Spider-Man: Civil War

The Sony universe has always been a strange beast due to its bizarre rights situation. Sony Pictures holds the film rights to the Spider-Man franchise, but after the critical and financial disappointment of The Amazing Spider-Man 2 in 2014, Sony decided to share Spider-Man with Marvel Studios and Peter Parker to join the MCU where he has been played by Tom Holland ever since. But Sony had already started developing several spin-off projects during the TASM era, such as the films “Venom” and “Sinister Six”. Sony clearly wanted to exploit more of the Marvel characters they had access to, but the franchise’s centerpiece, Spider-Man, was now caught up in the web of what is technically their competitor.

The solo Spider-Man films that followed were a testament to the passive-aggressive agreement that Disney and Sony had made. “Homecoming” and “Far From Home” were awash with references to the broader MCU, ensuring that it would be difficult for Sony to simply back out of the deal without angering fans and shareholders who would question , why Holland’s now wildly popular version of the character “No” spent longer in the same world as his Avengers friends, while No Way Home used brutal violence to pit versions of characters from Sony’s non-MCU franchises with the Bringing the power of the multiverse into “legitimacy.” None of this changes the fact that Sony’s connection to the broader Marvel brand was remarkably one-sided, something even general audiences could recognize.

The “in association with Marvel” logo that Sony had to use and the clear indication that they were not allowed to feature Spider-Man in their spin-off films created the pervasive feeling that Sony’s films were a B-side to the MCU be. No matter how many times Tom Hardy or others teased Venom’s encounter with Spider-Man, the entire Venom trilogy came and went without the two characters’ paths ever crossing. The same goes for Morbius, Madame Web and now Kraven, with him being the closest thing to a real Peter Parker appearance outside of Let There Be Carnage’s post-credits scene born in Madame Web. It’s ridiculous that in a cinematic universe full of Spider-Man characters there isn’t actually a Spider-Man, but that fact ruined the series in more ways than one.

The Sinister Six

We say this purely for the love of superhero fiction, but it’s rather conventional. With exceptions like Watchmen, The Dark Knight Returns, or Hence, superhero films, particularly those that depict origin stories, follow a similar pattern in which the protagonist goes through a formative arc that involves coming to terms with his powers and accepting his role as a superhero . However, Sony has exclusively used supervillains as main characters in its films alongside Madame Web, which means they almost inevitably have to turn these comic book antagonists into hero characters, especially since their actual enemy, Spider-Man, is both a good guy and nowhere close.

Venom began his comic book career as a villain who wanted nothing more than to cave in Spider-Man’s skull, and although he later took on the role of deadly protector and became more of an anti-hero, his decision is to move on from his villainous past , a real success sense in the context of actually having one. Kraven and Morbius also started out as Spider-Man enemies, and although the latter represented the “tragic monster” aspect, he always had a dark side, even when he worked on the side of good. But these films smooth over every possible nuance by making their main cast outright hero figures, which only begs the question of why they would ever hypothetically have any interest in fighting Spider-Man down the line.

It’s of course possible that filmmakers with a strong vision and respect for the source material could have found a way to turn truly villainous characters into great movie leads, but Sony apparently had no interest in allowing that. All of these films are corporate hack jobs, regardless of the talents of those involved, created by executives and accountants desperate to compete in the superhero league. However, people who liked these characters would realize that putting them in complete contrast to their comic book counterparts did them a disservice, but that’s exactly what Sony did at every turn. It’s beyond depressing to see the love and care for the superhero genre and comic book medium in their animated Spider-Verse features so lacking in their live-action entries. But perhaps that was inevitable when Sony’s desire to continually expand its superhero world was circumvented by the logistics of only owning one superhero franchise.

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