spider

Spider-Man returns to Marvel: A short history of the webslinger on film

An image from a teaser for Marvel Comics' 2015 "Civil War," part of crossover "Secret Wars." Could Spidey appear in the new Captain America: Civil War film now that Marvel and Sony have worked out a deal?; Credit: Marvel

Mike Roe

Spider-Man is coming home to join the rest of the Marvel movie family (um, except for the Fantastic Four and the X-Men) in upcoming films under a new deal struck between Sony, the home for Spider-Man movies, and Disney's Marvel Studios, home of Iron Man and the Avengers

It's been a bumpy road for Spidey for almost a decade, but now he's set to be part of the largely critically and financially successful Marvel Cinematic Universe films. He's already made history, and he could make more history soon. 

Here's a brief history of cinematic Spider-Man, looking ahead to his new adventures with Marvel's large and growing stable of movie superheroes.

Coming out of the superhero dark ages

Spider-Man was one of the catalysts for the current superhero movie boom. Superhero films were seen as potentially dead following the bomb of "Batman & Robin" with George Clooney, a critical failure and a mixed bag commercially.

Marvel dipped its toes in superhero movies with 1998's "Blade," which was a big hit, followed by 2000's "X-Men," but they both tried to distance themselves from their comic book source material (and the Joel Schumacher Batman movies) by putting their heroes in black leather and grounding them as much as possible in real-life aesthetics.

Sony's first "Spider-Man" movie came out in 2002 and showed that there was still room for an optimistic comic book take. The Sam Raimi-directed film also had a huge cultural impact as one of the first big summer movies following 9/11 — an early teaser that showed Spidey trapping bad guys between the two towers had to be pulled following the disaster.

Spider-Man 9/11 trailer

The movie ended up pulling in almost $822 million at the box office, including almost $404 million domestically, helmed by genre director Raimi, who had previously been best known for the horror-comedy "Evil Dead" films.

Spider-Man trailer

Tobey Maguire surprised as the star, pulling off the nerdy, earnest Peter Parker while also being believable enough as an action star in the Spider-Man suit. Maguire starred alongside Kirsten Dunst as love interest Mary Jane and Willem Dafoe as the villainous Green Goblin, and the film included the not-yet-a-superstar James Franco as Harry Osborn and now-Oscar-nominated J.K. Simmons as Daily Bugle publisher J. Jonah Jameson.

A sequel, 2004's "Spider-Man 2," continued the success of the first, with only a slight dip in overall box office while proving that the first film's success wasn't just a flash in the pan, that there was room for a relatively bright superhero in a dark time.

Spider-Man 2 trailer

Maguire almost ducked out of filming during negotiations, complaining of back pains following injuries while filming "Seabiscuit," and Jake Gyllenhaal almost stepped into the role — but Maguire recovered and held onto his spot. The escapist entertainment of superhero movies was starting to take hold in a growing way, but the superhero train was about to come off the rails for a few years.

The twilight of Tobey Maguire

As "Spider-Man 2" was hitting theaters, 2004 also brought "The Punisher," "Blade: Trinity" and "Catwoman," none of which showed superheroes as particularly promising movie saviors.

Marvel turned out more superhero movies that weren't loved by critics, including "Elektra," "Fantastic Four" and "X-Men: The Last Stand," though the latter two still did well at the box office (all were released by 20th Century Fox). DC Comics made the critical and commercial hit "Batman Begins" in 2005, but stumbled in 2006 with the underperforming "Superman Returns."

In 2007, "Spider-Man 3" dropped, and while it did great at the box office — it was the series' most popular film worldwide, though it dipped domestically — it was slammed by fans and critics. They took that Spider-Man optimism and tried making him emo, while overstuffing the bad guys — going from one villain in the previous films and upping it to three — and turning the campy dialogue up to 11.

Spider-Man 3 trailer

Trying to be 'Amazing' in a new superhero era

While Spidey stumbled, the next year Marvel released its first film from its own studio, the groundbreaking "Iron Man." It showed that you could make a franchise from a hero who was big in the comics but didn't have the same mainstream recognition.

It revitalized Robert Downey Jr.'s career and put Marvel Studios on the map, with a post-credits sequence laying the seeds for completely tying the films together in a way that hadn't been done on this scale ever before.

While Marvel started to crank up their self-produced film, Spider-Man lay dormant. Eventually, it was decided to reboot the character with Andrew Garfield taking over the role in 2012's "The Amazing Spider-Man." It scored the lowest domestic take of the series, while still excelling overseas.

Amazing Spider-Man 2 trailer 1

Sony quickly followed up with a sequel, while announcing their own plans to ape Marvel and try to create their own cinematic universe.

