Everybody is aware of about Peter Parker, your pleasant neighborhood Spider-Man, and the success of the animated Spider-Verse films implies that most everybody most likely is aware of about Miles Morales, too. But, neither of these Spider-Men is headlining a film this 12 months. Instead, Madame Web will swing into theaters this February in a brand new film of the identical identify starring Dakota Johnson. Madame Web is like Venom, Morbius, and Kraven the Hunter (the final of which can be popping out this 12 months) in that it’s about characters from Spider-Man comics, however not Spider-Man himself. So, you’d be forgiven for not understanding who Madame Web and her supporting forged of characters are—particularly as a result of it doesn’t seem to be the character within the new movie can have all that a lot in widespread together with her comics counterpart.
Before you see Madame Web, right here’s a primer on her comics backstory, together with the comic-book origins of Julia Cornwall, Mattie Franklin, and Anya Corazon (performed by Sydney Sweeney, Celeste O’Connor, and Isabela Merced, respectively), three Spider-Women who additionally seem within the new movie, and in fact the story’s villain, Ezekiel Sims, performed right here by Tahar Rahim.
Who Is Madame Web, Dakota Johnson’s Character?
In the upcoming film, Johnson performs Cassandra “Cassie” Webb, a younger and lively paramedic dwelling in New York City who good points clairvoyant powers following an accident. Aside from her identify and the truth that she has clairvoyant powers, just about all the things in regards to the character is drastically completely different from the unique comic-book model of Madame Web.
Writer Denny O’Neil and artist John Romita Jr. created Madame Web for The Amazing Spider-Man No. 210, which hit cabinets in November 1980. Cassandra Webb does have precognitive talents, although they’re derived from her mutant gene (the identical kind that provides the X-Men their varied powers) fairly than an accident. She can be an aged lady who’s blind and paralyzed, as she has the neurological situation myasthenia gravis. She stays alive with the assistance of a life-support system her husband constructed for her, and the entire varied tubes and gadgets simply so occur to resemble a spider’s net, together with her within the middle.
In her debut look in The Amazing Spider-Man No. 210, Spider-Man goes to Madame Web for assist rescuing a kidnapping sufferer, and within the course of Web learns Spidey’s secret identification, because of her powers. As is usually the case for long-running comic-book characters, monitoring Madame Web’s story over the subsequent a number of a long time turns into an train in complexity. At one level she good points youth and immortality throughout a battle together with her granddaughter Charlotte Witter, a supervillain Spider-Woman. She later loses these items and is finally murdered in a 2009 storyline, although she was in a position to give her precognitive talents to Julia Carpenter, the Spider-Woman who will likely be performed by Sydney Sweeney within the Madame Web film. Madame Web was resurrected, as a clone, in a 2016 storyline, although she died once more when her clone physique deteriorated, as clone our bodies do.
Fans of the Nineteen Nineties animated Spider-Man TV present is perhaps aware of Madame Web, as she made a few appearances on the small display screen, voiced by Joan Lee—spouse of Spider-Man co-creator Stan Lee.
Unless there’s quite a lot of footage of Johnson, who’s 34 years previous, below a great deal of old-age make-up that hasn’t been featured within the trailers but, it doesn’t seem that an excessive amount of of Madame Web’s comic-book backstory goes to be required studying with a purpose to benefit from the movie, which is presenting itself as a standalone. In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, director SJ Clarkson mentioned she wished the movie to be an “origin story” for the title character. (Notably, the film is about in 2003, so if there occur to be any scenes or post-credit teasers set within the current day, Johnson’s character can be in her 50s—not fairly aged grandmother age, however nearer.)
What are the tales of the three supporting Spider-Women?
Dakota’s Madame Web is joined by three associates who’re additionally Spider-affiliated heroes within the comedian books, although none of them have the identical origin story as Peter Parker. Rather than being bit by a radioactive spider, all three have extra difficult backgrounds and it stays to be seen how they’ll all acquire powers—not to mention what kind of powers they’ll have—within the upcoming movie.
