Alright, let's Talk about the Sony/Disney Spider-Man Debacle

Written by Shiggins

Marvel Kombat!

So I was going to talk about the theory that Rey is a clone, which I honestly was excited for, but my love for Star Wars will need to wait until I get this particular issue off my chest first. As always, the internet is screaming at each other over an issue, and I won't be mum on it for once. Disney vs Sony, who is to blame? Who should I, a humble fan of the MCU and the character himself, root for?

Well, OBVIOUSLY I'm using this picture.

A little backstory first.

During the 90s, Marvel Studios was suffering and had to sell some of their properties to stay alive. These deals included X-Men going to Fox, Hulk to Paramount, and Spider-Man to Sony. Wasting no time, Sony got to work on releasing the Sam Raimi Spider-Man film in 2002 to great success, spawned a massive hit sequel with Spider-Man 2, and made tons of money with the third entry despite massive fan backlash caused by the company forcing Sam Raimi to include the Venom subplot, as well as a few odd creative decisions.

Meanwhile, Marvel Studios were slowly getting the licencing rights to some of their heroes, starting with Black Panther from Columbia Pictures in 2005 (It took 13 years to give him a film?!) and Iron Man from New Line Cinema. With Hulk, they got the rights but Universal retained the "right of first refusal", causing so much fun for us... Anyway, this eventually brought forth Iron Man (2008) and thus began the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

Disney would eventually sniff the money and opportunity and purchase Marvel Entertainment for themselves in 2009 for $4 billion, which has no doubt greatly helped Marvel gain new success and heights.

In 2012, Sony rebooted the Spider-Man film franchise with the "Amazing Spider-Man" films and it really didn't click for fans. Issues such as a darker tone, less fantastical environment, and a miscasting here or there caused people to miss the Sam Raimi films too much, and so the Amazing series did well, but not well enough for Sony, who were trying their damn hardest to ring out every coin they could from these films. It's easy to forget, but Sony had tons of "plans" (I use quotation marks because it's clear they were just making it up as they went along) for the character and his co-stars, including films based solely on the Sinister Six, who hadn't appeared in any films yet, resurrecting the recently-deceased Gwen Stacy with a magical potion, and even a prequel all about Aunt May! And at a time when Marvel were doing so well with the Avengers' franchise, this just seemed... desperate.

Finally, this brings us to 2015, when all the fans got exactly what they wanted: Spider-Man got to join the Marvel Cinematic Universe! The biggest Marvel franchise was about to introduce the biggest Marvel superhero. The deal itself was slightly complicated, but it seemed that Sony would be in charge of financing any movie where Spider-Man is the main character, distribute them to the public and keep a final say on the finished product. In return, Disney and Marvel receive 5% of the film's revenue and full merchandising rights. It was a sweet deal, and every movie this new Spider-Man appeared in made tons of money and won over both audiences and critics. Tom Holland's performance was praised, the design was a perfect mix of classic and modern, and he got to join the Avengers! How cool is that?!

Sony decided to keep going however, and so they announced one of the worst ideas I had heard in a very long time. A Spider-Man-less Spider-Man Universe. Characters that Spider-Man fought or fought with would get their own movies instead, and Spider-Man himself would or could not appear due to his MCU commitments. To this day, I will call this a horrible idea every chance I get. Sony were returning to the way they were before, at least in my eyes, as they pitched a movie about Venom (which somehow made over $800 million...), a movie about Silver Sable and Black Cat, and an upcoming Jared Leto movie about Morbius the Living Vampire. On the bright side, we got Into the Spider-Verse, which is still absolutely fantastic and everyone should have given that movie money instead,but Sony didn't market it very well because they knew Venom would be the bigger 2018 money-maker... I'm not bitter.

Unfortunately, everything came crashing down earlier this month when it was announced that negotiations were crumbling apart and the MCU would be losing their Spider-Man, despite literally making over 1 billion dollars and being Sony's highest-grossing movie of all time. According to reports, Sony were hoping to continue the exact same deal they had been using since 2015, while Disney had asked for a change, saying they wanted "50/50 co-financing arrangement between the studios". Sony said no, did not provide a counter offer, and so here we are.

So who do I side with? Disney or Sony? Which one do I choose?

......

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I choose Marvel.

I'll go a step further. I choose the creators.

I side with the people who worked every damn day to create the best product they could with what they were given, what they were allowed to, and who put the effort in brilliantly. I root for director Jon Watts and Tom Holland, both of which were the face of these Spider-Man films to me, and every writer, cameraman and more out there.

I tolerate Disney's Business Bastards, and Sony's. I don't enjoy them. I hate them, but I'm powerless to do anything about it for obvious reasons. If it were up to me, Marvel Studios would be it's own thing with no big company looming over it, free to create the MCU and make the money it needed to keep going and going until it decided to stop.

I resent Disney for buying every property it can and trying to create a monopoly over the film industry, remaking everything it can find with little regard for integrity or creativity, and still not being happy despite already having enough money to buy God's summer home. I mean, what dumbass asked for a remake of Home Alone?

I resent Sony for showing no care or respect for the Spider-Man source material, and throwing darts everywhere it can to pathetically cling onto as much money as possible, while seeing the character as nothing more than something to bleed dry. Again, they were going to force an Aunt May film!

I resent the situation we're in, where we're forced to pick sides between two companies that couldn't actually care less about us, when we should be thinking about the cast and crew instead. These people worked their asses off, and they deserve to continue their work and their story, but corporate greed is fighting against them at every turn.

Don't defend these companies, who see you as just another number. Defend the creators. Defend the artists. And yes, it sucks to have to grit out teeth and deal with any Business Bastard, but don't go to war over them. They aren't doing this because they love the characters or care about the content. They're doing it because they want all the money in the world, and that's it. When they do something that makes you happy, it's a feature, not their objective. They'll do whatever is profitable, without a doubt.

I side with Spider-Man, and everyone who brought their passion to the project. I hope a compromise can be found, for both them and the fans, but that's the only reason. Not because I want Disney to rule the world, or because Sony need to fund the Emoji Movie 2, but because there are people out there who deserve to finish the story until they decide it's time to end it.

Everyone can win here. Greed is stopping that. And I'll support creativity over greed any day.

Shiggins:[Admin]
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Born under the stars of the Dark Gods, Shiggins owns the power of the Great Eye and is utterly magnificent in his omniscience. If you dare to discover more about someone as great as him, then go ahead. And to all my friends and family members, YOU are wrong and I should be disappointed! Not the other way round!,. You can find out about him or ask him stuff on ask.fm/shigginsishere or go to his tumblr page http://otakugajeel.tumblr.com/