Post by Deleted on Feb 18, 2017 22:41:55 GMT
Okay, this is just me exploring an alternate scenario for the Marvel Cinematic Universe. I've made it clear that I do not like the Raimi-Maguire take on Spider-Man, but I know a lot of other people do. So, here is how they could have brought him in.
So, in this happy alternate universe where Sony and Marvel got along from the word "Go," the latter was given permission to use Raimi's Spider-Man in the MCU, but decided to wait until The Avengers to give him an on-screen appearance so as to give the general public a little time to move on from Spider-Man 3. The five films leading up to big team-up are exactly the same aside from maybe a tiny little reference to "the spider" or the "wall-crawler" here and there during dialogue when its relevant to mention other superheroes. Other times when a character is reading the newspaper, it could be the Daily Bugle and Spidey's on the front page. Or there could be a news report about his latest escapades playing in the background of another scene. In neither in those last two cases would the scene actually pause or do anything else to call attention to it. The fans would have been left to pause the movie to get the full details. So basically there's just enough reference to him to know he exists. Moving onto his introduction in The Avengers:
Personally, I'd have had his intro scene be him as a university professor teaching a class. We catch the tail end of his lecture about Advanced Quantum Physics or something else hyper-complicated and when he goes to his office to do some work, he finds a SHIELD Agent waiting there for him. They explain the situation to him. When Peter asks why SHIELD's gone to him about this, he's given the brief summery of the plot and an explanation that SHIELD has known he’s Spider-Man since almost the beginning, but left him alone.
They of course end up talking him into participating, because of that whole "no minimum blast distance and oh yeah it's in the hands of a mad man" factor. While they're talking, he sits down at his desk and we'd get a quick look at a picture of him, MJ, and their baby he has there.
Now for the rest:
1. Spider-Man shows up in Germany with Ironman and webs up Loki's hands behind his back, handcuffs-style.
2. In the following scene while they're transporting Loki to the Carrier, he backs Captain America up when Tony balks at his "This was too easy,” sentiment.
3. When Thor takes Loki from the Carrier, Tony gets angry at Spidey for not warning them that his spider-senses were going off. Spider-Man replies, "They weren't." While Cap realizes this means Thor isn't a threat, Tony is too riled up to take the hint, because Tony.
4. Later, while Ironman is fighting Thor, Spider-Man keeps an eye on Loki while Captain America breaks up the fight below.
5. Once in the Helicarrier, he's basically the third Science Bro. I envision a comical scene where he geeks out in front of Tony and Bruce and then reigns in back in with an embarrassed clearing of his throat while the older men in the room just smirk genially.
6. Of course he also thinks there's something suspicious about SHIELD's handling of the Tesseract and backs Tony and Bruce up with his own insight and I know exactly how he should do it.
Right after Bruce explains how it makes no sense for an intelligence agency to even be studying how to create clean, self-sustaining energy in the first place, Peter pipes in with this:
"Even before Tony Stark, I knew another scientist who was studying to create clean, self-sustaining power. His name was Doctor Octavius, yet it was a big corporation that funded his research and not SHIELD. And not just him. Countless brilliant scientists have tried their hand at it for decades. Where was SHIELD for those guys? If they've had this thing since World War II, how come Selvig seems to be the first outside expert they've brought in?"
7. I honestly can't see Maguire's Spider-Man being all that affected by Loki's staff in light of Spider-Man 3. For better or for worse, his experience with the Symbiote would have taught him a valuable lesson about anger. Besides that, I can see him not being able to get a word in edgewise while everyone else is arguing before eventually just walking out with a disappointed look on his face.
8. Then when Loki traps Thor in the droppable cage, Spider-Man tries to get the drop on him, but gets his ass kicked driving home the point Loki LET himself get caught. As good a film as Avengers was, I've always felt they kind of dropped the ball in showing that, so having him just trounce poor Spidey, who at that point would have been the guy to seemingly subdue him twice, would have been a good way to do that. Then after that second short interruption, Loki drops Thor from the carrier.
9. During the rest of the Helicarrier fight, I can see him just going around the place webbing up mercenaries and mind-controlled SHIELD agents. Maybe he can take a shot to the shoulder or something to show these guys are for serious (intentional bad English there). He could also probably help Tony and Steve out in getting the carrier running, but from the bridge, which he would most likely be defending.
9. New York Battle: he gets into a brief scuffle with Loki. Spidey ends up surrounded by Loki and his copies. So he stands perfectly still and then gives a back-fisted punch over his shoulder, hitting the real Loki right in the face and averting getting Coulsoned.
Then he just kicks Loki away and the Trickster god hitches a ride on another alien fighter craft.
10. After that, I see him making his way to the Stark building to help Widow with the portal. Of course, somewhere between Loki and the building, we’d have plenty of him fighting alien mercs the Spidey way and perhaps even commandeering one of the crafts, somewhat managing to steer it, but ultimately crashing it into the Stark building. Played for comedy, of course.
11. Parker's last scene during the montage that plays over Fury's ending narration has him going home, but what's this? Why, that's the house Aunt May and Uncle Ben used to own. The one May had to sell during Spider-Man 2. Gasp! He and MJ bought that house! Come on, admit it. That'd give you the warm fuzzies inside.
