Spider-Man, Sony Pictures, & the Unbridled Egotism of Hollywood Studios

They know what we like, whether we like it or not.

My dad and I were watching TV a few months ago when a commercial for Madame Web popped up, which featured a very Spider-Man-like Ezekiel Sims flying through the air, striking some very Spider-Man-like poses.

“That a Spider-Man movie?” my dad asked.

“Yeah,” I answered. “Well, no. I mean, kinda. It might become one later on, I don’t know.”

My dad turned to me, confused.

I wasn’t in the mood to give my dad a complicated description of Sony Pictures’ shit-brained strategy of building out its Spider-Man-adjacent kinda-connected-but-not-really cinematic universe, which consists of making movies about his villains while ruining everything that made them interesting in the comics, occasionally making references to ol’ Webhead but never actually bringing him, nodding to Tom Holland’s version of the character over at Marvel Studios without ever committing to a bigger story, etc.

So I just said, “Eh, they’re making Spider-Man movies without Spider-Man.”

My dad just turned back to the TV and mumbled, “So stupid.”

I hear ya, pops.