MCU Spider-Man in What If...Zombies!?

[Frontier]

The MCU version of Spider-Man appeared in today's episode of What If adapting the Marvel Zombies storyline into the MCU.

It actually features him quite a bit and makes him focal to the story. Hudson Thames does a good job emulating Tom Holland's voice for Peter.

spoilers:

They also mention Uncle Ben by name for the first time in the MCU.

end of spoilers

[ironman2978]

I think this scene has a perfect explaination on why MCU Spidey acts the way he does and a good representation of Spider-Man as well:
spoilers:

Hope: How do you stay so..upbeat after everything? Peter: Practice I guess? My mom, dad, Uncle Ben, Mr,Stark, now Happy…I’ve lost a lot. But my Aunt May says…used to say “That if you don’t keep smiling when they can’t, you might as well be gone too.” Well they’d want us to keep going.

end of spoilers


It feels like a perfect expansion of what was shown in the MCU Spidey films on some level.

[Revolutionary_Jack]

I had mixed feelings about What-If Spider-Man today.

It's a good episode on the whole, conceptually well done and quite smart in using our emotional connection to MCU canon to twist stuff.

The Spider-Man stuff was a huge mixed bag for me.

On the Pro side: we got to see Spider-Man interact with and have conversations and banter with non-Iron Man superheroes which we never got in the MCU. I didn't expect Spider-Man in a Shared Universe to become a sub-franchise for Iron Man, a character who collectively barely has five stories that can measure in Spidey's top 100...so to me MCU Spider-Man was always a profound disappointment.

So it was nice to Spider-Man interact with Hulk, with Ant-Man, and especially Black Panther since now that Boseman's passed away we never got to see that in live-action.

As for the Cons:

spoilers:

They double and triple down on Spider-Man's characterization from Homecoming so the result is the character comes across as unbelievable in that situation. In the middle of a zombie apocalypse, with deaths approaching genocide levels, with his Aunt May and his friends presumably among the horde, I simply do not accept or buy the idea of Spider-Man making goofy immature videos. It's not just that I think it's out of character for Spider-Man, it's out of character for a human being or anyone intended to pass as an identifiable normal person. The decision to go with Spider-Man as MCU Fanboy has destroyed the character fundamentally and for me that part wasn't fun at all. They later do some song-and-dance with Spider-Man being cheery as a way to cope but there's a difference between being cherry and upbeat in the middle of horror and actually taking time and effort to create goofball videos in the middle of an apocalypse. There's a way of doing it, and there's getting it wrong. I will say the weird flirty stuff between Hope and Spider-Man was odd...and a case of people not knowing or understanding how they're doing. On the other hand Spider-Man is also treated more seriously as a colleague by his fellow heroes and we see his super-strength in action but on the other hand him referring to zombie movies constantly and so on and continuing the bit from the movies sucks out the fun in the character. This is MCU doing Spider-Man separate from Sony, since as an animated streaming they aren't bound to Sony in any way, and this gives me no confidence that Spider-Man would be better under Feige than in the divided custody he currently exists in. Given that Hope was the central character of the story, I think her not being there in the climax or reuniting with Scott Lang's head was a huge failure in story. This was Hope's story and this crisis happened indirectly because of her, the same way last week's Doctor Strange happened on him. Ideally they should have killed off Spider-Man in place of her .

end of spoilers

[Huntsman Spider]

The MCU version of Spider-Man appeared in today's episode of What If adapting the Marvel Zombies storyline into the MCU.

It actually features him quite a bit and makes him focal to the story. Hudson Thames does a good job emulating Tom Holland's voice for Peter.

spoilers:

They also mention Uncle Ben by name for the first time in the MCU.

end of spoilers

I think this scene has a perfect explaination on why MCU Spidey acts the way he does and a good representation of Spider-Man as well:
spoilers:

Hope: How do you stay so..upbeat after everything? Peter: Practice I guess? My mom, dad, Uncle Ben, Mr,Stark, now Happy…I’ve lost a lot. But my Aunt May says…used to say “That if you don’t keep smiling when they can’t, you might as well be gone too.” Well they’d want us to keep going.

end of spoilers


It feels like a perfect expansion of what was shown in the MCU Spidey films on some level.

Yeah, generally cosigning you both there. It does feel like in just half an hour, they did a better job aligning MCU Spider-Man's character with what and how we know of him in the comics, or at least got him closer to that core characterization, compared with his portrayal in the live-action films overall.

[Kevinroc]

I had mixed feelings about What-If Spider-Man today.

It's a good episode on the whole, conceptually well done and quite smart in using our emotional connection to MCU canon to twist stuff.

The Spider-Man stuff was a huge mixed bag for me.

On the Pro side: we got to see Spider-Man interact with and have conversations and banter with non-Iron Man superheroes which we never got in the MCU. I didn't expect Spider-Man in a Shared Universe to become a sub-franchise for Iron Man, a character who collectively barely has five stories that can measure in Spidey's top 100...so to me MCU Spider-Man was always a profound disappointment.

So it was nice to Spider-Man interact with Hulk, with Ant-Man, and especially Black Panther since now that Boseman's passed away we never got to see that in live-action.

