Among so many comic superheroes, only a handful are lucky to have character-defining stories that become iconic staples of the medium. Sometimes it's a single moment, sometimes it's a full arc. Stories that, no matter how many times a character gets rebooted, you just know that that is a story that needs to be touched upon. Of the handful of times you can get a character put on-screen before the actor gets too old, you've prioritized the most important moments for the character.
For example, if ever the Marvel Universe were to be rebooted, it's hard to picture a Captain America where the Winter Soldier isn't tackled in some way. Or where we won't see Civil War redone. You can bet the next Superman reboot will show Krypton again.
Now, Marvel has the reins to do their Spider-Man the way they want it done. Spider-Man is one of those the few that has multiple iconic moments. But the slate still isn't really clean. Some of these moments over two franchises have been done repeatedly, and it's put the Marvel Spider-Man movie in a weird position of being forced to work around this stuff.
-both have done the death of Uncle Ben
-of the 5 previous movies, every alternating film has done the Green Goblin, and both franchises have had the Green Goblin dropping the female lead (in the first film, MJ was dropped from the bridge but saved, and in ASM2, Gwen was dropped and killed in the clocktower)
-both franchises portray the fall of Harry Osborne
-both franchises have Spidey quitting for a period of time
On one hand, it's a blessing in disguise that this forces them to not retread the origin with extended detail. While Uncle Ben is bound to be touched upon in Homecoming, they don't need to spend 45 minutes building up to Peter putting on the suit. And it also means we can get some time showcasing some other villains outside of the Goblin for atleast a little while. Maybe we can break the cycle of Goblin showing up every other movie.
But at the same time, the fall of the Osbornes is one of the most important parts of the Spider-Man lore. Not every villain in Spider-Man's roster is worthy to carry a movie (ex. Electro). Some of these guys, Sandman, Rhino, Shocker, etc. are just goons. And that's fine. Homecoming looks to be using Shocker in maybe only a small capacity that suits him. Spider-Man 3 tried to force a backstory onto Sandman that nobody cared about. Hell, ASM2's use of Rhino, not as some emotional nemesis but instead just a "business-as-usual" threat for Spidey to take down, is probably one of the freshest things in that franchise. But again, the Green Goblin is the nemesis that attacks Spider-Man on a personal level. It's hard to not want to tell that story.
So, what's left for Homecoming to tackle before we start circling back to the Green Goblin? We're only just getting up to 10 years away from Raimi's trilogy, in which case, some of that ground is ready to be used again.
-The Sinister Six seems llke an obvious way to go. Or maybe merge it with the Master Planner framework? If only to show that image of Spidey under the rubble in the flooding lair.
-a moment where Flash Thompson gets wrongfully attacked while wearing the Spidey costume?
-"Face it, Tiger. You've just hit the jackpot."
-re-attempt the black suit/Venom story
- this leads to an eventual Agent Venom, maybe? Or Carnage if, y'know, they wanted to really dig into the bottom of the barrel...
-Scorpion? Alongside the Spider-Slayers?
-Prowler?
-Black Cat?
-Jackal and.... clones...
-a crime-centric story vs. Tombstone (as a stand-in for D'onofrio's Kingpin)
-Kraven's Last Hunt?
The tricky part is not all of these really affect Spider-Man really personally to create a real arc on their own. Someone like Scorpion or Mysterio could be cool to see, but it's also too easy for them to simply be villain-of-the-week type antagonists, making the movie simply feel episodic which is something the lesser Marvel movies get heavily criticized for. And typically, Marvel movies have far less-commonly sold their movies around the antagonist. Ultron, Loki, and Winter Soldier are maybe the biggest exceptions.
Which rounds us back to the core problem - all this is simply just bench-warming until that eventual end-credits tease of the Osbornes coming back into play. Norman or the black suit are really the only two things you can tease or set up that anyone is really going to get mass excited for the raising of emotional stakes in a sequel. Unless, y'know, you wanna tease Madame Web and really confuse everyone. Assuming this next movie is as good as we all hope it is, then of course we'll be excited for a sequel anyway. But when Marvel really tries and cares, they don't necessarily just coast on good-will like that. There's a reason they went to Civil War for Cap 3 instead of the Serpent Society. And there's a reason nobody remembers Malekith or Kurse from Thor 2. They seem to want to make sure the next time a solo character headlines a movie, there's an emotional reason to come back.
