#every person outside of these areas has to develop a spidey sense

[friskarm]

tired of hearing about countries with population > 10 million

[briangroth27]

Spider-man Films Wish List

Since Sony partnered with Marvel Studios to share Spider-man, they have a unique opportunity to have their cake and eat it too. Spider-man has a whole multiverse of alternate Spider-men and villains they could flesh out to explore all corners of Spider-man’s web, while Peter Parker continues to make full use of the benefits of existing in the MCU. Spider-man is tied with the X-men as my favorite superhero, so there’s a lot I’d love to see in these movies!

Full spoilers (for movies, comics, cartoons, etc.)…

Peter Parker I loved Homecoming, but I do think Uncle Ben should’ve been mentioned (though I never need to see him die again). Not only would invoking his death have given weight to May’s concern for Peter and Peter’s drive to be a superhero, but if Ben were a fan of Captain America and viewed being an Avenger as an honorable thing, Peter’s obsession with joining them would’ve been about more than just trying to grow up too fast. It’d be about living up to what he thought Ben believed a hero was. A glimpse or mention of how selfish Peter was before Ben died would be nice too; they could connect his personal growth to his gravitation toward Stark (in addition to their shared scientific interest), seeing a similar moral evolution in Iron Man.

As fun as suit AI Karen was, I wish Peter had given Tony both suits back to make a true break from Stark’s toys and guidance so he could start finding his path as his own man. Maybe we’ll get a more self-reliant Peter after Infinity War. We know another MCU hero is guest-starring in Homecoming 2, but I hope it’s not another mentor figure. A major draw of classic Spider-man is his self-sufficient nature—he was a kid who wasn’t a sidekick—so I’d love to see that onscreen; we did get that in the earlier Spider-man movies, but now that he’s in the MCU they could play up that distinction in relation to the rest of the Avengers. A kid who’s just as competent as the adult heroes would make for an inspiring hero. I want Peter to be the one developing web attacks and genius solutions to problems rather than having them handed to him. Spider-like tactics like Andrew Garfield’s Spidey feeling for vibrations on his webs in the sewers in Amazing Spider-man would be great too! They should definitely look into stylizing Peter’s crime-fighting techniques and attack style so he stands out from the Avengers crowd. As much as I want Peter to forge his own way with his suits, I hope he keeps the emotive lenses he invented; they’re a great rendition of the comics' tactic of giving him expressions while masked and, with some refinement, they'd serve that purpose on film too instead of having him lose his mask in every climactic battle.

I was very pleased we finally got Peter inventing both his web-shooters and his web fluid in Homecoming and I hope that expands to practical uses of science as he takes on other supervillains. Too often Rami's movies portrayed him as a nerd just to emphasize his outsider status, but he should be using his brains to beat the bad guys just as much as he uses his fists. The animated Spectacular Spider-man had a very good balance of Peter as an outcast nerd and Spidey using science to stop evil that the MCU films would be smart to imitate. I’ve heard we’re getting Spider-Sense in Infinity War, so I’m excited to see that employed on a regular basis and to explore how it alters his perception of the world around him. Digging into how Peter’s powers affect his life and shape his outlook (beyond his responsibility to be Spider-man) would be fascinating!

Perhaps most importantly, I hope the MCU Spidey films continue to focus just as much on Peter's personal life as on his superheroics. Homecoming nearly perfectly used Peter's heroics and villain problems as metaphors for everyday life. No other MCU hero except Ant-Man has had much focus given to a down-to-Earth, relatable daily life outside their super suits (even Tony Stark seems to live in a fairly isolated world with occasional lavish public appearances), so Homecoming was a breath of fresh air in that regard. It’s also perfect for Spider-man: while being Spidey lets Peter's confidence shine in ways it can't as Parker, it also wreaks havoc on his social life. That push and pull is classic (and brilliant) and I want to see it develop as this series continues, though I hope they don't go overboard like Spider-man 2 did by making Peter's responsibility as Spidey a huge, depressing weight that crushes the fun out of everything. They should always remember that being Spidey may cause problems, but being him is fun for Peter too. While on the topic, his rapid-fire quips and jokes are necessities! I also don't think they should be afraid to make Peter a bad boyfriend for anyone who doesn't know he has responsibilities as Spidey…or even just because he has no experience in that area. It’d be realistic for Peter to have to learn how to be an equal, supportive partner in any relationship he gets in and they could set a good example for everyday relationships if he learned to fix mistakes that didn’t come from his heroic calling interrupting his dates. My biggest issue with Homecoming’s take on Peter’s social life was that Liz was essentially an idealized potential girlfriend from what we saw of Peter’s interest in her. While it’s good they didn’t play her as his “true love” because of this, they could’ve gone the extra step and made him face the reality of who she was instead of who he’d pictured from afar (though I assume they know each other at least somewhat from the debate team). They also could’ve had her shoot him down when he asked her to the dance (after ditching and disappointing her the whole movie, why wouldn’t she?)...and had him come away OK with not getting the girl both because she may’ve not been interested and because he screwed up. To the writers’ credit, they don’t end up together in the end and it seems they’re both OK with the relationship not happening. Peter getting the date didn’t ruin the film at all for me, but they could play with something like this in a future relationship.

As far as Peter's arc goes, I don't want to see Peter in high school forever. I think Tom Holland will age faster than anyone's really expecting given how long it will be between movie releases, and that's fine with me. I hope we get to see Peter finally grow up and find balance in his life. He can move forward as a young adult without having everything together, which would be just as relatable as being a kid with problems (and they can have Miles Morales take over the kid role, bringing a whole other level of social relevance to the story). In addition to the classic photographer gig at the Daily Bugle, I hope we get to see Peter at least intern (if not become a full-fledged employee) at Horizon Labs to work on cutting edge science. If the movies go long enough, Parker Industries wouldn't be out of the question for me. Maybe it shouldn’t be as global as it is in the comics, but it would certainly work as the low-budget, people-focused Stark Industries it started out as. Fun elements like the Spider-mobile could be introduced too, either through Horizon (when Peter claims to be designing tech for Spider-man), or as the licensing opportunity it was in the original comics!

Miles Morales/Ultimate Spider-man While Miles is getting a theatrically-released animated movie, he’s a hero I’d love to see in the MCU as well. Originally, instead of having Miles take up the mantle after Peter dies, I thought they should cast them as contemporaries and play it as a buddy cop comedy. It’d also work if they played Miles as a more withdrawn, insecure Spider-man once Tom Holland’s Peter has grown up a bit and started working for (or at least interning at) Horizon Labs. They could roll Peter’s successes into Miles’ arc as he tries to find his place and live up to the "amazing” Spider-man. I absolutely don’t want them to kill Peter like in the Ultimate Comics. Morales being Peter’s mentee like Peter was Tony’s isn’t a bad idea—they could team up for the first time in Homecoming 3—and I think it’d be awesome if Miles got a show on Netflix or Freeform while Peter is in the movies. 

Not only can Miles fill the “everyteen Spider-man” role as Peter grows up, but his half-African American/half-Puerto Rican heritage would make his outlook and experience totally different. He was initially nauseated at the idea of superheroics in the comics, but later felt he had a responsibility to use his powers and learned to enjoy them; that’s a very clear and cool foil to Peter’s instant excitement over his superhero status, and a Miles who doesn’t want to be an Avenger would be an entirely different storyline, particularly with the Sokovia Accords in play. Miles could also start with no one knowing his identity, since we’ve mostly skipped those classic moments with Peter. While Miles shares Peter’s wall-crawling, spider-sense, agility, and super-strength, he also has a venom blast that can be deployed by touch and the ability to become invisible through a camouflage power, which would help set him further apart from Peter’s Spider-man.

Miles has an entire supporting cast unto himself that could be mined for drama. His father Jefferson was a one-time agent of SHIELD, and maybe they could say he worked with the Parkers and/or against Chameleon. His mother Rio was in favor of Spider-man and vigilantes, contrasting with Jefferson and possibly Aunt May. I don’t know why they grafted Ganke Lee’s personality onto Ned Leeds for Homecoming, so I’m interested to see what Miles’ best friend will be like if he appears onscreen. Katie Bishop was Miles’ girlfriend at one point—until her parents were revealed as Hydra operatives (she was a sympathizer)—which could be a relevant story nowadays. Lana Baumgartner was trained by her criminal mother Lori so the two of them could team up as the Bombshells, villains with explosive powers, but Lana reformed; her villainous parent could be a solid parallel to Miles and Aaron Davis. If Fox was willing to share him, Fabio Medina could be a friend of Miles’ who’s also a popular and public superhero (they’d have to make him an Inhuman instead of a mutant here), contrasting with Morales’ secret identity. If Miles got a Freeform series, he could team up with Cloak & Dagger. On Netflix, he could look up to Luke Cage. They could keep the budget to TV standards by having Miles bounce around fights on a mostly ground level instead of swinging between skyscrapers (except for travel and special fights!); they could invent an entirely Miles-specific style of attack for him. Staying close to the ground would not only avoid the probable budget issues of web-slinging, but they could use it to play up his initial wariness about even being a superhero even after he’s put on the suit.

Venom Tom Hardy is playing Eddie Brock in the Sony corner of the MCU—it’s still a bit unclear whether Tom Holland will get to appear in these films or if they exist in their own Spider-verse—and I’m thinking this is going to lead to Brock becoming the Lethal Protector of the 90s and potentially the central anti-hero of the Sony Spider-films. I like Eddie and I’m eager to see him onscreen in his own movie (this short was a cool, unconnected and unofficial look at what a Venom movie could be), but I hope they don’t leave out his history with Spider-man and just have the symbiote go directly to Brock, even if Tom Holland can’t appear. They could mention his past with “the Bug” in passing or detail it in a prologue, but Spider-man should be a fixture of Venom’s origin.

Brock dealing with his sense of right and wrong in addition to his lack of responsibility when it came to Spider-man uncovering the truth about a story Brock had reported—he blamed Spidey for “getting him fired” instead of accepting that he should’ve dug deeper for the truth—mixed with the mind-altering alien symbiote will make for a fascinating redemption arc. I hope they start out with Venom as a full-on villain—possibly hiding from Spider-man—and have Brock rediscover his humanity as he begins to protect innocents. The line between villain, hero, and “Lethal Protector” anti-hero would be interesting to explore. What makes a person fall into those categories, can they change, and how? Brock’s Catholicism could also bring an interesting angle into any redemption arc they give him, if they choose to go that route; that religious outlook on “what makes a hero?” (or even just a good person; to him, does it “count” if we forgive ourselves and each other?) could also make Venom an unexpected foil for Daredevil. They can explore whether the symbiote is an excuse for his misdeeds or a drug habit he needs to kick. The symbiote could also be treated as a physical manifestation of Eddie’s darkest, most selfish impulses since that’s what it heightened when it was bonded to Peter. Can Eddie control it—control himself—to be a better man or is he destined to be a monster he can only point at worse evil? Carnage makes sense as Venom’s enemy in his first movie—he’s the symbiote’s even more psychopathic offspring bonded to a serial killer—and I’m excited to see them clash.

I don’t know much about Venom’s time as a solo vigilante except that he was everywhere when I was reading comics in the 90s, so I’m up for anything in that regard. Whatever they do, I’ve long wanted a subplot where Peter sees Venom dealing with a crisis on the news, so he Planes, Trains, and Automobiles his way across the country (with a heaping dose of Parker Luck giving him trouble at every turn) to get wherever Venom is to help stop Carnage (or, misreading the situation, to stop both of them), only to arrive after Venom has already saved the day. It’d just be a fun comedic subplot, so I hope that they can work that out (Peter never even has to suit up). I wouldn’t expect it from a horror-themed movie like Venom is supposed to be (which does sound like a great angle to take with Venom!), but it could be just the dose of comedy needed to break the tension every now and again.