Sweeney performs Julia Cornwall, higher recognized within the comics by her married identify Julia Carpenter. First showing within the sixth situation of the Secret Wars occasion sequence in 1984, Julia good points powers similar to Spider-Man’s when a authorities company injects her with a mix of spider venom and unique plant extracts below the guise of performing a easy athletic examine. She adopts the identify Spider-Woman (the second to take action after Jessica Drew, a personality with a distinct backstory involving spiders who’s not in Madame Web). Julia has additionally passed by the superhero identify Arachne.
O’Connor performs Mattie Franklin, the third character to go by the identify Spider-Woman. Mattie made her comic-book debut in The Amazing Spider-Man No. 441 in November 1998 following a tease in a difficulty of The Spectacular Spider-Man the earlier month. She gained her powers—an assortment of most of Spider-Man’s talents plus supersonic flight and Psiconic spider legs—when she took her father’s place in a mystical ritual referred to as The Gathering of Five orchestrated by Norman Osborne (higher generally known as the Green Goblin). The ritual gave its individuals superhuman talents, and it was The Gathering of Five that gave Madame Web her momentary immortality and youth. Mattie headlined her personal Spider-Woman comedian sequence from 1999 to 2000 earlier than it was canceled after 18 points. She made rare comedian appearances after that, and was killed, resurrected, and died once more in the identical storylines wherein Madame Web suffered the identical destiny.
Merced performs Anya Corazon, who made her comic-book debut in 2004’s Amazing Fantasy No. 1. Her origin story is the wildest one but: She good points her superpowers (spider-like talents and the ability to summon a protecting exoskeleton) when she is caught in a gang struggle between two mystical clans that hand around in Brooklyn, as mystical clans do. Mortally wounded when Spider Society and the Sisterhood of the Wasp have been going at it, Anya is saved when a member of the Spider Society offers her a magic tattoo granting her powers. Anya initially goes by the identify of Araña, however she finally ends up adopting the Spider-Girl moniker after she loses her powers when a supervillain rips off her exoskeleton, solely to regain them after a 2011 storyline the place everyone in Manhattan good points Spider-Man’s powers. Unlike the remainder of the Big Apple, Anya retains hers on the finish.
Again, it appears impossible that Julia, Mattie, and Anya’s comic-book backstories, as concerned and elaborate as they’re, will characteristic an excessive amount of in Madame Web.
Who Is the Villain, Ezekiel Sims?
The trailers for Madame Web showcase a Spider-Man-lookin’ baddie in a black Spidey swimsuit assaulting Madame Web and her associates. This villain is not Venom—the Spider-Man character sometimes related to the black swimsuit—however as an alternative a reimagined model of an obscure however essential character from the comics.
Notably, Ezekiel Sims, who made his debut in Amazing Spider-Man No. 30 in 2001, was by no means a villain within the comics and was as an alternative one thing of a mentor or foil, relying on the story. It’s revealed that he obtained Spider-Man’s energy because of a magic ritual involving a Spider-Totem properly earlier than Peter Parker gained his talents. Ezekiel finally informs Peter that his superpowers are literally a part of a a lot bigger mystical “Web of Life” fairly than easy random likelihood involving a spider chew. Ezekiel helps Peter struggle Morlun, a multiversal vampire of kinds who preys on the Spider-Totem powers, and later dies when combating The Gatekeeper, a supernatural being who wished to kill these it deemed unworthy of getting the spider powers. Originally it was going after Peter, who gained his powers in an accident, however Ezekiel realized that the selfless Peter was truly the extra deserving one and sacrificed himself.
Clearly, this isn’t going to be precisely what occurs in Madame Web. All of the second-tier Spider-Man characters within the film have pretty difficult, intertwined, and magical backstories, and the movie appears to be like to be utilizing them as tough supply materials for a closely remixed unique story fairly than a simple adaptation. If I’m fallacious about this and the film is comics-accurate to a fault, I’ll eat a bunch of spiders in my sleep.