What should happen with Spider-Man?
February 16, 2015
Big news hit the web last week that Sony Entertainment Pictures and Marvel Studios have finally come to an ownership agreement and will finally allow Spidey to join the rest of the Marvel Universe and possibly the Avengers.
After his introduction to the universe, the studios will then release new spinoffs with the character under Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige’s direction. But what should the studios do about Spider-Man’s alias and origin story? Well, I’ve got the perfect answer that can accomplish everything from expanding racial diversity, raking in new box office income from new audiences and more importantly, not bashing audience members’ heads in with the same old Peter Parker origin story.
We’ve now seen it done too many times: Peter Parker is the shy, introverted high schooler who gets bit by a spider and so on. This unoriginality may have been rooted in the fact that Sony controlled the rights to Spider-Man since 1999 and Marvel hasn’t been able to do what they want. What many fans, and I’m sure employees within Marvel, would like to see done is the use of Miles Morales as the new Spidey alias.
Who is Miles Morales? Miles is a very new character in the Marvel comics, first appearing in 2011 and now playing a part in the Disney TV series. He is a half-black, half-Hispanic character from Brooklyn who better mirrors today’s society of diversity. This is becoming not just a trend, but also a necessity in Hollywood, that they encourage children of ALL races and ethnicities. Not only will this help encourage a growing population in the United States, but it will also open avenues to new audiences that didn’t feel as included. This, invariably, will open new revenue streams for the studios.
The idea to make Miles Morales the lead character moving forward with Spider-Man was so overwhelmingly welcomed that it began trending on Twitter just an hour after the Spidey news broke. It’s clear that no one wants to see yet another origin story of Peter Parker and Uncle Ben, so why do it?
It reportedly was suggested to Sony to before “The Amazing Spider-Man” that Miles should be the center focus, but the people in charge disagreed with the idea. Now, however, those people are no longer involved in these future projects. So the ball is in your court, Marvel.
It also would fit almost too perfectly into the storyline for Marvel and their universe! Comicbook.com came up with a great point — with the official reports saying that Andrew Garfield won’t be returning as Peter Parker, why not take this time to tell the actual story of Miles Morales and the Ultimate Spider-Man? I mean after all, Miles didn’t decide to carry the torch until he saw Peter Parker die, so use Garfield’s departure to your advantage!
With all of the speculation going on and even with well-known blogs and fans providing sensible and seemingly perfect input, the decision is still up to Marvel and the studios. Hopefully — and this is a long shot — Hollywood does something original and genuinely surprises audiences for once. No matter what the story and casting choice — will Spidey be featured in the post-credit scene for “Avengers: Age of Ultron” or “Ant-Man?”