Pete goes inside where he's greeted by MJ (cameo by Dunst) and their baby daughter. After MJ light-heartedly chides him on "his work" keeping him away too long sometimes, the happy family embraces. And yes, said baby daughter IS Mayday from the Spider-Girl comics. You know, for the future. Maybe Phase 4. Admit it, you'd love that.
I proposed making Parker a full college professor at that point, because after a whole trilogy of him being down on his luck in literally every way imaginable, I like the idea of picking his story up again many years after Spider-Man 3 and actually seeing him make progress in his personal life.
Traded the thankless task of taking photos for Jameson for the thankless task of being a university professor.
Traded that crappy apartment for Aunt May and Uncle Ben's house.
Got married and has a 2-3 year old daughter.
Plus, among the dysfunctional Avengers, having a 30-35ish family man in their ranks would have been an interesting thing to throw into the mix in the first film. Yeah, I know they did the same thing with Hawkeye in Age of Ultron and I'd still be all for them keeping that.
As much as I prefer Garfield's Spider-Man, had they been able to use him he'd just be just another snarky superhero in a lineup of snarky heroes. I hate to say it, but Maguire's Spider-Man would just stick out more.
Spider-Man 4: 2012:
This could be an alternate Amazing Spider-Man/Spider-Man 4, featuring Peter right after the events of The Avengers.
Doctor Connors has finally procured the funding necessary to pursue his pet project, the human limb regrowth serum.
His funders are none other than the new heads of Oscorp: Spencer Smythe and his son Alistair. Spencer is interested in the serum because he sees it as a way to help wheelchair-bound Alistair regain the use of his legs. And of course we could get this little exchange:
Spencer: "I'm doing this for you, Alistair. I would love to see you walk again."
Alistair: (Smirking) "And I suppose the billions we'll make off Connors' research doesn't mean anything to you?"
Spencer: (Now wearing a wry expression to match his son's) "Well, there is that, too."
(Father and son share a laugh.)
Connors brings in Peter Parker and Gwen Stacy to help with his research and they manage to finish the formula, but it's untested. Naturally, Spencer pushes for results, giving Dr. Connors all the excuse he needs to try it out. From there, the film would proceed not very differently from the Amazing Spider-Man we did get, honestly.
In place of Detective Denis Leary, we could have an adult Flash Thompson (still played by Joe Manganiello) who joined the New York police force. He would of course work under James Cromwell’s Commissioner Stacy.
In the comics, Flash joined the military and grew up quite a bit there. After returning home, he reconciled with Peter and they've been friends ever since. In this hypothetical Spider-Man 4, he could have gone to police academy after leaving the military and has recently been promoted to being a detective. Through being a subordinate to Stacy, he meets Gwen and they start dating. And Gwen is researching regrowing human limbs with Connors and Peter.
Flash is reunited with his ex-girlfriend and ex-victim with nothing but genuine remorse for past behavior. They accept his apologies.
Then after The Lizard becomes a thing, Flash is given the case and becomes the one to help Spidey and Gwen deal with him at the end. Unsure if he should meet the same fate as Leary's Captain Stacy, though.
So the real deviations from The Amazing Spider-Man are:
1. Pete’s dad didn’t invent the spiders that gave Pete his powers.
2. The Lizard would attack the University where Peter teaches instead of his high school.
3. When Spider-Man has to defeat The Lizard and stop the mutagen from spreading, it'd be with Captain Flash Thompson’s help.
Casting:
Returning Characters: Same actors from the Raimi trilogy.
Spencer Smythe: Malcolm McDowell
Alistair Smythe: Dane DeHaan
Bruce Campbell Cameo: Cantankerous janitor who works the nightshift in Connors’ lab. He gets the crap scared out of him by The Lizard when he first mutates.
Setting up Spider-Man 5:
MacDoweel and DeHaan would be that adorable kind of slimy you just love to hate and the perfect as (indirect) supporting antagonists for this Spider-Man 4 and the future main antagonists of Spider-Man 5.
As for that: by the end of 4th film, Alistair sets his heart on a new business venture after watching the events with The Lizard play out. He presents this new idea to his father:
Alistair: "Oscorp created and controlled superheroes. Think of it, father. Enhanced individuals we could lone out for security contracts for pay in money or a share of profits. We just need people who'll bark on cue. We'll make a killing doing what suckers like The Avengers do for free."
Spencer: "Interesting idea, Son, but impractical. We'd need to open a whole new branch of the company to even get started. What’s more, our top researcher just got himself sent to The Raft for trying to turn all of New York into a race of lizard people."
Alistair: "We don't need Connors anymore. We have his research and I've found several people who would be more than willing to participate in his place."
(Alistair taps in a new commands into his space-age laptop that’s built right into his hovering wheelchair. It projects a holographic chart of candidates, which is basically a grocery list of Spider-Man villains who started off as inventors or scientists. In other words, most of ‘em.)
Alistair: (Skimming the list) "A disgruntled electronics engineer who needs funding to finish his flight harness here. An advanced weaponry engineer there. A quantum physicists here with a fascinating theory about creating dimensional rifts. I think he can actually do it if he just had someone to fund his research."
Spencer: (Still visibly unconvinced) "That's all fine and good, Alistair, but without the proper facilities and equipment, these people can't produce anything. Oscorp hasn't been a weapons manufacturer for a decade now. That died with Norman. We'd have to spend a fortune to even begin preparing and that's to say nothing of where we'd put these people. We'd either have to cease profitable production lines to make room for them or purchase hundreds of acres of land just to spend even more building new facilities."
