It’s not unusual for a Marvel movie to be based on the comics, or vice versa. Several characters, such as the Guardians of the Galaxy, who have become fan favorites thanks to the Marvel Cinematic Universe, have been rewritten on the page to match the characterization of their big screen counterparts.
However, possibly for the first time, the comics and movies will be broadcast with the same idea at around the same time. With the launch of the Midnight Universe today, it looks like both Midnight Spider-Man and Marvel Studios’ Spider-Man: Brand New Day will take their versions of Peter Parker down a monstrous path.
Peter Parker is undergoing a mutation in both Brand New Day and Midnight Spider-Man
Midnight Spider-Man will center on a young Peter Parker who is “transformed into a hideous spider hybrid by the ruthless Oscorp Corporation in his quest for eternal life,” according to the comic’s tagline. Brand New Day has already shown a similar version of the events that happened to Peter in the MCU. In the first trailer, Bruce Banner warned Peter that if his “DNA is mutating, it would be enormously dangerous.”
Mutation is not a completely new concept for the superhero. Spider-Man: The Animated Series previously mutated the hero into Man-Spider as part of its adaptation of “The Six Arms Saga,” while the comic book story “The Other” saw Spider-Man reborn with new spider powers after emerging from a cocoon.
While it’s doubtful that Brand New Day will go as far as having Peter mutate into Man-Spider, given that it’s still a PG-13 movie that needs to appeal to the whole family, Midnight Universe is being marketed with the tagline “The light had its turn,” meaning fans should expect darker versions of Marvel’s superheroes.
He’s leaning toward the spider side of Peter Parker’s DNA to keep Spider-Man fresh among casual audiences. I, for one, can’t wait to see Midnight Spider-Man and Spider-Man: Brand New Day to see how these two wildly different projects tackle such similar themes.
So while the extent of Peter Parker’s mutation in the MCU remains to be seen (although it looks like organic web-slingers are on the way), one thing has become abundantly clear with today’s Midnight Universe announcement: Marvel isn’t afraid to shake things up with Spider-Man. And after the success of 2024’s Ultimate Spider-Man series, can we really blame them?