As for the Cons:

spoilers:

They double and triple down on Spider-Man's characterization from Homecoming so the result is the character comes across as unbelievable in that situation. In the middle of a zombie apocalypse, with deaths approaching genocide levels, with his Aunt May and his friends presumably among the horde, I simply do not accept or buy the idea of Spider-Man making goofy immature videos. It's not just that I think it's out of character for Spider-Man, it's out of character for a human being or anyone intended to pass as an identifiable normal person. The decision to go with Spider-Man as MCU Fanboy has destroyed the character fundamentally and for me that part wasn't fun at all. They later do some song-and-dance with Spider-Man being cheery as a way to cope but there's a difference between being cherry and upbeat in the middle of horror and actually taking time and effort to create goofball videos in the middle of an apocalypse. There's a way of doing it, and there's getting it wrong. I will say the weird flirty stuff between Hope and Spider-Man was odd...and a case of people not knowing or understanding how they're doing. On the other hand Spider-Man is also treated more seriously as a colleague by his fellow heroes and we see his super-strength in action but on the other hand him referring to zombie movies constantly and so on and continuing the bit from the movies sucks out the fun in the character. This is MCU doing Spider-Man separate from Sony, since as an animated streaming they aren't bound to Sony in any way, and this gives me no confidence that Spider-Man would be better under Feige than in the divided custody he currently exists in. Given that Hope was the central character of the story, I think her not being there in the climax or reuniting with Scott Lang's head was a huge failure in story. This was Hope's story and this crisis happened indirectly because of her, the same way last week's Doctor Strange happened on him. Ideally they should have killed off Spider-Man in place of her .

end of spoilers

I think this does a good job as to why this episode hasn't been received as positively as some of the other episodes (particularly last week's episode with Dr. Strange).

[Frontier]

I had mixed feelings about What-If Spider-Man today.

It's a good episode on the whole, conceptually well done and quite smart in using our emotional connection to MCU canon to twist stuff.

The Spider-Man stuff was a huge mixed bag for me.

On the Pro side: we got to see Spider-Man interact with and have conversations and banter with non-Iron Man superheroes which we never got in the MCU. I didn't expect Spider-Man in a Shared Universe to become a sub-franchise for Iron Man, a character who collectively barely has five stories that can measure in Spidey's top 100...so to me MCU Spider-Man was always a profound disappointment.

So it was nice to Spider-Man interact with Hulk, with Ant-Man, and especially Black Panther since now that Boseman's passed away we never got to see that in live-action.

As for the Cons:

spoilers:

They double and triple down on Spider-Man's characterization from Homecoming so the result is the character comes across as unbelievable in that situation. In the middle of a zombie apocalypse, with deaths approaching genocide levels, with his Aunt May and his friends presumably among the horde, I simply do not accept or buy the idea of Spider-Man making goofy immature videos. It's not just that I think it's out of character for Spider-Man, it's out of character for a human being or anyone intended to pass as an identifiable normal person. The decision to go with Spider-Man as MCU Fanboy has destroyed the character fundamentally and for me that part wasn't fun at all. They later do some song-and-dance with Spider-Man being cheery as a way to cope but there's a difference between being cherry and upbeat in the middle of horror and actually taking time and effort to create goofball videos in the middle of an apocalypse. There's a way of doing it, and there's getting it wrong. I will say the weird flirty stuff between Hope and Spider-Man was odd...and a case of people not knowing or understanding how they're doing. On the other hand Spider-Man is also treated more seriously as a colleague by his fellow heroes and we see his super-strength in action but on the other hand him referring to zombie movies constantly and so on and continuing the bit from the movies sucks out the fun in the character. This is MCU doing Spider-Man separate from Sony, since as an animated streaming they aren't bound to Sony in any way, and this gives me no confidence that Spider-Man would be better under Feige than in the divided custody he currently exists in. Given that Hope was the central character of the story, I think her not being there in the climax or reuniting with Scott Lang's head was a huge failure in story. This was Hope's story and this crisis happened indirectly because of her, the same way last week's Doctor Strange happened on him. Ideally they should have killed off Spider-Man in place of her .

end of spoilers

spoilers:

I think they were going on a riff of Peter's unending optimism and never-give-up attitude but framed from how MCU Spider-Man is conceptualized as a super upbeat, motormouth, kid who makes pop culture references. Not saying I loved it either but I understood where they were coming from. I am kind of surprised they didn't really address the fact that he probably lost all his family with Aunt May probably being turned. I...did not see anything flirty between Hope and Peter. I mean, for once Peter and a Wasp get along, that doesn't really make it flirty. He just inspired her. Narratively she would've made more sense as the protagonist but I guess I can't complain about Spider-Man getting some love

end of spoilers

[Jman27]

really like this episode. People finally get their Uncle Ben confirmation in the MCU. Sucks they couldnt get Tom Holland but the actor did a good job. Like they brought back the movie references from Civil War I dont remember him using those in his other appearances. Still dont understand why hollywood gotta keep him unmask when its not an actual actor but whatever. Took me a while to remember Kurt from Ant Man but he was fun as usual. Love all the interactions Peter had with the other heroes he havent met in the main universe. Sucks that he is pretty much dead though cause you know Thanos

[Spiderfan001]

So good.I've learned to tune out marvel humor so I enjoyed this.The scene where she says's "Smile for me", yeah I wasn't ready for that.And that ending.....

