Why We've Never Been Closer To Raimi's Spider-Man 4
A Recent Marvel Comic Proves Raimi's Spider-Man 4 Could Still Work
Regardless of the prospects of Spider-Man 4 one day happening, or why we're still talking about it, I honestly believe there is more creative impetus for it to happen than another outing from Holland, or a franchise reboot, or obviously another weird Sony spin-off.
One of the most frustrating aspects of Spider-Man coming up to about 20 years now is that the character has stagnated. If you read Spider-Man from his debut in Amazing Fantasy under Stan Lee and Steve Ditko, all the way through to the Clone Saga shenanigans of the 1990s, then you got to spend time with a version of Peter Parker who aged and progressed. Pete left high school, married Mary Jane, and witnessed the death of his closest friend. Even Sandman got to embark on an arc of his own, evolving from a supervillain, to an antihero, and then even an Avenger. (Sandman is secretly the coolest Spider-Man character - just saying.)
It's hard to believe now, but when Norman Osborn died in the concluding chapter of The Night Gwen Stacy Died in 1973, he stayed that way for 20 years. This was retconned during the infamous Clone Saga, which we can probably blame for all the woes that have afflicted Peter in the decades since. Norman's resurrection exemplified what was to follow, as Marvel grew anxious that an older and married Peter Parker wasn't relatable to its young, predominantly male readership base. So, he was temporarily retired, with clone Ben Reilly stepping in as a youthful bachelor. Pete would return, but this incarnation of the character was essentially doomed, as anxieties regarding his relatable nature persisted into the 2000s, and culminated in explosive fashion with the storylines of One More Day and Brand New Day. These editorially enforced storylines had Peter wipe his marriage with MJ from existence to save the life of Aunt May in a bargain with Mephisto, and it remains the most consequential and controversial comic of Marvel's modern era.
For the most part, since One More Day, Peter has been stuck in the same familiar space ever since - as a young adult juggling responsibilities. It's bland, it's safe, and it's meant to be both of those things. If Marvel can keep Peter Parker in his most recognisable guise, then that should, in theory, please everyone.
Only, we know that isn't the case. Look at the most successful Spider-Man stories of the last decade and you'll see they all have the same thing in common: they spotlight versions of the character who age and progress through time. This is the case with Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, Insomniac's PlayStation games, and, more recently, the rebooted Ultimate Spider-Man comics from writer Jonathan Hickman and artist Marco Checchetto - interpretations of real consequence that have the freedom to take the character of Peter Parker and make him grow up.
Hickman and Checchetto's Ultimate Spider-Man comics are especially pertinent to the discussion of a future Raimi movie, because they spotlight the character in a similar age and context to what would feasibly be the case with a sequel. Peter is a husband to MJ and has two young children. The difference this time is that he's only just started his career as Spider-Man in his late 30s, which brings with it new and unique challenges. Obviously this isn't a 1:1 fit for a potential Raimi sequel, but it does reiterate the appeal of seeing an older Spider-Man navigating different responsibilities. We caught glimpses of that with Maguire's return in No Way Home, but under Raimi's direction, it's the sort of premise that could really flourish.
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