Riddle Me This! Who Would You Like To See In The Next Spider-Man Movie?
Who’d win in a fight between Superman and Spawn? How the f*ck old is Cable? And what in the holy hell is a Megatron? When the tough questions arise, Panels on Pages will gather the facts, but it’s up to the PoP!ulation to draw its own conclusions. So come on… Riddle Me This!
Note: This article contains potential spoilers for The Amazing Spider-Man. If you for some reason have not yet seen that film, please refrain from reading this article until you have.
Now that The Amazing Spider-Man is a certified hit and has eased many a comic fan’s fears about whether or not film audiences want a reboot of the Wall-Crawler’s big-screen adventures, we are now left with a year or so of speculation on what new or reimagined characters will appear in the next Spider-Man film, due in theaters in 2014. The events of The Amazing Spider-Man have made it fairly clear that Norman Osborn will eventually show up somewhere in Sony’s planned trilogy as the Green Goblin, though many believe that he won’t play a major part until the final movie. That of course leaves us with the question of who the big bad will be for the second film, as well as which characters from Spidey’s huge supporting cast will make appearances there.
The puzzling post-credits scene at the end of The Amazing Spider-Man have led many to believe that Electro will play a major part in the sequel, mostly due to where that scene takes place and the fact that it occurs during an electrical storm. However,that’s not to say that he will be the only villain to show up in the movie. I for one would love for the next Spider-Man film to take a page from Nolan’s The Dark Knight and feature a scene or two with Spidey battling one or more of his B-list foes such as The Shocker, Mysterio, or The Vulture who wouldn’t be able to carry an entire movie by themselves. This would help establish Spidey’s growing stature as a superhero and could hint at how his existence has influenced some criminals to don costumes and advanced weaponry to try to take him down.
As far as the supporting cast, I am anxious to find out who Sony and Webb will cast as Spidey’s perennial foil, Daily Bugle Editor-In-Chief J. Jonah Jameson, who was played nearly flawlessly by the great J.K. Simmons in Sam Raimi’s previous Spider-Man trilogy. The more realistic tone of The Amazing Spider-Man will no doubt lead to Jonah being a little less broad and silly as he was in the Raimi films, but it will be interesting to see how that character is interpreted by Webb and the screenwriters if they indeed plan on using him in the sequel. Along with Jonah, we also should see the rest of the Bugle staff, including Joe “Robbie” Robertson and Betty Brant. Unfortunately, Ben Urich will more than likely not appear in the movie, since Fox used him in their 2003 Daredevil film. The existence of Norman Osborn in this rebooted movie universe will likely lead to the introduction of a new incarnation of his son Harry, though maybe he won’t be as closely tied to the plot as he was in the Raimi flicks. Since this trilogy has Gwen Stacey as Peter’s love interest, we may not see a new interpretation of Mary Jane Watson, unless the fate that all Spider-fans know will inevitably come to Gwen happens earlier in the film series.
What say you, dear readers? What character or characters are you dying to see show up in the next Spider-Man film? Should the filmmakers give Spidey more villains to fight or should they leave it to just one central antagonist? Leave your comments below.
Filed Under: Columns • Riddle Me This
Dig the concept of some D-list villains as cannon fodder for the opening sequence in the film, or a later montage. Shocker would be damn near perfect for something like that.
Kraven would be a real interesting take on a superhero movie villain. Off the top of my head, can’t really think of a villain “hunting” the hero in any previous comic book movies.
I normally am not a fan of multiple villains in a movie, but I wouldn’t mind seeing the creation of the sinister six over the course of the next two movies with the final act of ASM3 being Spider-Man in a gauntlet until he faces down Norman.
What I hope they do skip is any sort of love triangle, I don’t want to bring in MJ and have that situation play out again. I do think however the lead up to the gauntlet should be the bridge, Gwen and Green Goblin. Hopefully no “trip to europe” for her before that.
Would love to see a tech-based villian like the Shocker or even Mysterio. they could introduce Felicia Hardy and then have her as the Black Cat in the third one.
When they introduce JJJ, he can get Smythe to create the Spider Slayers(I just gave myself goosebumps).
I hope Spider-Man is in this.
And uh Rhino. I want to see him cracking through buildings so bad. He would have been better for a Raimi flick probabaly, but I don’t care
I’d love to see Rhino, too, but after Lizard, you kinda need to move away from the “savage brute” villain.
True dat.
I would like to see The Chameleon, after all he was Spidey’s first. Or maybe the Vulture influenced by the cannibalistic Adrian Toomes in Spider-Man Noir.
Chameleon would be a good, simple pick, I think. Totally bone Spidey by framing him.
Chameleon could potentially be handled really well in the universe established by TASM. Good call.
If I remember correctly that tree of life thing in Oscorp had like, a scorpion and some other shit on it, so I’m kind of thinking they’ll do another animal themed guy, even if he isn’t the only baddie in the flick.
That said I’d love them to do as many flicks with Garfield (The Cat. Ha, that would rule actually) and in the last one he wants to do (preferably like six) introduce Scarlet Spider. But do it less cloney and more liek Oscorp gets a hold of his (spideys) blood, injects that into some dude (Ben Reily) and tries to use him as their own little spider-man. He rejects that shit, goes out on his own and we can have a series in the same continuity but with a new actor and a new Spider-Man (Scarlet) I hate rebooting, but I hate recasting, so there I solved the problem.