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| Source: Marvel Comics |
Even before Spider-Man makes his bow in Captain America: Civil War, Sony and Marvel are clearly already making big plans for their ongoing collaboration themed around Spider-Man. As announced by the BBC yesterday, Sony have registered a URL seemingly confirming that the 2017 stand-alone Spider-Man movie will be subtitled Homecoming.
Inevitably, the title decoding started immediately, as fans picked up on the link to 1984 comic Homecoming and began questioning how this fairly nondescript issue could shape the narrative of something as big as the new stand-alone Spider-Man movie. Obviously, there's a possibility that Homecoming could well be Sony's own animated Spider-Man movie title, which is currently slated for December 2018, but given the timeline - and the pertinence of the subtitle for the Sony/Marvel deal - it makes more sense for it to be the live action feature.
In all honesty, there's a good chance Marvel simply picked the name because of its symbolism (and as a means to further trumpet their re-acquisition of Spidey's film rights), but there are some intriguing details in the comic that could shape potential plot threads in the forthcoming movie.
11. It's Not A School-Age Spidey Story
By the time Homecoming came out in 1984, Peter Parker was no longer a boy. He was at university, had been an associate teacher and had been around for more than 20 years. He was not the brand new hero Marvel and Sony's Spidey clearly is in Captain America: Civil War.
How It Would Work In The Film
Well, it wouldn't. This is the biggest hint that the Homecoming comic won't play too much of a key role in setting the plot for the movie, but that doesn't mean there isn't still a lot that could be developed in...
10. Homecoming? From Where?
1984 saw the publication of Marvel's first (and so far best) Secret Wars event, that saw heroes and villains kidnapped from Earth by new all-powerful (for a while) villain The Beyonder, who makes them battle to the death on Battleworld with the promise of lavishing them with all they desire if they win.
Spider-Man: Homecoming saw the return of the Spider-Man (and the Avengers) from Battleworld and his return to "normal" duties after the Beyonder is ultimately defeated. In that respect, it shares spirit with Iron Man 3's post-trauma focus.
Interestingly, the arc apparently wasn't Marvel's idea: Mattel wanted to bring out a line of superhero and villain toys and insisted Marvel release an event story to help push sales. The toy company then proceeded to release a line of toys with absolutely no relation to the comics, including characters who didn't actually appear.
How It Would Work In The Film
It's ready made. Civil War - with its potential deaths and universe changing implications - is the perfect stand-in for the far sillier Secret Wars in the comics. In both cases Spider-Man will be forced to deal with the fall-out of a major ensemble event while coming to terms with new powers and renewed responsibility to his own city.
9. The Black Suit
Rather excitingly, Homecoming saw the debut of Spider-Man's new sleek black suit. Confusingly - since Secret Wars was actually published after it - there was no hint of where it actually came from, but it meant there was room in the story to see Spidey coming to terms with new, exotic powers.
The suit is introduced when Spidey damages his normal suit in battle and wrongly trusts what he for some reason thinks is a cosmic fabric machine. Even when a ball of goo engulfs him and turns into the suit, he doesn't seem all that scared.
How It Would Work In The Film
There's surely very little chance we're going to see the black suit debut so early in Marvel's stewardship of the Spidey franchise. That sort of shark jumping would usually be reserved for DC movies...
In all probability, the script will retain the sequences from the comic that see Spidey exploring the new powers and capabilities afforded by his new suit. After all, if rumours are to be believed, the suit we've already seen in the second Civil War trailer will be an upgrade given to Peter Parker by Tony Stark (hence the techy augmentations). So Spidey will need some time to grow into it.
That will also mean Marvel get a levelling up element to the plot without having to go through the whole origin story that Kevin Feige seems to have no desire to revisit again.
8. Fans Didn't Like The New Suit Then Either
Because comic book fans are typically not the most welcoming of change, they rejected the black suit before it was even introduced. A group wrote a letter to Marvel asking them to scrap it, but were rebuffed as the issue of Secret Wars introducing it hadn't yet been published.
This is despite the fact that the suit was actually the idea of a fan, after Marvel put out a call for new ideas and ended up paying 22-year-old fan Randy Schueller the princely sum of $220 for his.
Compare that to the inevitable - and frankly daft - criticisms of the latest cinematic Spider-Man costume: nothing really changes.
How It Would Work In The Film
Well, clearly it wouldn't, though comic book movies do have something of a habit of poking fun at themselves. Whether the Spider-Man franchise is currently still too fragile for that sort of thing remains to be seen, however.
7. Black Cat Plays A Key Par
By 1984, Spider-Man and Black Cat had a close relationship in the comics. In the run up to Secret Wars, Felicia Hardy had been in love with Spider-Man, but then lost interest when she saw him unmasked, because apparently she had a mask fetish. They stayed together ultimately, but with Spidey away fighting on Battleworld, Felicia sought a means to gain super-powers (thanks to one of Spider-Man's enemies) to stop being a liability to Spidey and almost getting killed.
Because she turned to a mysterious benefactor to help her, she ends up being infected with a hex designed to create bad luck for Spider-Man through proximity. In Homecoming, she attempts to get in touch with Spider-Man to warn him about the threat to him, but is unsuccessful.
Further on in the arc, Peter eventually breaks up with her - which is entirely understandable given the fact that she doesn't actually love him out of costume - and marries Mary Jane, to Felicia's disgust.
