(Over)Kill Of A God: Marvel Comics And Ares, Greek God Of War

I suspect this is worse than drinking and driving.

Marvel Comics has famously mined Norse mythology for a few of its better known superheroes.  However, Marvel has also mined Greek myth, using Hercules as a sometime rival, often good friend, of the mighty Thor.  And while Wonder Woman has most famously been pitted against the DC version of Ares, the Greek God of War, Marvel hasn’t been shy about using the character either as a foe of his half-brother the Lion of Olympus.

The biggest difference may be Marvel later turned Ares into a good guy.  Mostly.

So, What Does Spider-Man In Civil War Mean?

Not that Civil War!

Marvel Films recently cut a deal with Sony to get some of the rights back for their flagship character and allow Spider-Man to appear in their movies alongside the Avengers.  There’s been plenty of speculation all over the dang place as to what this means aside from the idea that the most obvious place to insert Spidey into the Marvel Cinematic Universe is in the upcoming Captain America:  Civil War.

Now, Ryan has added his own speculation on what this means going forward for the MCU.  I don’t follow a lot of spoiler stuff online outside of Gabbing Geek, but I have some thoughts of my own.

What Exactly Was Spider-Man’s Involvement In Civil War?

 

 

The offices of Gabbing Geek are pretty giddy about the announcement about a deal between Marvel and Sony to bring Spider-Man into the MCU.  The short version (as I’m sure if you’re like me you’ve read 800 articles about it last night and today) is that Spidey will appear in an upcoming MCU film (which we’ll assume is Captain America 3: Civil War) before starring in his next solo film in 2017.  Geekdom has been praying for this since the disaster that was Amazing Spider-Man 2, the announcement that Cap 3 would be Civil War, and the abundance of the “where’s there’s smoke there’s fire” rumors about Spidey coming back to Marvel over the last few months.

Having him make his deput in Civil War makes all types of sense.  “How can you make Civil War without Spider-Man?” has been a battle cry of many.  No doubt he was a major player and as Tom Kelly alluded to in his Problems with Civil War write up just yesterday, the affects of Civil War are still being felt throughout the Spider-Verse.

But what aspects of Peter Parker’s life during Civil War will get translated to the big screen?  I’m not in complete agreement with sitemate Ryan Garcia who thinks that Civil War is a complete headfake, and I think with the addition of Spidey, we get closer to it being an adaptation than ever.  But I do think it will only be a component of Cap 3, not the main story.  I think having Spidey opens up more avenues for them, but the whole point of the Civil War comic was to make as much money as possible to have heroes squaring off against each other.  And I think for the most part, the whole build up in the cinematic Civil War will be so that Cap can wipe that smug look off Tony Stark’s face.