to ridicule will be it, but throwing every character they've introduced into one movie just for the hell of it really doesn't sound that smart. Like the MCU, it needs to be done with a slower, more natural approach, but as with Warner Bros. and Fox before them, Sony is racing to the finish line and making the same old mistakes.
1. Like It Or Not, They Need A Spider-Man (Or Spider-Woman)
Like most of you reading this, we couldn't be any more relieved that Spider-Man is currently tucked away in the MCU. Hopefully, that will remain the case for many years to come as the mind boggles at what an absolute mess the studio would have made of Spider-Man: No Way Home had Tom Holland's Peter Parker been shoehorned into Sony's Marvel Universe.
Despite that, it's quickly becoming clear this world does need a spider-hero of some sort. Whether it be any of the characters mentioned throughout this feature or even a Spider-Man Variant, Morbius clearly isn't a strong enough character to hold his own in a franchise based on those early reactions, while even Venom is struggling. Sadly, we don't see Kraven faring much better.
With Spider-Man in the MCU, maybe throw Spider-Woman or Ben Reilly into the mix to see what happens. We're not saying that will be enough to save or even improve this universe, but it would be a step in the right direction and a move that could make these movies that little bit more compelling.