Don’t be fooled: just because Spider-Man is palling around with Iron Man nowadays, that doesn’t mean the deal between Sony Pictures and Marvel Studios is cut and dry. Sony Pictures has allowed Marvel to use Spider-Man in their popular Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) but technically they still own an impressive stable of Spider-Man’s villains and closely affiliated heroes, and if a new rumor is to be believed, they have a plan to use them.
To recap: Sony Pictures has released all of the live-action Spider-Man movies so far this century, but when their Amazing Spider-Man reboot series failed to increase audience interest, they entered into a deal to let Marvel put the popular superhero in Captain America: Civil War and to work together with Marvel Studios integrate the wallcrawler in the MCU. The decision was largely lauded by critics and fans as a positive move, even though it scuttled Sony’s ambitious scheme to develop their own superhero universe.
As you may remember, Sony had originally planned to stretch the Amazing Spider-Man franchise into a series of spin-offs, including a film entirely about Spider-Man’s villains called Sinister Six and a film about the popular Spider-Man villain Venom. The studio halted production on these spin-offs when the Marvel deal came through, but now, according to Collider, Sony is back at work on their own shared universe, which they plan to launch with an R-rated adaptation of the Marvel supervillain Venom.
Marvel Studios
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This rumor fits tidily into what we’ve been hearing about Sony’s superhero movie plans, which also include an animated Spider-Man movie set outside of Marvel’s continuity and a team-up movie featuring Spider-Man’s ensemble cast members Silver Sable and Black Cat. From a business perspective it’s in Sony’s best financial interests to make the most of its existing investment in these characters, and to build successful franchises which generate profits that wouldn’t need to be shared with Marvel Studios. Sure, fans may not be excited about a Venom movie without Spider-Man right now, but if it’s a good movie, that opinion could change.
If this rumor is true the new superhero universe would have nothing to do with the Marvel Cinematic Universe, although there are loopholes that would still allow a version of Spider-Man to appear in them, especially if Sony capitalizes on the fact that – in the comics – there is more than one Spider-Man. With Peter Parker being featured in the MCU and Mile Morales getting his own animated movie at Sony, we may soon find ourselves with two parallel Spider-Man continuities playing out in theaters, much like the 616 and Ultimate Marvel universes once coexisted side-by-side at comic book stores.
Columbia Pictures
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Of course, A) this is still just a rumor, and B) Sony has made these sorts of plans before, and those plans completely imploded. But this is what everyone in the film industry is talking about today, and now you know about it too.
Is it a good idea? Maybe. Is it a bad idea? Maybe. It’s hard to have a strong opinion about this when you think about the superhero movie genre on a larger scale. You see, the superhero movie genre needs constant experimentation if it’s going to continue to thrive. Even if these experiments fail once in a while, they might just lead to better ideas being turned into movies down the line.
In other words, if it wasn’t for the disappointing Amazing Spider-Man franchise we wouldn’t have Spider-Man in the MCU, and a lot of folks consider that a win. And if it wasn’t for Sony taking advantage of their option on Spider-Man in the first place, and producing a risky blockbuster that ultimately changed the way mainstream audiences felt about all superhero movies, we probably wouldn’t have the MCU at all. So either way, Sony’s big decisions about this franchise have yielded some very positive results, in one way or another.
So I say, let ’em try it. If it’s great, great. If it sucks, they can always hand over the rest of their characters to Marvel too.
The 15 Funniest Superhero Movies:
Top Photo: Columbia Pictures
William Bibbiani (everyone calls him ‘Bibbs’) is Crave’s film content editor and critic. You can hear him every week on The B-Movies Podcast and Canceled Too Soon, and watch him on the weekly YouTube series What the Flick. Follow his rantings on Twitter at @WilliamBibbiani.
The 15 Funniest Superhero Comedies
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15. Sky High (2015)
The son of a successful superhero winds up in shameful sidekick school in this surprisingly funny family comedy, which features tons of great roles for geek icons like Kurt Russell, Linda Carter and Bruce Campbell.
Funniest Moment: Campbell, in just about any scene as the gym teacher, "Coach Boomer."
Photo: Buena Vista Pictures
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14. Tank Girl (1995)
The Australian post-apocalyptic hero (and fashion renegade) got her own, highly underrated movie starring Lori Petty and Naomi Watts, who romance kangaroo people and wage war against douchebags of all kinds.
Funniest Moment: If you're going to do a musical number in a superhero movie, it might as well be "Let's Do It" by Cole Porter.
Photo: United Artists
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13. Super (2010)
James Gunn's dark, dark, dark comedy stars Rainn Wilson as the superhero answer to Taxi Driver; the satire is brutal, and the violence even more so.
