Sunday, December 14, 2014

A Not-So-Friendly Neighborhood

For those who haven't heard, Sony Pictures was recently hacked and the private emails released are quite telling of Sony's current state. Among complaints from actors and Sony employees, Sony's emails confirmed the company has no idea what to do with the Spider-Man movie franchise. Sony Pictures has owned the rights to the Spidey films since 2002, Marvel/Disney does not own the Spider-Man movie rights. That explains why we didn't see the Web-Head slinging around New York during The Avengers movie. Anyway, many fans believe Sony will cut their losses and submit the movie rights to Marvel. Question is, what would Marvel do? Pitch-It time! Transition, go!


The problem I've always had with the Spider-Man movies is that they never capture the overarching theme of the character. Most of the time they focus on Peter Parker's love life, which by itself can carry a trilogy. However, Spider-Man's lore is more than his love life, it pertains to school, work, money, friendships, and the overall responsibility of being both the heroic vigilante Spider-Man, and being the young genius Peter Parker. So in order to properly portray Peter/Spidey, I believe Marvel should give him a television show. Currently, the MCU has two shows on television and five upcoming shows on Netflix. It would only be logical to give an episodic character an actual show where stories can develop, rather than three two-and-a-half hour movies. Why have Spider-Man on TV instead of Netflix? Well, while characters like Daredevil and Luke Cage are street-level characters at heart like Spidey, Spider-Man is unarguably Marvel's most popular superhero. Because he is their poster boy, Marvel would more likely put him on cable TV where more people aware of the character can see him. So lets say Spider-Man gets a show on ABC or something, how will it work? Currently, the CW has a show based on The Flash, so the technology and effects for superpowers is possible. But what about story? I'd start the series maybe a month after Peter got his powers, that way he's got the suit, the tools and the powers, but still needs the experience. The first season would revolve around street crime and gang violence, along with Peter trying to balance his work life and personal life.  Next season introduces Spider-Man's super villains, the formation of the Sinister Six, Norman Osborn becoming The Green Goblin and the death of Gwen Stacy (which would be so much better than TAS2). Third season could have Spider-Man using the Black Suit/Venom Symbiot, the season after that could have the Clone Saga, the possibilities are endless. You could spin-off other characters like Venom, Scarlet Spider and Black Cat into Netflix shows, maybe have characters from the Netflix shows make cameos in the Spider-Man show. Oh, Agent Coulson meets Spider-Man! In fact, after season three Spider-Man would probably be ready to run with the big dogs. We could finally see Spidey hanging out with The Avengers!
That's just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to Spider-Man's existence in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and I'm certain Marvel Studios already has ideas for Spidey should Sony ever let the character free. I can only hope the Marvel big-wigs have the same ideas as me and many other fans of the character. Instead of showing the basics of who Spider-Man is, viewers deserve to see Spider-Man as himself. You know, like "The Spectacular Spider-Man". How dare they cancel that cartoon. Anyway, those are just my ideas for a proper Spider-Man portrayal. Thanks for reading!
#SonySpiderSlave

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