Alistair: (Smiling knowingly up at his father) "Actually, we have everything we need. I've done a little digging into our predecessors and found a few buried Osborne secrets. Things you wouldn't believe, father."
Spencer: (Mildly amused, but a little curious.) "Try me."
(Cut to black)
MCU-Raimi Spider-Man 5 (2014)
My hypothetical Spider-Man 4, aka "The One with The Lizard", would have been in 2012 like the actual Amazing Spider-Man, but released October/November-ish instead. Granted, that's still requiring Maguire to shoot two back-to-back movies as the same character, but it's not he's doing much else these days, anyway.
Alright, I think The Amazing Spider-Man 2 had a solid foundation under it, but the studio just interfered too much. Like my Spider-Man 4 idea, this hypothetical 5 will be keeping the basic premise of the corresponding Amazing Spider-Man film (2), but with the specifics changed.
Oh, and I've decided Aunt May has passed away between Spider-Man 3 and The Avengers. This would covered in Spider-Man 4.
Moving on...
The Smythes have gone ahead with their "corporate superhero" plan and reopened the old Oscorp Military Testing Facilities. They set everything up and hire the experts Alistair wanted.
They make Adrian Toomes (The Vulture), Phineas Mason (The Tinkerer), Jonathan Ohnn (The Spot), and Michael Morbius their head researchers.
Toomes and Mason: brilliant engineers and inventors.
Ohnn: expert on quantum and atomic physics.
Morbius: medical specialist with an advanced knowledge of chemistry and physiology-altering conditions/diseases.
I see only good things coming of this alliance. Oh, and none of these guys will become super-villains yet. They're just supporting antagonists to the Smythes and their corporate superhero.
Now, if only they had a volunteer. Coincidentally, Spider-Man busts a master criminal, Maxwell Dillon. After many long years of being the guy corrupt corporate bigwigs call in when they need corporate espionage and/or sabotage done, Max is finally caught, exposed publicly, and tossed into prison. Even if he escapes, the public now knows about him, so his anonymity is gone and his career as a professional criminal is over. Ooh, that Spider-Man! If only he had to way to get back at him!
With few other options, Max agrees to spill the beans on every dirty corporate bigwig he's ever worked for, but is "killed" by a "hitman" during transport. Actually, the Spencer Smythe, one of his longest standing customers, set the whole thing up and had his "body" taken to the Smythes' lab. Max is presented with the option of becoming a professional superhero for nice juicy biweekly paychecks. After being convinced he has few other options (if the police don't get him, the next hitman who comes after him will be using live ammunition), he submits to the experiment and becomes Electro (needless to say, he's nothing like the actual Electro we got).
From there, the film follows the same basic story as Superman vs. The Elite and explores similar themes, but with a twist Supes vs Modern Antiheroes didn't have. Let me get to it.
Meanwhile, on Pete and MJ's end, four/five year old Mayday is already displaying way above-average physical ability, a strong indicator she's inherited Peter's spider abilities. So Peter is now not only juggling his work, his other work, and being a husband and father, now he's also having to teach his daughter self-control in order to appear normal and not accidentally hurt anyone.
Back to the plot, Spider-man busts some Hydra runaways (stragglers who avoided arrest after Widow's whistleblowing in Winter Soldier) trying to rob a chemical plant.
The chase spills out into the streets where they're intercepted by Electro and either killed or grievously wounded (and will probably die of their wounds later). Spider-Man verbally tears into Electro for this, but the latter shoots back that a few months ago these men were a part of a government conspiracy to subjugate everyone everywhere and had three super-weapons pointed at millions of innocents until Captain America stopped them (Winter Soldier was released in April while Amazing Spider-Man 2 came out in July, so it's been a couple of months after Cap's second outing in both real time and in-universe).
Much to Spider-Man's dismay, the crowd agrees with Electro and he proceeds to declare that he'll protect the people, because "When I knock 'em down, they won't be getting back up." In fact, that becomes his slogan.
Thus starts the trend. Oscorp goes public with their creation and is soon rolling in protection contracts and government deals to legalize Electro's superhero work. The film audience is then presented with a grisly montage of his ruthless, 90s Anti-Hero brand of "justice" and the in-universe Post-Attempted-Hydra-Coup public is eating it up.
So while Spider-Man falls out of favor with the city, Electro is the "in"-thing. Spidey tries to stand up to Electro and get through to the people during one of his rival's public appearances, but gets called "too soft" and "old-fashioned" by both Electro and crowd.
Spider-Man even gets into his first physical confrontation with Electro to protect some petty crooks from him. Afterwards, he's officially made a wanted criminal for interfering because Electro has the government on his side, leading to a tense chase scene between Spider-Man and the authorities with Anti-Superhuman personnel and equipment.
Also, since Electro's corporate, he starts appearing in commercials endorsing products, has a cereal based on him, has interviews on talk shows, does publicity stunts, and yes, has action figures and other crap made of him.
Of course, not everything is so rosy behind closed doors. Max's ego has grown several sizes and he's started to become more and more demanding with his pay and the perks of his job. The Smythes are temporarily able to rein him in with fail-safes they've had the researchers implant in him, but I think we all know those won't last beyond the middle act.
Also, the side-effect of the experiment is making Max slowly become increasingly paranoid and the cracks in his persona start to show is little ways.
