Friday, December 10, 2010

How I would map out the "Spiderman" reboot

Now look I know they ain askin me, I know I don't have enough ducketts in the bank to even tickle the hair beside their ear lobe BUT, if I were to be in such a position to influence the reboot of the movie franchise for my all time favorite comic book character(I used to own Spidey PJ's, yes there is a picture I severly doubt I will post it) this is how I would map out the progression. And I would have some set in stone, non reversible, no change banks, no time outs, no skipsies rules that had to be obey.

NO KILLING VILLAINS

Save Kraven(and for a short time Doc Ock) spidey villians don't die, they fake their deaths, the fall off the grid for a while but they don't die. Like all super heroes some started out with lame(or at least with lame looking costumes say like Shocker and the original Mr. Daisy Electro man was electro's original costume gay, you couldn't pay the guys from Will and Grace to wear that costume) villains. Maybe some new "threat", disease, or weird phenomenon popped up comics being pop culture usually runs with some new issue and makes it work in their medium.

So yeah I know you may wanna kill off the lame villians or hell some main ones no axing ANYBODY unless it was in the actual main story line.

Keep the Girl friends in order

Mary Jane Watson is Peter Parker's reward for always being that stand up guy, ALWAYS living by his credo of "with great power comes great responsibility"(and for Stan Lee pounding him into the sand EVERY other issue, Spidey rarely wins in the first meeting, hell sometimes not in that issue it's always Spidey in gravel, Spidey half conscious for Stan's most SUCCESSFUL CHARACTER EVER he sure beats the hell out of him regularly and the marvel universe has kept that them intact, just saying MJW is a great reward but so would not making his life suck 50% of the time). Spiderman came out in the 60's but his woman of tomorrow strong female love interest(Lois Lane started out the typical damsel in distress, MJW was the consummate whirlwind and firebrand from day one) I think didn't come around til the mid to late 70's.
I remember reading about how for like 3 issues and up til like the last 5 panels of the issue she was introduced in she was just a voice. They knew who they wanted her to be but hadn't decided fully how the fiery red head would look. And MJ wasn't a pushover oh no she was a Tigress she was on the prowl and when she finally caught the scent of our shy hero, man was her iconic "Face it Tiger, you just hit the jackpot" an understatement(look at the pictures name me one book nerd who wouldn't take every wedgie and melvin if thats what they were gonna end up marrying after college)
.
To my recollection the girlfriend list went:

Gwen Stacy(who was later killed by the jackal)

Betty Brant(it was actually more of a work place crush as she was much older than peter)
Felicia Hardy
And then Mary Jane Watson.

Yes I know those ONLY familiar with the ultimate universe will say but Mary Jane was there all along, no she wasn't but if you remember the ultimate series of marvel comics is a condensed, sped up version of all storyline putting the most BLARING character identifiable traits early to bring newbies up to speed(by the way Kitty Pride the X-men's Shadowcat would also be on the list if we added the ultimate universe since they dated) .

Adherence to basic costume design

I say this after calling Electro's costume gay(if me using gay in that way offends you, I accept that. I have nothing against gay people I just feel this situation fits that description) yes some costumes could get a mild color and "design" update, no Gobbyizing.
The Green Goblin's(Norman Osbourne) costume was god awful in Spiderman, yes I know the "imp" motif might have been a bit much but go with it.

Doc Ocs (Otto Octavius)costume was pretty simplistic just a green jumpsuit. So the trench coat and basic clothes worked.

For Electro(Maxwell Dillon) I say borrow from Infamous, some cargo pants, a bike messengers jacket done.

Sandman(Flint Marko) I mean his outfit in the movie was fine. Striped green shirt brown pants.

Venom(Eddie Brock) meh that's kinda his costume but brock was supposed to be the jock to Peter's nerd so not really feeling Parker lite in Topher grace.

Scorpion(Eddie Gargan) there have been a few successful updates of the scorpion suit so I say keep him buff, keep him simplistic, and let him slap around with the tail that shoots acid

The Rhino(Alex O'Hirn) now this one I wouldn't mind a switch to the Ultimate version. A mechanized cyber suit of destruction, yeah go with that.

Who's next who knows.

CAMEO's

Comic books thrive on them, I mention Felicia Hardy as the eventual black cat. Also if you add Black Cat do the Fox kids version of her origin:her dad "The Cat" was tricked into learning the super soldier serum, has a photographic memory and is black mailed into giving the CORRECT formula to The Kingpin by him threatening to test the formula on his daughter first.

And as all the Marvel heroes are NORMALLY based in NY you can stumble over anyone DO SO. Maybe even test a few "low tier" heroes who might be good for a test movie. Blade was an out of the Galaxy Home run for marvel. He NEVER worked as a comic and was Cameo King you have PLENTY of second or third tier heroes you can give minor screen time to and if you get positive feedback expand on him later.

Use ACTUAL STORYLINES

Most comic book movies fail because you get a writer who decides he has a better idea of how the character should act, a director decides he doesn't need to obey umpteen years of fan dedication and you get a train wreck: The last Airbender, BloodRayne, Dragon Ball Evolution, Elektra, THE HULK.

You change so many things that the character is unrecognizable and pisses off fans, then newbies see a hodge podge effect and possibly get sucked in by special effects but they aren't going to go long term with buying Merch. Respect the fan boys, they budget merch into their pay checks.


Wow this got longer then expected okay I will revisit this subject sometime this weekend. I'll go into more actual story depth instead of just the rules for what should be(which I think most spidey fans would agree are some pretty decent rules)

Sent via BlackBerry from T-Mobile

No comments:

Post a Comment

Disqus for Primal's Ponderings

LinkWithin

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...

Total Pageviews