El Muerto : would the Sony Mexican wrestler spin off have worked?

[AnthonyO'Brien]

Got lucky at a Red cross thrift store yesterday and found FNSM #6 for $3US. EM is a wrestler under a curse who must unmask a hero or suffer a terrible fate. With Madame Web and Morbius failing I heard this film was cancelled. Then again we still have Kraven and Hpyno hustler (?) coming up...

Would this work as a movie? You could probably substitute Tarantuala or White Tiger as the wrestler he must unmask. The issue had a good sub plot by Peter David about a young man who blames JJJ and his son for his father's death and abducts them (this could be played by other characters as well).

YOUR thoughts and ideas on this?

[the illustrious mr. kenway]

Its a start but the Z-listers like El Muerto and Hypno Hustler always felt like a long shot.

You'd have to pull an Andor or Better call saul type move and really flesh them out but Sony doesnt seem that capable to do it so far.

They just havent done anything i wanna see outside of the spider verse films.

Maybe Tarantula could be the villian?

[wleakr]

No. That's an idea, at best, for direct to video/streaming.

The problem with Spider-man spinoffs is that only Spider-man/comics fans know anything about these characters. And some of these ideas have been done in other places, so in the case of Morbius, there are plenty of vampire movies out there, many of which have been done better.

Kraven may actually be an idea that may not have played out in movies, but doubtful it does well.

Hypno Hustler, which I didn't even know was in development, has no shot of doing well.

The only reason Sony is doing these various character movies is to keep their rights to Spider-man, so I guess it's worth it to them regardless if the spin-offs flop or not.

[Mister Mets]

It could have worked in the sense an original movie about that concept could work.

But there's no reason to be interested in it as an IP.

If they wanted anyone to care about it for the Spider-Man connection, they should have introduced El Muerte in another film (perhaps as a minor bad guy in Spider-Man 4 or the subject of an article in a Daily Bugle movie.)

[SturdyMike89]

No. The fact that his character has never showed up again speaks volumes for how little this character worked. I remember many fans considering this story to be the weakest of the 00s Peter David run though the fact it was sandwiched between two well received stories may also be why. I just can't see how this story or Hypno Hustler could have worked.

[HypnoHustler]

No.

To expand on this… no, it wouldn’t have worked.

[IamnotJudasTraveller]

YOUR thoughts and ideas on this?

My thoughts are that if you'd consider a major corporation losing millions of dollars to make a movie tangentially related to Spider-Man, that to the audience at large would have nothing to do with it, and where the biggest elements would be "nods" like character names - or, God forbid, offhand references like "the web slinging kid from Queens" in dialogue - as a way this concept could work, yes, this could absolutely work, and I'd love to see it.

[Vegeta]

No, the only luchador I want to see in the Spiderverse is Santo.