Like “Venom” and “Morbius”, “Madame Web” is part of the Spider-Man universe. But is Spider-Man in the film released in theaters on February 14?
WARNING – The article below contains spoilers for “Madame Web”. Please move on if you haven’t seen the film yet.
Among superheroes in the cinema, there is the Marvel Cinematic Universe with infinite ramifications. The DC Universe in the midst of an overhaul. And the films produced by Sony, also from the Marvel catalog, and more precisely from the adventures of Spider-Man, of which they share the adaptation rights with Disney.
It was under their leadership that Venom and its sequel, as well as Morbius, were born. Feature films in which Spider-Man, whether Peter Parker or Miles Morales, Tobey Maguire, Andrew Garfield or Tom Holland, is conspicuous by his absence. Despite production’s attempts to link its universe and the MCU in post-credits scenes.
With its heroine who acts as a mentor for Spider-Man in the comic books from which she comes, is Madame Web the first film in this branch to feature Spider-Man?
The answer is “No”. Or rather : “No but…”. If there are several versions of Spider-Woman in SJ Clarkson’s feature film, Spider-Man is missing. But the film ensures that his absence is not aberrant by situating his action in 2003, when Peter was not yet born.
At the beginning of the plot at least. Because Adam Scott plays a certain Ben Parker, future deceased uncle of the hero, while Emma Roberts plays Mary Parker, Peter’s mother. Who is pregnant up to her eyes at the time of her first appearance, and gives birth to a little boy before the end of the adventure. His first name is never spoken on screen but, as the expression goes, “we know each other”.
If there is no Spider-Man in the film, Peter Parker is technically there, but not able to help the heroine played by Dakota Johnson. In this sense, the feature film is faithful to the comic books from which it is inspired, and in which Madame Web, elderly and widowed, helps the Spider-Man. By playing the origin story card.
Which Peter Parker in “Madame Web”?
A temporal trick, which allows Madame Web not to run into the same obstacle as Venom and Morbius. And to keep a sufficiently large margin so that the question does not arise again in a sequel which would take place less than ten years later.
The film nevertheless keeps the identity of its Peter Parker a mystery. If the plot takes place in 2003, it cannot be about Tobey Maguire, who has already been playing superheroes for a year, nor about Andrew Garfield, who is over 9 years old in 2012. So Tom Holland? The fact of not having Aunt May around (and even less Marisa Tomei in the role) helps maintain the vagueness.
There remains one last option: the map of the multiverse, already shot down in Venom and Morbius, and which helps explain the absence of Peter Parker. But perhaps we will have more precision on this subject, thanks to Kraven and Venom 3, expected in the second half.