Spider-Man finally debuted in a Captain America: Civil War trailer, and folks are super excited. In other Spidey-related news, Sony has declared that a solo Venom film is still in the works that will NOT be related to the new rebooted Spider-Man franchise, which will be a part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Um…what?
A quick legal summary for those of you who need it: Marvel doesn’t own the film rights to all of their own characters. In the 90s, they sold some of them to several different studios to get much needed cash. And while Marvel Studios has slowly gained most of these film rights back, FOX still has X-Men and Fantastic Four, and apparently Namor’s rights are at Universal Studios. Sony, who still owns the rights to the Spider-Man stable of characters, made a deal with Marvel to bring Spidey into the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU), however, this deal doesn’t account for all the Spider-Man characters (like Venom) that Sony controls.
Basically, Sony is looking for ways to make profitable films without sharing with Marvel in financial or creative ways, like they will have to do with upcoming Spider-Man films. Their solution is apparently this Venom film…unconnected to Spidey…which would be a disaster.
Marvel Studios has shown a commitment to respecting source material by recruiting writers, directors and actors who are true comic book fans. This has resulted in billions of dollars in revenue, happy fans, and, most importantly, good movies.
Meanwhile, the folks over at Sony are still trying to figure out a magical formula for success. They ruined Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man trilogy because they insisted on too many villains in Spider-Man 3. Then they rebooted, made an decent new film, and, in Amazing Spider-Man 2, made the exact. same. mistake.
Look, I get it, they want to make money. I’m sure they have all sorts of analysts trying to predict the next big trend. Those analysts are probably busy saying they can make millions on an R-rated Venom film because Deadpool was so successful. But Deadpool wasn’t successful because it was rated R, it was successful because Deadpool is an amazingly popular character and Ryan Reynolds made sure they stuck to the source material. So there’s the big “secret.” Make a quality film that respects the source material. People will come to watch. It really is that simple. So, that being said, here’s how to do that with Spider-Man, Venom, and all the symbiotes.
1. Space!
The Venom symbiote needs to come from outer space. Not from a lab. When Spidey is stuck on Earth, like in Spider-Man 3, sure, a crash landing of sorts is fine, but with this new MCU Spider-Man, we’re not stuck on Earth.
In the comics, Spider-Man gets his black symbiote suit while fighting in the Secret Wars. Since the suit doesn’t really come into play in that storyline, its a pretty easy switch and have him discover it in the MCU’s next Avengers films, which will involve the Infinity Wars. With the amount of characters they will be needing, I’m sure Spider-Man is a strong possibility to appear in those films. Let him find the suit there. Oh, and it better not be just a black version of his usual suit. Make sure the spider is the big, white one, no webbing needed.
2. Back in Black
Give Spider-Man a full movie with his black suit.
Everything seems so rushed when you try to have Spider-Man discover the symbiote and get rid of it in the same film. Spidey could find the suit near the end of Infinity Wars Part 1, and have it for the remainder of the second film. That way there’s some time to see the slow decay of the symbiote getting into Peter’s brain and you don’t need to have an entire solo Spider-Man film to set up Venom.
3. Introduce Eddie Brock Early
We need to buy into Eddie’s hatred of Spider-Man. Put him on the Bugle staff when Parker shows up. Let him get jealous because Parker is the new kid who folks like, and let him hate Spidey because he’s “in the way of a good story,” but make us care about him. He should be a foil to Peter, who wants to do the right thing the right way. Brock sees that the ends justify the means. We need to feel sorry for him, because it would be some great cinema to have Eddie try to commit suicide, but be saved by a recently cast off symbiote, drawn to Eddie’s emotional state and desire for revenge against Parker and Spider-Man, the “two” men who destroyed his career.
4. A Trilogy of Sorts
After Infinity Wars, Spidey should battle Venom in a solo film. There’s plenty of ways to do this, but the key would be the ending, where the symbiote is removed from Brock, and he is sent off to share a cell with Cletus Kassidy in prison. That’s film one, with Spider-Man in the lead roll and Venom as villain.
Film two would be a solo Venom film based on the Lethal Protector storyline. The symbiote returns and breaks Eddie out of jail. Rather than fighting Spider-Man, he takes off to make a new name for himself as a “Lethal Protector” of the innocent. Much to Eddie’s suprise (remember, he has next to no idea how the symbiote works), the symbiote reproduces, creating Scream, Phage, Riot, Lasher, and Agony, who run amok in the city’s homeless population. Venom battles the new symbiotes and destroys them. In a post-credits scene, we get a glimpse of one final symbiote offspring, left behind in Cletus Kasady’s cell.
Film three could be another Spider-Man film, (or an Avengers film). In it, the final Venom offspring bonds with Kasady, creating Carnage. Carnage breaks out of jail, leaving a trail of bodies in his wake. Spider-Man shows up, and is nearly killed as well. Later, Carnage sees footage of Venom fighting crime in San Francisco. Wanting to kill his “father,” Carnage sets out for California, murdering his way across America. In a final showdown, Spider-Man and Venom converge and defeat Carnage. To make it an Avengers film, add more super-villains that end up teaming with Carnage, or add a symbiote army.
Another wrinkle could have Carnage framing Venom for some murders, which would give Brock enough incentive to team up with Spidey. Adapting the Maximum Carnage storyline, or Carnage U.S.A. would be the best plan here.
I’m pretty flexible with these options, but they do a good job of hitting all the main points. People want to see a good version of Venom on the big screen, and it will be too bad if Sony mucks it up.
Any suggestions?
The Marvelologist 