Control: Spider-Blues

I, Dalton Lewis, watch most of the current generation of comic-book themed movies. They entertain me like little else in the world. I watch all the comic book movies even though I didn’t grow up with comic books — I grew up with Dungeons and Dragons and fantasy novels and video games and computer games. I didn’t grow up with Marvel or DC, not reading comic books or graphic novels until college. I started with The Sandman and continued on to read as many of the intelligent, literary comic books that I could find.

Spider-Man may be leaving the MCU to be the lead of the Sony Spider universe. I think that’s a stupid decision based on money — people do stupid things for a billion dollars. They are doing something stupid in order to make a little more money. I don’t approve. I mean — they have Peter Parker and Miles Morales and Venom, and they have a large and diverse cast of villains to cause trouble for them, like Carnage and the Green Goblin and Kraven. They have strong women in Gwen Stacy and the Black Cat. I just think that connecting Spider-Man to the MCU makes it a part of something bigger, something that seems to be creating a work of literature. The Marvel Cinematic Universe means something. Anyone who can work with them should do so — they are making a work of art that billions are watching.

Leaving Marvel may be disastrous — for Sony or Marvel or both. Marvel might slow down after the big Thanos storyline ended. They have Strange and thor, which should be fine, but no avengers or spidey or x men or iron man or cap. Thats most of the roster, folks, and we dont know the new guys. New characters have worked before, but that took brilliant movies, and those are hard to make over and over.

The most recent spider-man movie made a billion dollars. Thats stupid — it is so much money. People will not follow sony’s universe as closely as the marvel one. They cant think that this is a win, can they? I dont understand.

In terms of artistic value the peter parker movies show a difficult time in the life of a normal-ish American teenager. They are cute and funny and endearing. The choice of new villains is refreshing, but spidey has a great rogues gallery, and it would be nice to see some more of the legendary ones eventually. Still this hurts. I mean, on the other hand, losing peter parker and gaining blade isnt the worst trade. I could think of worse.

Thanks, and take care, friends.