Amazing Spider-Man 2 villains trailer

The second "Amazing Spider-Man" movie set up other potential villains, and holding off the payoff of what exactly happened to Peter Parker's parents as Marvel tried to stretch Spider-Man into a female-led film, one focused on the villains, a movie led by Spidey character Venom and more.

Amazing Spider-Man first 10 minutes

The sequel showed diminishing returns, though, and plans for further sequels and spinoffs began to seem up in the air.

Hacked

In the midst of the Sony hack, documents revealed that Sony and Marvel had been negotiating over Marvel using Spider-Man in its own films — despite Sony having the rights to the character in perpetuity as long as they kept producing films, a deal worked out before Marvel had the resources and the belief in their own filmmaking capabilities. Still, the documents also showed that the talks had fallen apart, and hopes for Spider-Man appearing with Iron Man, Captain America, Thor and the rest of his Marvel friends appeared dim.

Then, Monday, Marvel shocked everyone by announcing that Spider-Man was coming home and would be part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe after all. There had been reports that they'd wanted Spider-Man for the third Captain America film, and with that film set for 2016, that may still happen. They also pushed back four of their "Phase Three" movies to make room in 2017 for a new "Spider-Man" movie, with reports indicating that the movie will feature a new actor taking over and Andrew Garfield getting pushed aside.

Spider-Man comes home

Andrew Garfield will likely go down in comics movie history as the right guy at the wrong time. He was a likable lead with a strong supporting cast, but Marvel looks ready to turn the page. Those on the Marvel side have previously indicated they'd avoid doing another origin story, so we'll probably skip seeing Uncle Ben killed to inspire Peter Parker once again.

"The new relationship follows a decade of speculation among fans about whether Spider-Man – who has always been an integral and important part of the larger Marvel Universe in the comic books – could become part of the Marvel Universe on the big screen," Marvel said in the announcement of the new deal.

Fans online have been largely ecstatic over the announcement of Marvel getting control of the character. Reports indicate that Sony still gets final say over Spider-Man, but that they're letting Marvel take the creative lead. Marvel also announced the possibility that other Marvel characters could appear in future Spider-Man films.

While Sony's Amy Pascal stepped down as the motion picture head of Sony following the hacking scandal and its associated public embarrassments, she's staying on as a producer — including co-producing the next Spider-Man film with Marvel creative film leader Kevin Feige.

Some fans have also asked for an even bigger step away from the traditional Spider-Man by introducing Miles Morales, the popular half-black/half-hispanic Spider-Man from an alternate universe in the comics, but the official Marvel press release does mention Peter Parker, and Marvel executives have previously taken a strong stance against moving away from Parker as the secret identity.

Still, as Badass Digest's Devin Faraci notes, the executive who'd taken the strongest stance against Miles Morales — Avi Arad — isn't mentioned in the press release about the new film, so maybe Marvel will surprise fans once again. Also, relations have apparently been icier between Marvel and Fox, with fans speculating that Marvel is trying to ice out the X-Men and the Fantastic Four from their comics — but if the companies could work out a deal to use those heroes in a Marvel Cinematic Universe film, it could prove to be an even bigger surprise.

The new Spider-Man film is set for July 28, 2017, and he may appear in another Marvel film sooner.

This content is from Southern California Public Radio. View the original story at SCPR.org.




spider

A Genetically-Engineered Spider Silk Scarf

Sruli Recht, the Reyjavik-based industrial designer with a penchant for the unusual, may have topped himself. His ATOR scarf, made of spider silk, was created with the help of both a spider and a goat:

"Our knit originates from the silk gland DNA of a spider, carefully placed in the milk ducts of a goat. A single filament is reeled out of the goat millimetres at a time to produce the most unobtainable fibre in the world."

"It takes several weeks to hand-loom the filament into this fabric quality, a further week gently coaxing the textile into the knotted web of this ghostly veil. [The scarf is] is woven, its proteins color treated with hot acid, then cured. After cutting it is twisted into a Möbius strip, and a flat felled seam is backstitched by hand with lengths of the same yarn, a holistic approach just short of felting, closing the loop."

"The edges are folded and pressed with agonizing slowness, before being bound with a Japanese thermally activated tape, a frosted, almost invisible finish."

"ATOR is made from one of the rarest multi-hyphenated materials in the world – genetically engineered spider-goat silk filament, hand-loomed, hand-dyed, hand-stitched, and hand-bound."

