Spectacular Web-Head

As an excuse to force myself to read more comics and frustration at the constant butchering/overcomplication of my favorite comic characters (an issue every comic reader understands all too well), I started a personal project purely for myself: my own personal AU of the Marvel Universe.

However, I got an itch to actually share it somewhere with other people so here we are! (I also may have gotten inspired by Roy Westerman's Earth-27 project, which is a similar idea using the DC Universe)

Okay, when you say AU Marvel Universe what exactly do you mean? What makes it different from the regular Marvel Comics continuity?

With this AU, I have a few main goals:

Combine/use the lore from the many different adaptations and continuities of Marvel characters to make their most realized versions, ones that are narratively rich and hone in on the core of each of those characters' identities.

Uncomplicate/fix Marvel lore. With the amount of writers Marvel has had over decades, there's an incredible amount of retcons, unneeded "fixes" and stupid decisions. No more One More Day, Sins Past, Civil War II, or utter butchering of your favorite characters.

As a follow up to the previous point, reduce the usage of time travel and alternate universes as much as possible. As cool as the concepts are, they tend to complicate narratives, pull focus from the "main universe" heroes in the story and cheapen the stakes of the conflict (what TVTropes calls the "Expendable Alternate Universe" effect). However, their usage will be kept if it's integral to a character or narrative (ex: Cable).

ACTIONS HAVE CONSEQUENCES! If there's one thing I hate most in comics, it's that status quo is king and nothing is ever permanent. Almost every actual change or character evolution is either retconned away or brushed off. In this AU, deaths have meaning, the world progresses and moves on, and the status quo can and has changed from what you're used to.

That sounds pretty cool! However, are you an expert on every single Marvel character or the definitive authority on what are the right or wrong character elements for each of them?

Easy answer: I'm not. This project started with Spider-Man since he is my favorite hero and the one I know the most, but I sincerely do care and want to do justice to as many Marvel characters as I'm able to. With that said:

NO DECISION OR CHARACTER/WORLD ELEMENT IN THIS AU IS FINAL AND ANYTHING COULD BE SUBJECT TO CHANGE!

Be it from me changing my mind on something, learning new things about a character, realizing I made a mistake/mischaracterized a character, or even community feedback; character profiles and elements might change. When they do, I'll update the relevant character posts and specify the changes made.

That sounds pretty fair. Last question: is it okay to give feedback or ask questions about the AU?

Okay so, first of all: the suit. I know we've already seen the suit but actually WATCHING the suit IN the movie made me ascend. All the shots of Spider-Man just... existing in the space, talking to other characters, swinging, it just felt RIGHT. I was never a fan of the MCU-ified Spider-Man suits (the closest I've ever come to actually liking was the Far From Home black-and-red suit, that one had potential), so I adore the more classic new one. AND THE FUCKING SHINE ON THE BLUE PARTS??? Ugh. Such a pretty shade of blue too.

Cinematography: gorgeous. The lighting could have been better on the street-level shots during daytime, but the camera angles and movements were on fucking point. The follow-through of the camera as Peter moves around the environment (especially in the close-ups) was amazing, the flipping of the camera as he switched orientations was also great and I ate it up. THE SWINGING SCENES. Spider-Man had 10x times more swinging scenes in this movie than in the previous 3 combined where he barely swung and they looked beauuuuutiful. The best swinging he's had since the Amazing Spider-Man (one of the few things Amazing never got wrong was the wide-shot swinging scenes).

The fight choreography fucking killed it, too. Some of the most entretained I've ever been watching Spider-Man fight since Spectacular. A thing that I feel gets forgotten a lot when Peter fights is that in addition to zipping around with his webs, he can walk on walls and ceilings so he's not limited to a single fighting plane. I was beaming in my seat when he started running on the walls and fighting while standing on the ceiling, it was peak.

The montage at the beginning was really cool. I was afraid it was just gonna be a tiny reel of slowed-down moments from the 4 years. And to be fair some were (RIP to Boomerang and my latino G.O.A.T. Tarantula, no one in the general public knows who you are but I appreciated the 4 combined seconds you were on the screen). But I liked the snippets we had from his fights with Scorpion establishing their rivarly. Mac was missing his usual sadism though, he was a liiiittle bland IMO, but hey at least they remembered he existed in Homecoming. I liked the scene with Tombstone even more, they even recreated his classic "ominously dangling someone from a great height with a single hand while standing on the end of a metal girdle" move! (no seriously look it up, it's that specific. It's Lonnie's favorite move).

