Warning: This piece comprises spoilers for Venom: The Last Dance and Kraven the Hunter.
In information certain to not excite anybody particularly, Kraven the Hunter is now in theaters. The newest and more than likely final live-action spin-off flick for Sony’s unlucky cinematic universe is limping in direction of a humiliating opening weekend with scathing evaluations (together with IGN’s), marking an ignominious finish for what’s been one of many worst years ever for the superhero style. While no main superhero franchise is at its greatest proper now, with the MCU struggling to get again to the heights of the Infinity Saga and Warner Bros. betting large on James Gunn’s upcoming Superman reboot to get DC again on observe, none have been as constantly lackluster because the Sony Spider-Man Universe (SSU). Or is it the Sony Universe of Marvel Characters (SUMC)?
Whatever this franchise was presupposed to be known as, it’s all however definitely over. The Wrap just lately reported that Sony Pictures is in search of to shutter this flailing enterprise after Kraven the Hunter to allow them to put all their give attention to the upcoming Spider-Man 4 and Beyond the Spider-Verse. Good on them for chopping their losses and never subjecting us to any extra of this nonsense, however the true query is: How did anybody suppose this was going to prove otherwise? None of those motion pictures have been notably good (sorry, Venom followers) and so they all starred characters who’re outlined by their relationships to Spider-Man, a personality they weren’t allowed to satisfy. This sequence was at all times going to fail, even when somebody managed to wrangle a worthwhile film out of the scenario. Let’s check out why Sony’s Marvel Universe was doomed earlier than it even began.
Spider-Man: Civil War
The Sony Universe has at all times been a wierd beast due to the weird rights scenario it exists in. Sony Pictures holds the movie rights to the Spider-Man franchise, however after the essential and monetary disappointment of The Amazing Spider-Man 2 in 2014, Sony determined to share Spider-Man with Marvel Studios and permit Peter Parker to swing into the MCU, the place he’s since been performed by Tom Holland. But Sony had already began growth on a number of spin-off initiatives throughout the TASM days, similar to Venom and Sinister Six movies. Sony clearly needed to use extra of the Marvel characters that they had entry to, however the centerpiece of the franchise, Spider-Man, was now snarled within the net of what’s technically their competitor.
The solo Spider-Man movies that got here after have been indicative of the passive-aggressive settlement that Disney and Sony struck. Homecoming and Far From Home have been drowning in references to the broader MCU, making certain that it could be tough for Sony to simply “pull out” of the association with out upsetting followers and shareholders who would query why Holland’s now highly regarded model of the character was now not in the identical world as his Avengers buddies, whereas No Way Home used brute pressure to get variations of characters from Sony’s non-MCU franchises into “legitimacy” with the ability of the multiverse. But none of that modifications that Sony’s connection to the broader Marvel model was remarkably one-sided, one thing that even common audiences have been able to cluing in to.
The “in affiliation with Marvel” brand that Sony was pressured to make use of and the clear indication that they weren’t allowed to function Spider-Man of their spin-off movies created an omnipresent feeling of Sony’s movies being a B-side to the MCU. Regardless of what number of instances Tom Hardy or others teased Venom assembly Spider-Man, your complete Venom trilogy got here and went with out the 2 characters ever crossing paths. Same with Morbius, Madame Web, and now Kraven, with the closest factor to a correct Peter Parker look outdoors of Let There Be Carnage’s post-credits scene being him being born in Madame Web. It’s laughable {that a} cinematic universe stuffed with Spider-Man characters doesn’t even have Spider-Man in it, however that truth ruined the sequence in additional methods than one.
The Unsinister Six
We say this with nothing however love for superhero fiction, nevertheless it tends to be pretty typical. With respect to exceptions like Watchmen, The Dark Knight Returns or X-Men: God Loves, Man Kills, most superhero tales comply with a reasonably customary components and discover their very own take within the particulars, not the blueprint. Therefore, superhero movies, particularly ones depicting origin tales, comply with the same mildew the place the protagonist undergoes a formative arc that parallels them coming to phrases with their powers and accepting their function as a superhero. However, in addition to Madame Web, Sony has solely used supervillains because the lead characters of their movies, which means that they’ve to show these comedian guide antagonists into heroic figures virtually by necessity, particularly since their precise enemy, Spider-Man, is each a very good man and never round.
