Spider-Manconsistently remains the most popular character in Marvel’s catalog. The franchise might manage to give the spotlight to Captain America or Iron Man for a moment or two, but Spidey will swing back into the top slot eventually. One of the things that people love about Spider-Man is his grounded personal narrative. He’s fundamentally a hero of the people. Recent Spider-Man stories on the big screen stick the wall-crawler to stories about infinite alternate universes with infinite Spider-Folks. How did he get here, and how can he go back to Queens?
The differences between movies and comics are almost exclusively negative.Everything is so much easieron the printed page. Movies cost unimaginable sums of money to make, change, or release. Comic book characters can be altered at a moment’s notice and slotted into any given position. This is what enables Marvel’s stories about worlds full of characters who exist simultaneously, fall into collaboration with each other, and seem to go about their business even when they aren’t the focus of the story. Marvel Comics has a roster, while the Marvel Cinematic Universe has a cast, which is just much harder to work with.
Spider-Man and the Spider-Verse Go Way Back
Marvel started playing with alternate universes several decades ago. The first Peter Parker debuted in a 1962 issue ofAmazing Fantasy. Only five years later, he made hisTV debut in the classic cartoon series. Paul Soles' take on the character is probably the first Spider-Man variant, though he wouldn’t seem that way at the time. In 1983, an issue ofThe Daredevilswould dub the original Marvel Universe Earth-616. The same year,Marvel Tailsintroduced Peter Porker, the one and only Spider-Ham. A 2004 Marvel Encyclopedia called Porker’s reality Earth-8311. Most of the iconic alternate Spider-Folks are a bit more recent.
Historically, Spider-Man has been a massively popular character, leading Marvel to push him wherever they can. Whenever they pitch a new universe, the first thought in every writer’s mind is how they could handle Spider-Man. This eventually led to events likeSpider-VerseandSpider-Geddon, which pushed allthe varied Spider-Folkstogether at last. Though this is a bizarrely common element of Spidey’s presence on the page, it’s notably different on the big screen.
Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verseand its sequels are among the best pieces of Marvel media to be released in the past few decades.Everyone loves these beautifulanimated explorations of the most popular superhero of the era. Though they are unquestionable masterpieces of the genre, they play with theSpider-Verseconcept in reverse. The films thoroughly explore Miles Morales, but everyone else is a visitor to his story. TheSpider-Verseevent introduced several integral variants, but the film dropped in several familiar comic book characters. Instead of letting each Spider-Person play the friendly neighborhood hero in their universe, they become a Spider-Army before fans properly get to know them. This frames the Spider Society as the default home of Spider-Folks. It’s a strange condition to watch a new Spider-Man grow. Oddly enough,it fits the live-action filmsas well.
Spider-Man’s Rights Dispute is the Problem
Kevin Feige used to say that he had no intention of exploring the multiverse concept in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. The first MCU film to bring it up wasDoctor Strangein 2016, which saw Stephen Strange fly through a variety of esoteric alternate realities.Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.andEndgamepartially broached the multiverse with their time travel and alternate futures.Spider-Man: Far From Homeexplained the multiverse in terms fans were more used to, though it came from a known liar with weirdly accurate information. AfterLoki, the multiverse revealed its purpose. For all the concept’s promise, the MCU mostly uses its multiverse concept to bring back characters and actors that people know for cheap name recognition. Spider-Man is a character that Marvel has to share, guaranteeing that he can never live fully in either universe. He’strapped in the multiverse concept, constantly dancing around his variants and the Sony universe that exists without him. This unfortunate reality could drag Spider-Man down for ages.
Spider-Man can still be a street-level hero. He should be fighting his own antagonists and protecting his own family. Part of the problem is that superhero fatigue hits notable characters hard. Everyone has alreadyseen Peter Parker fightGreen Goblin and Doctor Octopus, so the impulse to do something new isn’t amiss. However, Spider-Man works best as the grounded hero of the city he grew up in. He has his own cast of characters and personal stakes. The multiverse needs Spider-Man more than he needs it. Let Spider-Man protect his friendly neighborhood again.
