The Amazing Spidey Universe: Reasons to be Cheerful

Although I am not necessarily the biggest Spidey fan now, he was my personal fave as a kid in the early 80's. I then rediscovered the character as a teenager with the brilliant animated series of the late 90's. It was that very series together with the equally awesome X-men animated series of the same time that rekindled my love for all things superhero, so I have genuine affection for both properties but have felt much apathy towards the movie adaptations produced on these characters of late. Sure I loved the first two Raimi movies and X-men (2000) and X-men 2 (2003) have to be credited somewhat for the comic book movie boom we are currently enjoying but apart from the fact that while X-men: First Class (2011) was enjoyable, the continuity within that universe is laughable and Spiderman 3 (2007) was so bad that the character had to be rebooted only five years later.

I struggled with The Amazing Spiderman (2012). Sure I get that 'the kids' love it because Garfield's Parker is a much more recognizable modern day teenager, with more than enough teen angst to hold his own amongst the Twilight brigade but the narrative just sags once he actually becomes Spidey and he has to deal with a poorly realised villain. I liked Garfield a lot and feel that he could go on to imprint the character to the level which RDJ has with Ironman but there's no denying that by the time the NY massive start to show the character their support during the crane scene, my spidey-sense wasn't tingling to the same degree that it was during the Queensboro Bridge double save in Spiderman (2002) or the train self-sacrifice in Spiderman 2 (2004). This has nothing to do with the slightly darker tone, the twilight-style angst or seeing things through Raimi-lensed spectacles, it is just a poorly paced narrative that misses some important beats. This doesn't mean though that I have given up hope on this rebooted franchise and with every new snippet of information released, my excitement is definitely growing. From the outstandingly realised Spidey suit of the next instalLment to the trailer which, as trailers go is pretty awesome I am definitely starting to feel it. Now Sony has officially announced their intention to expand the universe with Venom and the Sinister Six and I wanted to let you all know the way I think this will all play out.

Now I am not reinventing the wheel here so the Venom piece will for most people be 'so far so Venom' but I do feel (for no other reason than intuition) that I have a handle on the way that they will present the Sinister Six and as this seems to be the news that has caused so much bemusement, maybe people will be a bit more receptive having read my idea. Before getting to that though, lets take the full tour. The Amazing Spiderman for all of its faults did give us an interesting vision of Oscorp much more in keeping with the MCU vision of Stark Enterprises, the Richard Parker missing father thread as well as the Ravencroft Institute. I feel that it is these three plot devices that will hold this Marvel Spiderman Cinematic Universe (MSCU) together.

We already know quite a lot about The Amazing Spiderman 2, including Oscorp employee Max Dillon becoming Electro, Oscorp CEO Norman Osborn or heir Harry Osborn becoming a goblin variant and Aleksei Sytsevich utilising an Oscorp Mech Suit to become the Rhino. We also saw from the trailer that there is a circular room within Oscorp with six doors and two of the things held therein relates to classic Spidey villains and Sinister Six members Doc Ock and The Vulture. We, as fans of the mythos also have a pretty good idea that Gwen Stacey will die at some point in the movie and it is a pretty stretch to conclude that Norman Osborn will be involved either directly or indirectly and ultimately receive the blame from old' Web-head. Oscorp is clearly developing a variety of fringe applications that involve upgrading humans ie. Richard Parker's spiders, Curt Connors cross species genetics, together with the circular room of six. The fact that Spiderman has a piece of this bio-tech in all probability precipitates the attacks on all sides from Oscorp 'sponsored' assailants. My feeling is that Spidey will eventually save the day at the expense of Gwen's life and the film will end on a dark theme. I feel that this would be a great opportunity for a post-credit scene of a black ooze like substance with sentience being released as a result of the destruction within Oscorp.

The obvious progression for me would then be The Amazing Spiderman 3 dealing with Peter's feelings of responsibility over Gwen's death and the probability that this will, in conjunction with his shiny new black suit, cause him to go dark. I would imagine that more of the future Sinister Six members will be part of the narrative but that the main antagonist will be the venom symbiont and how it affects Peter's psyche. It might well take the ballsy free spirited Mary Jane to break Parker from the Venom thrall, which will skulk away to the accepting arms of either Flash Thompson or Eddie Brock. I'm hoping for Brock as I would want an accurate portrayal of the comic origin but will Sony take the easy option, being that flash has already been introduced within the universe.

