With Venom and now Morbius, Sony's villain-centric Spider-verse idea could be brilliant if only the studio learned to take its dangerous characters seriously.
Morbius, Sony’s long-gestating project starring Jared Leto, finally premiered on April 1 after almost two years of delays. The film centers on Morbius the Living Vampire, one of the many antiheroes in the Marvel mythos, who rose to prominence mainly by antagonizing everyone’s favorite friendly neighborhood Spider-Man. Morbius is the latest in Sony’s so-called Spider-verse, its effort to create a cinematic universe mighty enough to compare with Kevin Feige’s ubiquitous empire known as the MCU.
A skeleton without a spine Nowadays, studios seem to be blindly chasing the gold, and by gold, we mean the MCU. Indeed, the Marvel Cinematic Universe was a game changer for Hollywood, racking up success after success and leaving everyone else to collect itz dust. The MCU is not universally beloved — far from it, in fact. Some people outright despise it, seeing it as a shameless cash grab that’s slowly eroding the very foundations of cinema as an art form.
Fans were less enthusiastic about Venom: Let There Be Carnage, the 2021 follow-up that marked the debut of yet another fan-favorite Marvel villain. The film grossed $300 million less than its predecessor, but it was released during a global pandemic, making the comparison somewhat unfair. Still, fans were already showing cynicism and resistance toward Sony’s blossoming cinematic universe.
The truth is, Sony had the right idea, but its execution is shoddy at best. Villains can be worthy protagonists, but it has to be the right villain. Sony seems to be choosing characters at random and throwing them into bland PG-13 movies, hoping they’ll succeed. What’s the plan for them after their solo movie? How do they fit into the larger universe? These are questions Sony needs to ask itself before green-lighting a solo movie. So far, its choices are divisive at best.
And this is where Sony can truly succeed. The MCU found its identity with family-friendly, highly comedic action-driven adventures that sacrificed thematic depth for visual spectacle. Flawed as it may be, DC is best known for its overly dark, auteur-driven projects that showcase the best and worst of its titular heroes. Sony needs to find an identity for its Spider-verse beyond seeming like a poor man’s attempt to replicate Spider-Man’s MCU success.