Spectacular Spider-Man (working title
The Amazing Spider-Man 3) is the third and final entry to the Webb trilogy, which sets itself apart from the Raimi 2002-07 trilogy by breaking the cycle of numbered sequels, switching out the
Amazing adjective with
Spectacular would distance itself from comparisons to the not-so-amazing
Spider-Man 3. A new adjective not only represents a brand new chapter in Peter Parker's life, but also an open-ended conclusion to a film series that hasn't yet decided if it's a trilogy or a quadrilogy. So far the only confirmed stars are Andrew Garfield, Dane DeHaan, and Paul Giamatti, the iMDB plot synopsis says the eponymous web-slinger "faces a new challenge to protect New York City" and it's scheduled for release on
June 10, 2016.
MW: There's different inflections of Spider-Man that you're trying to challenge and reveal. Spider-Man at the end of this movie has been transformed, he's never gonna be the same and certain parts of his character that he was not as protective of as he should've been, certain lessons he'll never forget. That austerity, that commitment and vigilance is really re-doubled at the end of this film, and that's gonna continue on in the third.
Q: So maybe a darker Spider-Man?
Marc Webb: I don't know if it's gonna be darker, but we'll see. 'Darker' is a really wierd word because it means different things to different people.
MARVEL NOIR: is an alternative continuity that combines elements of film noir and pulp fiction into thematic stories based on the Marvel Universe.
Spiderman Noir is set in 1933 – during the Great Depression -- a new spin on the mythos was to focus on the story of Ben Urich, an experienced and respected Daily Bugle reporter who runs a network of informants under the alias of the Spider. "The Goblin" is a crime lord whose henchmen consist of the Enforcers (Ox, Fancy Dan, Montana), Kraven (a hunter), the Chameleon (a master of disguise) and the Vulture (a sideshow freak). Ben Urich's protege Peter Parker is taken under his wing and soon inherits his place as 'The Spider' donning a black mask and trenchcoat to take down Osborn.
GANG WAR: (The Amazing Spider-Man #285-288) was a 5-part story-arc from Tom DeFalco's run in 1987: The Kingpin has left New York, and with the remaining crime lords vying for the top spot in the Big Apple, it's a bloodbath in the streets as the Hobgoblin, Jack O'Lantern, Hammerhead, Silvermane, and the Punisher battle for supremacy with, of course, your friendly neighborhood webhead caught up in the crossfire, wearing the black Symbiote suit for the entire duration of Gang war. The title is borrowed from 1973's The Amazing Spider-Man #114 - "
Gang War, Schmang War. What I Want to Know is...Who the Heck is Hammerhead?" - and it inspired some storylines for the critically-acclaimed animated series
The Spectacular Spider-Man, Episode 23 "Gangland On Valentine’s Day"
With elements of Gang War and Spider-Noire spun into the current timeline, they can redefine the pillars that distinguish this trilogy --
physical comedy, mystery subplots, bullet-time slowmo -- while also going back to some of the ideas that made the 2012 film kind of unique --
nocturnal atmosphere, paranoid cops, the threat of bioweapons on a human population. This might be Andrew Garfield's last turn as the character, so its about time Peter Parker is taken more seriously, fully realized and more aligned with classic depicitions. By making him a freelance photographer for The Bugle, they can draw focus to his skills with a camera and effectiveness as a sleuth, spying on gang activity and taping new conspiracy-webs up on the wall. So in an attempt to honor the legacy of Captain Stacy, he'll have to take down four of New York City's gang affiliations:
Russians,
Mafiosos,
Triads, and
Goblins.
The Daily Bugle
"With reports of Russian mob activity at an all-time high in the city, many have wondered who these (mostly) men are and what they are trying to accomplish. New Yorkers are no strangers to organized crime, but this time it seems different.
Gregarious, boastful men fill the Brighton beach night scene — every single one of them with a spectacular guttural baritone voice that makes one wonder if there are any gangster tenors.
Mob activity is the suspected cause of a spike in crime across all five boroughs. Not content with hijacking retail goods, sports betting, or drugs, more crime families have become involved in high-tech crimes such as the theft of microchips, processors, experimental metal alloys, and advanced weaponry.
Fancy Dan Brito said during his arraignment for the recent Brighton Beach shootout, “Everything has a price. Including the head of so-called superheroes.”