Black Cat It’s a shame that being in Sony’s Spider-verse likely means we won’t get to see Black Cat interact with Tom Holland’s Peter. I’ve always been a fan of how Felicia Hardy prefers Spider-man to Peter and that their relationship is played mostly as a fun, flirty friends with benefits situation between two adults who respect each other; that would’ve been perfect for Amazing Spider-man 3 if Peter didn’t want another serious relationship—or even to focus on being Peter Parker—after Gwen’s death (and Felicity Jones would’ve been great as Black Cat!). If Venom doesn’t become the cornerstone of the Sony-verse, I’d like it to be Black Cat (or they could share). Not only is she more moral than he is, but we don’t have any cinematic superhero universes built around women.

It’d be cool for the movie to start out with Felicia as an excellent thief, following in her father’s footsteps (perhaps with some flashbacks to being trained by her father), and to have one of her heists be the tablet from the comics that gave her bad luck powers. She’s able to alter the fortune of anyone around her, which could make for some cool sequences as changes to fate create Rube Goldberg-like disasters for rival thieves and anyone trying to stop her (this also sets her apart from Catwoman a bit more). To keep from making it too easy for her, part of her arc could be learning to control these powers and prevent them from tripping her up as well. Perhaps they could connect learning thievery to learning to control chance; that's what skill is, isn't it? Narrowing chance to the smallest allowable factor while you rely on yourself. If they did that, we could watch Felicia flashback to her father training her as she applies his lessons to mastering her newfound gift. I love Black Cat’s latest costume; it’s sleek and sexy without being exploitative, so I hope they use it in the movie rather than her classic one. I’d love it if her movie(s) eventually found her controlling the underworld like in the current era of Spider-man comics; showing her rise to power and struggle to hold it would be a cool twist on a character that might seem like she’s headed for redemption.

It sounds like Silver & Black, featuring Cat and Silver Sable—a mercenary in the comics—will also include Chameleon, Tombstone, and Tarantula as antagonists. Knowing nothing about the film, I’m envisioning a series of heists by Felicia and Sable and counterattacks from the mobsters they’ve stolen from. I’d love a Kingpin-esque, extremely imposing and coolly calculating Tombstone like in Spectacular Spider-man to be the main villain in this, and that show is where I’d draw inspiration for the other characters too. Silver Sable could be the daughter of Silvermane, another mob boss; perhaps she’s initially against Black Cat. Felicia herself could be the daughter of the burglar who killed Uncle Ben, which was a brilliant twist in SSM, but I suppose wouldn’t matter much in a universe where she may not be able to interact with Peter (though it would be a hell of a setup for a potential crossover!). I’d guess Tarantula is an enforcer for Tombstone and Chameleon could be either a rival thief or a hitman working for Tombstone as well. They could also use Hammerhead if they wanted to throw Cat and Sable into the middle of a massive gang war.

Spider-Gwen Spider-Gwen is relatively new to comics; she’s the Gwen Stacy of Earth-65, where she was bitten by the radioactive spider instead of Peter Parker. She initially used her powers as Spider-Woman for popularity until her father—police Captain George Stacy—commented that the vigilante could be using her powers for good instead. Gwen changed her ways and became an idol to her schoolmate and friend Peter Parker, who turned himself into the Lizard in an effort to be like his hero. Realizing her mask didn’t free her of responsibility like she thought, this was her Great Power/Great Responsibility moment and Spider-Woman was blamed for Peter’s death, so Gwen set out to clear her name and earn the city’s trust...as she’s being hunted by her father and his cops. She’s wisecracking like Peter, furthering the common themes among the Spiders, while George’s complicated relationship with his police force—especially after he learns Gwen’s secret and decides to protect her—would give her an entirely different family dynamic. This Gwen is also the drummer in a band—the Mary Janes, along with MJ, Betty Brant, and Glory Grant—rather than being a science student, giving her a whole other world to inhabit and obligations to fulfill in her social life as they try to make it big (one of their songs, “Face it Tiger,” performed by Married With Sea Monsters, is even available to buy!). She has the classic spider-abilities, detective skills thanks to watching her dad, and she learned kung fu moves from movies, making her crime-fighting distinct from Peter’s style. Gwen has webshooters (created by retired superheroine Janet Van Dyne) that create webs out of the moisture in the air rather than cartridges, giving her a different set of potential problems with her webs than Peter and Miles would have. Gwen’s neon-noir world and punk rock sensibility would be an entirely different flavor from every other superhero movie, which would definitely be a breath of fresh air.

Since Gwen lives in an alternate MCU, they could get several actors they’ve already cast to flesh out the twisted versions of her supporting cast and enemies. For instance, Frank Castle is one of the cops trying to bring down Spider-Woman for Peter’s death and Matt Murdock is the right-hand man of the Kingpin. Peggy Carter is the leader of SHIELD on Earth-65, and if you follow my blogs, you know I’m down for any and every Peggy reappearance I can get. They can also play up the differences in villains; Gwen’s villains are distinct enough from their mainstream counterparts that they could use both at once without feeling repetitive in most cases. The heroes are different too; Gwen’s world’s Captain America is Samantha Wilson, which would be cool.

At first I thought it’d be neat if Sony’s Spider-verse were secretly Spider-Gwen’s world, but I think I prefer the option of easier connections between Venom, Black Cat, and Tom Holland’s Spider-man if Sony wants to play ball without the need for dimension hopping right off the bat. Instead, I’m thinking that billing a Spider-Gwen movie as an alternate universe to the Amazing Spider-man films would be kinda brilliant. They’d already have Emma Stone as Gwen Stacy, which would be outstanding (Dennis Leary could return as George as well), and Peter helping Curt Connors become the Lizard in Amazing Spider-man parallels his death in Spider-Gwen’s world perfectly. Branching off of ASM would immediately create a Spider-verse unto itself—one that springs from movies audiences are already familiar with, no less—which could also incorporate Tom Holland’s Spider-man and any others they wanted to bring back in a massive crossover down the road! Spider-Gwen could also be done as an animated feature like Miles is getting next year, but any way we get cinematic Spider-Gwen adventures, I’m down!

Supporting Characters Aunt May We need to see May and Peter talk about him being Spider-man. Peter was an adult in the Rami films and those only hinted at Aunt May knowing the truth while Sally Field’s version never found out, so this would be an entirely new scene in addition to being very important for both characters. I loved how Homecoming left them, but I'm afraid we’ll lose that talk since Peter's next appearance is in Infinity War. Hopefully we'll get that conversation in the opening scenes of that Avengers film to establish where Peter is at that point in his life. If not, jumping back to that conversation at the start of Homecoming 2, like Homecoming did the events of Civil War, would work too. I’d definitely like her to invoke how dangerous New York City is with a reference to Ben. It’d also be cool to see her life outside of Peter (and without every guy she meets hitting on her); what is she doing with herself these days?

Ned Leeds Peter’s best friend and “man in the chair” worked really well in Homecoming and I wonder if he’ll follow his comic path to the Daily Bugle with Peter (which also includes getting married to Betty Brant). Maybe he’ll even wind up a patsy of Hobgoblin, which could leave him burned out on superheroics as things get far too real for him. That’d produce an interesting wrinkle to his friendship with Peter, especially if they came to blows while he was mind-controlled by Hobgoblin. What if it wasn’t cool for him anymore, taking away that support from Peter for a bit? I don’t want his death included in the cinematic version, though. 

Michelle Michelle’s “my friends call me MJ” does not mean she’s Mary Jane, though I wouldn’t have minded if she was. She was such a cool, funny character that I’m excited to see where she goes no matter who she is. I’d love them to continue Michelle’s social awareness; that was an unexpected way of showing that Peter’s not the only kid who thinks beyond high school. If she were to discover Peter’s secret, that’s a point they could bond over. She could also deal with classism, sexism, and racism in ways that Peter won’t be able to experience; all of which are natural outgrowths from her fearlessly calling out social injustices. Those are villains he can’t fight for her, so seeing her take them on to save herself would be great! Whatever they do with Michelle, I want to see more! I’d love it if they brought her into the comics as an adult in Amazing Spider-man or as a contemporary of the leads in Miles Morales’ Spider-man series and/or Spider-Gwen.

Flash Thompson I loved that Homecoming made Flash a smart kid; not only did it allow him to challenge Peter intellectually, but it broke the mold of jocks vs. nerds by proving that bullies can be anywhere and nerds aren’t by default good guys. I’d like them to increase his bullying beyond calling Peter names by including some 21st century tactics, even as he becomes a fan of Spider-man (which could make for some good commentary on real-life comic and sci-fi fans who seem to completely miss the values espoused by the stories they love). I wouldn’t mind eventually exploring Flash becoming the government’s Agent Venom, but that’s far in the future from where he is now. Superspy Agent Venom was a very cool development for Flash; not only did it restore his legs (previously amputated due to his military service), but he had to closely monitor how long he wore it and how angry he got, or it would take over his mind. Even though Sony’s Venom movie is semi-separate from the Peter Parker films, they could easily say that the Agent Venom suit was cultivated from a “sample recovered from a larger specimen,” obliquely referring to Tom Hardy’s Venom without having to say it outright.

Gwen Stacy I don’t need her to die ever again, so I’d like for them to introduce her into the MCU and twist that fate. The one-two-three punch of Lacey Chabert’s Gwen on Spectacular Spider-man, Emma Stone’s portrayal in the Amazing Spider-man films, and the Spider-Gwen comic series made Gwen my favorite of Spidey’s love interests (and one of his best supporting characters in general) and I’d like to see her appear here as well. It was weird they made Betty look just like Gwen in Homecoming—I think maybe she was supposed to be Gwen and it was changed at the last second—but even if she doesn’t look exactly like the iconic Gwen, I’d like Peter to meet his scientific match. Beyond being a cool character in and of herself, Gwen’s science skills allow her to actively contribute to the plot arguably more than any of Peter’s other love interests or friends can. That’s not to say everyone has to contribute directly—Michelle was certainly a great, memorable character who didn’t necessarily add to the plot, but still mattered—but Gwen’s skills allow her to, so she should. 

Much like in the ASM films, Gwen is someone on Peter’s intellectual level who he can bounce scientific ideas off of. If she isn’t in the know, we could get some fun and ridiculous excuses as to why Peter would be spit-balling ideas about scientifically curing vampirism or turning sand into glass. In their leisure time (whether she knows he’s Spidey or not), we could see them hanging out as friends, geeking out about whatever the newest scientific discovery is (or whatever their other shared interests are) and dreaming of making their own breakthroughs one day. Simultaneously, her father puts Peter in danger in a very different way than Liz Allan and Harry Osborn’s parents do since he has the law on his side, complicating things if her father catches Spider-man. If she’s on her dad’s side about Spider-man being a criminal vigilante—at best putting himself and the people around him in danger by escalating situations—having her voice that opinion instead of yet another authority figure could provoke real reflection in Peter. An opinion like that would also bring variety to the students’ outlook on Spidey in the MCU. Making Gwen a potentially frustrating scientific rival for Peter is another way to subvert expectations upon reintroducing her. Maybe she’s another intern at Horizon Labs, who is trying to scientifically enhance cops and people in general (via technology or biology) to protect them from superhero battles; cops with high-tech enhancements could inadvertently make things much harder for Spider-man. Perhaps she’s out to nullify all the villains’ powers to help protect her dad (or in his memory), and that includes curing Spider-man (at first). Completely independent of whether she’s a help or initial hindrance to Peter, Gwen could also face sexism in the STEM fields, giving her a set of obstacles to overcome to achieve her dreams entirely different from Peter’s (and hopefully, making him reflect that his white male privilege gives him advantages she doesn’t have). If they introduced Spider-Gwen’s universe as an alternate world to the MCU instead of ASM, whoever they cast as Gwen would have a great opportunity to play two distinct versions of the same character! 