Considering that Recht could only get enough material to produce three of these, the €2,200 (USD $2,337) price doesn't seem that high.




spider

The MARVEL RUNDOWN: AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #61 kicks off a meh new era

Amazing Spider-Man launches into a new era and new story arc. Plus reviews of Psylocke and Uncanny X-Men.




spider

updated blog spider

I've just updated SproutSearch's blog spider. It now tries to fetch the RSS feed for a blog before parsing it with my HTML parser. This should save some CPU time and give me better results. It also gets the date and time of the blog's latest post and some statistics about the number of words used. This new data will allow me to generate better pages in the future. I am also brainstorming some methods of data mining I can use to make SproutSearch a bit more interesting. With over 8 million blogs in the database there are lots of possibilities. http://www.sproutsearch.com




spider

Andrew Garfield has 'no plans' to play Spider-Man again




spider

Controlling Web crawlers (search engine spiders) with robots.txt and meta tags

How to instruct Web crawlers (search engine spiders) what to do when they visit your site. You can specify that some parts of your site should be private and non-searchable. You can control how Web crawlers index your site at different levels - the entire site, specific directories, and individual pages.




spider

Episode 84: Spider-People Unite!

The guys swing into the newest movie about everyone’s favorite wall-crawler, Into the Spider-Verse. They explore how loss affects who we become, how personhood is shaped in relationship, and how our identities are shaped by more than what we choose for ourselves. They close with their Top 5 Examples of Multiple Dimensions in Pop Culture.




spider

Episode 105: (Not) Just Another Spider-Man Podcast

The guys finally take on the latest Spider-Man film, Far From Home. They discuss the nature of reality vs. illusion, the human need for belief, and how we often are willing to disown our lives for something easier. They close with their Top 5 Spider-Man Villains.




spider

Episode 179: Spiderman: No Way Home

Steve and Christian are back to discuss the new MCU film, "Spiderman: No Way Home." Spoilers ahead! They explore restorative justice, loss and sacrifice, and identity.




spider

Saint Felix and the Spider

Saint Felix and the Spider, by Dessi Jackson, illustrated by Lydia Grace Kadar-Kallen (Quis Ut Deus Press, 2013)




spider

'I was more excited to fight before Spiderman than Trump'

Paul Craig says he was more excited by "fighting in front of Spiderman" than he would be Donald Trump as the Scot prepares to meet Bo Nickal at Madison Square Garden.




spider

Father’s pain after son dies at playing Spider-Man

Five-year-old Saleh Aslam was climbing a radiator which fell on top of him near Watford.




spider

Spider bites

Encountering a spider is not an ideal situation for most people. And for outdoor workers, including gardeners, farmers, construction workers and mail carriers, spiders can present an occupational hazard.




spider

Tuning the instrument: Spider webs as vibration transmission structures

Two years ago, a research team led by the University of Oxford revealed that, when plucked like a guitar string, spider silk transmits vibrations across a wide range of frequencies, carrying information about prey, mates and even the structural integrity of a web.

read more



  • Physics & Chemistry

spider

Tastykake swings into snack aisle with limited-edition 'Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse' packaging

Upcoming film Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse themed packaging will be on select Tastykake items in conjunction with a National “Swing into Tastykake” Sweepstakes.




spider

Easy Halloween Spider Candy Container Tutorial

Maria heads to the dollar store for materials for a fun Halloween candy container!




spider

Spider-Woman. Vol. 2, King in black / writer, Karla Pacheco ; artist, Pere Pérez ; color artist, Frank D'Armata ; letterer, VC's Travis Lanham.

"Collects Spider-Woman (2020) #6-10. Road trip— to space! After learning some startling secrets about her family, Jessica Drew goes on a mission to find the one person who might know more: the High Evolutionary! But she's going to need her BFF by her side— and that means it's Captain Marvel team-up time! Before long though, those closest to Spider-Woman will abandon her. Only one person will come to her aid: Octavia Vermis! Octavia has a cure for Jessica, and the prescription is crime! Is Jess willing to resort to theft to gather all the tools needed to fix what's wrong? In the shadow of Knull's invasion, Spider-Woman must put everything on the line— and then cross it! Even if Jess can find the cure for what ails her, will she still have a life worth saving?" -- Page [4] of cover.




spider

The Spider-Man Problem

Spider-Man isn't the first film franchise to be rebooted over and over again. But the infamous off-screen drama between Marvel Studios and Sony Pictures explains why it happens so frequently. | Subscribe to our weekly newsletter here.

Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices

NPR Privacy Policy




spider

The Spider-Man Problem (update)

(Note: This episode originally ran back in 2022.)

This past weekend, Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse had the second largest domestic opening of 2023, netting (or should we say webbing?) over $120 million in its opening weekend in the U.S. and Canada. But the story leading up to this latest Spider-Man movie has been its own epic saga.

