Holy Cats, True Believers! Sony and Marvel are going to share Spider-Man!

According to Comic Book Resources and no less than the Marvel website, Spider-Man is going to get rebooted (again) and join in with the larger Marvel Cinematic Universe.

As if you didn't know:  Sony has had the Spider-Man film rights since way back in the day, and as Marvel was their own studio and is now owned by Disney, Spider-Man has never been a part of the Marvel Universe in films or television.  At least not since he was web-slinging on The Electric Company.

I know it would lose the GDP of Croatia for Sony, but I'd love to see this on the big screen

I have to assume that a weak showing for The Amazing Spider-Man 2 and a critical smackdown on the sequel meant that Sony may have decided they'd prefer to share in the money-printing machine the Marvel folks have got going on over at Disney rather than just keep stamping their feet and insisting they know how to do this.  (I think you can point to whatever went down on Spider-Man 3 vis-a-vis studio notes as the beginning of the problem).


Meanwhile, everyone is kind of already shrugging off the reboot for Fox's take on The Fantastic Four.  While I doubt Fox is likely to part ways with the X-Men, which they've kind of solved, neither the latest Sony take on Spidey nor any of Fox's takes on the FF have managed to capture the je ne sais quoi of the Marvel properties that Marvel studios just lines up and knocks down, one after the other.  But you can see how a power play by Disney/ Marvel could bring over the FF in a similar partnership after we all watch the FF movie burn, fall over and sink into the swamp.

Let's get real, a Spider-Man movie was not really in the conversation this summer, while everyone was talking about a walking shrubbery with dog eyes IN SPACE.

If I can put on my complaining comic nerd hat for a moment (it is not a trilby, so relax), the first two Sam Raimi Spider-Man movies actually designed the template for the Marvel movies, and they were absolutely terrific.  For goodness sake, I'll say it - I still get a little weepy in Spider-Man 2 in at least two scenes (dang your homespun wisdom, Aunt May!).

Whatever conspiracy laden-hoo-har The Amazing Spider-Man series put out there right from the beginning of the first movie pretty much had me checked out before our heroes had a chance to wander onto the screen as teen heart-throbs.  Just - keep it simple, and if you want to have all that backstory later, look at how Marvel has slipped that in across the entire franchise in easter eggs and whatnot.  Don't start off by telling me I'm going to have to watch 3-4 movies to get pay-off of any sort.

Okay.  Rant over with.

and now I safely remove the nerd hat and goggles

The news is fresh and there aren't many story details, but I figure Sony and Marvel have this pretty well in hand.  It's gotta hurt to reboot Spider-Man again, but it'd hurt worse for the movie wing of Sony to just let their biggest cash cow die because they don't really know how to make a good Spider-Man movie without Sam Raimi.  And, dang, who wouldn't want to see The Hulk and Spidey pallinga round in NYC?