Mary Jane Watson Growing up, MJ was my preferred love interest for Peter: she was pure fun and her party girl persona being a “secret identity” of sorts to cover up her troubled family life made for a nice parallel to Peter’s confidence shining through as Spider-man. That setup also made her someone who understood what it was like to have a secret identity. However, beyond making her an aspiring reporter like in Ultimate Spider-man (a role movie Betty is already inhabiting), I wasn’t sure what the classic supermodel MJ adds to the plot beyond a grounding influence and acting as a love interest for Peter. Perhaps they could play her like Betty in The Rocketeer to Peter’s Cliff Seacord: maybe the MCU MJ is a famous teen star (or a teen with a very strong social media presence) and her acting world is way outside Peter’s comfort zone. Modernizing a young MJ into an already-semi-successful actress or social media darling would also give her a more heightened world than most high schoolers live in, meeting Peter’s life as Spider-man on relatively equal terms. They could also contrast her fame and fans with his growing infamy, and the two could commiserate about bad press if the tabloids slammed her for any number of rumors. Perhaps she could use her social media platform to help out Spider-man’s image (or initially, she could think he’s the menace everyone else does, adding to his problems). If she were to aid him with her legion of followers, they could set up a youth vs. adults theme connecting to how the different generations view the media and fake news.

MJ could also be someone that helps Peter let loose as Peter rather than being worried about responsibility 24/7. The Rami movies got some good, understated mileage out of contrasting MJ’s fame with Spider-man’s infamy, and as detailed here, made a solid commentary on classism, abuse, and sexism with MJ and Gwen. A new MJ—particularly one who’s in a tabloid spotlight thanks to being an actress, an internet sensation, or both—could also take on sexism and misogyny in ways Peter simply can’t. Guys at school could expect sex from MJ for being a "party girl" and because of some modelling/acting campaign she’d done (or even just tabloid rumors), while she just wants to have fun and get out of her bad home life. Even if she is having sex, we could see her confronting guys who expect she'll sleep with anyone just because she slept with someone. If her star status includes that image, she’d definitely have her detractors as a “bad influence,” just like Spider-man is a “menace.” The Bugle could even be the one running a “what happened to wholesome teen stars?” piece, giving her and Peter a common adversary. Like Gwen, whatever they do with her, she certainly shouldn’t appear just to be Peter’s girlfriend and/or to be in danger. If they do reintroduce MJ, I definitely hope they do the classic introduction, complete with Aunt May trying to set Peter up with her (to his dismay and disinterest) and the iconic “Face it Tiger, You just hit the jackpot!” reveal.

Liz Allan I wanted to know more about what Peter saw in her beyond her being a smart, pretty, unattainable senior in Homecoming. The car ride to the dance was a perfect opportunity to at least tell us what she wanted out of life; one the writers missed completely. It’d also be nice to know what she sees (or saw) in Peter, especially since he didn’t do much but disappoint her in Homecoming (I assume they interacted more in debate club than what we saw, though). If she returns, I hope they flesh her out more. I’d also like to know what her thoughts are about her father being a criminal; might she come to understand why he did what he did and follow in his footsteps? Would she blame Spider-man for destroying her family?

Captain America I definitely don’t want all of Peter’s movies to become Marvel Team-Ups (even though we know another hero is in Homecoming 2), so if we must have the Avengers stop by, I hope they each teach Peter something new without making him their unofficial sidekick. Captain America would be my first choice for the hero in Homecoming’s sequel; I’ve thought since Civil War that had he gotten the chance to talk to Spider-man, Peter would’ve seen that Steve’s side was really the one representing power and responsibility. Cap could teach Peter about tactics and the resolve to try and do what’s right even if you fail, but if Uncle Ben were a fan of Steve’s, then Peter interacting with his Uncle’s hero could be extremely touching. If Ben saw Cap as the quintessential hero, they could even say Peter based his color scheme on Cap’s to honor his Uncle Ben; to emulate the man he thinks his Uncle would’ve wanted him to be. Of course, Steve would remind him Ben is proud of Peter for who he is, then Peter could confess why Ben is dead, and it’d be a great, raw emotional moment between the two of them! Steve’s current fugitive status could be a neat parallel to Peter breaking from Tony and going his own way. And no hero in the MCU is better set up to contrast the iconic Captain America image with his hilarious educational videos than Peter, so the endless ribbing that could come from that would be a blast! A reality/public image disconnect—particularly with Steve being a “war criminal”—could also create a bond between them if Jonah starts smearing Spider-man’s name.

Cloak and Dagger They’ve got a series coming to Freeform, but it’d be cool to see these classic Spider-man allies team up with either Peter or Miles! These teen heroes could band together to form the Champions—their answer to the Defenders and Avengers—creating a youthful bond where the kids are just as likely to hang out and help each other cope with the realities of growing up as they are to take down criminals.

Iceman and Firestar If Marvel ever makes a deal with Fox like they did Sony, it’d be excellent to see Peter meet and become Amazing Friends with the X-men’s Iceman and Firestar! That show was one of my first exposures to superheroes and getting a live-action team-up would be awesome!

Cardiac Dr. Elias Wertham became a vigilante attacking corporations for their greedy practices after his brother died of a condition which had a cure, but the corporation that created it refused to sell it because it wouldn’t be profitable. Later, he ran an underground hospital for those who couldn’t afford care. His hatred of big business and the lack of sufficient health care would be extremely relevant right now, and his noble intentions would thematically continue Vulture’s argument while challenging Peter’s concept of what the right and wrong way to achieve justice is. They could tone down his attacks on corporations to the point where no one is harmed (maybe he only steals medical supplies or cures that aren’t on the market, making them available to all) and have the Bugle still call him out as a violent, murderous anarchist in the same way some see the Black Lives Matter movement. Spider-man could initially attack him—ironically believing the Bugle when police reports also say Cardiac is a criminal—only for Peter to discover he isn’t that at all. If it’s the opinion of some corrupt officers that sends Spidey against Cardiac, exploring how the authorities tolerate Spidey but open fire on Cardiac would be another socially relevant avenue to explore with him.

Molten Man Mark Raxton is Liz Allan’s stepsister, so there’s already an easy introduction for him if Liz’s mom divorces Toomes and remarries in her new home. He could be something of a tragic villain, since his heat powers and molten skin are as much a danger to the people he cares about as he is to his enemies. His entire villainous streak could be motivated by finding a cure for his condition, making him an uneasy ally of Spidey’s by the end. If Peter ever gets to the point where being Spider-man is too much for him and he wishes he didn’t have his powers, Mark could remind him not only could it be worse, but his real power is his sense of responsibility.

Clash Spider-man busted this sometime criminal (who uses focused soundwaves as weapons), but after hearing about the circumstances that led him to crime, Peter Parker gave him a job to help rehabilitate him. Spider-man permanently defeating a villain by listening to him and having faith that he could improve (as Peter himself did) would be an awesome, unique way to deal with a supervillain.

Villains Growing up with the 90s Spider-man Animated Series, I can see why fans my age might want Peter to face off with Vincent D’Onofrio’s Kingpin, but I hope he doesn’t. He seems too low-level for Spidey to deal with. I think he should stay a Daredevil villain; there are already many more enemies for Spidey to fight anyway!

Obviously not all these villains would make for lead villains in movies (one of many reasons I'd love to get a new live-action Spider-man TV series). However, an idea I saw online a long time back was to do cold opens for superhero films, like the Bond movies do. That'd be a great way to introduce a unique villain in a “short story” that related to the themes of the film (and established where Peter is in life) and give audiences a wider look at his rogues gallery without having to dedicate a while film to villains who may not be able to carry it.

Since we probably won’t get an endless stream of Peter Parker-focused movies, splitting these villains up with Miles Morales (and/or Spider-Gwen) down the road would be great too.

J. Jonah Jameson I'd be fine with JK Simmons coming back as Jonah; more dimension than he got in the Rami films would be nice, though. If Jonah ever became mayor in the movies, that’d be a great opportunity to either really make him see the contributions Spider-man makes to the city or to play up some relevant political parallels (and to make things even tougher on Spidey). The people annoyed with Spidey in Homecoming could provide a nice foundation for the readership that would believe his lies, so “fake news” and the people who refuse to believe anything but their chosen news source could definitely be a factor in these films. I'd definitely like the MCU’s public to be more skeptical of Spidey than in the earlier Spider-man films, driven to distrust him thanks to Jonah’s own fear of men in masks. It would also be great to see Jonah eventually develop into a (slightly) more caring and understanding person, like he did as a supporting character in the Silk series!

Vulture Michael Keaton made Adrian Toomes my absolute favorite MCU villain, so I can’t wait to see more of him! I loved that he had a legitimate point about how Stark and the government treated him and making him Liz’s dad was the perfect analogy to an awkward meeting with your girlfriend’s parents. I also liked that his version of power/responsibility is that he can provide for his family through crime, so he does. I’m intrigued to see whether he’s keeping Peter’s identity a secret because he respects him, wants to kill him himself, or a mix of both. Keaton barked some of his lines, so even though he seemed sane, it felt like there was something dangerous and violent within Toomes; let’s see it unleashed! As Peter gets more confident in his web-swinging, I’d love to see an epic aerial rematch between him and Toomes. I don’t think it’d be out of character for him to continue tinkering with his suit to add new weapons to it either, scavenging the parts from other MCU battles. Whatever we get from the next Vulture appearance, I hope Peter makes some Birdman, Batman, and Falcon jokes!

Mysterio As silly as he can be (and that’s the point; he should not be revamped to be “badass,” even if his illusions are intimidating and mind-blowing), Mysterio would be a fantastic villain for a visual medium like the movies. I know he’s being looked at for a solo Sony film (which I assume would be like a Now You See Me heist film with magic…though that would work better with Peter as the “cop”), but I really want him to fight Spider-man instead. Quentin Beck was a Hollywood special effects wizard who turned to a life of crime using those same effects (plus a costume stolen from a 50s/60s sci-fi movie) and if he became a criminal for fame, that could be a cool parallel to Spider-man’s early motives. Mysterio chasing fame could also give Jonah an avenue into blaming Peter for the same thing (and a criticism that wouldn’t necessarily be untrue, at least as regarding Peter’s earliest exploits). They could play Mysterio as the Peter Parker who never lost his Uncle Ben. Mysterio’s deadly special effects could pose a great challenge for Peter’s scientific mind while giving the filmmakers an amazing opportunity to go wild with their visuals; literally anything would be possible, and for once it wouldn’t really matter how CGI something looked. The Ultimate Spider-man comic had the right idea casting Bruce Campbell as Mysterio and I’d follow that instinct in a heartbeat.

Hobgoblin Willem Dafoe was excellent as Norman Osborn/Green Goblin (even if his suit left a little to be desired), but honestly I’m tired of businessman supervillains and Norman in general so I don’t need to see any iteration of the Green Goblin onscreen again, probably ever.

