Unreality Companion: 5 Things to Look Forward to Now that Spider-Man Is in the MCU

In which I expand on the content from my weekly Unrealitymag.com article.

Spider-Man's been pretty much the only thing that anybody's been talking about this week.  Sure, there's an awesome new Legend of Zelda series in the works, but Spider-Man's finally back where he belongs and Marvel is one step closer to having all of their heroes under one roof again.  And with me expanding on what this means for the future of Marvel films in this week's Unreality article, I figured that I should delve a little deeper in what role I hope that the wall-crawler (and his peripheral cast) will play in the future of the MCU.

1) Phase 2 Post-Credit Scene  All that we currently know about Spider-Man's involvement in the Marvel Cinematic Universe is that he is going to have a solo movie in 2017 and will be introduced in a Marvel film before then.  And while people are buzzing with the possibility of having him as an integral part of Civil War (which is itself more than likely), most seem to have overlooked one of the most anticipated parts of any Marvel film: the post credit scene.

I am absolutely certain that Spider-Man's actual introduction to the MCU will be in a post (or mid) credit scene in one of the two remaining Phase 2 films.  At this late stage, it might realistically be too late to recast Spider-Man and shoot a clip of him for Age of Ultron, but Ant-Man is just far enough away that it might be able to come in under the wire.  And, if all else fails, they could always show him with his mask on until they finalize an actor to play him.

2) Captain America: Civil War  Comic fans couldn't possibly be happier with the timing of this announcement.  With Civil War currently in pre-production, there is a very good chance that Spider-Man can be incorporated into the storyline and play a fundamental role in that film.

The thing is, Spider-Man was actually an integral player in the Civil War storyline.  He brazenly revealed his secret identity to the world and had to live with the fallout of that decision (including, but not limited to, Aunt May getting shot).  Although secret identities aren't really a thing in the MCU (Tony Stark announced his to the entire world in Iron Man, Captain America's is a matter of public record, Black Widow dumped hers on the internet in The Winter Soldier, etc...), that shouldn't stop him from acting as a game-changer.

3) The Sinister Six  Although production on this Spider-Man spinoff film is currently delayed while Sony reconsiders its entire movie slate, I whole-heartedly hope that the studio continues with its plan for the film.  It's not only because of who's attached to the project (Drew Goddard, the director of The Cabin in the Woods), but because of what it might represent: an in-universe answer to DC's Suicide Squad.

Marvel's problem has always been that it loses the villains race against DC.  And with their characters film rights long having been divided up between several competing studios, it lost out on a lot of their best ones.  In particular, Spider-Man's rogue gallery has been the most colorful, eclectic an ultimately satisfying of all, and this supervillainous team-up is among the most exciting group in the entire Marvel Universe.  Whether operating as an anti-heroic answer to The Avengers or as antagonists in a future Avengers film, the team-up's possibilities are endless now that they've joined the MCU.

4) The Defenders New York is the heart and soul of the Marvel Universe.  This has taken on far greater importance in the MCU, as the site of the Battle of New York - the meta-franchise's answer to the September 11 terrorist attacks.  Marvel's four upcoming Netflix series, plus their planned min-series crossover, notably takes place within the city.  And, for that matter, so do the wall-crawling adventures of Spider-Man.

While a bit more of a long-shot, it's not beyond the realm of possibility to get a few Spider-Man cameos in the series.  After all, even Nick Fury showed up for the first season finale of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.  Lady Sif has become a semi-recurring character on the show and Agent Jasper Sitwell crossed over to the big screen during The Winter Soldier.  If these four are busting skulls in his backyard, why wouldn't Spider-Man at least step in to take a look?

5) Avengers: Infinity War Part I and II and beyond  This almost goes without saying, but having Spider-Man in the MCU means having him suit up alongside the likes of Iron Man, Cap' and Thor.  It's probably a foregone conclusion at this point that he will factor into the Infinity War narrative in one capacity or another, not to mention future big screen crossovers.  I personally can't wait to see what shenanigans Parker gets up to with the rest of the team.

If you liked what you read, please share this post on social media and subscribe to this blog in order to keep up with the latest posts.  Ask questions or share your thoughts in the comments section below.

Extra, Extra!: Marvel's New Phase 3 Lineup

In which I report on the latest in entertainment news.

I suppose that it was inevitable that Marvel would have to reconfigure their Phase 3 lineup if they planned on incorporating Spider-Man into it somewhere.  And really, on the grand scale of all things Marvel, these are some pretty minor changes, even if some of them are a bit more puzzling than others.  So behold, at last, Marvel's newly updated Phase 3:

Like I said, pretty minor adjustments on the whole, allowing for the new Spider-Man solo movie to slide in between Guardians of the Galaxy 2 and Thor: Ragnarok.  Spider-Man takes Thor 3's July 28 slot, Thor 3 takes Black Panther's November 3 slot, Black Panther takes Captain Marvel's November 2 slot and Inhumans gets pushed back to July 12, 2019.

