PixlBit

Marvel's ambiguous Civil War 2015 announcement yesterday, coupled with the "leak" of Robert Downy Jr. being attached to Captain America 3 as a kickoff to the Civil War story line makes me think the following:

Spider-man is coming to the Marvel cinematic universe. The image they teased with (above) did not have to include Spider-man. The inclusion makes me think that Sony and Marvel may play nice to ensure that Spidey is included in Civil War - especially since he played such an integral role. I mean, why else include him in that image on the same day that the Cap 3 announcement was made?

I'm also guessing we'll get some kind of ultimate Civil War collection release in 2015, as well as an alternate universe continuation of the Civil War story line - one in which Spidey doesn't make his infamous deal with Mephistopheles (One More/Brand New Day).

That's what I got. I think Marvel is content on letting Fox keep the X-Men for now - introducing the Inhumans as their solution for mutant characters - as well as the Fantastic Four, whose comic series is being cancelled for an indefinite period of time.

SIDEBAR: I always thought that the X-Men worked best in their own universe.  The whole metaphor for discrimination/civil rights that permeates through the entirety of that series – really being the tentpole issue – makes much more sense in a world that doesn’t also have gods, super soldiers, spider-men, and aliens walking around too.  I have zero problem with Fox keeping the rights to this series, as they’ve done well (for the most part) with the property, and expanding that world into TV and other films makes a lot of sense.  Integrating that into Marvel’s cinematic universe would introduce too many characters/stories/etc….

SIDEBAR 2: That being said, I do wish that Marvel and Fox could play nice in regards to the Fantastic Four rights.  Marvel’s first family NEEDS to have other characters around to really be successful, and the Marvel cinematic universe would benefit greatly from being able to use some of the great characters that come with the property including Dr. Doom, Galactus, the Silver Surfer, Skrulls, and Kang the Conqueror – especially since some of these characters could also be used at greater length with the Guardians of the Galaxy and Marvel’s other intergalactic properties.

Back to the conversation at hand, from a timeline perspective, I think that introducing Spider-man at this point makes a lot of sense.  Spider-man grew up idolizing a lot of characters that inhabit the Marvel CU at this point (Captain America in particular).  I’m hoping if we’re moving towards Civil War in 2016, that perhaps Spidey makes an appearance before then.

I also think that Sony would be stupid to not let this deal go through.  Spider-man as a movie property is still doing well, but it’s not doing Marvel CU well.  Being included in that universe will push more people to the theaters (myself included).  You could do a soft re-boot for the character – skip the origin story and just have him show up as a hero in New York one day.  People will be okay with this.

Having Spidey also allows some more interesting makeups of future Avenger teams.  Marvel has already said that they are exploring different team makeups post Avengers 3 (which would make sense).  Spider-man has never been a permenant member, but he has been part of the team on a number of occassions.  Having him stand-in for a movie or two would be quite awesome and something that Spider-man as a character would absolutely love.

Whew. That's quite the nerd post. Any of my fellow nerds have any thoughts on all this?

Game on.