Spider-Man has graced the movie screens over the past decade with 5 (fairly mixed) movies and 2 different actors taking on the role. Now with his critical involvement in the upcoming Captain America: Civil War movie constantly being hinted at and another new actor swinging into the role, we have to question that maybe it’s the character of Peter Parker, not the producers to blame for the drop in popularity and creativity. Let’s face it; with 2 origin movies and that immortal line from everyone’s favourite uncle (insert quote here), the story behind Peter’s rise to being a superhero is as well-known as a certain caped crusader, and I think it is time for a new angle. I mean it’s not like these producers are short on source material. What’s to stop them from opening up the universes and bringing in a different version of our friendly neighbourhood Spider-Man? None, and here are a few Wall-Crawlers you may (or may not) have heard of that I believe would make a great summer blockbuster…
6. Superior Spider-Man
I’m starting off the list with a fairly controversial choice, but I could easily see a darker spin on our favourite wall crawler. The Superior Spider-Man story arc began after the mind of Doctor Otto Octavius is switched with Peter’s, leaving Otto as the one with the powers and all the responsibility. Whilst Otto attempts to keep up the appearance and reputation of the Spider-Man name, the underlying theme of revenge is ever present as he destroys Peter’s life and personally proves that he can be a better superhero than the original could ever be, making him, in turn, superior (see what they did there?). This is the what-if scenario of power corruption that has a lot of potential since they previously tried it in Spider-Man 3 with a well-known alien symbiote, and the result of that led to guy-liner and dancing. You can do better than that, guys.
5. Spider-Ham
Now I know what you’re thinking; are you serious? That’s just a joke character and a rather bad pun isn’t it? Well yes and no. He exists, had his own comic run, and was even a leading character in the Spider-Verse story line, so yeah kind of a big deal. An anthropomorphic version of Spider-Man could easily be a hit for the kid audiences and the many animators under the Disney brand could easily help to bring it to life (not too many songs included, I hope). The knowledge and experience is available, and even the humour writes itself; practically everything is a pun, I mean his name is actually Peter Porker (I’m slowly face-palming right now).
4. Spider-Gwen
Or maybe in order to regain consumer trust, we require a woman’s touch. Well, a fairly recent addition introduced in the Spider-Verse story-line that has taken the fan base by storm is Spider-Gwen. Yes Spider-Gwen. The premise is simple; what if the radioactive spider bit Gwen instead of Peter? And with that you pretty much have her back story, she is still the character we readers and viewers have come to know and love. Well that, and she is the drummer of a rock band called the Mary Janes. And her costume design is one of the coolest out there (discuss with discretion in the comments below). Clearly trying to appeal to the teen audience, it could be translated fairly well into the cinematic universe. I mean, certain other teen movies don’t exactly set the bar that high (cough… Twilight …).
