Movie Wars

The Movie Wars rage on.  The territorial battles are over film rights.  Each movie is a volley of mortar, while all the little news releases are smaller gunshots. Though Sony surrendered its battle over Spiderman, and Fox and Warner Bros. are currently reloading in between blasts, Marvel is by no means resting this year.

Avengers: Age of Ultron features Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch. These twin sibling heroes are essentially neutral territory between Fox and Marvel. Though they are mutants and debuted in the pages of X-Men, they have a long history with the Avengers. In 1965, the original Avengers lineup, Iron Man, Thor, Ant-Man, Wasp, and the Hulk decide to take a leave of absence creating a void that is filled by Captain America, Hawkeye and both Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch. Though they started as X-Men villains they've been associated with the Avengers for as long as Cap and Hawkeye.  Because of this history Fox and Marvel agreed that they could be included in both franchises.  The only question would be "Who's version is more accurate to the source material?" Longtime fans initially balked at the idea of presenting these two as anything but mutants and the fact that Magneto, known to be their father for decades, is still off-limits to Marvel Studios. With this apprehension, and last year's X-Men: Days of Future Past (which had a scene with Scarlet Witch that did not survive the final cut) expertly displaying Quicksilver's power to the tune of Jim Croce's "Time in a Bottle" (best scene in the whole movie btw) one would think Marvel might lose this fight. Marvel has a weapon that no other studio does: the comics. Wielding the almighty ret-con ("retroactive continuity"), Marvel will reveal that Magneto was not their true father, but rather Robert Frank, a golden-age hero called "Whizzer." Though mostly forgotten, it was Whizzer who was originally thought to be father of the twins until it was "revealed" to be Magneto. The reason for the confusion will take some explaining. Frank took his wife who was pregnant with twins to Wundagore Mountain, a fictional location where a being known as the High Evolutionary had experimented with the local fauna populating the mountain with evolved, intelligent animals. The two had been irradiated after an attack by a villain named Isbisa, and Wundagore was thought to be a place with advanced medical technology. They found help in the form of Bova, a midwife who happened to be an intelligent cow. After Frank's wife died in childbirth, Bova tried to pass another set of twins recently born there, as his own. These two apparently were the offspring of Magda, Magneto's wife. Magda hadn't revealed that she was pregnant before fleeing to Wundagore. She was terrified of Magneto after watching him destroy a village after the KGB burned their house and held Magneto down, preventing him from using his powers to save his only daughter at the time, Anya who was trapped inside. After learning that his wife fled to Wundagore and was pregnant Magneto, sought out Bova. Under duress, she told him that Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch were his, which came as a surprise since they had worked together on the original Brotherhood of Evil Mutants team. Since they're already planning to reboot their multiverse after this year's big Secret Wars event, and there is already a "switched-at-birth" situation with an untrustworthy source of info in Bova, it would be easy to rearrange things to remove Fox's advantage. That'll teach us not to trust talking cows.


Finally adding Spider-Man to their arsenal Marvel has the green-light to include one of their most popular characters in the growing cinematic universe. Their deal with Sony turned out to be surprisingly copacetic. According to this article from Variety.com Sony retains ownership of Spider-Man's movie rights, Marvel does not have to pay a cent of its profits from movies with cameo appearances and, likewise, Sony will keep all profits from the solo Spider-Man reboot set to premiere in 2017. Though its expected that the hero will appear in next year's Captain America: Civil War, no casting announcements have been made. Asa Butterfield, who played the title character in Ender's Game  is rumored for the role and would make sense as Peter Parker, but fans can't help but wonder "Is it time for someone else under the mask?" A fair amount apparrantly want to see Miles Morales don the webs.  Created by Brian Michael Bendis for the Ultimate Universe, is a black teenager who was bitten by a radioactive spider that hitched a ride in his uncle's bag all the way from Osborn Industries. At first, though he exhibited spider-powers, Miles didn't want to fight, deciding to leave the "Superhero stuff" to the real Spider-Man. Months later in the Ultimatum storyline, Peter Parker sacrifices himself to save his family from Norman Osborn. Arriving late on the scene, Miles is struck with guilt that he had the power to help but refused. Learning the lesson that Parker learned when his Uncle Ben died, Miles pledges to take up the Spider-Man legacy to honor the good man he could've saved. I wouldn't rule out this version of the hero yet. It was Avi Arad, producer involved with all previous Spider-Man movies, who said something to the affect of "Nobody but Peter Parker can be Spider-Man," which Bendis challenged, creating Miles Morales. Though Arad will produce next year's Sinister Six, and later Venom he will not be producing 2017's Spider-Man reboot, which is yet to be titled (all according to IMDB.com).  This is still just a small shred of hope as Peter Parker is still most recognized by the general public as the hero.  I'd like to see them set up a scenario like Superior Spider-Man. One of my favorite recent storylines, it features a Spider-Man whose mind was switched with an aging Otto Octavius as a last ditch attempt to extend his dwindling life. It's interesting because before becoming Doctor Octopus, his life was similar to Parker's. Both grew up with a love of science and physical bullying, but Octavius was abused by his parents rather adversely to the doting attention Parker received from his aunt and uncle. Still possessing Parker's memories, Octavius is forced to learn the tough lessons from Parker's tragic past and actually tries to improve on Spider-Man's ways incorporating advanced technology like patrolling Spider-bots and a computer enhanced visor not unlike Google Glasses. Some habits are tough to shake though as he eventually adopts a set of mechanical arms, amasses an army of henchman, and allows his violent nature to surface tipping off the Avengers and one of Parker's exes Det. Carly Cooper. I'm guessing it'll be awhile before we see this on film, though.