When Marvel licensed the Spider-Man film rights to Sony Pictures in the 1990s, the deal made sense — Marvel didn't make movies yet, and their business was mainly about making comic books and toys. Years later, though, the deal would come back to haunt Marvel, and it would start a long tug of war between Sony and Marvel over who should have creative cinematic control of Marvel's most popular superhero. Today, we break down all of the off-screen drama that has become just as entertaining as the movies themselves.

This episode was originally produced by Nick Fountain with help from Taylor Washington and Dave Blanchard. It was engineered by Isaac Rodrigues. It was edited by Jess Jiang. The update was produced by Emma Peaslee, with engineering by Maggie Luthar. It was edited by Keith Romer.

Help support Planet Money and get bonus episodes by subscribing to Planet Money+
in Apple Podcasts or at plus.npr.org/planetmoney.

Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices

NPR Privacy Policy




spider

'We should learn to love them' - why big spiders aren't as scary as you think

Does it seem like there are more spiders around the house right now? And do the spiders you spot seem bigger than those you've seen in recent months? Spider expert, Dr Sara Goodacre, is here with some arachnid answers.




spider

TaylorMade Spider 24 Mallet Putter $319.99 Each (Save $80) Delivered @ GolfBox

Main link is for the double bend model. Slant neck is also available at the same price: https://www.golfbox.com.au/clubs/taylormade-spider-24-putter…

Left and right hand available in 34 and 35 inch lengths. Red and Ghost White colours available in various configurations.

Good price for a high quality putter.

Also available, the TaylorMade Spider Tour range for $439.99 (save $110): https://www.golfbox.com.au/search?q=taylormade%20spider%20to…

Also available, Bettinardi 2022 Inovai 8.0 Putter - Spud in right hand 35 inch only for $349.99 (save $330): https://www.golfbox.com.au/clubs/bettinardi-2022-inovai-8-0-…



  • Sports & Outdoors
  • Golf Clubs (golfing equipment)
  • TaylorMade

spider

Decoding the Web of Proteins in Spider Silk

Compartmentalized protein expression in the spider silk gland provides clues to spinning more sustainable materials. 



  • News
  • News & Opinion

spider

Bats, Spiders and Cemeteries

Join citizen science efforts to monitor bats, track Joro spiders and crowd-source cemetery stories.




spider

New collection: Spider Web Thigh Hi

A new collection of sheer stockings from MusicLegs®.

Spider web thigh hi stockings.

Onesize (4'10"~5'9", 90-165lbs).




spider

Andrew Garfield Says Rumors About Him Returning to 'Spider-Man: No Way Home' Is 'F**king Hilarious'

Setting the record straight about whether he will appear in the next 'Spider-Man' movie, the former Spidey depicter claims that he 'did not get a call' from the producers.




spider

Andrew Garfield Says Rumors About Him Returning to 'Spider-Man: No Way Home' Is 'F**king Hilarious'

Setting the record straight about whether he will appear in the next 'Spider-Man' movie, the former Spidey depicter claims that he 'did not get a call' from the producers.




spider

María José Herrera, la colombiana y mánager de producción de SpiderMan Across the Spider-Verse

La colombiana, que ha logrado destacarse, estuvo en Caracol Radio e indicó que la producción está nominada a los Oscar




spider

A Spider Stellar Engine Could Move Binary Stars Halfway Across a Galaxy

Eventually, every stellar civilization will have to migrate to a different star. The habitable zone around all stars changes as they age. If long-lived technological civilizations are even plausible in our Universe, migration will be necessary, eventually. Could Extraterrestrial Intelligences (ETIs) use stars themselves as stellar engines in their migrations? In broad terms, a stellar …

The post A Spider Stellar Engine Could Move Binary Stars Halfway Across a Galaxy appeared first on Universe Today.




spider

Estimating The Fractal Dimension of the Spiders of Mars

Above is an image of “dry ice spiders” on Mars. Every spring the Sun warms up the Martian south polar icecap and causes jets of carbon-dioxide gas to erupt through the icecap. These jets carrying dark sand into the air and spraying it for hundreds of feet around each jet forming these wonderful spider-like structures....




spider

Spider-Man Ps5 DualSense Controller $50/PS5 bundle $479 at shopcgx.com

The Coast Guard Exchange has the Spider-Man DualSense controller for $49.99. Also the Spiderman Ps5 bundle is $479. No sales tax. Only available for those active duty, retirees, veterans, and their dependents. 