The specific covers referenced in the intro montage, for anyone curious

Also FINALLY! THE EVIL STARKTECH BULLSHIT HAS BEEN DEFEATED!!!! Listen I know 9/10 fans of Spider-Man are SPECIFICALLY fans of the movies and not the comics (and 9/10 fans who say otherwise don't even read the fucking comics at all); especially here on Tumblr a ton of people looove love the whole "Irondad" thing with Tony. I REALLY don't like it. I love Tony. I don't even mind him and Peter having a positive relationship. Iron Man mentoring Spider-Man is where they lost me entirely.

One of the CORE IDEAS of Spider-Man is that he's a classic side-kick aged character who was his OWN SOLO HERO. Hell, Spider-Man was heroing before most of the original Avengers even became heroes, INCLUDING IRON MAN. Read any Spider-Man comic from his high school and college era (so roughly from his 1962 debut to the late 70s-early 80s) and half the appeal is Peter figuring out the whole hero thing by himself, getting kicked down and learning as he gets back up. Yes he gets help every now and again, but mostly through emotional support (mainly by Peter's supporting cast, especially MJ, or the Fantastic 4) and not literal sugar daddy-ing. Having Tony as his mentor who gives him tech upgrades sucks balls narratively.

You want Peter to have a dad figure/mentor? That's 90% of the reason May Parker is there. Ben Parker too, flashback him back to life for a scene or two as Peter remembers the lessons he taught him. Ofc that would require the MCU to acknowledge Uncle Ben which is too much to ask apparently, I mean it's not like he's a CRUCIAL ASPECT OF THE NARRATIVE AND CHARACTER OF SPIDER-MAN!!! Anyway fuck StarkTech suits/upgrades, you will NOT be missed. In this house we build that shit ourselves using tech scavenged from the dumpster like a REAL Spider-Man.

Back to the movie, I definitely smiled a lot when Captain Jean DeWolff didn't just make an appearance, but was important to the plot and to Spidey as a confidant. For anyone who doesn't know, for a period of time DeWolff was basically Spidey's Commisioner Gordon, she's a great character and I loved her part in the movie as a friend of Spider-Man that does actually care about the person behind the mask.

I'm really hoping they're setting her up so maybe one of the next Spider-Man movies adapts "The Death of Jean DeWolff" (spoilers for a 36 y/o Spider-Man arc, sorry). It's a REALLY good and really underrated Spider-Man arc that has him teaming up with Daredevil against DeWolff's killer, the Sin-Eater. I'd hope Charlie Cox shows up in that theoretical movie obviously.

I'm also glad I caught the Frederick Foswell/Big Man reference during their 1st conversation on the phone, he's an OLD old Spidey villain (we're talking 1960s, one-of-his-first-villains-ever old). I'm probably the only person in the theatre who caught it.

Honestly, Big Man is one of the more forgettable villains since he doesn't really do shit before reforming and then dying, but his design has always been killer ngl

The way they handled the whole spider-DNA becoming more dominant was also really good, I'm glad it served as a physical representation of Peter actively choosing to ignore his life as Peter Parker to be Spider-Man full-time to his own detriment, it's the way I was hoping it would be used when I first saw the trailers. I never bought into the theory some people had that they were gonna tackle the Man-Spider stuff. I WAS, however, afraid they were gonna do a faithful adaptation of The Other (AKA the time when Peter was revealed to be empowered by a spider deity-thing and got organic webbing + stingers).

They clearly took inspiration from the storyline with the black eyes and the webbing and the cocoon, but I'm glad they adapted it with their own spin because I HEAVILY dislike The Other as a concept. It's part of the classic comic overcomplication of superhero origins that suck ass most of the time. I'm talking Barbados for Batman, Tony actually being adopted and having a secret brother for Iron Man, the Speed Force for Flash (although that one is actually goated as hell), etc.

This whole storyline was some bullshit to give him organic webbing like in the Raimi movies, I'm gonna be fully honest. And then this led to the Spider-Totem concept, which sucks EVEN MORE. (Also before comic fans crucify me, yes I know that last pic is Kaine, not Peter. Still exemplifies why The Other sucks)

However, I would have preferred if by the end of the movie he lost the organic webbing permanently as a reflection of him balancing his life again, so to speak. Also because the web-shooters are visually and narratively superior to organic webs, sorry not sorry. If you don't see the aura in Spider-Man popping off spent cartridges to reload his web-shooters... what are we doing, man?

What else... oh! The memory erasure stuff, that was well handled I feel. They genuinely had me for a bit when Jean-as-MJ "remembered" Peter, I had faith. Meanwhile my girlfriend called it immediately because she's super smart. I remember when they were swinging I thought "a little weird that MJ isn't freaking out or anything but maybe I'm overthinking it" AND I WASN'T! But yeah I'm happy it wasn't a "true love's kiss fixes everything" plot point, like Jean so eloquently put it. When MJ told him "I don't love you. I don't even know you"? Fucking gutted me man. Overall I thought MJ handled the whole thing surprisingly well to be fair (I assume the tease at the end means that MJ and Ned DO remember at this point, I guess we'll find out next movie).