After a while, Spider-Man begins to wonder if he really is too soft and if the city isn't better off with Electro. While he mulls over it in his office, he's visited by a Captain America cameo and taken to a coffee shop where he and the Cap have a heart-to-heart. Steve, anticipating Peter's inner conflict, has come to reassure him that he is most definitely NOT too soft and hasn't done anything wrong (and that there's nothing with being old-fashioned).
Steve: "...In fact, sometimes we need old-fashioned."
Peter: (Looking a little less down.) "Thanks man."
Steve: "Don't thank me. I got that from Phil Coulson. When I first came out of the ice, I was lost and confused, too, wondering if there really was a place for me in this new world of computers and phones that also happen to be computers."
(Peter smirks.)
Steve: (Turning a bit more grim.) "Since the..." (He looked down at his coffee thoughtfully.) "Since the incident with SHIELD... Hydra... Bucky..."
(Steve looks Peter square in the eye.)
Steve: "I think this world needs old-fashioned more than ever. You're a good man, Peter, and you haven't done anything wrong. You do what you know is right, and that's all anyone can ask. I've kept you in the corner of my eye since we went our separate ways. You are the genuine deal. But this guy, Electro? No. He's no hero, Pete. The instant being a hero stops being fun, he'll stop. And when he stops..."
(Steve starts looking grim.)
Steve: "I'm actually a little afraid of what he'll do."
Peter: "Of course, we'll be there to stop him."
Steve: "Well, you will. As for me, I've got another mission."
Peter: "Barnes."
Steve: "Actually, no. Tony's combed the leaked data files and found some disturbing information. A lot of us are suiting up and shipping out soon. I'm not even going to be Stateside for a while."
Peter: "Need help?"
Steve: "Actually, I was hoping you would keep an eye on things here."
(Steve glances over at the ceiling-mounted TV scene, which is showing Electro's latest Coke ad.)
Steve: "I have a feeling New York's going to need you soon."
Meanwhile, over at Oscorp, things finally come to a head when Electro decides he's had enough of being bossed around by the Smythes. He tries to force a renegotiation of his contract. Spencer warns him he's "replaceable" and Max storms off. A bit later he overhears Alistair discussing "selecting a new candidate" with the research department. Thinking they've already decided to replace him, he busts in and after being momentarily stopped with their fail-safes, he overcomes them. Then he murders for some researchers as he trashes the lab, cruelly kicks Alistair out of his wheelchair and down a flight of stairs, and basically gives everyone still alive a pants-wetting they'll never forget.
Max "Electro" Dillon goes out into the city and proceeds to go mad with the rather considerable power he's been given.
Electro: "I am lightning! I'm power, itself! No one can stop me! Not Spider-Man! Not The Avengers! Not even God! Let's see them all try! I'm gonna run this town, starting with the voltage!"
From there, he proceeds to cause the same city-wide disaster he does in Amazing Spider-Man 2 and shows his true colors to the public. Left in the dark with Electro cutting off all power unless the city cowers under him, Peter dons the spandex once more and leaps into action.
The final fight goes down at a power plant where Spidey manages to defeat him the same way he did in Amazing Spider-Man 2. And that IS the climax. With Max Dillon discredited and defeated (only possibly dead), the charges against Spider-Man are lifted, and the public welcomes him back.
Oh, and in anger, Spencer fires the researchers for not properly controlling Electro, which led to Alistair's hospitalization. This enrages Toomes and the others, but Spencer is dismissive and has them all hauled out by security. The future Spider-Man villains swear revenge.
Mid-Credits Scene: In light of the utter failure of their corporate superhero, Oscorp is once more pushed to the brink of ruin. When Spencer and a severely-injured Alistair enter Oscorp headquarters for a board meeting, they find Spencer's seat at the head of the table taken by an unknown man who has his back to them.
They're informed by the board of directors that they've made a motion to sell a sizable amount of stock while it was still worth something and have done just that. However, most of the stocks were bought by a single third party, effectively making the buyer the new CEO. The mysterious new CEO turns the chair, revealing himself to be...
Post-Credits: Mayday shoots her first web from her wrist, freaking MJ out. She calls to Peter, who's grading papers. He answers and goes down to the living room to find his daughter swinging on a makeshift web-swing she's fixed to the ceiling.
I know the whole thing reads like a tirade against the 90s Anti-Hero and... That's exactly what it is.
Cast:
Returning Raimi Characters-Their original actors, of course.
Oh course, Malcolm McDowell and Dane DeHaan return as the Smythes.
Max "Electro" Dillon - Jamie Foxx
Adrian Toomes/The Vulture-Michael Keaton (No need to go against an excellent casting choice)
Phineas Mason/The Tinkerer-David Strathairn
Johnathon Ohnn/The Spot-Dominic Monaghan
Michael Morbius-Richard Artmitage
Casting Foxx in and of itself wasn't the problem with Electro's character in Amazing Spider-Man 2. Foxx is a good actor. He was just saddled with terrible material to work. It goes without saying this Electro would be nothing like the one from Amazing Spider-Man 2.
I think Keaton and Strathairn would nail Toomes and Mason being insufferable, self-serving geniuses.
Monaghan would embody Pre-Spot Ohnn's drive and excitability perfectly.
And lastly, Armitage would be perfect as Morbius, the eccentric, tortured genius who came to the States to research a cure for the "mysterious disease ravaging his homeland " *coughcough*vampirism*coughcough*. It opens the door for Blade, too, just in case.