The Venom spin off will likely involve the protagonist, be it Flash or Brock slowly finding their redemption. I have a feeling that it could well involve the military application of the symbiont, which in turn would suggest the flash Thompson version of the character but this is solely conjecture at this point. The reason I feel this though is that if Sony is spinning off into Venom, it is only a matter of time before Carnage is unleashed and the most logical way that this could happen would be military experimentation on the symbiont in an effort to maximise the potential. Of course this could be way off and we could just as likely have Brock arrested at the end of Venom and incarcerated within the Ravencroft Institute, in which he comes into contact with the insanity of Cletus Kasady who seems to infect the symbiont rather than the other way around. This could be the post-credit scene that would forebode a Spiderman/Venom cross-over in the vein of Maximum Carnage.

This is where I get to what I think we'll see within the Sinister Six movie and I feel that it will be executed in almost the opposite way that Marvel led their MCU towards Avengers (2012). By this point we would have met enough villains to fill the ranks of a Sinister Six. I say 'a' Sinister Six rather than 'the' Sinister Six as there have been different incarnations over the years. I think we will have the Lizard, established in TASM, Rhino, Electro and a Goblin (probably Norman as I think Harry could perish in TASM2), all from TASM2. These characters together with Doc Ock and the Vulture whom I assume will be in TASM3 given their tease within TASM2, will in all likelihood complete the ranks of the Sinister six. Now this is where I feel the narrative will get interesting. The most common concern I have heard/read so far with regards to a Sinister Six film is 'how could they make a Sinister six movie without Spiderman?' and 'without Spiderman, who would they fight/antagonise?'. The answer to both of these questions is simple, Spiderman will be in the movie and it will be he who they fight. It will be a super-villain film in which we see the narrative through their subjective viewpoint. We see the internal wrangling within the Six as they come together and try to formulate a plan to take down Spidey but are ultimately foiled. Think of it as the diametric opposite of the Avengers told in the manner of Dr. Horrible's Sing Along Blog (2008) but without the musical overtones. Now if you haven't seen Joss Whedon's Writer's Strike-fueled opus, it tells the story of a 'sympathetic super-villain's attempts to destroy the hero a totally unsympathetic 'Captain Hammer'. Now I am not saying that Spidey will be portrayed as negatively as Nathan Fillion's 'Captain Hammer' but we will see him through the villains lens.

This is a very interesting concept and as far as comic book movies go is a fresh take. Only the aforementioned Dr. Horrible and Megamind (2010) have done it before to my knowledge and that is with original characters, not an established superhero, let alone one as culturally significant as Spiderman. This is a very bold move by Sony and should be applauded in much the same way that Marvel deserve much respect for their integrated universe. Now a lot of people will complain that Sony are just jumping on the bandwagon of interconnected movies etc. but I have no problem with them attempting to do it in a different way. This is especially so when this new concept makes far more sense for the character in question. I also feel by making Spidey fresh in this time of comic book movie filled summers will ensure his popularity, which in turn could precipitate a crossover with the MCU, if the rumours of a 'very close' relationship between Sony and Marvel are to believed.

This is obviously just my ideas on how things could go but there many possibilities. It could also be interesting to see the Sinister Six movie introduce the symbiont. It could be the Sinister Six's plan to turn Spidey to the dark side using the symbiont (captured by/created by Oscorp). The movie could then follow the Six and Dark Spidey as they execute various nefarious acts until Spidey overcomes the symbiont and takes down the Six and therefore the majority of the movie would again be witnessed from the villain's narrative. This could lead to the symbiont finding its next incumbent, leading to the venom spin off and hopefully some Maximum Carnage at some point.

These are just a couple of ideas I have but I'd be interested to here you're ideas on how things should go. Well that's about it but as a guy who was very disappointed by TASM, Sony has little by little won my attention once more and I am excited to see where this goes (even though it'll probably be nothing like what I have suggested here).