Director Sam Raimi has long professed to be a big fan of the storyline in Amazing Spider-Man #s 100-102, in which Spidey takes on Michael Morbius, a scientist who attempts to cure his leukemia with a serum derived from bats. Since this is the Marvel Universe we're in, he naturally becomes Morbius, The Living Vampire, who must feast on human blood to survive. Your Friendly Neighborhood Wall Crawler takes him out with an assist from Dr. Curt Connors, who's better known as the classic Spidey villain The Lizard. And were that not complication enough, Peter must deal with the unpleasant result of continuing mutation from that radioactive spider bite - the unwanted addition of four more arms! (Oh, that last panel of #100 was quite the stunner, writer Stan Lee's little parting gift to incoming scribe Roy Thomas, and one of the greatest cliffhangers in Marvel's history.)
Word comes today that Dylan Baker has been inked to appear in Spider-Man 4, so that would be the first piece of the puzzle. Vampires are bigger than huge these days, so Morby makes a whole lotta sense. Scenes with four additional arms would be acting catnip for Tobey Maguire. Since the last movie tripped itself up in trying to mesh two incompatible villains, this storyline flows like the Hudson (and would be a refreshingly modest undertaking, light on skyscraper-demolishing CGI). Fans have been waiting for that Lizard shoe to drop for almost eight years now, and heaven knows Baker is an accomplished actor who is due a huge break like this. And this brings Horror into the franchise in a big way; that might be something of a challenge for Raimi, but I suspect he'll be up to it.
Could this be more perfect? What's not to love? May the powers-that-be make it so!
3 comments:
Hey Im all in, I would like to see a return to the traditional villains since it is what Sam does best as much as I love Venom. I would really like to see the four armed Spidey trying to hide his new appendages under a sweatshirt. Im out on McGuire though. Ohh, you are typecast now? Boo fucking hoo you pussy bitch, you are god damned Spiderman, we should all be so lucky. You want to go mix protein for me for a living?
Fuck him. I want someone new. PS - sorry for the rant =D
Senski, I've been beating this drum for years! I think that plotline is tailor made for Raimi. A six-armed Spidey, the Lizard, and Mobius all duking it out? Sign me up!!
The Spidey/Morbey/Lizzy slugfest is obviously an idea whose time has come.I was talking about it with Matthew K on his blog Capes On Film just a few days ago.
Like Jeff said the idea is a perfect fit for Raimi, fingers crossed! ( On all 6 arms... )
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