To be continued in a second post where I discuss what Raimi-Parker's Age of Ultron, Civil War, and Spider-Man: Homecoming roles.
So, in this happy alternate universe where Sony and Marvel got along from the word "Go," the latter was given permission to use Raimi's Spider-Man in the MCU, but decided to wait until The Avengers to give him an on-screen appearance so as to give the general public a little time to move on from Spider-Man 3. The five films leading up to big team-up are exactly the same aside from maybe a tiny little reference to "the spider" or the "wall-crawler" here and there during dialogue when its relevant to mention other superheroes. Other times when a character is reading the newspaper, it could be the Daily Bugle and Spidey's on the front page. Or there could be a news report about his latest escapades playing in the background of another scene. In neither in those last two cases would the scene actually pause or do anything else to call attention to it. The fans would have been left to pause the movie to get the full details. So basically there's just enough reference to him to know he exists. Moving onto his introduction in The Avengers:
Personally, I'd have had his intro scene be him as a university professor teaching a class. We catch the tail end of his lecture about Advanced Quantum Physics or something else hyper-complicated and when he goes to his office to do some work, he finds a SHIELD Agent waiting there for him. They explain the situation to him. When Peter asks why SHIELD's gone to him about this, he's given the brief summery of the plot and an explanation that SHIELD has known he’s Spider-Man since almost the beginning, but left him alone.
They of course end up talking him into participating, because of that whole "no minimum blast distance and oh yeah it's in the hands of a mad man" factor. While they're talking, he sits down at his desk and we'd get a quick look at a picture of him, MJ, and their baby he has there.
Now for the rest:
1. Spider-Man shows up in Germany with Ironman and webs up Loki's hands behind his back, handcuffs-style.
2. In the following scene while they're transporting Loki to the Carrier, he backs Captain America up when Tony balks at his "This was too easy,” sentiment.
3. When Thor takes Loki from the Carrier, Tony gets angry at Spidey for not warning them that his spider-senses were going off. Spider-Man replies, "They weren't." While Cap realizes this means Thor isn't a threat, Tony is too riled up to take the hint, because Tony.
4. Later, while Ironman is fighting Thor, Spider-Man keeps an eye on Loki while Captain America breaks up the fight below.
5. Once in the Helicarrier, he's basically the third Science Bro. I envision a comical scene where he geeks out in front of Tony and Bruce and then reigns in back in with an embarrassed clearing of his throat while the older men in the room just smirk genially.
6. Of course he also thinks there's something suspicious about SHIELD's handling of the Tesseract and backs Tony and Bruce up with his own insight and I know exactly how he should do it.
Right after Bruce explains how it makes no sense for an intelligence agency to even be studying how to create clean, self-sustaining energy in the first place, Peter pipes in with this:
"Even before Tony Stark, I knew another scientist who was studying to create clean, self-sustaining power. His name was Doctor Octavius, yet it was a big corporation that funded his research and not SHIELD. And not just him. Countless brilliant scientists have tried their hand at it for decades. Where was SHIELD for those guys? If they've had this thing since World War II, how come Selvig seems to be the first outside expert they've brought in?"
7. I honestly can't see Maguire's Spider-Man being all that affected by Loki's staff in light of Spider-Man 3. For better or for worse, his experience with the Symbiote would have taught him a valuable lesson about anger. Besides that, I can see him not being able to get a word in edgewise while everyone else is arguing before eventually just walking out with a disappointed look on his face.
8. Then when Loki traps Thor in the droppable cage, Spider-Man tries to get the drop on him, but gets his ass kicked driving home the point Loki LET himself get caught. As good a film as Avengers was, I've always felt they kind of dropped the ball in showing that, so having him just trounce poor Spidey, who at that point would have been the guy to seemingly subdue him twice, would have been a good way to do that. Then after that second short interruption, Loki drops Thor from the carrier.
9. During the rest of the Helicarrier fight, I can see him just going around the place webbing up mercenaries and mind-controlled SHIELD agents. Maybe he can take a shot to the shoulder or something to show these guys are for serious (intentional bad English there). He could also probably help Tony and Steve out in getting the carrier running, but from the bridge, which he would most likely be defending.
9. New York Battle: he gets into a brief scuffle with Loki. Spidey ends up surrounded by Loki and his copies. So he stands perfectly still and then gives a back-fisted punch over his shoulder, hitting the real Loki right in the face and averting getting Coulsoned.
Then he just kicks Loki away and the Trickster god hitches a ride on another alien fighter craft.
10. After that, I see him making his way to the Stark building to help Widow with the portal. Of course, somewhere between Loki and the building, we’d have plenty of him fighting alien mercs the Spidey way and perhaps even commandeering one of the crafts, somewhat managing to steer it, but ultimately crashing it into the Stark building. Played for comedy, of course.
11. Parker's last scene during the montage that plays over Fury's ending narration has him going home, but what's this? Why, that's the house Aunt May and Uncle Ben used to own. The one May had to sell during Spider-Man 2. Gasp! He and MJ bought that house! Come on, admit it. That'd give you the warm fuzzies inside.
Pete goes inside where he's greeted by MJ (cameo by Dunst) and their baby daughter. After MJ light-heartedly chides him on "his work" keeping him away too long sometimes, the happy family embraces. And yes, said baby daughter IS Mayday from the Spider-Girl comics. You know, for the future. Maybe Phase 4. Admit it, you'd love that.
