So the hype for Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse may have died down a little bit, but when I saw it was nominated for an Academy Award in the animation category, I felt compelled to make sure I finished putting this list together and sharing it with you all.
In case you don’t listen to my podcast or missed my posts on social media, Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse is one of my favorite films from 2018, perhaps one of my favorite animated films of all time, and far and away the best Spider-Man film ever made. Hell, it may be the best superhero movie ever at this point as well (don’t @ me Dark Knight lovers).
So since my early screening of the film, I’ve been wanting to put together a quick list of 10 characters that I would love to see appear in the future Spider-Verse films. There were so many characters to choose from, but here are a few that swung into my mind first.
Kraven the Hunter
Kraven is both a silly character and an awesome character. While I would love to see them do something serious and cool with him in the live-action films, he is ripe for both awesomely animated action sequences and some fun comedy – especially given his footwear.
Imagine if you will, Kraven and Gwen discussing the finer points of ballet shoes.
Shocker
I personally believe Shocker should appear in every piece of Spider-Man media, mostly because he’s an idiot and I love watching him get his butt kicked. More than anything, I would love to see them recreate this amazing moment from the 90s animated Spider-Man series.
Spiders-Man
Bruh, he is a Spider-Man made of spiders. What more do I need to say? What more can you ask for?
Black Cat
While Felicia Hardy has been on the big screen, she has not appeared in her Black Cat persona to my knowledge. Having recently played the PS4 game and DLC, I found myself wanting a little bit more of her character. Not sure how they would work her into the story given the Peter Parker we have in the film seems to be fully on the MJ train, but she could still work nicely in the universe. Plus, the contrast of her stark black and white design would look awesome animated in the Spider-Verse style.
The Spot
A weird choice, I know, but with the
Don’t believe me? Watch the video above and tell me it wouldn’t be cool to see him hassling a team of Spider-People with his portal hopping.
Hydro-Man
For me, this choice is almost entirely based on the fact that I want to see how this character would be animated. The techniques that were used in the first film were so dope that I need to see how they would make the character flow, splash, and drip.
The Chameleon
While he may not have the flashiest powers, I really think they can have a lot of fun building gags around the Chameleon disguising himself as different people in the universe. Sure he is a little more suited for an espionage story and I’m not sure who would be paying him to bother our Spider-Folks, but I’d be interested to see what the writing team could do to make him work with their specific version of the Spider-Verse.
Doppelgänger
Y’all remember the 90s? I remember nothing about this character outside of how weird and cool he looked. He could make a cool kind of double-agent, trying to trick the Spider-Fam into thinking he’s a good guy even though he’s clearly some sort demonic abomination…
Hammerhead
While Tombstone was definitely wasted in Spider-Verse, I would love to see them bring in some more of the gangster characters, especially someone as angular as Hammerhead. Given the way the team decided to visualize the Kingpin, I feel like they would have a lot of fun with the flat-topped, pinstripe suit wearing mafia boss. It would be especially perfect if they made an especially dark version of the character from the Spider-Man Noir universe. I think we can all agree that we wanted just a little bit more of Nicholas Cage’s perpetually tormented version of the hero, and every hero needs a villain.
J. Jonah Jameson
After his appearance as a Rush Limbaugh style radio host in the PS4 video game, I couldn’t help but feel like I need to see the character come back in a big way in other Spider-Man media. It’s hard to follow up JK Simmons’ stint as the character in the Raimi films, but the Spider-Verse could be a perfect opportunity to call him back in for his vocal talents. It could be another great send-up to those films, as well as something fun for long time Spider-Fans.
Thinking out loud here, just imagine an entire gag about a room full of JJ’s from a ton of different universes all calling Spider-Man a menace and demanding his arrest – and possibly pictures. I need to see this on the big screen.
So these are the characters on my list, who would you want to see in the Spider-Verse sequels and spin-offs?
