Why Spider-Man Should Get His Own Netflix Show Before Joining the MCU

I am a big supporter of the format that a TV series’ follows. I love how it has evolved in the last few years and I firmly believe it’s currently surpassing movies in terms of quality and acting.

I also wrote an article, a few months ago, where I explained why, according to me, this phenomenon was actually taking place. The fact that many Hollywood actors are moving to the small screen and acting in different TV series must be, for this reason alone, the explanation for the change in the quality of television and a possible consequence for the big screen.

It is this perspective which is the premise to what I am going to write about.

Last week I wrote about the darker side of Marvel’s Cinematic Universe, represented by darker comic TV series like Daredevil and Jessica Jones.
All that writing about why superheroes should get their own series made me think.

So here are my reasons why (if there are any) at least some major Marvel’s superheroes should be brought to the small screen.

When I think about Daredevil, I can’t help but feel personally involved in all the matters related to the blind vigilante. This feeling of being part of something originally alien to you is what made me fell in love in the first place with the obscure world of TV.

Like Breaking Bad and many others I have had the pleasure to binge-watch, Netflix’s Marvel series have the ability to hook you from the start and never let you go. The televisual format also helps characters get their own in depth analysis and the character-evolution we all praise the writers for. Something like this simply will never happen in movies and the answer is as easy as it looks: time.

Yesterday, I went back home after spending two and a half hours in the Empire Cinema in Leicester Square to experience the IMAX feeling of the galactic fight of man vs god, day vs night… Yes you got it, it was Batman v Superman.

153 minutes isn’t an unusual showing time for movies anymore and what left me unsatisfied was that, even after all that screening of superheroes doing superhero’s stuff, I still felt like I didn’t know neither Bruce Wayne’s Batman, nor Clark Kent’s Superman at all.

That is why TV series are genuinely better.

However, it must be said that not every show which is currently airing on TV is satisfying enough to reach Breaking Bad’s level. Especially when we talk about super powered men.

I follow almost every superhero series, from Arrow to The Flash and from Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. to Jessica Jones. Even if the quality of the shows are pretty high, most of them fail to reach a coherent and satisfying narration that differs from the “freak-of-the-week” style.

Netflix’s comic experiments are doing something slightly different.

Daredevil’s first season was entirely built on the attempt from Matt Murdock to track down Wilson Fisk and to put an end to his rise through the ranks.

The simplicity of one season one main villain. That’s how superheroes’ narrative should be constructed.

Superhero stories have always been about fragmentation and deep paths assembled step by step just like in comic books where each narrative arch is composed by many issues. From this viewpoint, making one-shot superhero movies doesn’t really make much sense.

I immediately started thinking which hero/antihero, within the Marvel Cinematic Universe currently on the big screen, would be more suitable to get his own show.

Who would be a better fit in the dark environment of Daredevil’s Manhattan?
Peter Parker would.

Bear with me: Wilson Fisk aka Kingpin is one major villain that associates with both Daredevil and Spider-Man. Peter Parker has history with him and, after all the major developments of Daredevil’s second season, it seemed natural to me that the two of them would eventually end up being enemies.

Daredevil also reveals that after the events of the first season, many people inside Manhattan have decided to become vigilantes as well (The Punisher and Jessica Jones).

This key change would easily explain the existence of Spider-Man. And since the first known appearance of Peter Parker is set to happen inside Captain America: Civil War, it seems too good an opportunity to let it pass.

The chance of having Peter Parker join the Netflix side of the Marvel Universe is a golden opportunity. The chance at having a proper back story be told in full and have different scenarios already triggered through other shows and films would signify an even bolder SpiderMan movie in the distant future.

Such a drastic move would actually highlight the business of Netflix’s superheroes thanks to Marvel’s most famous character. And it will bring an extremely loyal audience from the video streaming service directly into theatres to keep following Spidey’s adventures.

I know this all sounds like the ultimate nerd’s dream but, since the evolution of the small screen and the possibilities that such a medium can still offer, I definitely believe in adapting as many superheroes as possible into the TV world.

And if not a proper show, then at least to join Daredevil in the same way The Punisher entered the second season.