That said…there is one goblin businessman I’d like to see in the movies: Hobgoblin. Roderick Kingsley was a fashion mogul who regularly employed mind control to coerce other people into playing the role of Hobgoblin, obscuring his identity so well that he actually beat Spidey and retired to a tropical island at one point. Two of his forced decoys? Ned Leeds and Flash Thompson, which would be a cool way to continue involving Peter’s classmates and friends (and Spidey clearing Flash’s name would boost Flash’s Spidey fandom while still bullying Peter). The movie could also feature Jason Macendale and Phil Urich (other Hobgoblins from the comics) as red herrings. Hobgoblin’s a criminal mastermind the likes of which we’ve never seen in a Spider-man film and the multiple false leads about who he is could give us Peter Parker trying to solve a mystery for the first time in the movies as well. If Roderick does get away with it (and I wouldn’t mind if he did), his more recent trend of licensing out his Hobgoblin persona into a franchise for criminals to buy into (and share their profits) could be a fun new wrinkle for a supervillain in a film down the road. Tom Hanks once said he’d like to play a supervillain, and Hobgoblin could be a pretty great role for him.

Doctor Octopus One villain I’d love to see redone in the movies is Doc Ock. As good as Alfred Molina was, I never needed him to be sympathetic (and being controlled by his arms was a lame retread of Green Goblin), so I’d make the MCU Doc Ock the classic mad scientist from the comics. He’d be the polar opposite of Peter: Spidey’s true opposite number and arch-enemy; a selfish, self-centered scientific genius with no sense of responsibility whatsoever. I’d toy with upgrading his abilities a bit; maybe he invents a device that gives him some of the camouflage ability octopuses have and tinkering with Pym Particles allows him to dimension-shift to a degree, mimicking cephalopods’ ability to squeeze through tight spaces (and also making him extremely hard to hit). Utilizing the most insane, maddest science and numerous master plans, Octavius would be the greatest mental challenge for Peter (without being a slouch in the physical department) and I’d love to see that showdown! I’d cast Jeffery Combs as Otto in a second.

Scorpion Mac Gargan’s already set up with a grudge against Spidey, so I’m eager for that to play out. I’d like them to mention that he was a failed private detective before he became a criminal, so perhaps he could work out Peter’s secret identity and threaten his life on a larger scale than just as a costumed supervillain. I’d also upgrade his suit to not only include the scorpion tail, but retractable wrist gauntlets that mimic scorpion pincers.

Prowler I liked Donald Glover’s version of Aaron Davis in Homecoming, even if he wasn’t as nefarious as in the Ultimate Spider-man comics. That Prowler was my favorite revamped Ultimate villain and I’d love to see Homecoming’s Davis develop into the twisted Uncle Ben figure that his comics counterpart is. He could train Miles to be a thief by claiming to only steal from bad guys, before Miles finally takes a stand against him. I definitely wouldn’t kill him like in the comics, though, and his status as Miles’ uncle would make for a great real-life parallel to family members who don’t always want the best for you.

Kraven the Hunter and Calypso Using potions to enhance his senses and physical prowess, Kraven being hired to hunt down Spider-man (or just doing it for sport) seems like a no-brainer for a minor villain in a movie. His lover Calypso could come along to introduce a mystical threat that Peter would have a hard time believing, much less defeating; it would be cool if she were the real threat between the two of them. There was a rumor Sony is looking at Kraven for a solo film, and while I guess I can see him being hired to hunt down other supervillains, I’m not sure he’s leading man material (though perhaps there’s some potential with his code of honor). I’d rather see him and Calypso fight Spider-man, and eventually getting to “Kraven’s Last Hunt,"—where defeating Spider-man isn’t enough; he has to prove he’s better by going out dressed as Spidey and fighting crime—would be a fantastic arc! I wouldn’t be opposed to him taking on animal traits thanks to Calypso’s magic, similar to his lion appearance in Spectacular Spider-man (though maybe here, the animal traits/abilities would only be temporary transformations). Regardless, his enhanced physical prowess and super-senses would be a tough challenge for Spidey to out-maneuver. Coming up with ways to dull and/or block Kraven’s senses would be a fun recurring problem for Peter. I think Oded Fehr could make an interesting Kraven. 

The Jackal Ms. Warren appeared in Homecoming and, assuming she’s the MCU version of Miles Warren, I think it’d be fun if those kids who “went missing” on field trips were replaced with clones by Ms. Warren to cover up their disappearances. It’d be funny if the professors made offhand comments about certain kids being replaced, weirding Peter out as he overheard them, until he discovered the horrifying truth. This would admittedly work better as a running gag/subplot on a Spider-man TV show, but I’d like to see it employed somewhere. Maybe it could evolve from a running gag into a Carrion virus outbreak in the school, giving Peter a mini-zombie outbreak only his science skills can cure (and preventing him from changing into Spider-man in front of his friends, causing secret identity problems). It'd be perfect as a Halloween-themed "Bond opening" for one of the movies even if it wasn't the main plot. The suave red-suited Jackal from “The Clone Conspiracy” is how I’d like any onscreen Jackal to appear (even if that wasn’t really Miles Warren).

Sinister Six I’d absolutely love it if the MCU finally pulled off a Sinister Six appearance! I wouldn’t want them teaming up with Spider-man against a bigger enemy; they should be the evil Avengers and he should be the only one who can take them on. I don’t want any Avenger assistance here either; let Peter prove he’s capable of taking all of them on and winning despite impossible odds! I’d also love it if Doc Ock’s team actually worked well together instead of inevitably turning on each other, forcing Peter into the hardest fight (and fights, including the opening salvos where different Six members pair off in various configurations) of his life with no turncoats among the villains and no help from the other heroes.

Shocker I'd like him to continue to be high-tech muscle for any villain who'll pay. He doesn't need to be a criminal mastermind, but maybe he's scheming to be a bigger player on the super-weapon black market instead of just a henchman. Maybe he has ambitions to become an arms dealer. He could be a cool recurring source for Peter (if Spidey's after one of his rivals) as well as a thorn in Spidey’s side.

Tinkerer Phineas Mason just likes building gadgets, and that’s OK! He doesn’t have to be evil, just fascinated by the possibilities of science, which gets him into trouble as he pushes boundaries. I wouldn’t want him to provide every villain with their tech, though; many of Peter’s villains are scientists in their own right and there’s no reason they can’t be self-sufficient without needing to lean on Tinkerer for everything. I’d like Mason to continue outfitting the lower-level criminals (and maybe building weapons for Shocker to sell), though.

Chameleon Perhaps Peter's parents were SHIELD agents in the MCU, which would provide a great excuse to bring in this master of disguise. Maybe Chameleon was behind the Parkers' deaths. Maybe he makes it appear that Richard Parker has survived, because he needs something from Peter. Maybe he dresses like a fake Spider-man to ruin the reputation of the son of the agents who wronged him. A master spy who can be anywhere and anyone could be the perfect opponent to force Peter to hone his Spider-sense to its fullest potential!

Lizard I'd love for Curt Connors' reptile-obsessed scientist to turn up again sometime! He can be both a mentor to Peter and a dark foil when it comes to loss, power, and responsibility as well as the use of science. They could explore his feeling of being incomplete and inadequate because of his lost arm and compare him to Peter before he got his powers: Curt's wounded pride leads to the destruction of his family just like Peter’s ruined his. Curt, however, stays on his destructive path, thinking it’s better than humanity...and better for humanity. Like Molten Man, Curt’s transformation—especially the loss of his mind—could remind Peter how lucky he is with his own mutation…or it could frighten him into thinking the spider bite could eventually turn him into the Man-Spider (and maybe the Lizard tries affecting others’ evolution, inadvertently turning Peter into the spider beast; Peter working on a cure for Connors could also accidentally result in him mutating himself). I’d also love it if they introduced Curt’s wife and son, either giving him a reason to fight for his humanity, or—as mutated lizards—helping him to spread his dream of a reptile paradise. Whatever they bring him back to do, I only ask Lizard wear his lab coat while transformed! It's a cool, iconic visual as well as a subliminal message that the lizard monster is still human inside. Curt does want to improve humanity, even as the Lizard, but at what cost? Exploring the line between man and animal could lead Peter to question just how human he is anymore, especially if he’s been acting more and more spider-like in his crime-fighting. Peter can’t go all-out against Lizard without hurting his friend, so how does he stop this vicious monster?

Sandman Perhaps stealing to get his sick daughter medical care would be too similar to Vulture trying to take care of his family through crime, but that doesn't mean Sandman still can't have an arc that takes him from uncommon criminal to unlikely ally of Spider-man. Maybe he comes to genuinely regret what he’s done, feeling that his outward appearance is showing him as the monster he’s become. A supervillain stepping back and taking a good look at themselves without anything to gain from it but a better soul—then actually doing the work to change for the better—isn’t an arc we ever see, and it could work for Flint Marko. Perhaps he views his robberies as something different (and maybe even somewhat noble in a Robin Hood/“the billionaires are the real criminals” sort of way) than the all-out world domination and murder attempted by villains like Hobgoblin or Doctor Octopus. He could have a “honor among thieves” code of conduct to set him apart from the egomaniacs and monsters. A supervillain with a growing conscience would be a cool arc that would parallel and reveal Peter’s early selfishness nicely. Peter isn’t Superman—he isn’t even close to being perfect—so he shouldn’t have a problem believing villains can change if they really want to (and having Marko change without the death of a loved one could be a cool commentary on heroes who “need” tragedy in their lives, as well as potentially showing his moral awakening to be a little purer than Peter’s). Peter should even be out there helping his enemies to walk the same path he has. Wherever they take Flint Marko, I'd like them to really dig into his powers—just how much sand can he control? Are we talking entire shorelines?—and Peter's need to use science to stop him. 

Rhino I have no problem with him being just the nearly invulnerable and less-than-intelligent muscle, but if they want to add layers to him that's cool too. They could do something like "Flowers for Rhino,” wherein he became increasingly smart. He could have a genuinely loving marriage to Oksana, like in the comics, which could parallel Peter’s problems with balancing his heroic and love lives. I’d prefer he have some version of his classic suit over another mech version, though I can see the MCU going with the latter for simplicity. Whatever they do with his personality, Rhino should be like a force of nature: truly unstoppable and deadly to everyone in his path.

Electro If they do Electro again, I'd like them to really play up his powers and have him go for godhood! I thought the tragedy of ASM2’s Electro was he was still too insecure to believe he had as much power and potential as he did, and it'd be amazing to see an Electro who knew what to do with the power at his fingertips. He could give power only to those who are loyal to him. He could plunge the eastern seaboard into the Dark Ages by taking it away. He could be everywhere, all the time, unless you’re away from electronics (which could be a fun gag about the omnipresence of cell phones). If Peter still has his Stark suit, Electro could take it over completely; maybe he could even take over whatever tech shrinks it to fit Parker and use it to force him to commit crimes or act as his enforcer like a puppet. With every surveillance network at Electro’s fingertips and his ability to move through any circuitry, Peter would have to be as low-tech and stealthy as possible, maybe even forgoing his costume to travel as Parker, to get close enough to defeat him. Electro is potentially one of Peter's most powerful enemies—a villain Spidey can't even touch and one of many that forces him to adapt his webs and use his head to stand a chance of surviving, not to mention winning—and I'd love to see him up against those odds! The sympathetic origin from Spectacular Spider-man (or a version of it) would be great as a starting point—that’s my favorite version of Electro—but I’d like to see Electro develop delusions of grandeur…then use his power to make them real.