Venom began his comedian guide profession as a villain who needed nothing greater than to collapse Spider-Man’s cranium, and though he later adopted the function of Lethal Protector and have become extra of an antihero, his alternative to maneuver away from his villainous previous solely is sensible throughout the context of really having one. Kraven and Morbius additionally began off as Spider-Man enemies, and though the latter has the “tragic monster” angle occurring, he has at all times had a darkish facet even when he’s labored on the facet of the great. But these motion pictures flatten any potential nuance by having their leads be unambiguous hero figures, which solely begs the query of why they might ever even hypothetically have curiosity in combating Spider-Man down the road.
It is, in fact, doable that filmmakers with a robust imaginative and prescient and respect for the supply materials may have discovered a strategy to make correctly villainous characters into large film leads, however Sony apparently had little interest in permitting that. All of those motion pictures are company hackjobs whatever the abilities of anybody concerned, conjured into being by executives and accountants determined to compete within the superhero large leagues. Yet individuals who had any love for these characters would acknowledge that making them completely antithetical to their comedian guide counterparts was doing them a disservice, however that’s precisely what Sony did at each flip. It’s past miserable to see the love and take care of the superhero style and comedian guide medium of their animated Spider-Verse options be so absent of their live-action entries. But maybe that was inevitable when the will to always broaden Sony’s superhero world was circumvented by the logistics of solely proudly owning one superhero franchise.
A One-Track Universe
Here’s the factor with attempting to construct a cinematic universe: You really need a couple of franchise so as to do it. An under-discussed cause why the MCU clicked the way in which it did is as a result of Marvel Studios had entry to a number of completely different franchises that would have existed independently of one another in the event that they wanted to, and solely gained additional worth when put in the identical world. Sony’s downside is that they solely had one franchise, that being Spider-Man. Even with out Peter Parker in them, Venom, Morbius, Madame Web and Kraven are nonetheless all Spider-Man motion pictures as a result of they’re hooked up to his world by default. You can’t have one with out the opposite, which means that attempting to pressure the difficulty and make motion pictures about these characters with out Spider-Man is just going to end in a sequence that cannibalizes itself to dying.
The Venom motion pictures all function a tiny solid and symbiote or symbiote-adjacent antagonists. Madame Web is a prequel a few group of characters who will finally grow to be Spider-Women, however not within the film itself. Kraven has to battle (and kill!) the Rhino, depriving Spider-Man of one other hypothetical antagonist down the road. All of those movies really feel empty as a result of none of those characters have been designed to be leads. They are supporting characters who’re half of a bigger world centered round a determine who can truly shoulder that burden. Trying to construct a universe out of appetizers with out ever attending to the primary course was solely ever going to depart the viewers ravenous.
The lesson that Sony Pictures by no means realized is that carving up items of your franchise after which attempting to duct tape them again collectively doesn’t truly make your franchise any larger. But they couldn’t assist however attempt to get in on that blockbuster pie all the identical, even when it meant fronting hysterical concepts like having the MCU’s Vulture warp into the post-credits scene of Morbius, or of teasing Knull as a significant risk down the road proper after killing Venom, which means he would presumably be caught battling a ramshackle group of second stringers. Hell, even the concepts that didn’t wind up occurring, similar to teaming up Black Cat and Silver Sable, two characters who don’t have anything to do with one another in addition to each being girls in Spider-Man’s world, or of constructing a Sinister Six film in a universe the place Spider-Man presumably can’t seem when that group exists for the only real cause of combating Spider-Man, are precisely the kind of cheese-brained absurdity that we as a society ought to by no means have entertained. Sure, Sony’s Marvel Universe could have failed, however the true travesty is that it was ever allowed to attempt.
Carlos Morales writes novels, articles and Mass Effect essays. You can comply with his fixations on Bluesky.
