How important is Spidey's corner is to the MU's worldbuilding overall?

[Hybrid]

While most people were understandably upset that Sony pulled the plug on Spider-Man in the MCU for no good reason, I have seen an outlier who defends it by saying that Spidey's stories work best when he's alone, when it's just him against the world, and his corner is better as a isolated setting as it's already self-contained.

Personally, I find the argument that Spider-Man exists in a vacuum to be completely untrue, but I'd like to see what you guys think?

Here are some of the facts about Spider-Man and his verse that have had large effects on the Marvel Universe:

• Spidey is often characterized as a loner, and while he often avoids being a full-fledged team member, he has been a member either officially, honorarily, or temporarily. He's had a close association with the Fantastic Four since the early days of Marvel, as the "Fifth Beatle". He's both helped the Avengers and been an Avenger himself. He's even been an X-Man (despite not being a mutant), as he had a stint as a teacher as Jean Grey's School of Higher Learning (on top of their many adventures together).
• He's also helped out other teams, like the New Warriors, the Power Pack and the Defenders.
• Spidey headlined a longstanding series called Marvel Team-Up, where he would team up with a different hero each issue. The premise was seeing Spidey play off all kinds of heroes.
• Several different characters, such as Punisher, Cloak and Dagger, and Monica Rambeau made their debut in Spider-Man. Also, Jessica Jones was inserted in the universe as a former classmate of Peter Parker.
• Several Spidey-related heroes have made their mark elsewhere. For example, the New Warriors (seen as an Avengers-adjacent team) had both Ben Reilly and Kaine as members in the past. Anya Corazon, another Spider-character, had a close association with Carol Danvers when she was Ms. Marvel. Miles Morales was both an Avenger, and founded the Champions. Morbius is also a founder of the Midnight Sons, a major supernatural team. Let's not forget the impact Venom and the Symbiotes have had on the wide universe as well.
• Spidey has had longstanding partnerships with several Marvel heroes, including Daredevil, Iron Fist, Luke Cage, Moon Knight, Prowler, among others.
• His supporting cast have also impacted the wider universe. J. Jonah Jameson has shown up in multiple Daredevil comics, due to reporter Ben Urich being a key DD supporting character. Liz Allan, Peter's old friend, dated key Daredevil supporting character Foggy Nelson. J.J.'s son John Jameson was a part of Captain America's supporting cast. Flash Thompson, the bully-turned-friend of Peter, eventually became Agent Venom and served both the Avengers and Guardians of the Galaxy. Mary Jane Watson also became a PA to Tony Stark, thus showing up as a recurring character in the Iron Man comics.
• His extensive rogues have also made their presence felt. Rhino often fights Hulk, Kraven fought Hulk and Black Panther, Kingpin started as a Spidey rogue before becoming Daredevil's archenemy, Electro and Mysterio have also fought DD (the former being his first supervillain fight), Sandman spent 10 years fighting the Fantastic Four as part of the Frightful Four after his Spider-Man debut, and in the '90s he had a pretty good stint as an Avenger. The Masters of Evil, longstanding Avengers foes, have included Spider-Man villains, and one iteration was even led by Doctor Octopus. Shocker also recently joined Kamala Khan's rogues gallery. Also, the Thunderbolts have included many Spidey villains throughout, notably Beetle was a founding member and turned a new leaf as Mach-1.
• Finally, there's Norman Osborn, the archenemy of Spider-Man. He spent the '00s and the '10s as a widespread general Marvel big bad, menacing just about everyone both directly and indirectly including the Avengers, Fantastic Four and X-Men, and everyone in-between. Keep in mind the Green Goblin spun off the pages of Spider-Man to begin with.

So all in all, I'd say Spider-Man's corner is a very important pillar of Marvel. However, I'm interested in seeing what you guys think of his status and relation in regards to the wider universe.

Thoughts?

[Lee]

Spider-Man shows up in other titles a lot, but doesn't really enrich them on a fundamental level. They're just fun guest appearances.

Some of the villains have proven popular elsewhere - Kingpin in Daredevil, Sandman in the Frightful Four. The Daily Bugle is a useful fixture for any Marvel heroes based in New York City. But overall, the other Marvel properties can get by just fine without Spider-Man, and Spider-Man can get by without the other Marvel properties.

The Avengers movies, on the other hand, wouldn't have felt right if Captain America, Iron Man or Thor were missing.

[Snoop Dogg]

His place in the universe is important because his corner is the most active representation of New York, the capital city of the Marvel Universe. While you could hypothetically remove him without much changing and have that role fulfilled by other street heroes, he's just too popular. So his influence starts to bleed into other areas more as the Spider franchise itself expands and adapts to be more flexible and tell stories in every genre under the sun so more stories can be told to meet the demand birthed from the popularity.

[Vortex85]

As far as Spider-Man in the MCU goes, that’s fine for me as long as Spider-Man is done correctly within it first and foremost. I felt Spider-Man was too much the Tony Stark successor and didn’t have his own identity intact. Further I don’t like the fact that Marvel can’t get all the Sony characters. For example, a made up character Michelle Jones is replacing Mary Jane because Sony apparently wouldn’t let Marvel have that character. So basically you get a half assed version of Spider-Man just to world build the MCU. As a Spider-Man fan first, for me it’s not worth it. I need Spider-man done right first. Then and only then can you look at world building with other characters and properties.

[Ursalink]

The times Spider-Man was a loner are already prehistoric. Even when he helped Marvel's most important teams (Avengers, Fantastic Four, X-Men...), he has formed his own team composed of all the Spiders through the Universe AND the Multiverse. So, he's no longer a loner.

Besides, the role of Spider-Man in the MCU is really important, as they have presented him as the inheritor of Tony Stark/Iron Man's legagy. Not to mention there's no way that the cliffhanger of "Far From Home" will be left unsolved.

[babyblob]

As much as I love Spiderman, he is one of my favorite characters I dont feel he is that important to the MU overall. Ye he has been on The Avengers but that was not an essential spot that needed to be filled. What I mean by that is that The Avengers didnt need Spiderman to function as a team. Even more so because he has been the comic relief on the team. Yes he did Marvel team up but none of those stories really had much of an impact. When Doc Ock first appeared it was The Human Torch who was asked to stop him. Spiderman just beat him to the punch because he wanted to gets pics. If there was no Spiderman Doc Ock would have become a Fantastic Four villain.

[AlexCampy89]

Dear OP, not to sound dismissive, but ask yourself


"How many times has Spider-Man been of vital importance to Marvel's overall lore?"


How many crossover events gave Spider-Man the right position, spotlight and importance? How many times did Spider-Man manage to be the high-light of the Avengers or some other group of heroes?


Yeah, Spider-Man has been an on and off Avenger for some time, but how often did he save the day? How often he managed to do things better or on par with Thor, Captain America and Iron Man?

Almost never, and those few times were on Spider-Man issues/sagas, not on Avengers volumes or Crossovers.

From a lore standpoint, Spider-Man is a strong hero on a street level scale, but almost useless in cosmic scenarios.

Spider-Man has had his bright moments in the larger Marvel Comics Universe, but those were mostly circumstantial and isolated.

Spider-Man works better alone. This does not mean that he CANNOT work within a group or a crossover event, but that requires a lot more time and creative effort than write the usual 24 pages Spidey stories.

[Vakanai]

While most people were understandably upset that Sony pulled the plug on Spider-Man in the MCU for no good reason

That's not true, Sony had a very good reason - Disney wanted to take some of their profits.