Mister Negative He'd be cool as both a way to get May into the action—Negative's alter ego Martin Li ran the homeless shelter May volunteered at—and he could fill the “secret mob boss” role Kingpin played on the 90s cartoon (as did the much more menacing Tombstone on Spectacular Spider-man) if they wanted to go with a gang war angle. While Li has a healing touch, Mister Negative can bring out the negative aspects in anyone he touches (his morally inverting touch also gives him control over his victims), which could give us a taste of not only how selfish Peter was before Ben died, but how Peter might be with the Venom symbiote (since it seems we won't see that story in the MCU, though I hope it's mentioned as backstory in Venom). Negative would be a great way to give us a glimpse into how far Peter's come as a hero without resorting to character regression. His belief that the balance of good and evil is necessary to the universe would be a fascinating perspective that could challenge Peter’s perception of right and wrong (in addition to questioning if there’s even a point in continuing to fight), and his split personality could be a cool parallel to how being Spider-man messes with Peter’s social life. Then again, perhaps his origin would make him more appropriate for the upcoming Cloak & Dagger series on Freeform, since they were all exposed to the same tests with the Darkforce dimension.

Morbius Similar to Lizard, Michael Morbius accidentally made himself into a vampiric creature while trying to cure his rare blood disease. He'd be a cool way to bring a horror vibe into Spidey's corner of the MCU. He could be a classmate of Peter's to rival him in both intelligence and power, or like in the later comics, an employee at Horizon Labs trying to cure himself. Perhaps he could be a creature who truly scares Peter, giving Parker some fears to fight through; something we don’t often see from Spider-man in movies. Morbius has powers similar to supernatural vampires (enhanced strength and speed, night vision, echolocation, an enhanced healing factor, the ability to hypnotize people, and the ability to glide using transvection), and none of their mythical weaknesses, except for a vulnerability to sunlight (though it’s not fatal, it will weaken and burn him severely). He’s not always able to turn the people he bites into vampires in the comics, but I’d give him that power as well as his ability to “liquidize” his body, allowing him to squeeze through small spaces and elongate his limbs. What would Peter do if Morbius was forced to feed on others to survive? How would he defeat Michael if stopping him from getting blood likely meant killing him? Even though Morbius is not a supernatural vampire, his existence could open Peter’s eyes to the possibility of the supernatural, even if after struggling with something science can’t explain, he rationalizes it as science mistaken for magic.

Man-Wolf Jameson's son, turned into a werewolf-like monster by an alien artifact, could be a cool way to bring Peter and Jonah together and repair their enmity to an extent (and Jonah having to thank Spidey for saving his son would be a great moment for the web-head!). Making John Jameson—a hotshot astronaut—someone relatively close to Peter's age (maybe he’s a pilot prodigy at NASA) and something of a hero for Peter could make Pete reflect on how much more he could be accomplishing if he weren’t spending time fighting crime as Spider-man. They could also contrast John being celebrated as an American hero with Peter being unable to tell anyone how much he's done for the city. That'd give Peter a reason to dislike John removed from any real reason, much like Jonah dislikes Peter (and like Flash hates Peter but is a fan of Spider-man). How much would Peter hate being similar to JJ and Flash? Saving John from alien technology would also be a great challenge for Peter’s already brilliant mind; I’m sure he’d be geeking out at the chance to work with such advanced, otherworldly technology.

Stunner This villain who uses a holographic projector to create her idealized appearance would be a good high school enemy! Increase her holographic powers to include force field projection and she'd have offensive capabilities as well as a neat way to hide her identity. She’d also be a good opportunity to explore bullying in addition to what Flash dishes out; that’s both a villain Peter can’t beat and a good parallel to how he deals with his own torment at the hands of his classmates. They could have Peter examine whether his banter in fights is bullying (Max Landis has said it is, I’d say it isn’t, and Peter can ask himself that question) and whether he should be doing more to understand his villains’ pain before just attacking them. She could also prompt Peter to see the other bullied kids at school and try to do something to help as Peter. Her idealized self would also be a perfect foil for Spider-man being the outlet for Peter’s confidence.

Hydro-Man He sometimes seems like just a watery version of Sandman, but what if he were reconfigured as a killer who could strike his victims anywhere? Walk by a fire hydrant on the street? He's there. Have fire sprinklers in your place of business? You're not safe, even with everyone around you. Have a sink or shower in your apartment? He can get into your home, no matter how many locks you've got on your door. The 90s animated series had him stalking Mary Jane with some of these methods, and an unstoppable killer like this might be best saved for a Venom sequel.

Morlun Best used in a Spider-verse crossover, this nearly-immortal, vampiric monster who consumes the life force of spider-powered people across the multiverse would be a crazy cosmic-level villain for Peter to face. Peter would even have to recruit a whole army of Spider-people in an epic Avengers-styled adventure, showcasing a wide-variety of worlds and Spider-men (and women). Letting Peter see who he could've become under different circumstances (even though some of the Spiders aren't Peter at all) would be illuminating both for him and us. As Morlun is almost a god, discovering how to beat him—and how to lead a team—would be very cool in the later portions of Peter's arc; it’d probably be the ultimate test of Peter’s accumulated skills.

Shriek Once insane and romantically obsessed with Carnage, my first thought was that they could play her as Spidey's (or Venom’s, given her longtime connection to Carnage) version of Harley Quinn. Obviously I wouldn't want a total ripoff, but maybe making Shriek—who has sonic blasts—a goofily serious villain could make for a fun, unique challenge for Peter or Eddie. However, given Shriek’s obsession with motherhood, making her the overbearing and controlling mother of one of Peter’s classmates would be a cool update. That would allow them to play her as a clever foil to Ben and May. Like the classic comics May, she could be paranoid about her child’s safety, but unlike May, she’d resort to violence to protect her kid. Her ability to create chaos and bring out the fear, anger, and hatred in people could produce some interesting challenges for Peter: how does he stop a crowd of innocent civilians from hurting the uninfected among them without hurting the attackers as well? What if he gets infected; how much damage is an angry, uncontrollable, super-powered Spider-man going to do? Does she unleash these powers on Peter’s school after her child is severely bullied, turning the bullies’ hatred against themselves? Where is the line between protecting her child and going so far that not only are others hurt, but her child can’t cope well enough to defend his or herself at all? Does Spider-man cross that line by saving the city over and over again, to the point where we can’t help ourselves? What if she purposefully infected her child to enrage them to defend themselves? Shriek could be the Peter who never shirked her responsibility, taken to a detrimental extreme.

Spot Spot's transportation portals all over his body could make for a neat, maze-like puzzle for Spidey to solve in one of his strangest adventures. Like Mister Negative, he too might be better suited for Cloak & Dagger, since his powers came from studying Cloak’s dark dimension in the comics. If he were to fight Spider-man, it’d be cool to pit Peter (or Miles) against a villain their spider-sense can’t detect, since it can’t sense attacks coming in from alternate dimensions. Dimensional warping would also allow him to hit Spidey from multiple angles at once, as well as deflecting attacks through various portals. 

Alistair or Spencer Smythe/Spider-Slayers Maybe the spider-slayers are a little too similar to Sentinels in X-Men, but I wonder if there's a way to reconfigure them as smaller (but no less lethal) bugs that can be anywhere and see everything. They'd be like the spider drone network set up by the Superior Spider-man (Otto Octavius) in the comics, and perhaps it'd be best in a movie if Otto simply called them spider-slayers as a shout-out to the Smythes.

Big Wheel I really have no idea how to make Big Wheel work outside of a gag appearance, but that'd be enough for a Bond-styled opening. I've always thought it'd be funny to have him rolling down a street, wreaking havoc and shouting "No one can stop me!" Spidey swings up, tries to web Big Wheel's Ferris Wheel-styled vehicle to halt him, but the webs snap. Big Wheel proclaims no one can stop him again...as he plunges off the pier into the ocean. Before going to rescue him, Peter muses that he though Big Wheel was boasting, not yelling frantically that he'd lost control of his vehicle. 

 The World Midtown High I really hope all the apathetic staff returns! They were a great, unexpected source of comedy and I’d love to see more of them. The other students were great too; Betty Brant’s deer-in-the-headlights news reports were a perfect, realistic high school layer to the environment! All the high school stuff clicked perfectly with the superhero themes, giving the heroics relatable metaphors and grounding them in a realistic world. Let’s see that continue!

The Daily Bugle I’d love for the Bugle to be more than a set for Jonah to rant about Spidey. It’d be cool if it became a place where we could see the varied reactions to Spider-man from the adults in New York, while we see the younger generation’s reaction at school. Robbie Robertson, Glory Grant, and any number of other characters could pop up to fill us in on how the common man sees Spider-man, both in relation to other heroes and as a solo hero. Robbie could push Spidey as the hero he is, Glory could mentor Betty in terms of where her career could take her, etc. The Bugle is practically begging for a MCU parallel to fake news with its anti-Spider-man message, and building on some of the public’s annoyance with Spidey in Homecoming would allow for some brilliant social commentary. The Bugle can also question the validity of the government having its own team of superheros in the Avengers. Is there a problem with state-sponsored heroes?

Horizon Labs Max Modell, Sajani Jaffrey, Anna Maria Marconi, and Co. would be great additions to the Spider-man corner of the MCU! Beyond the bleeding edge super-science Horizon would introduce and the potential path for Peter’s future as a scientist, Max would be a significant scientific mentor for Peter (and one who does not turn into a supervillain). The Lab’s staff is very diverse, continuing the real world look of Midtown High in Homecoming. The staff would also provide a variety of non-villainous perspectives on science for Peter to look up to or disregard, getting him to consider things beyond Tony Stark’s way of doing things. It’d also be interesting to explore not only what inventions they could use to update and aid the city (creating problems for Spidey, no doubt), but whether they should be helping the wall-crawler to more efficiently stop bad guys. Would that make him a corporate-sponsored hero? Should that be a thing? 

The NYPD The police reaction to Spidey should be varied as well. Introducing Captain George Stacy as someone hunting Spidey and eventually mentoring him would be very cool. Jean DeWolffe was eventually a Spider-man supporter in most versions, but her tough-as-nails attitude could work against him as well. Her partner, Stan Carter, could admire Spidey in a twisted way before becoming the masked serial killer Sin-Eater. Yuri Watanabe, who is also the vigilante Wraith, could be a cool parallel to Spidey acting outside the boundaries of the law, particularly if he ever leaves the Avengers and ignores the Sokovia Accords. Carlie Cooper, a police forensic specialist and sometime love interest of Peter’s, could put his secret identity in danger while also eventually resenting being a target because of her association with Spidey. Since Spider-man plays more in the everyday world than most of the MCU heroes, I’d like the local cops to have their own reactions to him rather than just treating him as another Avenger. The same should go for New York’s civilians.

SHIELD What about the Sokovia Accords? Was Peter unofficially drafted into service by Iron Man, as I've suspected? Is he considered a child soldier? If he leaves the Avengers, does he automatically become a fugitive? Would SHIELD put all his closest family and friends in danger to force him back into line? 

Other Heroes Let’s see Spidey interact with the Defenders! I think it’d be funny if the youngest hero were also the one from the biggest stage as an Avenger. Alternatively (or additionally), a Miles-Spidey meeting the Defenders could be cool as well, since they’re almost all representative of the downtrodden and ignored in society. Miles getting lessons on being a hero from the Defenders would give him an entirely different outlook than hanging out with the Avengers, making his point of view that much more different from Peter’s when they team-up..