I proposed making Parker a full college professor at that point, because after a whole trilogy of him being down on his luck in literally every way imaginable, I like the idea of picking his story up again many years after Spider-Man 3 and actually seeing him make progress in his personal life.
Traded the thankless task of taking photos for Jameson for the thankless task of being a university professor.
Traded that crappy apartment for Aunt May and Uncle Ben's house.
Got married and has a 2-3 year old daughter.
Plus, among the dysfunctional Avengers, having a 30-35ish family man in their ranks would have been an interesting thing to throw into the mix in the first film. Yeah, I know they did the same thing with Hawkeye in Age of Ultron and I'd still be all for them keeping that.
As much as I prefer Garfield's Spider-Man, had they been able to use him he'd just be just another snarky superhero in a lineup of snarky heroes. I hate to say it, but Maguire's Spider-Man would just stick out more.
Spider-Man 4: 2012:
This could be an alternate Amazing Spider-Man/Spider-Man 4, featuring Peter right after the events of The Avengers.
Doctor Connors has finally procured the funding necessary to pursue his pet project, the human limb regrowth serum.
His funders are none other than the new heads of Oscorp: Spencer Smythe and his son Alistair. Spencer is interested in the serum because he sees it as a way to help wheelchair-bound Alistair regain the use of his legs. And of course we could get this little exchange:
Spencer: "I'm doing this for you, Alistair. I would love to see you walk again."
Alistair: (Smirking) "And I suppose the billions we'll make off Connors' research doesn't mean anything to you?"
Spencer: (Now wearing a wry expression to match his son's) "Well, there is that, too."
(Father and son share a laugh.)
Connors brings in Peter Parker and Gwen Stacy to help with his research and they manage to finish the formula, but it's untested. Naturally, Spencer pushes for results, giving Dr. Connors all the excuse he needs to try it out. From there, the film would proceed not very differently from the Amazing Spider-Man we did get, honestly.
In place of Detective Denis Leary, we could have an adult Flash Thompson (still played by Joe Manganiello) who joined the New York police force. He would of course work under James Cromwell’s Commissioner Stacy.
In the comics, Flash joined the military and grew up quite a bit there. After returning home, he reconciled with Peter and they've been friends ever since. In this hypothetical Spider-Man 4, he could have gone to police academy after leaving the military and has recently been promoted to being a detective. Through being a subordinate to Stacy, he meets Gwen and they start dating. And Gwen is researching regrowing human limbs with Connors and Peter.
Flash is reunited with his ex-girlfriend and ex-victim with nothing but genuine remorse for past behavior. They accept his apologies.
Then after The Lizard becomes a thing, Flash is given the case and becomes the one to help Spidey and Gwen deal with him at the end. Unsure if he should meet the same fate as Leary's Captain Stacy, though.
So the real deviations from The Amazing Spider-Man are:
1. Pete’s dad didn’t invent the spiders that gave Pete his powers.
2. The Lizard would attack the University where Peter teaches instead of his high school.
3. When Spider-Man has to defeat The Lizard and stop the mutagen from spreading, it'd be with Captain Flash Thompson’s help.
Casting:
Returning Characters: Same actors from the Raimi trilogy.
Spencer Smythe: Malcolm McDowell
Alistair Smythe: Dane DeHaan
Bruce Campbell Cameo: Cantankerous janitor who works the nightshift in Connors’ lab. He gets the crap scared out of him by The Lizard when he first mutates.
Setting up Spider-Man 5:
MacDoweel and DeHaan would be that adorable kind of slimy you just love to hate and the perfect as (indirect) supporting antagonists for this Spider-Man 4 and the future main antagonists of Spider-Man 5.
As for that: by the end of 4th film, Alistair sets his heart on a new business venture after watching the events with The Lizard play out. He presents this new idea to his father:
Alistair: "Oscorp created and controlled superheroes. Think of it, father. Enhanced individuals we could lone out for security contracts for pay in money or a share of profits. We just need people who'll bark on cue. We'll make a killing doing what suckers like The Avengers do for free."
Spencer: "Interesting idea, Son, but impractical. We'd need to open a whole new branch of the company to even get started. What’s more, our top researcher just got himself sent to The Raft for trying to turn all of New York into a race of lizard people."
Alistair: "We don't need Connors anymore. We have his research and I've found several people who would be more than willing to participate in his place."
(Alistair taps in a new commands into his space-age laptop that’s built right into his hovering wheelchair. It projects a holographic chart of candidates, which is basically a grocery list of Spider-Man villains who started off as inventors or scientists. In other words, most of ‘em.)
Alistair: (Skimming the list) "A disgruntled electronics engineer who needs funding to finish his flight harness here. An advanced weaponry engineer there. A quantum physicists here with a fascinating theory about creating dimensional rifts. I think he can actually do it if he just had someone to fund his research."
Spencer: (Still visibly unconvinced) "That's all fine and good, Alistair, but without the proper facilities and equipment, these people can't produce anything. Oscorp hasn't been a weapons manufacturer for a decade now. That died with Norman. We'd have to spend a fortune to even begin preparing and that's to say nothing of where we'd put these people. We'd either have to cease profitable production lines to make room for them or purchase hundreds of acres of land just to spend even more building new facilities."
Alistair: (Smiling knowingly up at his father) "Actually, we have everything we need. I've done a little digging into our predecessors and found a few buried Osborne secrets. Things you wouldn't believe, father."