March 12, 2014
By Frederick Foswell
"Brooklyn was the scene of an old-fashioned gun battle today when factions of the Russian mob and The Big Man’s gang escalated their ongoing war for control of the city’s organized crime, culminating in a dramatic shootout along Jay Street that left three dead and the police scrambling for answers.
Despite the tragic outcome, police found a silver lining as security camera footage captured the first visual confirmation of the reputed Big Man leaving the scene with his crew (the Enforcers). Police spokesman, Major Crimes Unit Sergeant Stan Carter, said the image would not be revealed to the general public until the department’s analysis of the footage was completed.
Sources indicate that the video footage confirmed the involvement of Big Man's Enforcers, including Fancy Dan Brito, Jackson Montana Brice and Raymond “The Ox” Bloch, all of whom were out on bail from previous criminal charges. The police identified the victims as Anatoly Melikov, Gennady Panarin, and Evgeny Teryoshin, all reputed members of Alexsei Sytsevich’s Brighton Breach crew."
This newspaper article reveals a bloody rivalry emanating from interpersonal disputes between Russian thugs and members of the notorious group The Enforcers, belonging to an older and more traditional gang faction. Territorial rivalries between ethnically or idealogically opposed criminal enterprises are rarely gang-coordinated... the people involved were operating as individuals but their actions reflect a coalition of families on both sides: this leads them to a skirmish between two of the oldest gang in Marvel comics, the Russians vs. the Maggia.
THE RUSSIAN MOB: is a high-profile criminal operation that engages in black marketeering, terrorism, abduction, arms trafficking, exporting contraband like oil and metals, and smuggling of radioactive substances. In the former Soviet Union power elites and corrupt officials ran the country alongside criminal bosses, but after the economy collapsed the Russian mafia would split into several new gangs. At the time the United States loosened its immigration policy allowing ex-Soviet criminals to enter the country, and the first Russian organized crime began with con artists disguised as merchants in the lower Brooklyn area known as Brighton Beach. These thugs would group together under their own code of conduct based on strict loyalty with one another and militant opposition against the government.
ALEKSEI SYTSEVICH: the dim-witted and boastful Russian mobster whose theft of Oscorp plutonium landed him in a lifelong prison sentence after being foiled by Spider-Man. He drove an armored truck while his comrades secured the goods from a hijacked Oscorp van, but they were webbed to a lamppost while Sytsevich continued to flee, damaging other vehicles on the road and running over squad cars. He even confronts the superhero with rapid machine gunfire but he's publicly humiliated and handed over to the NYPD. Several months pass before Gustav Fiers and Harry Osborn decide to break Aleksei out of 'The Vault' as their first honorary member of The Sinister Six. This vengeful mob boss was a prime candidate to pilot a large rhinoceros-based exo-suit, assembled from surplus Soviet-era military gear that Oscorp had stolen back in the '80s. Aleksei further modifies the mechanical suit of powered armor to include heavy machine guns and missile launchers.
"I think I'm only doing the next movie [ASM3], I don't think I'm in the NEXT-next movie, they haven't told me anything about [The Sinister Six]" -Paul Giamatti
The Rhino is definitely coming back for a rematch in
The Amazing Spider-Man 3, but to what degree the character is being used is still anyone's guess, hopefully they give him more than 4 minutes of screentime and make better use of their Emmy, SAG, and Golden Globe Award-winning actor. We may get to hear him speak at a reasonable volume, get to know some of his mercenaries, as well as the meanings behind each of those Russian prison tattoos, especially that barbed-wire tattoo across his bald forehead. Through connections to his homeland, they can introduce more fan-favorites like
Sergei Kravinoff and his half-brother
Dmitri Smerdyakov.
Will the Rhino be in The Sinister Six spin-off? Probably not. Take into consideration the whole nature of the character as purely antagonistic, whose sole purpose was to be defeated by the hero in some comically over-the-top way. Also, does the Sinister Six really need two Russians
and more than one bald guy (with Kraven and Vulture) on the same team? Not to mention this team really has no use for a powerless goon operating a clumsy mech suit, his bad temper alone makes him completely expendable from a team trying to kill Spider-Man.
THE RHINO SUIT: There are certain devices on the Rhino armor you may not have noticed, of course it has rocket launchers and it can shift from biped to quadriped, but did you notice that it
has industrial headlights? This means their next battle can take place at night, that would make for more dramatic set-pieces than a last-minute bank robbery in broad daylight. Picture a dockyard at the edge of town, suddenly an unmistakable rhino horn bursts through hollow steel cargo containers, spilling its contraband across the rainy New York harbor.