Animated Features Miles is getting one next year, but what if Sony were to make a series of standalone animated Spider-man films that weren’t in any continuity, then wrapped them together in a Spider-Verse adaptation? Spider-verse dealt with Morlun’s family of immortals absorbing the life-force of people affected by the Spider-totem to sustain themselves. These Inheritors, mainly Morlun, were somewhat vampiric, extremely hard to defeat, and terrifying. They crossed into multiple realities to hunt down the spiders of each, even really clever continuities like the Marvel vs. Capcom video game and Spider-man’s newspaper strip.

Since they’d be animated, it’d be easy to mix them with every version of Spider-man from his numerous animated series (along with those from the comics). You could animate Toby Maguire, Andrew Garfield, Tom Holland, Nicholas Hammond, the Japanese TV Spider-man, and the Broadway Spider-man into this too. We could get Spider-Ham and a sentient Spider-mobile (alias: Peter Parkedcar)! In fact, an animated Spider-verse seems like it’d be the most feasible way of adapting the story into a movie. Regardless of whether they culminate in Spider-Verse or not, the standalone animated films I’d like to see most are as follows:

Spider-man Noir Taking place in an alternate 1930s, Peter Parker Noir is a chance to bring a bit of The Shadow and Batman the Animated Series to the Spider-verse! Peter was affected by an occult artifact in this universe, granting him similar powers to the version we know (though he can create organic webbing). Both his job as an investigative reporter and his main criminal targets being gangsters would make for the perfect throwback to a 30s/40s crime movie. The Parker of this world didn’t learn “with great power, there must also come great responsibility,” but rather “If there is too much power, it’s the responsibility of the people to take it away,” giving him a slightly different outlook and reason for taking action. This Peter also struggles with killing villains, giving him an internal battle that the mainstream Peter doesn’t have. The villains—sometimes patterned after classic movie monsters: Vulture as Dracula, Hammerhead as Frankenstein’s Monster, Goblin as a Wolfman, etc.—are distinctive and the pulpy, film noir vibe is very cool. Spider-man Noir’s struggle for the rights of the people and distrust of anyone with too much power would be a very timely story for today, told in the context of our history.

Spider-man 2099 Miguel O’Hara is the Spider-man of the future and lives in a technologically advanced wonderland that would make a great animated feature. It’d be cool to explore Peter’s legacy in this potential future! Irish-Mexican Miguel was a geneticist working at Alchemax until a genetic bonding experiment caused the death of the person Miguel was testing. Disgusted, he tried to leave, but his boss secretly addicted him to a drug in the hopes that he’d have to stay (Alchemax was the sole manufacturer), but Miguel performed the same genetic test to cure himself of the addiction, giving himself powers when his supervisor sabotaged the experiment in an attempt to kill him. Miguel’s DNA was spliced with a spider’s, giving him the classic Spider powers in addition to a healing factor, enhanced vision, telepathy, organic webs, talons, and fangs. His high-tech suit also allows him to glide. They could go crazy with his futuristic villains, making them stark contrasts to the present-day Spidey’s rogues. In at least one version of his future, Miguel was instrumental in saving, rebuilding, and enhancing the entirety of society, allowing for an epic end-of-the-world story that could actually have a hopeful, definitive ending where Spider-man improves the world for good. They could also play with his adventures in the past trying to maintain his future if they wanted to.

Lady Spider May Reilly lives in the Victorian Age on her Earth and uses a steampunk suit she designed to fight crime. She says the spider that bit her (encountered in a cage in her father’s study) taught her to let no one cage her, which would be a powerful feminist message. She doesn’t have super-powers, instead relying on her intelligence and her inventions to defeat the Six Men of Sinestry and other nefarious criminals. She was the only woman in her university class and achieved three degrees. As a wealthy, brilliant heiress and adventurer, she’d be the perfect character to build a classical—but socially updated—adventure around. There aren’t many Victorian superheroes in film, and a Lady Spider animated movie would stand out from the pack while being visually outstanding.

Spider-Girl The teenage daughter of Peter Parker and Mary Jane in a near-future alternate world, May “Mayday” Parker became Spider-girl when Norman Osborn’s grandson restarted his family’s Goblin legacy. Retired after losing a leg, Peter followed his Aunt May’s example in not wanting his daughter to be Spider-Girl at first. The chance to see how Peter and his supporting cast might end up—and how the world might be improved by his adventures—would be very cool; a way to give an ending to his character and a passing of the Spider torch without it needing to be the ending. May having a father who used to be a superhero himself would also be an easy way to replicate the Peter/Tony relationship, or at least the function it served: May would have someone who could say no to her, reinforcing her teenager status despite her great power. It would also be a fairly fresh relationship, with only Hope Van Dyne and Hank Pym having explored that before. Peter could give practical advice as a former hero and he’d have insights into some of the villains she faces, while she could also prove that it’s a new age and she’s the right hero for it.

 Other Notes Another thing I'd like to see is more self-control from Sony's promotions department. Homecoming didn't have it as bad, but the trailers for both Amazing Spider-man films heavily featured the end credits tag. This would've been like advertising the first Iron Man with Nick Fury and the Avengers Initiative front and center; I'm sure this contributed to the misconception that Amazing Spider-man 2 was nothing but a stepping stone to the Sinister Six, when in reality it is a full and complete movie unto itself. Across the Sony Spider-verse, I hope they're more careful about what they put in their trailers; I'd prefer it if nothing past the runtime’s halfway mark made it in.

I haven't gotten to watch Marvel's Spider-man animated series beyond the pilot, but I'm excited to see Peter and Miles as contemporaries and how Gwen will work as a third Spider-hero. Peter’s focus on science is brilliantly applied—the scientific method is how he calmed himself down after the spider bite and provided the framework for his origin story—and I can’t believe that idea wasn’t used before. I’m definitely looking forward to seeing more! You can find official, free uploads of the origin story shorts here: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, and the pilot here. I do wish it had more of a theme song, but I’m glad there’s a new Spider-man cartoon on the air!

It'll never happen, but my biggest Spider-man wish would be the return of Spectacular Spider-man. It boasted excellent fights, genuine humor, and a healthy dose of science, responsibility, and heroism from Peter, as well as excellent representations of almost all of Peter's friends and enemies (and Spider-man himself, perfectly voiced by Josh Keaton). That show is my favorite version of the Spider-mythos anywhere and it's a shame we didn't get to see the full version of Greg Weisman's extensive plans.

I’d also love a live-action series to really be able to explore and flesh out all the supporting characters and villains, but that’s unlikely to happen now…at least with Peter as Spidey. However, I think a Miles Morales Spider-man series could be a great addition to either Netflix’s Defenders lineup or to Freeform’s Cloak & Dagger corner of the MCU, so that those three could team up with Ms. Marvel and form their own teen supergroup, the Champions. You could focus the series on Miles and his supporting cast, while Peter drops in occasionally (playing up Miles’ feelings about following in Parker’s footsteps) and the two Spider-men could split the classic villains so they all get a moment in the sun.

I'm very excited for the upcoming PlayStation 4 Spider-man game! The trailer looks outstanding and I'm hoping they find a way to make playing as Spidey feel fresh. Even if it’s something similar to Spider-games of the past, what we’ve seen so far gives me hope this is going to be the best one yet!

What do you want to see from the web-slinger’s world?

[rjhamster]

Every one of us has influence. ~ Jennifer Allwood, Fear Is Not the Boss of You 

The World Is Watching... So Give Them Something Good to Watch

Jennifer Allwood, Fear Is Not the Boss of You  

You sow into their life so they can reap a harvest. The fruit of their life is your reward. — Mark Batterson

I’m online every single day partly because I love it and partly because I teach it. After all, if my job is coaching women how to build businesses in the online space, I probably should be online more than the average bear, right? I’m always trying to stay one step ahead of the algorithm, understand what’s working best on each social platform, and that’s a full-time job.

But honestly, I’m also online because I feel a deep conviction to use the platform God has given me to teach, inspire, encourage, and motivate others. God’s given me a lot of followers, and I don’t take that responsibility lightly. I have a deep personal belief that I am to share my gifts with the world while I am here with this one life opportunity!

But I can remember feeling the same way when I had a fraction of the audience I do today. This thinking that if God gave me the honor of having an audience of any size, I had better do right by them. And by Him.

In a similar fashion, I can remember my best friend Rachel telling me that she knew I took my job of parenting very seriously. At that time, my only followers were my children, and they were following me into the bathroom on the daily. Is it not even possible to poop in peace?

But Rachel was right. I do feel like God entrusted these little humans into my hands for just a moment in time. And that one day in Heaven, I will answer for how I raised the four gifts He trusted me to raise here on earth.

That feels big to me.

And my audience online, that feels big to me too.

Maybe it’s my personality type (hello, fellow Enneagram 3s) or maybe it’s evidence of my being an SRP, but making a difference in the lives of others is ridiculously important to me. And for all you young’uns, I can tell you this really ramped up after I turned forty. Something weird happens in a woman when she changes decades, and turning forty was my biggest shift yet. Realizing that I was halfway done with life was sobering.

And I am completely confident that I don’t have to change the world, but I am responsible for holding down my corner of it and influencing the people God puts me in front of. 

I think God expects every gift that He gives us to be stewarded well. As 1 Peter 4:10 says,

Each of you should use whatever gift you have received to serve others, as faithful stewards of God’s grace in its various forms. 

There is a whole world out there needing God’s grace in the form in which you express it. Maybe it isn’t writing a book or putting on a conference, but what has God entrusted to you? Can you sing? Can you serve? Can you sew? Can you teach? Can you paint? Can you listen? What gifts has He given you that He expects you to use?

To whom much has been given, much will be required — says Luke 12:48 NRSV

That means God is saying, “Hey, girl, I’ve given you all sorts of blessings on this side of Heaven, and although I want you to enjoy them for yourself, I also expect you to do something with them for others.” #micdrop.

Paraphrased further, I think we could add a PS from God: “So I need you to get unstuck and work through your fear, girl, so your gifts can be a blessing to other people too.”

Maybe God has called me to public things that terrify me because the gifts He gave me will help you, a person I’ve probably never met in person, change your life and your business, and the only way to do that is to put myself out there where you will find me. By watching me in real time do things that I am scared to do, God can convict you to do the things you are scared to do as well.

And to convince you, I have a story, and it involves the rapper Eminem, ’cuz God loves Eminem too. LOL.

A little over a year ago, I went out for a “wog” (this is what I have nicknamed a walk/jog that happens when you’re over forty and you still want to be a runner, but your knees hurt).

So I was wogging along, listening to Eminem because he makes me wog faster, when I had a strong feeling that I was supposed to turn off the music and think. So I did.

I thought about how I had just returned from another business conference, and there was so much talk about “manifesting,” and people “tapping,” and using crystals, and all sorts of things that for me as a Christian had my Spidey senses way up.

Then I thought about another conference I attended recently where there were seven hundred women ready to make a change in their lives, and I could see they were captivated by the speaker’s every word. They were all pumped up for change, and I was so hopeful that the speaker would introduce them to Jesus, because she was open about her Christian faith. But she didn’t, and the moment was lost. And those women went home without the ONE THING that would change their lives more than anything else.

And it saddened me deeply because I know in my knower that unless a woman’s mind and heart are changed, her business never will change. There are tons of personal development and business conferences giving out great strategy, but also giving credit to “the universe” (not God) and practicing New Age meditation. It’s heartbreaking. Not to mention dangerous.

So one day shortly after one of those conferences, I was wogging and thinking, “Gosh, I wish there was a business conference that combined Christian beliefs with business strategy. Because that is a conference I would sign up for.”

And then I heard that still, small voice: “Tag, girl. You’re it.”

