Spider-Man: 7 Reasons To Be Worried About Venom & Black Cat Spin-Offs

6. There's No Spider-Man

There's a reason Marvel so badly wanted the rights to Spider-Man back, and it's not because they felt they had compelling stories to tell that would compliment the already established MCU. It's because of filthy lucre, dirty cash, the almighty web-slinging dollar.

No comic book character sells more merch than Spider-Man; he's been one of the biggest draws in the Disney store even when bad films made by other rights holders were being released, and in a staggering revelation, figures released in 2014 stated that Spidey was worth $1.3 billion in global sales annually. That's compared to Batman's $494 million. It's just not a competition.

While that didn't quite work out for The Amazing Spider-Man in box office terms (though $700m plus for two mediocre films does tell a story), Spider-Man's presence is basically a licence to print money. And no amount of insistence on the popularity of supporting characters can hide the fact that they are second string to the main event, who isn't involved at al.

Also, Black Cat's defining relationships in the comics are with her rapist and Spider-Man who she falls in love with quite catastrophically. I'm not saying it wouldn't be a strike for progress to remove the romance, but it goes beyond mere sexual subservience - taking him away is like making a Joker movie without Batman. It's yin and no yang.