THE MAGGIA FAMILY: is an international crime syndicate (based on The Mafia) the original and most powerful organization of career criminals following a strict code of secrecy among its members. The Maggia controls most of the illegal gambling, loan-sharking, and narcotics trade on the eastern seaboard, they even run casinos in Atlantic City, New Jersey and Las Vegas. Their presence in the US first came to public attention in the 1890s and their widespread bootlegging of illegal liquor during the Prohibition Era became legendary, they now hold a great influence within various labor unions, and control New York's politicians on every level of government. However in recent years, the Maggia has invested most of its illegal gains into legitimate business practices, all-the-while hiring criminal supervillains and mad scientists into their ranks for more subversive activities.
HAMMERHEAD: is the most notorious New York City crime boss distinguished by the broad, flattened shape of his head, (the result of a botched cranium surgery) and that he dresses and acts like a gangster from the 1920s. Before ascending to the underworld's peak, a nameless gunman working for an unidentified Maggia crime family was severely beaten and left to die in a discount movie theater that was showing "
The Al Capone Mob" and "
The Godfather Part II" back-to-back. Much of his fragmented skull had to be replaced by an unbendable steel alloy, giving his head its trademark flat shape, this metal plate implant is impervious to gunfire and even useful as a battering ram. Upon recovering, the gunman couldn't remember anything about himself save his criminal ambition, the amnesiac's fragmented mind was still fixated upon the gangsters of cinema.
Now determined to rebuild his personality, he adopted the role of the mobster "Hammerhead", favoring 20's clothing and weaponry, and mirroring the speech patterns and behavior of his favorite crime noires. To match his gangster persona, Hammerhead can always be seen wearing a three-piece suit and fedora, smoking a cigar, and carrying his trusty
Thompson submachine "tommy" guns at all times. Needless to say, Hammerhead still has a screw or two loose in that thick metal skull of his, unable to remember his real name and quicker than ever to betray the trust of various crime families on his way to the top. His ruthless ambition and viciousness soon earned him a deadly reputation, as informants and reporters were often killed for getting too close to his employers' interests.
Kevin Weisman would play the live-action Hammerhead, an actor most recognized as the tech geek Marshall Finkman from J.J. Abrams
Alias, but you might remember his hilariously memorable scene in Kevin Smith's cult-classic film
Clerks II as 'the Hobbit' lover. Kevin is also a prolific stage actor and voice-over artist, with recurring roles in police fantasy dramas like NBC's
Awake, TNT's
Perception and an HBO comedy called
Hello Ladies. What's interesting is he'd been asked about the role before on Twitter,
click here to see if you recognize him and tell me he wouldn't make an incredible Spider-man villain. In the bigger scheme of this universe, a position has just opened up for a new Big Man:
March 18, 2014
By Ned Leeds, City Bureau
"A daring night-time raid by Spider-Man on a nondescript townhouse in Greenwich Village led to the arrest of the reputed organized crime boss, The Big Man. Spider-Man, having conducted his own investigation and in another instance of his now all-too-common vigilantism, left the webbed-up gangster hanging from a lamp post, for the arrival of a surprised police squad.
But the biggest shock of all came when the mask of the Big Man was taken off and the gangster was revealed to be a Daily Bugle crime beat reporter Frederick Foswell! In a prepared statement, NYPD Major Crimes Unit Sergeant Stan Carter said, “Foswell confessed to his role as the organizing force behind the city’s recent surge in crime. He has not provided a motive for his actions.”
Daily Bugle Publisher and brilliant, stunning, generous philanthropist, J. Jonah Jameson issued a statement, “For the record, the Daily Bugle has been a proud institution in this great city for generations. We report the news, we don’t make ourselves a part of the story. Foswell’s a good writer. I look forward to reading his insider account of Ryker’s Island Penitentiary over the next twenty-five years to life.”
