Editorial By BD: Spider-Man in Custody Battle With Sony and Disney

Thanos’ snap may not be the biggest threat to Spider-Man when compared to the battle between Sony and Marvel. News broke earlier today by Deadline that talks between Sony and Marvel have broken down. Marvel’s Kevin Feige will no longer produce Spider-Man films nor will the character be able to appear in future Marvel produced movies. What does that mean?

• Spider-Man won’t appear in any future Avengers movies.
• Spider-Man won’t appear in any future Marvel produced movies like he did in Captain America: Civil War.

The Deal

The original deal from 2016 allowed Marvel and Sony to work together. In exchange Spider-Man could appear in the Marvel Universe films. Marvel would get profits from toys and merchandise. Disney/Marvel would also get 5% of the first dollar grosses. Sony would allegedly get the other 95%. According to Deadline, Disney wanted to up their percentage to 50% and equally share the character.

Sony’s Side

Sony is in a better position than Marvel in this deal. They just licensed “their” character to Disney to appear in two of the biggest movies of all time. I don’t think we’ll get a Marvel movie as profitable as Infinity War and Endgame any time soon. Sony is also coming off of two major wins with Into the Spider-Verse and Venom. Spider-Verse took in $375 million worldwide and Venom brought in a whopping $876 million. Both movies were very successful and didn’t require any help from Disney. They won’t have to give any of the profits to the house of the mouse. They also have several movies in development that will prevent the rights going back to Disney. It’s debatable if a Morbius, Black Cat and Kraven film will bring in anywhere near that box office return of Spider-Verse and Venom. I suspect they wont.

Disney’s Side

Spider-Man is arguably Marvel’s biggest superhero. Pulling him out of the Marvel cinematic universe will hurt them more than Sony. Like it or not, Spidey is tied into Tony Stark’s storyline with this version of the character. People were devastated by Spider-Man’s “death” in Infinity War, I’d say much more than characters Disney owns outright. I have suspected the next Avengers movie would heavily feature the “newer” characters like Black Panther, Dr. Strange and Spider-Man replacing Captain America, Iron Man and Black Widow. Pulling Spidey out hurts Disney, but they will survive.

My MCU Spider-Man Problems

I’ve had several problems with the MCU Spider-Man. Here are my biggest complaints.

• Uncle Ben is completely absent from Peter’s story with the exception of a suitcase with Ben’s initials. It evidently wasn’t that important to Peter since in Far From Home he and May weren’t too concerned it was lost.
• Spider-Man is demoted to being a side-kick to Iron Man. Spider-Man, even as a teenager, is his own man. Iron Man made his suit, he made his tech. Spidey doesn’t need to have it handed to him by Iron Man. I had promise at the end of Homecoming that he wasn’t going to get a handout, but Far From Home went another direction.
• Michelle Jones is not Mary Jane Watson. Zendaya is a fine actress, in fact when she’s not playing “MJ” she has some similar Mary Jane traits. However, I don’t like the character. She is brooding, introverted and pretty much the complete opposite of the red-head we all know and love.
• Why did Peter and MJ fall for each other? There wasn’t a romantic spark in Homecoming. In Far From Home it was established that Peter has a crush on MJ, but why? It was never shown, nor explained.
• Where was the conversation with Peter and May? Homecoming ended with May finding out Peter is Spider-Man. The next time we see the two is at Tony Stark’s funeral. At what point did she become ok with her teenage son risking his life. This drama was set aside to address more Tony Stark drama.
• The plot of both movies was driven by Tony Stark. Homecoming was fueled by Stark giving Spidey a suit. The plot also focused on how Stark affected Adrian Toomes’ income. Far From Home focuses on “becoming the next Iron Man.” It also featured a ticked off former Stark employee Quinten Beck. Spidey is then forced to take out Stark tech drones that are controlled by Stark’s glasses.
• The movies were essentially Marvel Team Up films. We had Tony Stark in the first and Nick Fury in the second. Did we really need Fury in the last film? I would of preferred a ticked off Hulk, but that’s just me.
• Happy Hogan trying to date Aunt May.

Pros of Spider-Man being out of the MCU

• Sony will be forced to focus on Spider-Man. Tony Stark will not drive the plot.
• Uncle Ben will hopefully be Spidey’s motivation to becoming a superhero and it will be addressed in a future film.
• Spider-Man will battle Venom and possibly the Sinister Six.

Final Thoughts

You can’t argue that Homecoming and Far From Home were big success stories. Together the two movies have made nearly two billion dollars. From what I can tell, Tom Holland has one more movie on his contract possibly two. What happens when that contract is up? Will we have to recast Spidey again? I suspect that wouldn’t be a bad thing and we could start fresh with a more classic approach to the character. I don’t have a problem with Holland’s casting, in fact he’s awesome. However the story around the actor is my biggest problem as a long-time Spider-Fan.

I’m all for not having Tony Stark tied into Spidey’s origin and Uncle Ben being the motive for suiting up. However, will audiences accept another Spidey actor like they do for James Bond? So what is my dream scenario? Disney backs up a truck and buys Sony Pictures or the Spider-Man rights. It would cost them billions, but in the long run it would be better for the character. I’m not sure if you could re-introduce Spidey in this current Marvel Cinematic Universe without again referencing Iron Man. Bottom line, it’s a tough time to be a Spider-Man fan. Neither company tends to be able to use the full potential of the character and the fans are less for it. What are your thoughts? Comment below.