I would argue that the character of Peter Parker's Spider-man is so well embedded within pop culture, that nowadays anybody who attends a screening of the latest movie already likely knows the character's origin with the radioactive spider.
The version of Spider-man we have been given within the Marvel Cinematic Universe has kind of done this, giving us a Peter Parker who has already been through the transformation and "training" stage.
So why do we get so many Origin Stories with the Web Crawler?
We all know the history. Back in the 90s, when Marvel was nearing bankruptcy, they sold the rights to several of their comic book characters to Hollywood movie studios. Most notably, their "Poster Boy" character, Spider-man, to Sony.
However, this wasn’t without certain caveats. A list of legal rules and obligations that would have to be followed in order to maintain the purity and essence of the character.
Things Spider-Man is not allowed to do according to the original contract between Marvel and Sony
When the deal was made with Sony (during the Sam Raimi days) certain rules were put into place to protect Marvel's flagship character. These included the following:Peter Parker aka Spider-man Has to be white.Peter Parker aka Spider-man Cannot be gay.Peter Parker aka Spider-man Cannot abuse alcohol/get drunkPeter Parker aka Spider-man Cannot be popularPeter Parker aka Spider-man Cannot kill someonePeter Parker aka Spider-man Cannot do drugsPeter Parker aka Spider-man Cannot have sexPeter Parker aka Spider-man Has to make his costume (Red and Blue)and finally that any depiction of the Black Suit has to be an alien life form.In order to make this list of rules work for the big screen, the easiest solution was/is to make Peter Parker a teenager! This makes sticking to these rules laid out by Marvel in their contract so much easier. Being a teenager means the character can't/shouldn't be doing a lot of these things anyway.
And if you are going to have a teenage Spider-man, one of the prominent events of those years would be the spider-bite and his origin story as becoming a hero.
Did you Know:
Disney actually has someone who sits in on all discussions for live-action movies just to say "Spider-Man wouldn't do that".
But that is just the Movies... What about the comics?
Over the last sixty-plus years we've seen Peter Parker's Spider-man go through several big life moments. These include but are not limited to:
Peter graduating high school,
Peter attending college,
Losing his first love (Gwen Stacy),Finding new love in Mary Jane,Getting married to Mary Jane,Almost having a child and starting a family...Then BAM! Making a deal with the Devil, Mephisto, for a full reset, completely undoing all that came before.
To say the mainline series of Spider-man (The Amazing Spider-man) is the BEST would be a lie. Don't get me wrong, it has been and continues to be a great series. But the BEST Spider-man stories are those that have been able to break free from the shackles and break the mold with the character. Again, these include but are not limited to:
Spiderman: Life Story by Chip Zdarsky The 1994 Animated Series on Fox Kids created by John Semper and Team. Spiderman: Renew your vows by Dan Slottand my personal favourite, Peter B Parker from the "Into the Spider-verse" animated movie by Sony.Keeping Peter Parker in high school just so the character is relatable to a younger audience isn't as good of an idea as the creative teams over at Marvel think it is. Yes, we should continue to tell tales of his younger years. But these should run alongside a main series that continues to push the boundaries and have the character grow.
I would have even been ok with them letting Miles Morales take over entirely after Peter's Death in the main universe, instead of the Ultimate, as this would have only been in the main run, and we could continue other stories set in different times in other titles.
Miles Morales
People seem to have forgotten that Miles was never actually meant to have met Peter Parker in his original comic run. Spiderman had died in his universe and this new character (Miles) was created and took over the superhero mantle.Yes, we had a couple of inter-dimensional crossovers (Such as "Spider-men") where the two met briefly, but that was supposed to be it.
That is, of course, until Secret Wars (2015), where writers decided to axe the ultimate universe (where Miles is originally from) and bring him over to the 616.
This, sadly, takes away the mentorship aspect that could have been, or that we have already seen in the Sony Animated Spider-verse Movie.
What I would LOVE to see
The sad truth is that the comic books will never change. We will always have writers coming in and wanting to write their version of the character and retconning other people's work. But when it comes to live-action movies, What I'd love to see is the following:
Renew Your Vows
Give us a fourth film with Tobey Maguire's Peter Parker and set it around the "Renew your vows" story by Dan Slott. Bring back Kirstin Dunst and show us an older more settled-down Spider-man who now has to teach the next generation (his own daughter) how to harness their new abilities.
Miles Morales (Live Action)
Give Andrew Garfield his Spider-man 3. Have him do battle with the Sinister Six, all whilst trying to train the newly-found Miles Morales. Let this be his redemption arc. In "No Way Home," we learned that he not only always wanted a brother but also that after Gwen's death, he stopped pulling his punches. Have him teach the next generation (Miles) and at the end of the movie send him off in a glorious death scene, making him the "Uncle Ben" moral compass to that Miles.
What do you think? Let us know in the comments!
