There are more Spider-Man movies than you think, and most of them might take place in the same universe.
Mass audiences may see a certain string of high-profile, well-moneyed, live-action Spider-Man films -- that is, the ones released from 2002 until 2022 -- as the only "official" ones, largely because of how much media exposure they got. In that span, there were five separate notable Spider-Man continuities, but those continuities became a little bit chummy as time passed. Eventually, at least three of those continuities would cross over with one another. These kinds of crossovers, however, are easy for Spider-Man fans to accept, as parallel universes have been a common feature in Spider-Man comics going back many decades.
Also, Spider-Man appeared in so many animated shows and movies over the years that it took no major mental calisthenics to imagine each version existing in its own world. Spider-Man gets rebooted all the time,...
Mass audiences may see a certain string of high-profile, well-moneyed, live-action Spider-Man films -- that is, the ones released from 2002 until 2022 -- as the only "official" ones, largely because of how much media exposure they got. In that span, there were five separate notable Spider-Man continuities, but those continuities became a little bit chummy as time passed. Eventually, at least three of those continuities would cross over with one another. These kinds of crossovers, however, are easy for Spider-Man fans to accept, as parallel universes have been a common feature in Spider-Man comics going back many decades.
Also, Spider-Man appeared in so many animated shows and movies over the years that it took no major mental calisthenics to imagine each version existing in its own world. Spider-Man gets rebooted all the time,...
- 11/11/2023
- by Witney Seibold
- Slash Film
It took a very long time for Hollywood to take Marvel Comics seriously, and "Howard the Duck" gets a lot of the blame for that. By the mid-1980s, films like "Star Wars" and "Superman: The Movie" had incited a proper revolution in the film industry. Genres that previously weren't big hits — financially or critically — didn't just make lots of money, but they made movie stars out of actors nobody had previously heard of, and even won awards. All of a sudden, sci-fi/fantasy and pulp heroes weren't just "kids' stuff." They were surefire recipes for four-quadrant success.
But even though Marvel was churning out superhero TV shows like nobody's business — not just Saturday morning cartoons but primetime hits like "The Incredible Hulk" and "Spider-Man: The Animated Series" — Marvel's first big budget foray into live-action theatrical features wasn't based on one of their most iconic costumed crimefighters. Instead it was "Howard the Duck,...
But even though Marvel was churning out superhero TV shows like nobody's business — not just Saturday morning cartoons but primetime hits like "The Incredible Hulk" and "Spider-Man: The Animated Series" — Marvel's first big budget foray into live-action theatrical features wasn't based on one of their most iconic costumed crimefighters. Instead it was "Howard the Duck,...
- 11/7/2023
- by William Bibbiani
- Slash Film
Superhero movies about parallel timelines are like buses. You wait ages for one and then two come at once. There are other similarities between The Flash and Spider-Man: Across The Spider-Verse and the humble omnibus, mostly to do with the colour red and following relatively established routes. We could labour further and suggest that like double-deckers they've got more than one story.
Depending on how you count it, we're now on our fifth second Spider-Man film, as 1978's Spider-Man Strikes Back got a cinematic release outwith the US. There are references to those beyond costume designs, though the live action is differently integrated here than in the Lego movies.
Spider-Man is a hero, like many, whose antagonists are from parallel circumstances. Batman's rogues gallery is full of lone and vengeful wolves on the edge of sanity, The Flash has enough to postulate a sort of supersymmetric speed-force with opposites of opposites,...
Depending on how you count it, we're now on our fifth second Spider-Man film, as 1978's Spider-Man Strikes Back got a cinematic release outwith the US. There are references to those beyond costume designs, though the live action is differently integrated here than in the Lego movies.
Spider-Man is a hero, like many, whose antagonists are from parallel circumstances. Batman's rogues gallery is full of lone and vengeful wolves on the edge of sanity, The Flash has enough to postulate a sort of supersymmetric speed-force with opposites of opposites,...
- 6/15/2023
- by Andrew Robertson
- eyeforfilm.co.uk
It's easy to forget, what with all the recent hype about it, but as far as movies are concerned the concept of a "multiverse" is anything but new. Gwyneth Paltrow was starring in rom-coms about alternate realities 25 years ago, with the groundbreaking "Sliding Doors," and just a few years later Jet Li tried to kill every other version of himself across alternate realities in the action-thriller "The One."
But a few things have certainly changed. Audiences seem to grasp the concept pretty clearly now — making weird and complex films that would have probably struggled to find mainstream acceptance years ago into massive Oscar-winning crossover hits — and so do motion picture studios. Thanks to multiverses, studios can now create movies and shows where every iteration of their intellectual property can exist simultaneously, making the nostalgic seem new and the fan service seem poignant.