Listen, I quit wogging right then and there, because on the inside I freaked out. I hate public speaking. This is no secret. I love being part of conversations onstage. I love being on panels onstage. I love being interviewed onstage. But I don’t like to speak with a 1995-style slideshow and microphone. Yuck.

But here was God telling me that He wanted me to have a conference.

I remembered my freshman year of college, when I decided to take the required speech class in the first semester of school just to get it out of the way. If I didn’t, I knew I would be in the fetal position just thinking about that speech class until I graduated. And that kind of anxiety isn’t worth it.

So I took speech class as a freshman and convinced myself that I would “never ever ever ever ever ever ever never ever have to speak in public again.”

Famous last words.

For several years before the wogging conversation, the Lord had been having me speak at different churches and business events, and really stretching me outside my comfort zone. But hosting a conference was a whole new type of crazy. And I was not happy about it.

But I made the mistake of telling my project manager and my husband, and suddenly I found myself in meetings pondering questions like, “Well, if we were going to have a conference — I mean, I know we’re not, but if we were — what season of the year would we have it in?”

And this is how I basically got tricked into having our first Equipped conference. It’s all Jenna and Jason’s fault.

*

God stretched me sooooo far out of my comfort zone, and eternity was changed forever for those twelve women. And so when I say that you’ve got to get unstuck, hear the Lord, and walk in obedience to the things God is asking you to do despite your fears, it’s because other people’s very lives may depend on it.

You may not need to speak to hundreds of people. God’s plan for you to change the world may only involve reaching out to a neighbor, a friend, or your sister. I love the saying from Paul Shane Spear: “As one person I cannot change the world, but I can change the world of one person.”

God determined your talents while you were still in utero, and I don’t believe He chose what would make you uniquely you simply so that you can impress people or earn a ton of money.

No, friend, He gave you gifts so that you can help set people free.

*

Your life affects everyone around you. Even your kids’ teachers. Even the dressing room attendant at Target. Even those watching you on social media. 

*

If you are on social media, you are absolutely an influencer. Twenty years ago, if you did something like a marathon or went back to school or started a business, the only people who knew about it were the people in your immediate circle or those that you told on a wall phone with a cord. Well, and the people that your momma or your grandmother told.

But today, someone is always watching you, whether in real life or on the social life.

Every one of us has influence. Whether it’s online like myself or with other moms in the carpool line. It may be the teenagers at church, your neighbor across the street, or your brother who’s in the middle of a divorce — all these people are touched by your life and your story. You don’t have to go viral and have a huge platform in order to be an example.

*

Even if you’re not on social media, you still have influence on all those around you. You have neighbors. You have extended family. You have friends and acquaintances. There may be people you talk to every day, or maybe not. Maybe they just watch you live your life. They see you making decisions and doing things, and they can tell that you’re fighting for freedom in certain areas of your life, and without you preaching a thing, they are getting a lesson in courage. And.this.is.influence.

St. Francis of Assisi is reported to have famously said, “Preach the gospel at all times. When necessary, use words.”

Now listen, I know I need to be careful about making you feel pressured to perform for the applause of people. But really, this isn’t about that. Instead, it’s a belief that when we said yes to God, we also said yes to however He wants to use us. And He will always use us to encourage others in their struggles and their lives.

When we said yes to God, we gave up our right to demand things look a certain way. The Lord’s Prayer says, “Thy Kingdom come, Thy Will be done, on earth as it is in Heaven.” It makes no mention of, “Thy Will be done, but only if I am in agreement, and only if I am comfortable and safe.”

And you may or may not see the fruit of your labor on this side of Heaven. You may never know how something you said to a stranger affected them to their core. You may never know if your efforts and conversations are actually changing anything. But we don’t do it for that. It’s not about the applause, and people are not projects.

My friend, your effort and your success is like a breath of air to someone in your influence who is suffocating. Your powering through and doing it afraid is resuscitating someone who is “code blue” in their own life right now.

Will you do the hard things that scare you in order to help get them what they need?

You do have an audience — even if it’s just your neighbor — who needs you to get unstuck and do it afraid and live free so that she has the courage to do the same. She needs you to conquer your own demons and then leave the ladder down for her. She’s coming up right behind you.

Give her a good example, friend. The world desperately needs you.

Excerpted with permission from Fear Is Not the Boss of You by Jennifer Allwood, copyright Jennifer Allwood.

* * *

Your Turn 

What scary thing is Jesus calling you to do? Are you listening? Let's give the people we influence something to reach for! Come share your thoughts with us on our blog. We want to hear about what scares you (that you should totally do)! ~ Laurie McClure, Faith.Full

[recentanimenews]

RWBY: 13 Powers We Want to See

Throughout the world of Remnant in RWBY, the huntsmen and huntresses who protect humanity from the creatures of Grimm train beyond normal human ability so that they can survive against the monsters trying to destroy humanity’s few remaining safe havens.

Through their training and with the help of others, they unlock their “aura,” a kind of life energy that both protects them and can be used against the Grimm. Defensively, aura acts as a shield by absorbing damage, and as a healing agent, curing wounds much faster than they would normally heal.

Offensively, the aura is called a semblance, and there is almost no predicting what happens. It is unique for each person, with some gaining super speed, others the ability to make after images, and still others illusions or reflections in the air.

RWBY has not tapped all of the potential of semblances, so here are some ideas for some that may be interesting if they popped up in future seasons.

Grimm Control

Outside of Salem, the leader of the faction of antagonists, no one has shown any ability to control the Grimm, likely due to humanity being from the god of light and the Grimm being from the god of dark. However, if the Maidens were able to inherit some magic from their parents, then there isn’t much reason why the same could not hold true for future generations of other descendents.

The show already seems to be hinting at old fairy tales being grounded in reality and continuing to the present day, so a human with a touch of the dark god’s power isn’t too far outside the realm of possibility. It would even potentially create more emotional stakes for Salem, giving her something to do instead of just standing around most of the time. For the sake of balance, this power could be limited to controlling a single Grimm at a time, and perhaps the larger the creature, the less control the character would have over it.

Flight

Basically every huntsmen and huntresses can almost fly just by shooting down and jumping really high (did I mention how insane the physics in this show are?), but the only person who has shown a true ability to fly is Cinder Fall, and even then it looks more like she is floating on the hot air created by her fire rather than freely flying. It’s a simple ability, but would be a welcome addition. In terms of combat ability, it could be interesting for scouting and reconnaissance-type missions, especially if combined with the next idea. Admittedly though, it’s not the most engaging semblance to look at, which might hold it back from being a good fit for the show.

Squad Sight

Most of the combat in RWBY takes place in fairly close quarters. Across a town square is about the longest distance that people tend to fight, which is especially odd when the main character uses a sniper rifle, even if it is also a scythe. If either someone could stay far away and see through their allies’ eyes or their allies could see through theirs, their teamwork could open up some interesting possibilities. Close quarters fight that also included sniper battles at the same time, extreme long distance sniping while the rest of the team looks for who is spying on them, silently revealing the enemy location to the team for an ambush. It is an ability that all but requires two full teams to be fighting, and most of the recent combat has been relegated to 1-on-1 or team on Grimm, but that also means that this semblance would be both a change of pace for the fighting and the compositions of the fight.

Electricity

Sure, we have Nora able to charge up with lightning and become immensely strong, but thus far no one has shown electricity powers akin to Miles Moralis, a.k.a. Spiderman from the Ultimate universe and protagonist of Spiderman: Into the Spiderverse. It could even work as a subversion of the normal weapon sensibilities in the show, since instead of a gun attached to some other weapon, the character with an electricity semblance could work more like a Monk character from Dungeons and Dragons, using just their bare hands, albeit with palms like tasers.

Summonable Tattoos

On the other side of the spectrum, this character could fit in perfectly with the types of weapons the rest of the cast has. Instead of gauntlets with shotguns, short swords with uzis, or gunchucks though (yes, all of those seriously exist in RWBY), this person could have all of the above tattooed somewhere on them, and then pull them out one at a time, creating both an infinite supply of weapons and an interesting fighting style that would change as different weapons came in to play, much like what we saw when Velvet used her semblance, only the weapons wouldn’t be holograms and would probably be more reusable. For the sake of rule of cool, the show would likely not delve too much in to how realistically possible such an ability would be, likely chalking it up to the same or a similar process as Weiss’s summoning glyphs.

Weather/Terrain Attunement

For all of the creativity RWBY puts in to fight choreography, there isn’t a lot of variance in the actual fight locations or weather. It’s almost always in some variant of a cityscape, with recent developments allowing for more town-scale fights, but without taking much advantage of the surrounding forested areas. The basic form of this semblance is just a ball of aura. No special powers or anything. Maybe it’ll hurt if the character threw it at or punched a Grimm with it, but nothing too special. The interesting part would come from the ball taking on properties of whatever environment it was in, like becoming something resembling a Hadoken by taking on fire properties in a desert, or becoming a water whip in the rain. This would both create a character whose exact abilities could remain a mystery for a while and open up the fights to a wider variety of arenas.

Animal Powers

This would likely make the most sense for a faunus character, for pretty self-evident reasons. An ability that boils down to bringing out different aspects of different animals in rapid succession makes sense for the people who have animal features already. However, if it actually happened, the character could cause some interesting changes in Remnant. Throughout the show, we have mainly seen faunus either trying to integrate peacefully in to the kingdoms, stay by themselves in Menagerie or lash out violently due to being oppressed. This would likely be a character that regardless of what side they take would probably do so while fully embracing their differences from non-faunus humans, potentially creating a new faction to the conflict in the process. In terms of combat ability, it could also be really cool to see different animal features coming out and then fading back in quick succession to adapt to a fast fight, especially if the circumstances require rare or unique animals so that people can learn while being entertained, like with Killing Bites.

Telepathy

This works along the same lines as the squad sight / flight combo from earlier. It works more as a scouting power or with allies in the fight, but could cause interesting situations. If an entire team of people don’t need to say a word because they are communicating telepathically, that opens the door for a completely silent fight or something resembling sealth combatants in a show known for its over the top noise and action. Depending on the specifics of how the telepathy work, it could also be used offensively in combat, since drilling in to a person’s brain with annoying thoughts and sounds could cause them to lose focus on the fight. If the telepathy allows for mind reading, then it becomes much more dangerous, as the character could much more easily steal information like bank account numbers or the secrets that the main cast is trying to keep under wraps.

Semblance Mimic

We have seen an ability adjacent to this, but not this specific ability. Velvet appeared to be able to make short-lived versions of people’s weapons, akin to Shirou Emiya’s Trace ability from the Fate franchise, but no one has yet copied someone’s semblance. Like with the tattoo ability, this would allow for dramatic shifts in fighting style during the middle of combat, leading to more exciting choreography, and would also raise interesting questions about the nature of semblances and the soul that the show has already touched on.

Aura Leech

In some ways the opposite of Juane’s semblance. Instead of the character using their aura to boost others’, their aura sucks away everyone else’s. While this leaves the enemy weaker, it also means that whoever has this ability doesn’t have one of the more offensively-oriented semblances, and so still needs to be able to beat their opponent in combat, their opponent is just weakened. This semblance could also benefit from being a passive, like Qrow’s bad luck. Instead of the person actively choosing who to leech from, they just continually take aura from everyone around them, whether they want to or not. This also ties back in to the narrative thread of whether a person shapes their semblance or the other way around.

