Silver & Black Release Date Announced

Every time Sony makes an announcement regarding anything to do with Spider-Man or the associated characters, I find myself pondering this question. To be perfectly honest, it’s more like a ponderous drum beat thumping in the back of my head. It all began with the announcement of a Sinister Six movie way back in 2014 following the release of TheAmazing Spider-Man 2. It wasn’t so much the idea of a Sinister Six movie that rubbed me the wrong way, it was the idea of having a movie devoted to Spider-Man's rogues' gallery without the inclusion of the wall crawler himself. It just didn’t make any sense. Then there was the announcement of an Aunt May solo film, and the jaws of Spider-Man fans the world over collectively dropped. I had to lie down for several minutes my head was thumping so hard that day. Then Sony was hacked and the world got to see for themselves the circus that went on behind the scenes. This left Sony and in particular Amy Pascal, I still don’t understand how this woman managed to avoid the firing squad, in a deeply embarrassing and precarious situation. From the ashes of catastrophe came a single spark of hope in the form of a deal with Marvel, which led to Spidey’s inclusion in Civil War. From the moment he arrived on the screen in that trailer, the fans knew that finally, we had the Spider-Man we had been praying for and we rejoiced.

At this point, one would think that the story was done. Spidey was back home with his family, the fans were excitedly looking forward to Homecoming, what could possibly go wrong? Technically nothing has, but there are worrying signs. The marketing for Homecoming became something of a fiasco although I’m not sure as to where the problems lay. There seemed to be two entirely different schools of thought on how to approach the promotional material, one was cool and confident with a solid grasp on the tone of the movie, the other was vague confused and scrabbling for ideas from a variety of sources. From that perspective, it’s easy to see why the lay person may have assumed that some of the promotion was covered by Marvel and the other by Sony. Marvel is the obviously more confident of the two, as their promotional campaigns to this point have been nothing short of flawless. While Sony, unfortunately, leave a lot to be desired. Seriously, how do you manage to have a movie like Passengers with two of the hottest properties in the lead roles and still manage to produce a dud of a movie? I realise that the problems with the movie are probably not all down to marketing, but it’s fair to say that if you can't get bums on seats in the opening weekend then you have a serious problem on your hands.

This, of course, brings me to the “Sad Fiege” meme. Obviously piggybacking on the Homecoming press tour, Sony’s Amy Pascal decides to announce their plans to make a Venom movie, as part of their Spidey verse, but not with Tom Holland’s Spider-Man appearing. This is where things get complicated. Under the contract, as I understand it, Marvel has complete creative control of Spider-Man for three movies including Homecoming and its two sequels. They also will be using him to appear in the Avengers' Infinity War movie and the subsequent sequel, there may even be plans for Spidey to appear in other Marvel movies but nothing has been confirmed at this time. Once Marvel has finished the Spider-Man trilogy, the rights return to Sony. In the meantime, Sony is free to make movies around Spider-Man related characters but not the main man himself which is why he won’t be appearing in Venom or the recently announced Black & Silver. So the question many are asking is “how can you make a movie about Spider-Man related characters without references to Spider-Man and as a consequence the much larger Marvel Cinematic Universe?” The answer is, with great difficulty. Almost as soon as the Venom movie was announced, Mr. Fiege went straight to Twitter to clarify that it wouldn’t have anything to do with the MCU. So you can understand his moment of confusion when during an interview with Pascal she states that it “could,” leading to the “Sad Fiege” meme. I personally don’t think he is sad, or even slightly disappointed; to me he looks more confused and hugely frustrated. Pascal was actually being very clever with her use of the word “could,” as it is rather ambiguous and she was probably trying to manipulate the fans into going to see the movie in the contract in her favour. I would dearly love to have been a fly in the room following that interview. Yet again Mr. Fiege took to Twitter to clarify his stance on the subject and given the overwhelmingly positive response to Homecoming, things seem to have more or less settled down.

The drumming in my head had more or less disappeared, up until I read an article today about the release date of the aforementioned Black & Silver. Black & Silver is the forthcoming movie featuring Black Cat (Felicia Hardy, a derivative Catwoman rip off) and Silver Sable (Silver Sablinova a mercenary); both of these characters have had only brief relations with Spider-Man. Black Cat being the more popular among fans. The movie is to be directed by Gina Prince-Bythewood and is scheduled for release in February 2019. Bythewood has just completed directing the Cloak and Dagger pilot for Hulu so he isn’t completely green to the Marvel Universe. During my research for this article, something occurred to me that I hadn’t really considered before; Black Cat and Silver Sable, as far as I’m aware, have never before appeared together in the same story, so they have never shared a panel in a comic book and there is a really good reason for this. Both characters are similar archetypes. In their relationship to Spider-Man they both represent temptation, sometimes it’s an ethical dilemma, other times it is moral one. Black Cat is a thief who is also attracted to Spider-Man, not Peter Parker. While Sable kills for money, occasionally when they have worked together, Sable will try to pay Spider-Man for his work, which Spidey will always refuse, choosing to take the higher moral ground, except when he’s selling photos of himself to the Bugle. So the question remains, how do you make a movie with two supporting femme fatales but no leading man? Obviously, there are many things you can do, but with each step you make it takes you a little farther away from the core of what it is that you are trying to achieve. Sony is probably motivated by the success of Wonder Woman and think they can just stick a couple of women in tight costumes and have them beating up men and they have their instant success.

Sony is desperately grappling for something to hang onto while the ground crumbles inexorably around them. It’s almost compelling to watch.