I mean, I’m a Spider-Man/Spider-Verse person, seriously. Not in the sense that I saw Venom, or the one with Leto, or know when Kraven the Hunter comes out, but I’m still shocked that an official Madame Web trailer has been live for a whole week and I’m just watching it today. Internet! What’re you doing, man?
And okay, I still don’t REALLY know who Madame Web is, but I like this concept. In the vein of Carrie White or Sookie Stackhouse, Cassandra Webb is afflicted with psychic abilities while being stalked by one of the weirder costumes from the Spider-Man Playstation game. (I’m essentializing.)
Madame Web’s director and co-writer S.J. Clarkson counts among her credits the first two episodes of Jessica Jones Season 1, arguably the best single season of any Marvel show. Jessica Jones S1 was lyrical, terrifying, and hilarious in measures that I’ve missed in every MCU production since; it also cleverly subverted the superhero genre with dark social commentary and psychological horror (well before The Boys). One can see some Jessica Jones DNA in the stylistic choices of the Madame Web trailer.
(Which again, I’m just learning about now, because none of you geeks saw fit to mention that a trailer had dropped. The Spider-Fam is basically my favorite thing. Anyways. All right.)
Honestly, all I recall about Madame Web/Cassandra Webb from the comics is that she looks something like this:
And surely there are many interpolations of the character throughout the multiverse. Presumably one of them is related to Marc Webb, director of the Amazing Spider-Man films.
But the really important thing is, a whole squad of suited-up Spider-Women appear in the Madame Web trailer. (And I don’t pretend to be fully versed on every feminine Spider-character: there’s Spider-Women and Spider-Girls and Ghost Spiders, there’s Jessica Drew and Gwen Stacy and many variants on the theme.) The Madame Web ensemble features Anya Corazon (a Spider-Girl), played by Isabela Merced, and Julia Carpenter (a Spider-Woman), played by Sydney Sweeney, and I’d say they look fairly awesome.
And the other really important thing is, the story seems to feature Ezekiel Sims, which possibly sets up the framework for a cinematic SILK, a.k.a Cindy Moon, a.k.a. the Asian American Spider-Person. Ezekiel’s one of those extra-weird villains who figures heavily into Silk’s canon origin story. Curious and curiouser, considering that SPOILER FOR THE SPIDER-MAN 2 VIDEO GAME FOLLOWS:
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…Cindy Moon also appears in the final post-credits scene in Insomniac’s Spider-Man 2. So, as far as Sony’s Spider-Man Universe goes, Silk’s stock seems on the rise.
I realize there’s a lot of colossal stuff going on in the world, and I know that the New Mutants movie was at one point a thing; but still, the Madame Web trailer looks unconventional and intriguing, and it came out like a week ago and nobody said anything! I’m sure I haven’t been staring at screens less than usual. What is an algorithm even doing if it can’t make me stumble onto the one Spider-Man spinoff movie that I suddenly really want to watch?
As of this writing, Madame Web will premiere in theaters on February 14, 2024.
