How Marvel Should Introduce Spider-Man to the MCU

The more I’ve thought about it, the more potential problems I see with introducing Spider-Man at this juncture of the MCU. Don’t get me wrong: I’m still excited as hell to see him and I’ll be first in line to the theater, but having him touch down in the Civil War storyline has some really troubling consequences.

Spider-Man’s big moment in Civil War is when he reveals his secret identity in a press conference. But can that moment really have the weight that it needs if we’ve only just met the web-slinger 20 minutes ago? And thinking ahead, how can you possibly have a solo Spider-Man film where everyone knows Peter Parker is a superhero? The character’s main appeal is that he’s an unpopular kid dealing with life adversity that Bruce Wayne and Tony Stark never had to. There’s no trust fund, he’s not a lady’s man; he’s a kid with problems that his powers can’t solve. I contend that unmasking Spider-Man (and unmasking him before we’ve really met him) would be a failure in this film and a disaster to the movies down the road.

Unless…

What if you could unmask him in a way that was not just shocking for the on-screen characters, but for the audience as well? What if there was a way to unmask him and still set up an intriguing storyline for future films that preserves the secret identity?

If I were Marvel, here’s what I’d do:

I’d keep the name of the actor playing the part out of the news and off the promotional items. When Spider-Man finally makes his debut, I’d keep him in costume for all his scenes. He swoops in and saves a kid, banters with Tony Stark, is lectured by Steve Rogers, but the audience only sees the mask and tights. We’d hear his voice and think, “huh…is that? No…” I’d build the tension of his choice: is he going to unmask himself or not? Then, when we get down to the scene, we see his back and the mob of reporters. He lifts his mask and we see shock and brown hair. The camera slowly rotates around to reveal…

Toby Maguire.

Shock. Awe. Bedlam. Confusion. Suddenly, this puts a new spin on the character. This isn’t someone we’ve only just met—we’ve seen his trials and tribulations from the beginning. We can immediately appreciate how big a choice this was for him, see the weight on Aunt May and Mary Jane.

The audience would now be fully onboard, and in a masterful stroke we’ve grandfathered in the backstory and events of the Sam Raimi Spider-Man trilogy.

But of course, we can’t have a 40 year-old Web-Slinger as the permanent holder of great power and responsibility. And even if Marvel wanted Maguire for the long run (which I think would be a mistake), it’s doubtful they could lure someone as big as him into signing a mega 7 or 10 picture deal.

So here’s how we fix Spider-Man going forward:

Civil War culminates with Captain America’s “death” (well…he gets shot and killed, but then comes back again after a little while). However, Chris Evans will still be under contract for an additional movie after Civil War, and given they’ll want him on the team for Avengers 3, it’s unlikely that they’ll end the movie with Captain America in the ground. So instead, I’d end the movie with Spider-Man shoving Cap to the side at the last moment and taking the bullet instead.

As he’s laying there bleeding, we pan past Tony Stark, Steve Rogers, Aunt May and Mary Jane until the camera finally rests on the face of a kid in the crowd. We recognize him as the one Spidey saved earlier and as he tightens his hands into fists and turns away, we see the name printed on his backpack: Mile Morales.