But we'll be fine as long as we stay away from iconic moments like this...
For example, if ever the Marvel Universe were to be rebooted, it's hard to picture a Captain America where the Winter Soldier isn't tackled in some way. Or where we won't see Civil War redone. You can bet the next Superman reboot will show Krypton again.
Now, Marvel has the reins to do their Spider-Man the way they want it done. Spider-Man is one of those the few that has multiple iconic moments. But the slate still isn't really clean. Some of these moments over two franchises have been done repeatedly, and it's put the Marvel Spider-Man movie in a weird position of being forced to work around this stuff.
-both have done the death of Uncle Ben
-of the 5 previous movies, every alternating film has done the Green Goblin, and both franchises have had the Green Goblin dropping the female lead (in the first film, MJ was dropped from the bridge but saved, and in ASM2, Gwen was dropped and killed in the clocktower)
-both franchises portray the fall of Harry Osborne
-both franchises have Spidey quitting for a period of time
On one hand, it's a blessing in disguise that this forces them to not retread the origin with extended detail. While Uncle Ben is bound to be touched upon in Homecoming, they don't need to spend 45 minutes building up to Peter putting on the suit. And it also means we can get some time showcasing some other villains outside of the Goblin for atleast a little while. Maybe we can break the cycle of Goblin showing up every other movie.
But at the same time, the fall of the Osbornes is one of the most important parts of the Spider-Man lore. Not every villain in Spider-Man's roster is worthy to carry a movie (ex. Electro). Some of these guys, Sandman, Rhino, Shocker, etc. are just goons. And that's fine. Homecoming looks to be using Shocker in maybe only a small capacity that suits him. Spider-Man 3 tried to force a backstory onto Sandman that nobody cared about. Hell, ASM2's use of Rhino, not as some emotional nemesis but instead just a "business-as-usual" threat for Spidey to take down, is probably one of the freshest things in that franchise. But again, the Green Goblin is the nemesis that attacks Spider-Man on a personal level. It's hard to not want to tell that story.
So, what's left for Homecoming to tackle before we start circling back to the Green Goblin? We're only just getting up to 10 years away from Raimi's trilogy, in which case, some of that ground is ready to be used again.
-The Sinister Six seems llke an obvious way to go. Or maybe merge it with the Master Planner framework? If only to show that image of Spidey under the rubble in the flooding lair.
-a moment where Flash Thompson gets wrongfully attacked while wearing the Spidey costume?
-"Face it, Tiger. You've just hit the jackpot."
-re-attempt the black suit/Venom story
- this leads to an eventual Agent Venom, maybe? Or Carnage if, y'know, they wanted to really dig into the bottom of the barrel...
-Scorpion? Alongside the Spider-Slayers?
-Prowler?
-Black Cat?
-Jackal and.... clones...
-a crime-centric story vs. Tombstone (as a stand-in for D'onofrio's Kingpin)
-Kraven's Last Hunt?
The tricky part is not all of these really affect Spider-Man really personally to create a real arc on their own. Someone like Scorpion or Mysterio could be cool to see, but it's also too easy for them to simply be villain-of-the-week type antagonists, making the movie simply feel episodic which is something the lesser Marvel movies get heavily criticized for. And typically, Marvel movies have far less-commonly sold their movies around the antagonist. Ultron, Loki, and Winter Soldier are maybe the biggest exceptions.
Which rounds us back to the core problem - all this is simply just bench-warming until that eventual end-credits tease of the Osbornes coming back into play. Norman or the black suit are really the only two things you can tease or set up that anyone is really going to get mass excited for the raising of emotional stakes in a sequel. Unless, y'know, you wanna tease Madame Web and really confuse everyone. Assuming this next movie is as good as we all hope it is, then of course we'll be excited for a sequel anyway. But when Marvel really tries and cares, they don't necessarily just coast on good-will like that. There's a reason they went to Civil War for Cap 3 instead of the Serpent Society. And there's a reason nobody remembers Malekith or Kurse from Thor 2. They seem to want to make sure the next time a solo character headlines a movie, there's an emotional reason to come back.
But we'll be fine as long as we stay away from iconic moments like this...