Spencer: (Mildly amused, but a little curious.) "Try me."
(Cut to black)
MCU-Raimi Spider-Man 5 (2014)
My hypothetical Spider-Man 4, aka "The One with The Lizard", would have been in 2012 like the actual Amazing Spider-Man, but released October/November-ish instead. Granted, that's still requiring Maguire to shoot two back-to-back movies as the same character, but it's not he's doing much else these days, anyway.
Alright, I think The Amazing Spider-Man 2 had a solid foundation under it, but the studio just interfered too much. Like my Spider-Man 4 idea, this hypothetical 5 will be keeping the basic premise of the corresponding Amazing Spider-Man film (2), but with the specifics changed.
Oh, and I've decided Aunt May has passed away between Spider-Man 3 and The Avengers. This would covered in Spider-Man 4.
Moving on...
The Smythes have gone ahead with their "corporate superhero" plan and reopened the old Oscorp Military Testing Facilities. They set everything up and hire the experts Alistair wanted.
They make Adrian Toomes (The Vulture), Phineas Mason (The Tinkerer), Jonathan Ohnn (The Spot), and Michael Morbius their head researchers.
Toomes and Mason: brilliant engineers and inventors.
Ohnn: expert on quantum and atomic physics.
Morbius: medical specialist with an advanced knowledge of chemistry and physiology-altering conditions/diseases.
I see only good things coming of this alliance. Oh, and none of these guys will become super-villains yet. They're just supporting antagonists to the Smythes and their corporate superhero.
Now, if only they had a volunteer. Coincidentally, Spider-Man busts a master criminal, Maxwell Dillon. After many long years of being the guy corrupt corporate bigwigs call in when they need corporate espionage and/or sabotage done, Max is finally caught, exposed publicly, and tossed into prison. Even if he escapes, the public now knows about him, so his anonymity is gone and his career as a professional criminal is over. Ooh, that Spider-Man! If only he had to way to get back at him!
With few other options, Max agrees to spill the beans on every dirty corporate bigwig he's ever worked for, but is "killed" by a "hitman" during transport. Actually, the Spencer Smythe, one of his longest standing customers, set the whole thing up and had his "body" taken to the Smythes' lab. Max is presented with the option of becoming a professional superhero for nice juicy biweekly paychecks. After being convinced he has few other options (if the police don't get him, the next hitman who comes after him will be using live ammunition), he submits to the experiment and becomes Electro (needless to say, he's nothing like the actual Electro we got).
From there, the film follows the same basic story as Superman vs. The Elite and explores similar themes, but with a twist Supes vs Modern Antiheroes didn't have. Let me get to it.
Meanwhile, on Pete and MJ's end, four/five year old Mayday is already displaying way above-average physical ability, a strong indicator she's inherited Peter's spider abilities. So Peter is now not only juggling his work, his other work, and being a husband and father, now he's also having to teach his daughter self-control in order to appear normal and not accidentally hurt anyone.
Back to the plot, Spider-man busts some Hydra runaways (stragglers who avoided arrest after Widow's whistleblowing in Winter Soldier) trying to rob a chemical plant.
The chase spills out into the streets where they're intercepted by Electro and either killed or grievously wounded (and will probably die of their wounds later). Spider-Man verbally tears into Electro for this, but the latter shoots back that a few months ago these men were a part of a government conspiracy to subjugate everyone everywhere and had three super-weapons pointed at millions of innocents until Captain America stopped them (Winter Soldier was released in April while Amazing Spider-Man 2 came out in July, so it's been a couple of months after Cap's second outing in both real time and in-universe).
Much to Spider-Man's dismay, the crowd agrees with Electro and he proceeds to declare that he'll protect the people, because "When I knock 'em down, they won't be getting back up." In fact, that becomes his slogan.
Thus starts the trend. Oscorp goes public with their creation and is soon rolling in protection contracts and government deals to legalize Electro's superhero work. The film audience is then presented with a grisly montage of his ruthless, 90s Anti-Hero brand of "justice" and the in-universe Post-Attempted-Hydra-Coup public is eating it up.
So while Spider-Man falls out of favor with the city, Electro is the "in"-thing. Spidey tries to stand up to Electro and get through to the people during one of his rival's public appearances, but gets called "too soft" and "old-fashioned" by both Electro and crowd.
Spider-Man even gets into his first physical confrontation with Electro to protect some petty crooks from him. Afterwards, he's officially made a wanted criminal for interfering because Electro has the government on his side, leading to a tense chase scene between Spider-Man and the authorities with Anti-Superhuman personnel and equipment.
Also, since Electro's corporate, he starts appearing in commercials endorsing products, has a cereal based on him, has interviews on talk shows, does publicity stunts, and yes, has action figures and other crap made of him.
Of course, not everything is so rosy behind closed doors. Max's ego has grown several sizes and he's started to become more and more demanding with his pay and the perks of his job. The Smythes are temporarily able to rein him in with fail-safes they've had the researchers implant in him, but I think we all know those won't last beyond the middle act.
Also, the side-effect of the experiment is making Max slowly become increasingly paranoid and the cracks in his persona start to show is little ways.
After a while, Spider-Man begins to wonder if he really is too soft and if the city isn't better off with Electro. While he mulls over it in his office, he's visited by a Captain America cameo and taken to a coffee shop where he and the Cap have a heart-to-heart. Steve, anticipating Peter's inner conflict, has come to reassure him that he is most definitely NOT too soft and hasn't done anything wrong (and that there's nothing with being old-fashioned).