How It Would Work In The Film
In all honesty, it's more likely that Homecoming will reintroduce Mary Jane as Spidey's love interest, but there's a distinct possibility that Felicia Hardy could be introduced as a fellow schoolmate and a potential side-chick.
6. The Super Cameos
As the comic begins with all of New York's heroes reappearing after the Beyonder steals them away for his sport, the Avengers - or at least Captain America, Iron Man (well James Rhodes in the suit), Hawkeye, Wasp, Thor, and Spectrum - follow Spider-Man back through the villain's portal back to New York.
Potential for cameos?
How It Would Work In The Film
As everyone should know by now, the Marvel/Sony deal allows the use of Marvel characters in Spider-Man movies as well as the reverse, so there's always going to be potential for MCU-linking cameos. Rumours have suggested that Tony Stark continues as Spidey's mentor (and we could see some fall-out of the "Iron Spider" suit monitoring Spidey's powers as it does in the comics).
According to Robert Downey Jr and Chris Evans, they're both due to film in Atlanta (where Spider-Man is being filmed), suggesting they both have cameos in the first stand-alone Spidey movie. Whether Evans will actually be alive at this point remains to be seen.
5. It's Not An Action-Packed Issue
Despite the fact that this issue saw the "debut" of the symbiote suit and Spidey's new powers, it's not exactly a rip-roaring issue. It sees Spider-Man playing around with his new powers and patrolling the city, but it's more like a post-origin story, with the hero flexing his muscles rather than taking on any major threat. It's probably best to think of it as a pause after the excitement of Secret Wars.
It also actually comes from a period for Spidey that was pretty silly. After Secret Wars represented a new beginning of sorts for Spider-Man, following issues see him battle match fixing in football, battle Jack O Lantern, Red Ghost and his Super Apes, Rose and Puma: not exactly watershed moments.
How It Would Work In The Film
We're being led to believe that the film will be inspired by John Hughes films, so hopefully we're going to see more focus on Spider-Man coming to terms with his superpowers. Inevitably, that also means that once again we're going to get the superpowers as puberty metaphor.
4. Curt Connors Is In It (And He's A Good Guy)
In Homecoming, Curt Connors and Spider-Man arrive back in New York from Battleworld, after the Lizard refuses to participate in the Beyonder's games. For his troubles, he's blasted by Enchantress' magic and ends up reverting to human form, with his human mind able to control Lizard.
As a result, for a while in the comics Connors actually aligns with Spider-Man as a good guy and battles Owl alongside his traditional enemy.
How It Would Work In The Film
With Peter Parker at school, it's more likely that Curt Connors will be introduced as one of his teachers, as he was in Sam Raimi's trilogy. So in that respect he's likely to be aligned with Spidey.
Hopefully, we won't see his transformation into Lizard (at least not yet), because drawing direct parallels with The Amazing Spider-Man will be a mistake.
3. J Jonah Jameson Is Retired, Hobgoblin Is "Dead"
In the issue immediately preceding Homecoming (in release terms) and before the start of Secret Wars, J Jonah Jameson falls on his sword, publishing a confession after being overcome by guilt at having helped create supervillain Scorpion. He stands down from the Daily Bugle in what was a shocking development at the time.
Likewise long-term Spidey villain Hobgoblin bowed out in the same issue having been supposedly killed while battling Spider-Man. No prizes for guessing that he wasn't actually dead.
How It Would Work In The Film
Look, it's still an absolute travesty that JK Simmons isn't back playing J Jonah Jameson, thanks to his casting on the other side of the divide, but it was always unlikely that we would encounter him too much during Spidey's formative school years anyway.
There's a possibility Parker might start his career as a photographer, or do work experience at the Bugle or something, but it would actually be a mistake to concentrate too quickly on that step.
As for Hobgoblin - surely it's more likely we'll see Green Goblin first? That wouldn't really be the biggest earth-moving development in Spider-Man movie history, but it would be a no-brainer to go with a big established brand for the first movie.
2. It Sets Up A Kingpin Arc
With the Spectacular Spider-Man and The Amazing Spider-Man running concurrently and crossing over story-lines, the end of Homecoming sees Black Cat attempting to warn Spider-Man of Kingpin's attempts to jinx him.
In the following issue of Spectacular Spider-Man, Spidey and Black Cat both independently go to take down Kingpin at his home, and fight him before he slimes his way out of the situation by pressing a panic button and calling the cops. Not his finest moment.
How It Would Work In The Film
Clearly, this is a fanboy hope more than anything, but the existence of a truly excellent Kingpin in the MCU already (albeit on TV) means that he should be available to step up to the big screen. If he was introduced in a sequel as Spider-Man's main enemy, it would be immense, particularly because of the contradiction of Vincent D'Onofrio's stunning physical presence and Tom Holland's greener Spidey.
1. Venom?!
If Homecoming represents a watershed for Spider-Man in terms of the introduction of the black symbiote suit, it also represents a key staging issue for the introduction of fan favourite villain Venom.
The arc that starts in Secret Wars would eventually culminate with Spidey's battle with the symbiote before it bonds to Eddie Brock as its new host.
How It Would Work In The Film
Let's hope we don't see any of Venom in 2017's movie (other than perhaps an Easter Egg).
Frankly, introducing the villain too early would be a mistake, but with Sony pushing ahead with a stand-alone movie for the cult character, there's a distinct possibility that he will appear in a future sequel after that film's release.
Which of these elements would you like to see introduced into the stand-alone Spider-Man movie? Share your thoughts below in the comments thread.
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