FREDERICK FOSWELL also known as
the Big Man, was a reporter for the Daily Bugle who led a double-life as the masked crime lord of New York's underworld, he's also one of Spider-Man's first opponents. Foswell had been publicly mocking his own criminal alter-ego through The Bugle for quite a number of years, starting with his first appearance in The Amazing Spider-Man #10 (March 1964) and ending when Spider-Man exposed his true identity to vindicate the prime Big Man suspect, J. Jonah Jameson. In the current cinematic universe Foswell suffers a similar fate, between the events of
Amazing Spider-Man and
Rise of Electro he is captured and sentenced to Ryker's Island as reported by the Daily Bugle tumblr:
"What began as a mob shoot-out escalated into a full-blown superhuman slugfest when the vigilante known as Spider-Man appeared on the scene. An argument inside the Zero One Lounge turned ugly when reputed mob enforcer, “Fancy” Dan Brito, pulled a gun on rivals from the Manfredi crime family. As club-goers fled onto the streets of the Meatpacking District, Spider-Man dropped down out of the sky.
Not content to merely take the law into his own hands, bystanders claimed that Spider-Man mocked the thugs as he delivered a one-two punch that sent them soaring.
Spider-Man disappeared as police arrived to find a dozen mobsters restrained with unmistakable webbing.
Brito and his accomplices, Jackson “Montana” Brice and Raymond “The Ox” Bloch, spent the night in the 10TH Precinct holding cell. The NYPD has yet to announce what charges, if any, they plan to bring against the smack-talking vigilante.
Brito, led away in handcuffs, was overheard describing the encounter with the web-slinger: “Just when I thought I was out, he pulled me back in.”
THE ENFORCERS: are the toughest guns on the East Coast, this
criminal trio offers their services as hired mercs, assassins, and extortionists aiding various employers who pay top dollar for their service. This small team of career criminals were among Amazing Spider-Man's earliest foes, consisting of group organizer
Fancy Dan (diminutive
judo expert Daniel Brito with his "footwork so fast no one could lay a hand on him");
Montana (the
lasso expert Jackson W. Brice, whose rope "responded like a living thing"); and
the Ox (slow-witted
strongman Raymond Bloch, remarkably durable except for "his glass jaw"). In their first appearance, the Enforcers were henchman of the Big Man (Frederick Foswell) where they clashed with the superhero for the first time, their second known employer was corrupt industrialist Norman Osborn who'd hired them to shut down Malone's Flophouse in a bid to gain the land. With each member displaying a unique fighting style and weapon-of-choice, together they became an unrelenting force as a team that relies on strength, speed, and highly specialized skills.
THE CHINATOWN TRIADS: are an underground society and street gang that engages in a variety of crimes from extortion and money laundering, to smuggling and counterfeiting music or video software as well as more tangible goods such as clothes, watches, and money. In reality NYC's Chinatown is generally viewed as a valued tourist attraction, but its earlier reputation was that of dangerous or dilapidated ghettos and slums, sites of brothels, opium dens, and gambling halls.
MISTER NEGATIVE: was an illegal immigrant from the Fujian province who attempted to travel to America on a slave ship operated by the Snakehead gang, where he was experimented on with a synthetic drug created by Maggia chemists. As the ship nearly crashed into New York harbor, the ship's crew evacuated and its captives made a break for shore, this pennyless survivor swam to shore and spent the following years building a large fortune and dedicating himself to helping those less fortunate. But the black synthetic heroin-like substance he was injected with would cause his personality to split into two men, the
kind-hearted and generous philanthropist Martin Li who operates a soup kitchen in Chinatown, and the villainous crime lord Mister Negative.
Li's appearance
resembles a photographic negative, so in comics he speaks in reverse-colored black text bubbles with white letters, distorting the sound of his voice. Mr. Negative displays a high degree of superhuman strength, enough to send Spider-Man flying through two buildings with a single blow, and he demonstrates superhuman reflexes during gang wars, dodging bullets or cutting them in half with his sword. He also has
the power to charge up knives and
swords with
black electrical energy, and he can
corrupt people he touches in the same manner, bringing them under his possesion and obedience. A corrupted person's clothes changes to their photographic negative colors, they're even embued with vastly increased stamina and endurance. Negative's alternate persona, Martin Li seems to have the opposite
power to cure others: a simple touch completely cured Eddie Brock's cancer, and homeless people who stay at his shelter have rapidly recovered from any illnesses or injuries they once suffered from.