Blink

With as fast and frenetic the action tries to be, it’s more surprising that there hasn’t been some kind of short range teleport-type ability yet. Sure, Ruby can move extremely quickly, but she also leave a trail of rose petals in her wake if she is getting serious. Good choreography with this ability could lead to it almost looking like there are multiples of the same person, or them vanishing right in front of someone’s eyes. It’s an ability that sounds decent in theory, but with the right storyboarding and animation could be gorgeous and astounding to watch in action.

1-Second Precognition

This is pretty much Spider Man’s spidey sense. At almost all times, this character has the ability to know exactly what is about to happen near them, up to about a second in advance. Ignoring for a moment how many laws of physics this power breaks just by existing, the person can then choose whether to act on what they know or not. If they act, then they can dodge just about any attack or danger with ease, but their semblance short circuits for a few seconds as all of reality adjusts to the fact that someone acted on knowledge that should have been impossible to know. In other words, the balance to this power is that it whenever it is used, it needs to be rebooted, so only works once every five seconds or so.

Family Memory

Basically think of the Avatar State from Avatar: The Last Airbender, but with less of an immediate god mode and more of a gradual increase in power as the person trains by going back in to their own family history and studying their past generations, then passing on the semblance to their children and allowing the ability to grow even stronger by adding another generation to the learning. We have only seen an inheritable semblance once in the series so far, and for the Schnees it is clearly a metaphor for them inheriting power and their strict upbringing leading to rigid discipline both in life and in training. This semblance opens up a parallel narrative, since instead of inheriting power and responsibility, this character is inheriting a family legacy and they need to choose whether to embrace it, studying even the darker moments of their family’s past, or leave their past and all of the knowledge it contains behind. It also potentially touches on the new plot points being revealed, since this is a character with limited time travel abilities. For the sake of dramatic tension, it would probably be balanced so that the further back someone goes, the harder it is to get back to their own time, so almost no one goes all the way back, but those that do learn about how the world was before Ozpin and Salem.

Those were my 13 ideas for potential semblances that might work in both the world of Remnant and the narrative of  RWBY overall. If any of them are ever officially implemented, they could make for some interesting stories and great fights, especially if the characters get to bounce off of the already existing powers and fighting styles.

Do you agree or disagree with my thought process? Do you have any other semblances you want to see show up in the show’s future? Let me know in the comments!

  ---

Kevin Matyi is a freelance features writer for Crunchyroll. He's been watching anime for as long as he can remember, and his favorite shows tend to be shonen and other action series.

    By: news+feed@crunchyroll.com

[stephmolliex]

Review: AmpliFi Mesh Wi-Fi System and AmpliFi Teleport Kit

Amplifi, a subsidiary brand of Ubiquiti, sells Wi-Fi mesh routing systems that target the same market Apple's AirPort routers were focused on: easy-to-manage networks with high performance and industrial design pleasant enough to put in the home. What it is Amplifi sells two kits, as well as separate routers and mesh nodes to extend routers. AppleInsider went hands-on with both a mesh node kit, consisting of a router and two mesh nodes, and a separate Teleport kit, made up of one router and one Teleport unit. The Router HD is a cube with a circular touch-sensitive display on the front that cycles through IP address, throughput up and downstream, and which ports are connected around the back. The router has four gigabit Ethernet ports, USB-C for power, and a single USB-A port that is reserved for future use, but isn't functional at this time. The mesh nodes are tall units that stand out from the wall a little. They're an interesting design: They're actually two units that are held together by magnets, with spring-loaded pogo pins applying power at the magnetic joint. This allows the top part to be repositioned, which can help with improving the signal. The construction puts the power supply in the section that connects to the wall outlet, while the processor, memory, network interface and other similar components are in the upper portion. From a manufacturing standpoint, this makes it easy to build units for different power requirements around the world, even though the mesh nodes are 120v-240v, 50Hz-60Hz, even on the units equipped with North American style outlet prongs. The mesh nodes are 2.4Ghz only to the client, so if you have specific 5Ghz requirements, you may be better served by using two of the cube Router HD, which would provide 5Ghz to clients. What it gets right Focusing on the router-with-two-mesh-nodes kit first, the system is quite easy to install. Connect the router to power and Ethernet to the modem from your ISP, and install the app on your iOS or an Android device. The router's initial configuration is available via web, but it only covers the barest amount of configuration there: any advanced features are available only from the app. This should satisfy both the people that liked used the AirPort Utility from iOS, and crusty old sysadmins and PC users that are accustomed to administering routers from a browser. The app set up is quite smooth, with only a few pages to step through from initial discovery of the router to being up and running. This is important, as unlike some of the other systems we've tested, having a fast path to being up and connected to the Internet leads to a pleasing out-of-the-box experience. The cube-shaped Router HD is nice to look at, and the touch-sensitive display is a nice feature. At rest, it's a clock, and with a tap, it shows what IP address it's assigned. The app allows it to turn off the display with start and end times for Night Mode. The mesh nodes are not quite as elegant. Both households I've installed them in have called them "candles". They're tall, don't sit flush against the wall, and in American homes, outlets are low to the ground and liable to be kicked, or brushed up against. In European construction homes, outlets tend to be closer to waist height. We put one in a kitchen outlet, and it wasn't exactly what we'd call "matching the decor." Initial results We installed Amplifi HD with mesh nodes in two homes with known signal blackspots. In both cases, the nodes restored signal to those portions of the home, bringing it up to an acceptable amount of signal strength coverage. This is the signal when using the built-in Wi-Fi in the cable modem. Clearly, the back half of the residence is poor for signal coverage. This is what a blackspot looks like. It's disappointing, and we had tried many solutions before using a mesh system: powerline-to-powerline, to link an iMac in the back room with the cable modem at the front of the house, or powerline to a powerline-Wi-Fi access point to try and do the same. They didn't work reliably. For many people, that's all it has to do. If you can get signal where you couldn't before, and run a laptop, iPhone on Wi-Fi, or an AppleTV, most people consider this a job well done. What didn't go to plan Networking is complex. It's a monumental task to simplify it and still give the user in the home enough flexibility to somewhat custom configurations, whether those are things like parental device access restrictions, or other slightly boutique options. The router hides many options routers commonly exposed to users, including options Apple Airport exposed to users, back when Apple made routers. Notably, you can't set a specific DNS IP to be assigned to DHCP clients. We happen to run pi-hole.net DNS on the LAN and assign it automatically to client devices, but Amplifi's only means of making that work is to put their router in bridge mode, let some other device assign DHCP, which has the downside of disabling mesh routing with its nodes. Fortunately, you can use the app to help check for node placement. The goal is to have a node close enough to the main router to get strong signal back and forth, and yet far enough away to spread coverage where you need it. The app gives some guidance on this when you look at node settings. Hardware-wise, the mesh points are hardware locked to the router. This is clearly an edge case, and outside normal expectations, but we had the Teleport system and the regular Amplifi mesh kit. What happens if we took a mesh node from the kit and tried to pair it with the Teleport kit Router HD? You can't. Even though the same router is sold as a part of the router - teleport kit, Amplifi's support explained in chat that it is impossible to add mesh points from one kit to the other. The main problem we experienced with the mesh node system was it occasionally losing connection with its nodes, even when the app had said they were positioned well for great signal. The only way to tell that a node was offline was to suspect something was wrong, open the app to see one missing, and then power cycle the node. Most users may not suspect anything's wrong, and may not pursue it by investigating in the app. Signal coverage did increase measurably while using the nodes, so they do appear to function, and empirically, devices were able to connect in areas that were formerly black holes for signal. Additionally, Amplifi has some nice tools in the works, including a "Controller" web interface in beta. The interface allows you to draw a map of your building, specify the materials for the walls, and place the router and nodes on the map. It then shows you what coverage and reflections of the wireless signal look like in your environment, which is helpful if you're having difficulty planning placement of the routers and relying on the signal strength indicator in the app isn't clear enough. In the course of this review, we updated the app whenever the app received a public update, and we updated the firmware regularly, starting from 1.5.9 all the way up to 2.7.1. We wanted to make sure that we gave the product every opportunity to perform its best. It's difficult to force the client to connect to a specific node for testing, and as long as you get signal dispersion and speeds aren't too bad, you might be satisfied. If you're the sort of person who regularly runs speed tests, or notices when traffic feels slightly slow like a tingling Spidey-sense, you might not be satisfied with this kit. The Amplifi Router HD has remote access as a feature in its app, requiring Google or Facebook accounts to sign in. Readers of AppleInsider are well aware of Facebook's mis-handling of user data and Apple's position on it. A vocal number of our readers are also skeptical of placing trust in Google, especially with reports of Google permitting third parties to read Gmail contents. Amplifi support assured us that they have developers working on an alternate solution to requiring Google or Facebook. Remote Access, required for the Teleport device, requires Google or Facebook. Amplifi support indicated that their developers are working on an option that doesn't rely on Google or Facebook. When using Teleport, if Remote access has not been set up, it won't work. That's fine, except setting up Teleport doesn't seem to insist or require that remote access be set up. The setup process is very clunky, requiring you to simulate being off-site for Teleport device setup. Practically, this means you have to connect the Teleport to a phone-as-hotspot or some other network to get it set up. We set it up using both the phone-as-hotspot and joined it's Wi-Fi network with a Mac, and then alternately, we connected it via Ethernet to the ISP modem directly instead of to a router so that it would be set for using Ethernet when we traveled. This means, when you travel with Teleport, you have to predict how it will connect to Internet before your trip. If you know where you're going has Ethernet, great. If you find as we have, that hotels that used to have Ethernet in rooms have remodeled and now only provide Wi-Fi, take that into account. Disappointingly, we set Teleport up at home, had Remote Access enabled, had it working by all appearances, went on a 6000 mile trip to the home with the router and mesh node kit set up, and found we were unable to access the home network. After much communication with Amplifi Support, this was their advice: "In order to see the router that's at home 6000 miles away, you should have enabled remote access. So this teleport can send a pairing request on your home router and using Remote access option, you can accept that request. This is how this Teleport will establish the connection to your home router's network. As the remote access isn't set up and as there's no way to accept the pairing request on your home router, I'm sorry you will need to wait until you get home. Once you reach home, you can set up the remote access option and after that, you will be able to connect to it from outside the network using Teleport." This was disappointing, considering that we did have it fully working at home. With all that said, Teleport is a neat idea. The notion that you can plug in a device and have a VPN come up configured to connect to your home network can be a very handy thing when traveling. It's a shame that it didn't work. It is noted that Teleport is claimed to work with other routers as well. We didn't try this feature. Teleport Score: 2 out of 5 But, the Amplifi Mesh Wi-Fi system has a lot going for it. The Router HD unit is a nice looking cube with a display that conveys useful information right up front, without over-complicating things. It's easy to set up. On its own, we're pretty pleased with the hardware aspect of it. Amplifi HD Wi-Fi Mesh System Score: 3 out of 5 Unfortunately, the entire experience hasn't been as smooth as we hoped. The unpredictable disconnection of nodes, the inability to specify options like DNS for DHCP clients without disabling mesh networking, and the requirement of Facebook or Google sign-on to enable Remote Access leave us a little less enthused about this kit. The Teleport Kit presented even more difficulties, with a difficult setup that, even when it seemed to be working correctly, it failed to work while away from home. Being advised to go home and try and set it up again for a future trip was not a satisfactory answer from the support team. We recognize that networking is a complex subject, but the entire point of these products is to make the complex accessible to people who don't know much about networking. This package is not that. Where to buy The Amplifi HD Wi-Fi Mesh System is available for $339.00 with free shipping at Amazon.com. The Teleport system is available for $234 with free shipping, also from Amazon.com https://goo.gl/5XTkD6