Funniest Moment: "Shut up, crime!"
Photo: IFC Films
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12. Mystery Men (1999)
Z-list superheroes like Mister Furious, The Shoveler and The Bowler (played by an all-star cast of great comedians) get their chance at the big time when the city's "real" superhero, Captain Amazing, gets kidnapped. An endearing and quirky ode to the working class.
Funniest Moment: "Lance Hunt wears glasses, Captain Amazing DOESN'T wear glasses. [...] It doesn't make sense. He wouldn't be able to see!"
Photo: Universal Pictures
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11. Flash Gordon (1980)
The classic comic strip hero came to the big screen with a kickass Queen soundtrack, an amazing cast and a campy sense of humor that was probably ahead of its time. Brian Blessed is (weirdly enough) perfectly cast as a half-man, half-hawk warrior.
Funniest Moment: "Flash, I love you, but we only have fourteen hours to save the Earth!"
Photo: Universal Pictures
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10. Iron Man (2008)
In the first (proper) Marvel Studios film, the action often takes a backseat to watching Robert Downey Jr. play a charismatic a-hole who learns a valuable lesson about why he's an a-hole.
Funniest Moment: Tony Stark's last line before the credits, which flies right in the face of superhero movie tradition.
Photo: Marvel Studios
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9. Big Hero 6 (2014)
The Oscar-winning animated feature, about a brilliant young scientist who puts together a superhero team to cope with his brother's death, would have been pretty melancholy were it not for the lovable, inflatable robot Baymax, who's WAY too adorable to kick butt.
Funniest Moment: Baymax's sound effect whenever he "blows it up."
Photo: Walt Disney Studios
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8. The Avengers (2012)
Joss Whedon's first superhero team-up movie is still the best, in large part because he lets all the strange personalities of the Marvel heroes and villains conflict with witty dialogue and deadpan snark. Bonus points for Galaga.
Funniest Moment: "Puny god."
Photo: Marvel Studios
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7. Iron Man 3 (2013)
Shane Black's superhero sequel has a controversial storyline that ticked some fans off, but it also has some of the funniest dialogue and unexpected set pieces of any superhero movie.
Funniest Moment: Iron Man finally meets The Mandarin, and (once again) this franchise flies right in the face of superhero movie tradition.
Photo: Marvel Studios
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6. Spider-Man 2 (2004)
Sam Raimi's second Spider-Man movie understands what makes this hero work: the world keeps hitting him in the face, but he keeps getting up. Watching Peter Parker take a beating, from both Doctor Octopus and life in general, is one of superhero cinema's greatest pleasures.
Funniest Moment: "I'm back! I'm back! [Smash.] My back... my back..."
Photo: Columbia Pictures
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5. The Incredibles (2004)
Pixar presents their superheroes as a sitcom family, with stifled powers representing midlife crises and pubescent angst. Every member of The Incredibles is funny, but let them bicker at each other and you've got comedy gold.
Funniest Photo: A rapid-fire montage of innocent superheroes, all of them killed by their own capes.
Photo: Pixar
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4. The Specials (2000)
James Gunn wrote the script to this clever, low-budget superhero comedy, about a crappy superhero team on one of their days off. Almost no action to speak of, but tons of insightful satire and a great cast make The Specials one of the best unsung superhero films.
Funniest Moment: It's too profane to write down here, but Rob Lowe misunderstands a fellow superhero, and accidentally comes up with a whole new kind of weevil.
Photo: Anchor Bay
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3. Guardians of the Galaxy (2014)
A group of morally ambiguous jerks team up in space (when they're not trying to kill each other) and take on a genocidal madman in James Gunn's bigger budget superhero film, full of memorable characters, wonderful music and endlessly quotable dialogue.
Funniest Moment: "They got my dick message!"
Photo: Marvel Studios
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2. Batman: The Movie (1966)
The campy, silly Batman TV series was a pop culture sensation in the 1960s, and leapt onto the big screen with a hilarious all-star supervillain team-up, and iconic moments like shark repellant and a sequence where Batman is trying to throw a bomb away, but keeps running into innocent bystanders like nuns and baby ducks.
Funniest Moment: "Some days, you just can't get rid of a bomb."
Photo: 20th Century Fox
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1. Deadpool (2016)
Not just hilarious, not just emotionally satisfying, but outright subversive. Deadpool takes superhero movies down a peg, and adds a healthy dose of pegging for an R-rated, self-aware satire that also ranks among the better superhero movies (even the ones that don't have a sense of humor).
Funniest Moment: "Happy Lent."
Photo: 20th Century Fox
