After many projects such as Venom (2018), Venom: Let There Be Carnage (2021) and Morbius (2022), SSU – Sony’s Spider-Man universe has gradually taken shape. The studio seems to want to develop its own multiverse with the same grandeur as the MCU, especially when the two previously released Spider-Verse parts were both resounding successes.
Most likely, Madame Web is the important piece of the puzzle that the company is looking for. Because this character possesses a special superpower: connecting the Spider universe.
Change from comics to screen
Madame Web, real name Cassandra Webb, first appeared in The Amazing Spider-Man #210 (1980). The character is an elderly woman who is blind, paralyzed, and suffers from myasthenia gravis, forcing her body to be connected to a life support machine shaped like a spider web. In return, Madame Web is a mutant with super powers of clairvoyance, telepathy and predicting the future.
She can read and change other people’s minds like what Professor X/Charles Xavier can do. Even Cassandra Webb can leave her body and travel to many locations at the same time, affecting the psychology of many people around her, feeling spiritual energy and seeing many events taking place at a distance. distant.
Thanks to that, Madame Web repeatedly helps Spider-Man. She helped him rescue KJ Clayton and could identify who was fake and who was real thanks to her telepathic abilities.
The character once performed a spiritual ritual and became youthful, immortal, and no longer had neuromuscular weakness. Not only that, she can also pass on her abilities to others after death – something few mutants can do. Later, Marvel revealed that Madame Web’s power comes from The Web of Life and Destiny – which connects Spider-Man in the multiverse.
Specifically, this is a multidimensional structure linked to all reality in the multiverse. It and the Spider-Totems have given power to all versions of Spider-Man. The Web of Life and Destiny is protected by Spider-Man groups such as the Web-Warriors and the Spider-Army.
How Madame Web will change SSU
After an accident, Cassandra Webb (Dakota Johnson) suddenly possesses the ability to see the future. From here, Cassandra’s fate suddenly became mysteriously linked with three other girls, Anya Corazon (Isabela Merced), Mattie Franklin (Celeste O’Connor) and Julia Carpenter (Sydney Sweeney). For some reason, they are pursued by villain Ezekiel Sims (Tahar Rahim).
Cassandra is forced to use her newly discovered special powers to protect her friends. At the same time, she also discovers secrets surrounding the connection with them and the Spiders.
In the movie version, familiar abilities such as seeing the future and connecting spiritually with Spider-Woman are still retained. There is a high possibility that the remaining powers of the character will gradually reveal themselves throughout the duration of the film. In addition, Madame Web’s role as a guide for Spider-Man has not changed, but only transferred to Julia Carpenter, Mattie Franklin and Anya Corazon – 3 future versions of Spider-Woman.
The film’s villain is none other than Ezekiel Sims – a variant from the future of Spider-Man. In the original comics, he is a successful businessman and possesses powers no different from Peter Parker. The character also appeared briefly in the movie Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse (2023) with the title Spider-Therapist. Therefore, the reason behind Ezekiel attacking the Spider-Girl trio makes the audience curious.
It is no exaggeration to say that Madame Web is like SSU’s version of “Doctor Strange”. Because the character also understands the rules of the multiverse no less than the Sorcerer Supreme. Additionally, Madame Web plays a central role in the development of Spider-Man in the Marvel multiverse. Meanwhile, it also allows Sony and Marvel Studios to share characters without spending much time introducing and reaching out to fans.
Besides Madame Web, Sony is also developing a film project about Kraven the Hunter with Aaron Taylor-Johnson in the lead role.