It's both fucking hilarious and also a genius move that they took the opportunity to fix the Hulk into being interesting again. Like I gotta applaud that. Sorry to all 3 MCU Professor Hulk fans but he was such a nothingburger of a character. Hulk is back and HOPEFULLY here to stay this time.

I am dissapointed that they didn't take this chance to canonize Banner's DID in the MCU, especially since it's been one of the biggest core aspects of the character for decades at this point and imo makes Hulk 20 times more compelling. I mean this was the PERFECT chance to do so, just say Professor Hulk wasn't actually a merge like Bruce thought, but an alter developed to suppress/push down Savage Hulk since Banner was denying him and boom, easy. Crossing my fingers for a 2nd Hulk movie where they care about his character for once.

The Spidey and Punisher duo was really interesting to me, because they took a more classic approach than I was expecting. I fully expected them to portray their modern rapport where Peter just can't fucking stand Frank at all (a dynamic I really really like. What can I say, Good Is Not Nice is my favorite trope of all time, sue me). But their relationship in this movie honestly reminded me a ton of their original dynamic in the 70s, a lot more "reluctant allies/frenemies" vibes. Fun fact, despite the closer ties Punisher has to Daredevil nowadays, he actually debuted as a Spider-Man side character in ASM Vol. 1 #129, in 1974.

It was fun, their personalities contrast very well with each other. Fascinating how John Bernthal can do a great Punisher in Daredevil and Spider-Man but mischaracterizes the fuck out of him on his own show and in real life.

How it started VS. how it's going with these 2 nowadays. Peter genuinely CANNOT tolerate Frank, it's awesome. Also for the record, that whole "Peter gets quiet when he's angry" line that gets thrown around everywhere? Total made up lie. Dude's been an angry yeller since the 60s

One thing that was missing from the movie was more jokes. He quips, yes, he banters with Punisher, yes. But he doesn't quip nearly enough during fights. That's a problem every live-action Spider-Man has. I don't know why they can't nail the fact that he jokes a lot, he talks to himself all the time, that Peter's bit of a cocky asshole when he jokes at a villain's expense, and that his jokes are actually funny. The closest LA we got was Andrew Garfield Spider-Man but even then it still wasn't fully there. If you want a great example of how to do his jokes and talking-to-himself right, Spectacular Spider-Man does it PERFECTLY.

I don't know how to explain it through words, but watch this video and I feel like most of you will get what I mean when I say the movies aren't up to par yet

And finally, the elephant in the room. We gotta talk about Jean Grey, because apparently the law of equivalent exchange applied, so to have a fucking banger of a Spider-Man movie the universe required we throw Jean Grey under a bus and lobotomize her character. I feel so bad for the Jean Grey fans out there, you didn't deserve this and we will honor your unwilling sacrifice. No because actually what the fuck was that. They Ned Leeds'd Jean, AKA they created an OC and gave her the name of an established Marvel character that is entirely different. Like how MCU Ned Leeds is a poor man's Ganke Lee (a Miles Morales supporting character) and he has NOTHING to do with the actual Ned Leeds.

0 mention of her being a mutant. She's an orphan abandoned by her family now, for some reason. Murders casually? For some other fucking reason? Her sister is/was a telepath now, and is the central character in her narrative... okay, sure man whatever. Again why is she in this movie when she and Peter don't really have any significant rapport. AND WHY IS SHE THE VILLAIN??? Im genuinely baffled. The V-Max twist was good tho, it was really sad. She was menacing as a villain which was awesome in a vacuum, but that's NOT JEAN GREY.

I get the angle of having a telepath as the villain because of the whole identity mental shit Peter is dealing with, themes and such, I get it. But there were much better options that could've tackled this idea without butchering a character like Jean. Hell, here's several Spider-Man villains off the top of my head that fit the bill:

Chameleon (literally same "switching-identities" gimmick, using him as a true "mastermind of identities" would've been fucking sick)

Mister Negative (brings out people's negative side, force Peter to confront his mental issues)

Mindworm (mind reader/controller)

Empathoid (Its a REALLY deep cut I admit, but their entire gimmick was literally body hopping mind control and mind reading)

Honestly Chameleon and Mister Negative have the most potential to me. I can easily see them carrying Brand New Day equally or even better than "Jean Grey"

And those are my thoughts! It's not perfect, but it's still such a good movie. It's the closest I've ever felt like I'm reading a comic book while watching a superhero movie (yes, including Spider-Verse). All the heroes appearing not just for cameos but actually contributing to the plot was awesome. I'm watching it a million times once it's on digital 100%.