Kelvin Chavez of Latino Review scooped the Internet yesterday with a big news dump alleging copious information about the upcoming
First of all, Goddard getting back on-board basically negates the whole “Marvel and Disney are no longer friendly to artists” narrative that swept the Internet for about an hour after Edgar Wright left Ant Man and Goddard left the
Now to be fair, unlike for example the Batman films, the focus in the Marvel films have been squarely on the hero rather than the baddie. The Iron Man films were about Tony Stark, just as the Captain America films were about Steve Rogers's heroic journeys. But it should also be noted that the various heroes that have made up the bulk of the Marvel universe don't exactly have a deep bench of four-color villainy. Can anyone outside the hardcore fans of each respective character name all that many Thor villains, or Captain America foes? Quick, who is Black Panther's arch enemy? And that relative lack of high-profile villainy has been reflected in the films. In terms of colorful baddies that might excite general audiences, Marvel has already exhausted most of their bench by the first or second film in a given franchise.
Aside from Tom Hiddleston's turn as Loki in the Thor films (although he didn't really break out until The Avengers) and arguably Hugo Weaving's one-and-done Red Skull in Captain America: The First Avenger, the Marvel onscreen universe has mostly had somewhat generic villains that existed as extension of the hero's journey. The Winter Soldier is (intentionally) a blank slate and Mr. Shaw from Captain America 2 was only interesting because Robert Redford came him such gravitas. I like Jeff Bridges in the first Iron Man, but he is just an evil businessman. Iron Man 3 had to pretzel itself (in eventually delightful ways) in order to include The Mandarin, who is Iron Man's arch villain but also an unholy racial caricature. I won't be mean and discuss the bad guys in Thor: The Dark World or Lee Pace's mostly forgettable turn in Guardians of the Galaxy.
Bringing Spider-Man into the Marvel film universe brings a deep slate of visually dynamic and wholly recognizable villains to the table. Be it because of the various animated shows, the video games, the previous five films thus far, or just the overall popularity of Spider-Man, general audiences know the likes of the Green Goblin, Doctor Octopus, Venom, Sandman, The Vulture, Black Cat, and Kraven. Since the film is starting from scratch, the filmmakers have total freedom in terms of who to cast, with the potential to cast some ridiculously famous people in what will likely be small roles without massive time commitments. Now obviously the Vulture isn't necessarily going to be the prime baddie in a future Captain America movie, but bringing Spider-Man into the Marvel world gives the possibility of any number of geeky combinations which in turn would create a whirlwind of trailer-friendly moments. Imagine a trailer button that featured Iron Man squaring off against Doctor Octopus, or a curtain raiser to any Marvel movie that had Green Goblin and Hobgoblin getting their butts kicked by Black Widow and The Falcon?
This is all geeky speculation of course. But it is a tool, both in terms of storytelling choices and marketing hooks, that Marvel has not really had before. Now the X-Men comics have a deluge of baddies, but that hasn't stopped
I have said and still say that Marvel didn't need Spider-Man in their movie universe. But now that they have him, they can use his rogue’s gallery to fill one of the few outright holes that they have in their ongoing franchises. We’ll see if any of this comes to pass and it what fashion it cements itself over the next couple years. But I admit I wasn't entirely thinking about Spider-Man’s rogue’s gallery when I discussed the relative usefulness of Peter Parker’s onscreen world. I still have concerns about Spider-Man overshadowing the likes of Captain Marvel and Black Panther, and I hope “and now they fight Iron Man” doesn't become the new go-to plot point for future films. But the director who helmed the best movie of 2012 getting a crack at Spider-Man and Spidey’s villains will provide an unexpected toy in the Marvel toy box. That sounds like a win/win for both parties. What say you true believers?
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