Steve: "...In fact, sometimes we need old-fashioned."
Peter: (Looking a little less down.) "Thanks man."
Steve: "Don't thank me. I got that from Phil Coulson. When I first came out of the ice, I was lost and confused, too, wondering if there really was a place for me in this new world of computers and phones that also happen to be computers."
(Peter smirks.)
Steve: (Turning a bit more grim.) "Since the..." (He looked down at his coffee thoughtfully.) "Since the incident with SHIELD... Hydra... Bucky..."
(Steve looks Peter square in the eye.)
Steve: "I think this world needs old-fashioned more than ever. You're a good man, Peter, and you haven't done anything wrong. You do what you know is right, and that's all anyone can ask. I've kept you in the corner of my eye since we went our separate ways. You are the genuine deal. But this guy, Electro? No. He's no hero, Pete. The instant being a hero stops being fun, he'll stop. And when he stops..."
(Steve starts looking grim.)
Steve: "I'm actually a little afraid of what he'll do."
Peter: "Of course, we'll be there to stop him."
Steve: "Well, you will. As for me, I've got another mission."
Peter: "Barnes."
Steve: "Actually, no. Tony's combed the leaked data files and found some disturbing information. A lot of us are suiting up and shipping out soon. I'm not even going to be Stateside for a while."
Peter: "Need help?"
Steve: "Actually, I was hoping you would keep an eye on things here."
(Steve glances over at the ceiling-mounted TV scene, which is showing Electro's latest Coke ad.)
Steve: "I have a feeling New York's going to need you soon."
Meanwhile, over at Oscorp, things finally come to a head when Electro decides he's had enough of being bossed around by the Smythes. He tries to force a renegotiation of his contract. Spencer warns him he's "replaceable" and Max storms off. A bit later he overhears Alistair discussing "selecting a new candidate" with the research department. Thinking they've already decided to replace him, he busts in and after being momentarily stopped with their fail-safes, he overcomes them. Then he murders for some researchers as he trashes the lab, cruelly kicks Alistair out of his wheelchair and down a flight of stairs, and basically gives everyone still alive a pants-wetting they'll never forget.
Max "Electro" Dillon goes out into the city and proceeds to go mad with the rather considerable power he's been given.
Electro: "I am lightning! I'm power, itself! No one can stop me! Not Spider-Man! Not The Avengers! Not even God! Let's see them all try! I'm gonna run this town, starting with the voltage!"
From there, he proceeds to cause the same city-wide disaster he does in Amazing Spider-Man 2 and shows his true colors to the public. Left in the dark with Electro cutting off all power unless the city cowers under him, Peter dons the spandex once more and leaps into action.
The final fight goes down at a power plant where Spidey manages to defeat him the same way he did in Amazing Spider-Man 2. And that IS the climax. With Max Dillon discredited and defeated (only possibly dead), the charges against Spider-Man are lifted, and the public welcomes him back.
Oh, and in anger, Spencer fires the researchers for not properly controlling Electro, which led to Alistair's hospitalization. This enrages Toomes and the others, but Spencer is dismissive and has them all hauled out by security. The future Spider-Man villains swear revenge.
Mid-Credits Scene: In light of the utter failure of their corporate superhero, Oscorp is once more pushed to the brink of ruin. When Spencer and a severely-injured Alistair enter Oscorp headquarters for a board meeting, they find Spencer's seat at the head of the table taken by an unknown man who has his back to them.
They're informed by the board of directors that they've made a motion to sell a sizable amount of stock while it was still worth something and have done just that. However, most of the stocks were bought by a single third party, effectively making the buyer the new CEO. The mysterious new CEO turns the chair, revealing himself to be...
Post-Credits: Mayday shoots her first web from her wrist, freaking MJ out. She calls to Peter, who's grading papers. He answers and goes down to the living room to find his daughter swinging on a makeshift web-swing she's fixed to the ceiling.
I know the whole thing reads like a tirade against the 90s Anti-Hero and... That's exactly what it is.
Cast:
Returning Raimi Characters-Their original actors, of course.
Oh course, Malcolm McDowell and Dane DeHaan return as the Smythes.
Max "Electro" Dillon - Jamie Foxx
Adrian Toomes/The Vulture-Michael Keaton (No need to go against an excellent casting choice)
Phineas Mason/The Tinkerer-David Strathairn
Johnathon Ohnn/The Spot-Dominic Monaghan
Michael Morbius-Richard Artmitage
Casting Foxx in and of itself wasn't the problem with Electro's character in Amazing Spider-Man 2. Foxx is a good actor. He was just saddled with terrible material to work. It goes without saying this Electro would be nothing like the one from Amazing Spider-Man 2.
I think Keaton and Strathairn would nail Toomes and Mason being insufferable, self-serving geniuses.
Monaghan would embody Pre-Spot Ohnn's drive and excitability perfectly.
And lastly, Armitage would be perfect as Morbius, the eccentric, tortured genius who came to the States to research a cure for the "mysterious disease ravaging his homeland " *coughcough*vampirism*coughcough*. It opens the door for Blade, too, just in case.
To be continued in a second post where I discuss what Raimi-Parker's Age of Ultron, Civil War, and Spider-Man: Homecoming roles.