Put These Spider-Men in ‘Into the Spider-Verse 2’
Stay on target
Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse was pretty fantastic. As an animated film, it had a dazzling visual style that live-action comic book movies could only dream up. Its dimension-hopping storyline and diverse cast of characters only enhanced, never overwhelmed, the touching retelling of Miles Morales’s origin tale. And it’s arguably the best feature film of arguably the best Marvel Comics character. It won an Oscar!
So while we weren’t surprised we were definitely stoked to learn that Sony is preparing a Spider-Verse sequel as part of its shaky slate of Spider-Man movies while the Disney deal starts to wind down. Because this movie’s careful web is spun with such care, Spider-Verse 2 isn’t coming until April 8, 2022, hopefully with 60s Spider-Man and Oscar Isaac’s Spider-Man 2099. In the meantime, we thought we’d dream about eight other alternate reality Spider-Men we’d love to see swing into the sequel. And no this does not include whatever J.J. Abrams and his son hacked together.
Tobey Maguire as the 2002 Spider-Man
Tobey Maguire
Apparently the original plan for the first Spider-Verse was to include some kind of cameo from a live-action Spider-Man like Andrew Garfield or Tom Holland. But the one true choice is the one true cinematic Peter Parker, Tobey Maguire. Peter B. Parker’s storyline is already Spider-Man 4 is you squint. There’s never been a better time to go full Raimi. As far as live-action Parkers go, we’d also accept Nicholas Hammond or those kids who nearly killed themselves for the Spider-Man musical.
Ben Reilly
Before breaking dimensional barriers, the infamous Clone Saga in the comic books already gave us way too many Spider-Men to keep track of. The poster boy for the whole debacle is Ben Reilly the Scarlet Spider. 90s sleeveless hoodie, baby.
Spider-Woman
Despite the Spider-Woman name, Jessica Drew is really her own character that doesn’t have much to do with Peter Parker or Miles Morales. We’d expect to see her in an MCU Secret Invasion movie before a Spider-Man movie. However, rumor has it Sony wants to do a Spider-Women movie with Drew and Spider-Gwen, so maybe they’ll set that up in Spider-Verse 2. Or they could save the name for Peter and Mary Jane’s alternate universe superpowered daughter May the Spider-Girl.
Spider-Man: Reign
Spider-Man: Reign is an accidentally hilarious and gritty Dark Knight Returns-style dystopian future Spider-Man comic where Peter is a sad old man who inadvertently gave Mary Jane deadly cancer with his radioactive lovemaking. Really. And you thought Peter B. Parker was tragic.
Static Shock
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, the wisecracking teenage superheroics of Virgil “Static” Hawkins made him the Black Spider-Man years before Marvel got around to it with Miles. And Static’s original identity makes him a bit better in my opinion. So make the deal with DC and give us the Black Spider-Man team-up we deserve.
Indian Spider-Man
The first Spider-Verse went anime with Peni Parker, and Spider-Verse 2 could go Bollywood with Pavitr Prabhakar the hero of Spider-Man: India. In this miniseries, the village boy gains mystical spider powers to fight Indian folklore-inspired versions of Venom, Doctor Octopus, and the Green Goblin.
Silk #1 cover art (Artist: Dave Johnson, Photo via Marvel)
Silk
The other lead character apparently on tap for Spider-Women is Cindy Moon aka Silk. This Korean superheroine was also bitten by the same spider that gave Peter his powers. Cindy gained similar spider abilities, including the far more logical organic webshooters.
Spiders-Man
In an alternate reality Peter Parker fell into an entire vat of modified spiders who absorbed his consciousness. That massive hive mind of arachnids now walks around shaped like a person with Peter’s memory as a superhero called Spiders-Man. It’s a crime this character wasn’t in the first Spider-Verse. There’s still time to correct this mistake in the sequel. Either him or that Spider-Man in a cowboy outfit, Web-Slinger.