Anghus Houvouras with five characters who could replace Spider-Man in Captain America: Civil War…
One of the many interesting stories that came tumbling out of the massive Sony hack was negotiations between Marvel and Sony to borrow Spider-Man for next year’s third Captain America film that will tackle the Civil War storyline. In the comic, Spider-Man becomes a key figure being recruited by both sides, revealing his identity to the world to show his support for #TeamTonyStark. Eventually he sees the error of his ways and joins #TeamSteveRogers. Thanks to corporate buffoonery, we won’t get Spider-Man in Captain America: Civil War. However, there may be a solution. Marvel can’t get the rights to the X-Men back, so they’re forging ahead with plans for Inhumans.
Why not apply the same logic to Captain America: Civil War and use another hero? Here’s a few suggestions for Marvel Studios, who is yet to thank me for the Benedict Cumberbatch / Doctor Strange idea.
1. Daredevil
The most likely scenario involves the upcoming Netflix series featuring everyone’s favorite ‘Man without Fear’. Daredevil fits the mold of Spider-Man in this scenario: a masked crime fighter dealing with street level criminals. The kind of villains that heroes like Captain America and Iron Man don’t often face as members of Earth’s Mightiest Heroes. After the Netflix series sets up the character and gives him a healthy back story, he could be prominently featured in Civil War as Iron Man and Captain America recruit heroes to their side of the cause. Matt Murdock has always been a complex character who has often not seen eye to eye with the more iconic heroes in the Marvel Universe. Why not bridge the movie world and the television world of the Marvel Universe with Daredevil?
2. White Tiger
Looking to add a little diversity to the extremely caucasian Marvel superhero line-up? How about a Spider-Man like hero with some augmented powers located in the greater New York metro area? White Tiger (the original) is a good character with similarities to Peter Parker: a young, Puerto Rican crime-fighter with powers thanks to an amulet (cue the Doctor Strange connection) who struggles with his work/life balance. A great street level character who isn’t flush with money and is just another regular Joe trying to discover what it means to be a hero.
3. Moon Knight
Actually, let’s not. Any excuse to get Marc Spector aka Moon Knight into the Marvel Universe would be excellent, but the character is so awesome I’m eagerly awaiting for his own film in Phase 4. Maybe 5. Hopefully they’ll get to Moon Knight before they have to start thinking ‘reboot’.
4. Speedball/Justice/Any of the New Warriors
What we still don’t know is how exactly our heroes will become embroiled in the ‘Civil War’. In the comics it involves the New Warriors accidentally botching an attack on a villain resulting in the death of a lot of innocent people. Lines are drawn. Sides are taken. Friends become foes. What becomes difficult for the third Captain America film is how to work in new (and potentially previously unadapted characters) into the conflict. If you cold open with the New Warriors and set up a similar tragedy, you could introduce the young, impressionable hero who is partially responsible for the whole conflict in the first place. Dramatically speaking, this could make his choice far more dramatic than Spider-Man’s. There’s a number of choices they could go with here. Speedball comes to mind, as does Justice.
5. Demolition Man
When is Marvel going to realize they’re sitting on a gold mine. Demolition Man (aka D-Man) is an amazing character who could take Civil War to the next level. Who doesn’t want to see Marvel’s most famous homeless hero become the underdog who transforms into the conscience of our over privileged, martini sipping super heroes. Eventually his choice, and potential sacrifice, could lead to our heroes reconciling. The entire world could be saved by the homeless superhero. His batcave could be a back-alley dumpster. His sidekick could be a feisty rat named “Steve” which would play to the Rocket Raccoon demographic.
So there we go. Several options for Marvel to go with for Captain America: Civil War. Who do you think would work in place of Spider-Man for Civil War?
Anghus Houvouras is a North Carolina based writer and filmmaker. His latest work, the novel My Career Suicide Note, is available from Amazon. Follow him on Twitter.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&list=PL18yMRIfoszFJHnpNzqHh6gswQ0Srpi5E&v=zzYUW1bfw34
Originally published December 11, 2014. Updated April 15, 2018.
