The final trailer for Captain America: Civil War was released this week, and it had what a lot of us were waiting for: our first glimpse of a Spider-Man from a movie studio that can't seem to screw anything up. Wait... that might be an overstatement. To be more accurate, when you compare the track record of Marvel Studios to other production companies like Fox or Sony (another Fantastic Four movie, anyone?), even some of their more suspect movies start to shine a little brighter. The trailer is about two and a half minutes long and they save Spider-Man for the last five seconds, but what a glorious and thrilling five seconds.
A few years ago when we first started picking up comics, Marvel had just ended The Amazing Spider-Man series at issue #700 and launched The Superior Spider-Man as part of the Marvel NOW! event. Written by Dan Slott with art by Ryan Stegman and Humberto Ramos, the storyline - as his own body died, Doctor Octopus took over Peter Parker's mind and determined to be a better Spider-Man than Parker ever could have been - was really compelling. I rode out the entire Superior storyline with complete satisfaction, but after the Spider-Verse crossover event from last year I stopped picking up the Peter Parker Spider-Man thread (although I really enjoyed his role and interaction with the Miles Morales Spider-Man in the recently concluded Secret Wars).
Radioactive Spider-Gwen, written by Jason Latour with art by Robbi Rodriguez.
As it stands right now, when it comes to web-slinging literature I really enjoy the Radioactive Spider-Gwen series by Jason Latour and Robbi Rodriguez, as well as the simply titled Spider-Man. In this series, writer Brian Michael Bendis teams with artist Sara Pichelli as the character they co-created, Miles Morales, takes a more and more prominent role in the Marvel universe. Maybe it's just me, but these two characters seem to carry the spirit of Spider-Man a little better than ol' Peter Parker these days. It could just be the baggage that comes with more than 50 years' worth of storylines that are weighing him down, but I much prefer these two newer titles. However, I am 100% ready to see any version of Spider-Man (or -Woman) on the big screen playing in the same sandbox as Captain America and Iron Man.
Spider-Man, written by Brian Michael Bendis with art by Sara Pichelli.
That's exactly what the trailer promises. Apparently at the beck and call of Tony Stark, Spider-Man swings in and thwips Cap's shield right off of his arm, landing in a very Spidey pose with shield and quip at the ready. As you can see from the pictures on this page, this seems to be something of a running theme in recent Spider-related stories. Is this an image Marvel has inserted across multiple stories on purpose to coincide with the movie imagery? Does this happen really, really often and I just don't know it because I don't read "all the comics?" Do people just instinctively know that Spider-Man looks awesome with a shield? Whatever it is, more please.
Oh, and one more thing: I think the costume looks fantastic. The exact color layout is a little bit new and comic book superhero bright. And one of the things I love most about looking at Spider-Man comic books is how much expression is conveyed in the way the eyes move in spite of the mask. When your entire face is covered up a little eye movement goes a long way for personality (Deadpool kind of nailed it, right?). Spider-Man's mask in Civil War must have some tech or something because the eyes move, you guys... they MOVE!!!