Ever since we learned that Spider-Man was swinging his way back over to Marvel to join the studio’s ever-expanding Cinematic Universe, there has been debate over which secret identity the web-slinger would assume. For decades, Peter Parker has been the lone identity of the amazing Spider-Man, but that persona has been passed to at least two other characters in recent years, and some fans thought it might be time to give Mr. Parker a rest. Well, Marvel apparently disagrees.
While fielding questions from fans on his popular tumblr account, Marvel’s Chief Creative Officer, Joe Quesada, was asked if he’d seen any visual concepts or early designs for the 2017 Spider-Man movie now on Marvel’s slate. He also was asked what he thought was the "main things [he] feels is most important" to making a successful Spider-Man film. And in his answer, Quesada tipped his cards, stating:
The trick to making any incarnation of Spider-Man great, whether comics, animation or film is Peter Parker. Get Peter’s character right and the rest falls into place.
With that, we believe Joe Quesada confirms what was mentioned in the first Marvel press release regarding the studio’s deal with Sony Pictures: The next Spider-Man – and the first version of the character made under the umbrella of the MCU – will be Peter Parker. Quesada wasn’t prompted about Peter Parker, yet he name-dropped the identity of the classic character. Again, this was mentioned in the press release, but ever since that information dropped, there have been vocal communities hoping that Marvel would transition over to Miles Morales or, even, Ben Reilly (though that contingent hasn’t been nearly as passionate as Team Miles). But it appears that Marvel will take a crack at Peter Parker with its first swing, which we believe will happen with Captain America: Civil War.
Here’s why this might be frustrating for some. Peter Parker had his chance, with two film franchises that succeeded and failed to varying degrees. The character has been played on screen by Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield. Casual fans of the franchise and the character believe they’ve already seen Peter’s story – from Uncle Ben’s death to his struggles with vintage villains like the Green Goblin and Doctor Octopus. No one needs to sit through another Spider-Man origin story.
But this should work because the Peter Parker who will show up in Civil War will be younger, but established as Spider-Man. From everything we are hearing, we will not have to endure the story of Peter transforming into Spidey again. Marvel and the MCU will be able to hit the ground running, leading right in to the standalone movie scheduled for July 28, 2017. And as a longtime fan, I want to see Marvel’s first official take on Spider-Man be Peter Parker. I think Miles Morales needs a chance to shine on screen eventually. But this is the first time Marvel will be able to work their movie magic on the wall-crawler, after having to watch Sony take multiple stabs over the years, and I think (as a traditionalist) their first effort should be in bringing Peter Parker to the screen. There’s so much more to Peter that hasn’t been explored, properly, in the Spider-Man movies. I, for one, can’t wait to see how he’s portrayed in an actual, legitimate Marvel movie.
What do you think? Does this news make you more or less excited for the Spider-Man movie that we are getting in July 2017?