[Frontier]

really like this episode. People finally get their Uncle Ben confirmation in the MCU. Sucks they couldnt get Tom Holland but the actor did a good job. Like they brought back the movie references from Civil War I dont remember him using those in his other appearances. Still dont understand why hollywood gotta keep him unmask when its not an actual actor but whatever. Took me a while to remember Kurt from Ant Man but he was fun as usual. Love all the interactions Peter had with the other heroes he havent met in the main universe. Sucks that he is pretty much dead though cause you know Thanos

He did them in Infinity War too.

[Kaitou D. Kid]

spoilers:

This is MCU doing Spider-Man separate from Sony, since as an animated streaming they aren't bound to Sony in any way, and this gives me no confidence that Spider-Man would be better under Feige than in the divided custody he currently exists in.

end of spoilers

Haven't seen the episode yet, but doesn't this prove what I've been saying about MCU Spider-Man for a while? That his problems exist at his nucleus and are not peripheral like they were for Maguire and Garfield's versions? So therefore you can't write or cast your way out of them.

Feige is arguably a better fit for Spider-Man than Sony. However, they now have to adhere to previous continuity (including characterization) even if the rights fully return to Marvel. The same goes for What If? episodes which are technically just derivative to the MCU continuity.

[Frontier]

It was kind of weird how he only wore his mask in the opening scene after making a comment about how covering up skin keeps you safer.

[Revolutionary_Jack]

Haven't seen the episode yet, but doesn't this prove what I've been saying about MCU Spider-Man for a while? That his problems exist at his nucleus and are not peripheral like they were for Maguire and Garfield's versions? So therefore you can't write or cast your way out of them.

Feige is arguably a better fit for Spider-Man than Sony. However, they now have to adhere to previous continuity (including characterization) even if the rights fully return to Marvel. The same goes for What If? episodes which are technically just derivative to the MCU continuity.

Well it's academic because I don't see MCU getting the rights of Spider-Man from Sony any time soon. Disney can't buy Sony after the Fox purchase, Sony Pictures would never sell the rights of Spider-Man to Disney in any circumstances because it would be suicide for them as a company. It was believed that if a third party bought Sony then rights would revert automatically to Disney but I've heard a lot of contradictory information about the contracts flourishing out there so even that's not a guarantee.

I am also quite sure, or at least would be highly surprised if the opposite is the case, that No Way Home will be the last MCU/Sony collaboration. After this, Sony will go its own way. They might do Tom Holland College Spider-Man movies but they will be standalone and not tied to MCU. Tom Holland has a contract with Sony after all, they sign his checks, and they're funding his UNCHARTED movie, so he can't escape the street gang he's currently part of.

I don't see much or any interest for Sony to keep Spider-Man in the MCU after ENDGAME because Iron Man's gone, Chadwick Boseman is dead and there's not much existing attraction to tie Tom Holland Spider-Man with. It'll be a while before FF and X-Men get revived in any form of crossover state, and they obviously don't care for Disney Plus streaming appearances since that gives Disney more leverage.

[Kevinroc]

Well it's academic because I don't see MCU getting the rights of Spider-Man from Sony any time soon. Disney can't buy Sony after the Fox purchase, Sony Pictures would never sell the rights of Spider-Man to Disney in any circumstances because it would be suicide for them as a company. It was believed that if a third party bought Sony then rights would revert automatically to Disney but I've heard a lot of contradictory information about the contracts flourishing out there so even that's not a guarantee.

I am also quite sure, or at least would be highly surprised if the opposite is the case, that No Way Home will be the last MCU/Sony collaboration. After this, Sony will go its own way. They might do Tom Holland College Spider-Man movies but they will be standalone and not tied to MCU. Tom Holland has a contract with Sony after all, they sign his checks, and they're funding his UNCHARTED movie, so he can't escape the street gang he's currently part of.

I don't see much or any interest for Sony to keep Spider-Man in the MCU after ENDGAME because Iron Man's gone, Chadwick Boseman is dead and there's not much existing attraction to tie Tom Holland Spider-Man with. It'll be a while before FF and X-Men get revived in any form of crossover state, and they obviously don't care for Disney Plus streaming appearances since that gives Disney more leverage.

I've seen plenty of people who believe Sony and Disney will continue to make Spider-Man films because they already came together again to make NWH.

[Arsenal]

I've seen plenty of people who believe Sony and Disney will continue to make Spider-Man films because they already came together again to make NWH.

Plus wasn't it announced that they reached a multi-year licensing deal where Disney will digitally distribute Sony’s films from 2022 to 2026? It doesn't exactly seem like Disney and Sony will be cutting ties anytime soon.

[Scott Taylor]

This was good, I enjoyed it thoroughly. Pure escapism.

The only thing I would have liked to have had is another "remember that really old movie" reference.