During the story of
Brand New Day, Mister Negative first comes into conflict with Spider-Man when he makes a power play toward taking control of New York's criminal underworld by attempting to wipe out all existing members of the Karnelli and Maggia crime families using a
DNA specific bioweapon called the "Devil's Breath". In exchange for leaving the Maggia families' children alive, he takes a sample of Spider-Man's blood to use in a formula that would later be used against him during a fight with the Maggia. Spider-Man then recruits
the Black Cat to help him steal the remaining blood from Mister Negative and replace it with a vial of pig blood so he is unaware of his loss. Believing he is the embodiment of yin-and-yang, Martin Li by day and Chinatown's Kingpin of Crime by night, his humanitarian side would continue to run F.E.A.S.T. (Food, Emergency Aid, Shelter and Tolerance), where Peter Parker's Aunt May volunteers.
MR. NEGATIVE'S INNER DEMONS: are a specialized unit of henchmen who wear Dragon-style masks over suits, and use high-tech electrified versions of swords, brass knuckles and various other oriental weaponry such as gun staffs and Nunchakus. Inner Demons can regenerate from even the most lethal wounds within a matter of seconds, as they've been shown immediately recovering from impalement, gunshots to the head, and even getting torn apart or decapitated yet continuing to stand and fight.
The Inner Demons are aided by footsoldiers who were once Asian immigrants used for slave labor by Norman Osborn, and then liberated by Martin Li. He proceeded to train the immigrants in the martial arts, under the guise of preparing them for security jobs, but in reality he plays on their hatred of Osborn and turns them into his own corrupt agents, the foot soldiers of his alter-ego, Mister Negative. They are reborn as drug dealers and thugs, a plague on the streets of New York City.
Mr. Negative has access to advanced technology and secret laboratories, in which he is able to give his subjects medical care far more advanced than what's available to the general public. It just so happens the billionaire scion of an evil mega-conglomerate is dying of the same terminal hereditary illness that killed his father, to cure this genetic disease he needs a blood transfusion -- so could this be a set-up for an uneasy alliance or another rivalry with a still-dying Harry Osborn?
THE GOBLIN'S GANG: is an urban terrorist group dedicated to Harry Osborn's hostile takeover of his father's company, Oscorp Industries. Felicia, the Goblin's second-in-command, had access to some untested equipment that, when mass-produced, would help him exact his revenge on Donald Menken: an OsCorp board member who'd been using Harry's security clearance to run the off-books Special Projects division at Ravencroft, and then framed him with covering up Max Dillon's accident to usurp his place as CEO.
GOBLIN GLIDER: is a military-grade flying device, an incredibly fast and maneuverable rocket aircraft equipped with various state-of-the-art weapons, and the primary mode of transport for the Green Goblin. The pilot is locked into stirrups via electromagnetic clasps on the wings of the glider, it's steered primarily by the weight and attitude of its rider, either by leaning or by voice-activated radio-linked controls integrated into the Goblin's mask. The rider has access to a wide array of armaments, including heat-seeking and smart missiles, machine guns, extending blades, a flamethrower and a pumpkin bomb dispenser/launcher. Its top speed is 90 miles per hour (140 km/h), and it can support about 400 lb (180 kg), though it could lift far more without depleting the fuel supply.
PUMPKIN BOMBS: are a set of light plastic grenades resembling miniature Jack-o'-lanterns with concussive, smoke, incendiary, or hallucinogenic gas-emitting properties, some of which release a specially concocted gas that neutralizes the 'spider-sense.' The flying razor-bat pumpkin bomb splits mid-air into several razor-edged 'bladed boomerang' projectiles which can slice through or impale themselves into opponents, and incendiary grenades when thrown ignite almost soundlessly and produce enough heat to melt through steel.
GOBLIN FORMULA: is a biogenic chemical compound made from various species of genetically engineered "super-spider" venoms, when directly injected into the bloodstream causes severe mutagenic side effects that far outweight its performance enhancing benefits. Any successor to the Goblin persona possesses superhuman strength (lifting 9 tons under optimal conditions), increased speed, reflexes, endurance, and an accelerated healing rate. To make their presence known, the Goblin Nation could hire recruits from Ravencroft Institute for the Criminally Insane, out of those characters who'd taken the formula in the comics:
Phil Ulrich (Goblin Knight)
Roderick Kingsley (Hobgoblin)
Jason Macendale (Demogoblin)
Nels Van Adder (Proto-Goblin) and for the sake of setting up another spin-off,
Cletus Kasady (Carnage) could also join their ranks.
What do you think? Too many villains, or could this work?
Which is your favorite Marvel comics gang faction? Sound off in the comments!