And for whatever reason, the focal point of...
But a few things have certainly changed. Audiences seem to grasp the concept pretty clearly now — making weird and complex films that would have probably struggled to find mainstream acceptance years ago into massive Oscar-winning crossover hits — and so do motion picture studios. Thanks to multiverses, studios can now create movies and shows where every iteration of their intellectual property can exist simultaneously, making the nostalgic seem new and the fan service seem poignant.
And for whatever reason, the focal point of...
- 6/1/2023
- by William Bibbiani
- Slash Film
Spider-Man Strikes Back (1978) Director: Ron Satlof Stars: Nicholas Hammond, Robert Alda, Michael Pataki Today marks the day that Spider-Man finally swings back home to the Marvel Cinematic Universe in Spider-man: Homecoming, so Awfully Good Movies is once again returning to the well of Marvel's early days of adapting their comic books for TV with 1978's Spider-man Strikes... Read More...
- 7/7/2017
- by Jesse Shade
- JoBlo.com
As (500) Days Of Summer (2009) director Marc Webb's The Amazing Spider-Man swings into cinemas, with The Social Network and Never Let Me Go wunderkind Andrew Garfield wearing the red and blue pyjamas and Zombieland actress Emma Stone bringing Peter Parker's girlfriend Gwen Stacy to life while Rhys Ifans goes all Jekyll and Hyde on them as Doctor Curt Connors and The Lizard, it already feels as though Sam Raimi and Tobey McGuire's well received trilogy of barely a decade ago is 'old' Spidey.
However, nearly thirty years before The Evil Dead auteur finally put a human (as opposed to animated) version of our favourite webhead on the big screen, Spidey had made his live action debut on the small screen in 1974 in a series of short skits on the popular children's show The Electric Company. Played by puppeteer Danny Seagren, these three minute sketches which spanned a three year period...
However, nearly thirty years before The Evil Dead auteur finally put a human (as opposed to animated) version of our favourite webhead on the big screen, Spidey had made his live action debut on the small screen in 1974 in a series of short skits on the popular children's show The Electric Company. Played by puppeteer Danny Seagren, these three minute sketches which spanned a three year period...
- 7/14/2012
- Shadowlocked
"The Amazing Spider-Man" has been taking the box office by storm. Since opening on July 3, the film has made $75.5 million domestically, and could eventually compete with the Sam Raimi trilogy for top Spidey franchise. However, while the Tobey Maguire-starring "Spider-Man" films are praised by both critics and audiences, they were not the first attempt to get the friendly neighborhood superhero onto the big screen. Over the last three decades, there have been several versions of "Spider-Man" that almost came to be: from a corny B-movie to an R-rated epic from James Cameron. Moviefone takes a look back at the "Spider-Man" moves that almost happened. A "Spider-Man" Monster Movie, directed by Tobe Hooper ("Texas Chainsaw Massacre") The first studio to acquire the rights to "Spider-Man" was Cannon Films (the people behind '80s fare like "Breakin' 2: Electric Boogaloo," "Masters of the Universe" and "Superman IV: The Quest for Peace.
- 7/5/2012
- by Eric Larnick
- Moviefone
You don't need Spider-Sense to know that there's a reboot swinging into cinemas next year courtesy of (500) Days Of Summer (2009) director Marc Webb and Zodiac (2007) scribe James Vanderbilt, but given the strength of Sam Raimi's trilogy, the last of which was released a mere four years ago in 2007, perhaps it's time for Peter Parker to take a leaf out of Clark Kent's book and head instead for the small screen.
It wouldn't be the first time the web-head has crawled into our living rooms on a weekly basis. He first appeared on September 9th 1967 in animated form for a three-year, 52-episode run that was reasonably faithful to the mythology, and which introduced the world to the now famous Spider-Man theme tune, later covered by none other than The Ramones on their 1995 album 'Adios Amigos'!
The web-head returned in 1974 for a series of short skits over a three-year period on...
It wouldn't be the first time the web-head has crawled into our living rooms on a weekly basis. He first appeared on September 9th 1967 in animated form for a three-year, 52-episode run that was reasonably faithful to the mythology, and which introduced the world to the now famous Spider-Man theme tune, later covered by none other than The Ramones on their 1995 album 'Adios Amigos'!
The web-head returned in 1974 for a series of short skits over a three-year period on...
- 1/26/2011
- Shadowlocked
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