 

https://shopcgx.com/electronics-en-2/featured-brands-en/sony/ps5-dualsense-wireless-controller-spiderman2-lmtd-ed-new-age-8-1-23.html

 

 

https://shopcgx.com/electronics-en-2/featured-brands-en/sony/ps5-disk-spiderman-2-slim-bundle-d-and-h-10-13-23.html




spider

Spider-Mother: The Fiction and Politics of Rokeya Sakhawat Hossein

Pioneering Indian Muslim feminist Rokeya Sakhawat Hossain (1880-1932) wrote speculative science fiction, manifestoes, radical reportage, and incisive essays that transformed her experience of enforced segregation into unique interventions against gender oppression everywhere. Her radical imagination links the realities of living in a British colony to the technological and scientific breakthroughs of her time, the effects of hauntingly pervasive systems of sexual domination, and collective dreams of the future, forging a visionary, experimental body of work. If her contemporary B. R. Ambedkar urged the “annihilation of caste,” Rokeya demands nothing less than the annihilation of sexism, with education as the primary instrument of this revolution. Her brilliant wit and creativity reflect profoundly on the complexities of undoing deep-seated gender supremacy and summon her readers to imagine hitherto undreamed freedoms.




spider

Ask Smithsonian: How Do Spiders Make a Web?

How do spiders make such intricate webs? Don’t get too tangled up about it. In this one-minute video, our Ask Smithsonian host, Eric Schulze, weaves his way to the answer.




spider

Louise Bourgeois: The Spider, the Mistress, the Tangerine

In this trailer for a documentary about the acclaimed sculpturist, Louise Bourgeois discusses her life work




spider

Spiders use fireflies as flashing lures to catch more prey

Male fireflies caught in an orb-weaver spider’s web start flashing in an unusual pattern, a deadly deception that seems to attract additional victims for the spider




spider

New Scientist recommends eight-legged musical instrument Sonic Spider

The books, TV, games and more that New Scientist staff have enjoyed this week





spider

We all need a pretty little spider to brighten up our day

Remember, pretty does not mean it doesn’t have a savage bite.




spider

India Nature Watch - Smart or foolish? Stink bug eggs laid on Giant wood spider web

Left me pondering




spider

Autocomplete Interview - The Best of Autocomplete 2019: Funniest Moments from Stranger Things, Spider-Man and More

Tom Holland, Zendaya, Finn Wolfhard, Millie Bobby Brown, Dove Cameron, Jon Hamm, David Tennant, Novak Djokovic, Daniel Radcliffe, Sophie Turner, Jack Black, and much more answer the web's most searched questions about themselves.




spider

Each and Every - Every Spider-Man Suit From Marvel's Spider-Man: Miles Morales & Spider-Man Explained

On this episode of WIRED's Each and Every, Gavin Goulden, an art director at Insomniac Games, breaks down every Spider-Man suit featured in Marvel's Spider-Man: Miles Morales and Marvel's Spider-Man for PS4 and PS5. Watch as Gavin explains the origins of Miles' Bodega Cat Suit, Peter's Spider Armor Mark IV Suit and much, much more.




spider

How Disney Designed a Robotic Spider-Man

The stunts we love to watch in movies like 'Spider-Man: Homecoming' usually rely on a combination of green screen, stunt performers, and computer-generated models. Stunts like these can be dangerous, especially when performed live...over and over. At the new Avengers Campus at Disneyland Resorts, radical stunts are being performed everyday by a robotic acrobat. Disney Imagineers Tony Dohi and Morgan Pope sit down with WIRED to talk about how they designed this amazing stuntronic robot.




spider

Tech Support - Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 Director Answers Video Game Questions From Twitter

Bryan Intihar, creative director of Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 for Playstation 5, visits WIRED to answer your questions about video games, the gaming industry, and your friendly neighborhood Spider-Man’s latest adventure.




spider

Spider venom may hold chemical keys to new painkillers




spider

World T20 to use Spidercam




spider

New genus of jumping spiders ‘Tenkana’ discovered in south India

Unlike related species that live in forests, Tenkana spiders prefer drier areas and ground habitats and have been found in Tamil Nadu, Puducherry, Karnataka, Telangana and Andhra Pradesh 




spider

Why Shubman Gill loves Spider-Man: The IPL 2023 star on his favourite superhero

The 23-year-old fast-rising cricketer talks about voicing the Indian Spider-Man in the upcoming animated film Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse




spider

The Reason Why Doctor Octopus Was Female in Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse

Octavius was almost a "Big Lebowski type dude."





spider

India Nature Watch - Having a big meal! Two-striped jumping spider (Telamonia) with blue bottlefly kill




spider

India Nature Watch - Oxyopes sp Lynx spider on Lantana flowers

Master of lying in wait for an ambush