Inhumans, however, is the somewhat more puzzling release date that I mentioned earlier.  Marvel seems pretty committed to releasing only three movies a year, specifically in May, July and November.  Not wanting to simply shoehorn in one in April (like Captain America: The Winter Soldier) or August (like Guardians of the Galaxy), they settled on their last non-Avengers film to be pushed to the end of Phase 3: meaning that Inhumans will anti-climactically cap off Phase 3 in the exact same way that Ant-Man will finish off Phase 2.

I get the reasoning behind it.  Marvel doesn't want to singlehandedly oversaturate the market.  Three movies every year will guarantee that they'll not stretch budgets, actors or behind-the-scenes talents too thinly.  After all, people will only continue to shell out money for these kinds of movies for as long as they're good (let's not forget how Batman and Robin was singlehandedly enough to kill the sub-genre).  That's intelligent, responsible, forward-thinking buisiness.

The results just look weird on paper.  It additionally just short of guarantees that the Inhumans themselves won't factor into either Infinity War film (which pretty much kills a lot of my hopes for a more direct Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. crossover on the big screen).  Regardless, I am more excited about Phase 3 than before, which is not something that I would have thought possible last week.

If you liked what you read, please share this post on social media and subscribe to this blog in order to keep up with the latest posts.  Ask questions or share your thoughts in the comments section below.

Extra, Extra!: Spider-Man joins the MCU

In which I report on the latest in entertainment news.

I didn't think that it was possible, but somehow Nintendo's announcement that they're going to be producing a live-action Legend of Zelda series for Netflix wasn't the biggest piece of entertainment news to hit this week.  Think about that for a second.  A live-action Zelda series was not the biggest thing to happen this week.

That's right: Spider-Man will finally be joining the Marvel Cinematic Universe after Sony's spent five films strangleholding his film rights.  This is honestly the most exciting thing that I've seen on the internet since that fake story about Fox selling back to rights to X-Men and the Fantastic Four to Marvel (seriously, check out that publication date).  And although the deal is a bit wordy, everything looks back on course for Spider-Man's cinematic run.

Spider-Man will be introduced to the MCU in a movie before July 28, 2017.  Why before that oddly specific date?  It's because that's when the next Spider-Man movie comes out.  And with the way that things currently stand, it's looking increasingly likely that he will appear in Captain America: Civil War, which is awesome, considering the key role that he played in the comic's storyline.  The other option (and the one that I'm actually hoping is the case) is that he'll be featured in post-credit sequence in one of the two remaining phase 2 films: either Ant-Man or Avengers: Age of Ultron.

Marvel and Sony will Co-Produce future Spider-Man movies.  It really should come as no surprise that, even in the fallout of the Sony hacks, the floundered release of The Interview and the increasingly bleak prospects for Sony's film department, that the company would not let go of their primary cinematic cash cow so easily.  They still want in on the highly lucrative superhero game.

But that's not to say that Marvel (and, by proxy, Disney) is going to let them have free reign over the character.  Kevin Feige - the Godfather of the MCU - will act as a producer to the films, lending his golden touch to the battered and increasingly tired franchise (which is exciting).  Amy Pascal, who oversaw the franchise since the first Spider-Man, will also stay on as a producer (which is far less exciting).

Sony will have final say over future Spider-Man movies.  While this is, on the surface at least, the most troubling caveat of the deal, it isn't quite so bad as it might at first appear to be.  Sony's in trouble, there's no question about that.  They've turned what is hands down my favorite Super-hero into a generally detested property (even if I don't think that all of the criticisms levied against it are fair).  Everybody's favorite wall-crawler, with his near instantaneous reboot and several truly dreadful films, was becoming as much of a joke as Meryl Streep at the Oscars: always coming back for more with increasingly dubious projects.

I think that Sony has the sense to lean on Kevin Feige's advice, given how he has transformed Marvel into the premiere superhero brand for the big screen.  Even though Sony gets the last word in all things Spider-Man, it's a safe bet that that word will echo whatever Feige ultimately suggests.

There's no word on Marc Webb, Andrew Garfield or The Amazing Spider-Man.  It seems pretty safe to assume, however, that the first two are out of a job and that the latter is going to be rebooted.  This is actually a real tragedy, because Webb did a great job at fixing the butchered remnants of the character after Raimi got through with him in Spider-Man 3 and Andrew Garfield was able to inject the fun, wit and sarcasm back into the character (three traits that, for me, always defined Peter Parker).  And it seems pretty sad to scrap the nascent franchise after the series finally seemed to find its footing and push it into a direction that looked to be working (even if the second film's absolute dedication to that made it as a single film far less than exciting).

That being said, although we're almost guaranteed a new Spider-Man in a new stand-alone franchise, I doubt that the 2017 film will be an origin story.  They've already announced that he will be introduced before that, likely as a fully realized Spider-Man who got around to superheroing in the aftermath of the Battle of New York.  How the events of The Avengers will play into his character is perhaps the most intriguing question of all.

So what are your thoughts about the announcement?  Will you be sad to see The Amazing Spider-Man get abandoned just when it seemed to find its footing, or will you just be happy to see Spider-Man where he truly belongs?  Who should play the presumably rebooted web-crawler?  How should the character be introduced in the MCU?  Let me know in the comments section below.

If you liked what you read, please share this post on social media and subscribe to this blog in order to keep up with the latest posts.  Ask questions or share your thoughts in the comments section below.

Why I'm Okay with No Iron Man 4

In a recent interview with Variety, Robert Downey Jr. stated that there are currently no plans in the work for an Iron Man 4.  This is not exactly surprising.  Although signed on for the next two Avengers, he was never contracted for any additional Iron Man films.  At 49-years-old, the prospect of continuing the incredibly physical role of a superhero has to be more than just a little daunting.  And although I recently speculated on the subject of a fourth Iron Man film, I am generally fine with the promise of none.

Now, that's not to say that I don't want to see an Iron Man 4, because I do.  After the Captain America films, the Iron Man franchise is the one that Marvel has done the best work with (even after taking into account Iron Man 2).  Before 2008, Tony Stark was a mainstream non-entity with the same level of popularity as Thor or Ant-Man.  In 2013, despite a smaller budget, Iron Man 3 outperformed Man of Steel at the box office by over $117,000,000 dollars.  Marvel somehow took an alcoholic, narcissistic prick - himself played by an alcoholic, narcissistic prick - and turned him into the breakout character of not just Marvel's Phase 1, but of the post-millennial film scene.

What's even more unfortunate is that Marvel seems to have finally gotten the hang of this particular franchise.  Yes, Iron Man was a resounding success for Marvel and single-handedly launched the company's cinematic universe, but it still suffered from "The Marvel Problem" - a solid, although forgettable, villain that ends up only being functional within the narrative.  How much to do we really care about Iron Monger (or Whiplash or Red Skull or Malaketh) beyond the fact that they're evil and in need of a good thrashing by whatever Avenger we've paid $10 or more to see?

Although far from being a bad film, Iron Man 2 is by far Marvel's weakest outing to date.  Whiplash was far less interesting than even Iron Monger was, the plot barely treads water and Justin Hammer and Senator Stern are tied for the most unendurably obnoxious character in the MCU's ten-film canon.  What really strikes me about the film is that is seems like it was rushed into production with the sole purpose of capitalizing on the unprecedented popularity of the first film.  It understands what people loved about the first movie - Robert Downey Jr's iconic performance, Tony's playful, bad-boy demeanor and the brilliantly-rendered Iron Man armor - without really understanding why people loved it.

Iron Man 3, however, realized not only what made Iron Man awesome, but why as well.  It even managed to solve the aforementioned "Marvel Problem" by giving us the MCU's most memorable villain to date: Ben Kingsley's Trevor Slattery / The Mandarin.  It was funny, exciting, intelligent and even managed to pull off a cute kid "sidekick" without throwing him in a pint-sized suit of armor and pitting him against a bunch of Extremis soldiers.  It didn't just realize that Tony Stark was more than "a man in a can," but made it its central theme.

"You can take away my house, all my tricks and toys, but one

thing you can't take away - I am Iron Man."

The reason why I am fine with the current hold on Iron Man films - despite loving the franchise and the new, unexpected directions that they've decided to take with it - is because there's so much more to Marvel, and even Iron Man, than just Tony Stark.  Marvel is creating an entire universe of characters, not just Stark & Friends.  Their rapidly expanding roster of characters, franchises and potential franchises is beginning to outpace what they can produce in the five or six films per phase that they've currently managed.

Phase 3 already has Ant-Man, Captain America 3, Doctor Strange, Guardians of the Galaxy 2 and Avengers 3, with maybe one open slot remaining.  Is that where you stick Iron Man 4?  Why not follow Nick Fury on his solo mission to Europe?  What about Black Widow's soul-searching journey after Captain America: The Winter Soldier?  Whatever happened to Hawkeye, who's been strangely unseen since The Avengers?  Or is this where you stick a Thor 3 or The Incredible Hulk 2 (or maybe even Planet Hulk)?  You can't explore these facets of the MCU without taking a break from another, and Iron Man has simply had more exposure than any other Marvel hero.

Marvel could also take their Phase 2 philosophy of shaking up everything that they've established in Phase 1 by taking the entire franchise in a new direction.  I would love seeing a War Machine movie: a darker, edgier film with Rhodey running covert ops - basically like a cross between Iron Man and Captain America: The Winter Soldier.  Don Cheadle is certainly a strong enough actor to headline his own film and I am confident that Rhodey will prove to be a thoroughly interesting character when he's finally free from Tony's shadow.

What about Pepper Pots?  She has consistently proven herself to be more than just a romantic lead or damsel in distress, convincingly saving Stark from Killian in Iron Man 3.  What if her Extremis abilities resurface, making her a prime Avengers candidate in her own right?  Either option should provide ample life to the franchise without Iron Man headlining the show.

Regardless of what future Iron Man has in the MCU, I am not concerned by his current state of moratorium.  He's still scheduled to show up in both Avengers 2 and 3, where he will doubtless steal a scene or two.  And with innumerable cameos to come, even without another solo film, we're far from seeing the last of Robert Downey Jr as Iron Man.