Just an Idea: MCU's Spider-Man 6

"Spider-Man Final Suit" Concept Art. Taken from Concept Art Association.

I'm reaching the end with my latest "Spider-Man mania". Finished rewatching The Animated Series more than a month ago by going through its fifth season in a couple of days. Since I've already watched the vast majority of Spidey's films a few months back and don't have any plans to rewatch Spectacular Spider-Man at the moment, that was mostly it. Now, it's time for me to wrap up my silly collection of ideas for Peter Parker's second trilogy in Marvel Cinematic Universe with another nonsensical wall of text.

This "article" is more likely to be smaller in comparison to my Distant & Troubled Neighborhood posts. While these concepts of mine are definitely not as thought-out as they could've (and, perhaps, should've) been, the final part in this trilogy will be more vague for a variety of reason. I was pretty busy the last couple of months and didn't spend a lot of time to think about this story, even though I knew it would be the hardest. You know, I think I should just get down to business.

Scuffed Recap.

Since I'm going to be talking about the finale of entire imaginary trilogy, it's very important to look back at what came before it. Obviously, it would be much better if you just follow a couple of links I provided up there and read it all before reading this one. I know I'm asking for too much, and you're probably not going to do it anyway, but don't tell me I didn't warn you. I'll try to offer you a short summary like in "MCU's Spider-Man 5" post, even though I don't think I did a good job with it back and then. In fact, I think it won't be good this time either.

Distant Neighborhood starts off after a potential ending of the first season of Daredevil: Born Again. Wilson Fisk become a mayor of New York and Spider-Man learns that F.E.A.S.T. (Food, Emergency, Aid, Shelter & Training) is somehow involved with the criminal side of this city. He starts off by chasing a mysterious Crime Master, but then Hobgoblin comes out of nowhere with the invent to take down Fisk. Peter Parker keeps avoiding other people, but attends Empire State University, works as a freelancer for The Daily Bugle and spends some of his free time at F.E.A.S.T. Community Center to help Roderick Kingsley, the founder of this organisation. As people he tries to push away get dragged into this mess, Spider-Man has to uncover the dark secrets of the F.E.A.S.T. and realize that there's a place for Peter Parker in this world.

The events of Troubled Neighborhood kick off shortly after Secret Wars. Our hero is enjoying his new symbiote suit, but he just can't catch a break. Captain Jean DeWolff, his ally and friend, was killed by a series killer known as Sin-Eater. Her death was the first of many. Mac Gargan returns to New York with a new gang and joins forces with Spidey's old "friend" Shocker in order to hunt down the Webhead. As Spider-Man's quest for vengeance continues, both him & Peter Parker go through noticeable changes. This would ultimately lead him to face his inner demon and then take a stand against its physical manifestation.

Well, these recaps are actually somewhat decent. That's sweet. As for any updates or even leaks, there's really not much to pay attention to. You can say that Tombstone potentially being the antagonist of El Muerto is pretty relevant for this concept since I kind of thought about using this character in a certain way. However, I'm already too deep into it, and I'm still not exactly sure about the idea of combining Joseph "Robbie" Robertson and Lonnie Lincoln. Not to mention that it was already an exception to my "not use characters that are confirmed or most likely to be utilized in other upcoming projects" rule. It's also worth mentioning that Sony has a secret project directed by Olivia Wilde. I believe the latest update on it was dropped in this Variety article, There're no details about it, but people speculated that it's a Spider-Women film centered around Jessica Drew. Since I brought her in at the end of previous post, I think it's important to acknowledge that.

To The Starting Point.

Well, there's really not much to go off here. I'm too far into the future, so I might as well just roll with it. Despite some speculations/wishes from people around the Internet, went against using Kingpin as one of the main antagonists in my version of MCU's Spider-Man 4 and I still stand by this decision. This version of Fisk is more of a Murdock's enemy and Marvel Studios seemingly sets him up as a big bad for street-level heroes. It would've been nice to have Spider-Man & Daredevil team-up in a movie, but I don't think it should be done at the expense of Spidey's story.

That being said, let's assume that Defenders-esque film would actually happen. I remember seeing Devil's Reign getting brought up in these sorts of discussions because it's about Wilson Fisk outlawing heroes in New York City as its mayor. So yeah, let's go with that. I assume it would be mostly built up in MCU's TV series with Spidey films being more of an exception to the rule. Have Spider-Man work together with Daredevil, Punisher and other vigilantes like, I don't know, Jessica Jones, Luke Cage and maybe even Moon Knight.

Place this project in-between fifth & sixth chapters in Peter Parker's story to give everyone a taste of.... Spectacular Spider-Man? I mean, they already gave "Friendly Neighborhood" & "Amazing" titles to Tobey Maguire's and Andrew Garfield's versions respectively in No Way Home's post-release material. Personally, I think "Spectacular" is great and would make more sense for this iteration of a character and direction of this Neighborhood trilogy. Either way, the idea here is to not only offer a proper street-level heroes team-up thingy with Spider-Man and reinforce the hype for Peter Parker's final adventure.

Protagonist.

Speaking of which, it's time to talk about him. Is he at yet another low point in his life? No, not anymore. Peter Parker went through a lot in both Distant & Troubled Neighborhood storylines, so it's time for a positive change. His life should be great now. While he's still dedicated to his alter ego, Peter managed to achieve the perfect harmony between both of his lives. He graduated college and The Daily Bugle pays him more. Not only Parker is surrounded by some great friends, but he was also developing feelings for someone in a long time now. Again, everything is perfect and it's actually kind of overwhelming. What could possibly go wrong?

This is the moment of time when Spider-Man is in his prime. He's pretty close to The Animated Series and aforementioned Friendly Neighborhood from No Way Home versions of himself. Cheerful and experienced superhero. His daily routine was going as usual, but recently Spidey started getting ambushed by various robots that try to either capture or destroy him. It wouldn't take him long to find out where they came from and who is involved in this campaign against Wall-Crawler. This revelation is only partially surprising, but that would be enough for Peter to be reminded about when and where it all started.

My approach to Spider-Man costumes doesn't change from the previous concepts. The rule of toys states that MCU's Peter Parker has to wear three different versions of his superhero suit. Besides the good old classic, I think it would be neat to have a moment where Spider-Man uses a replica of his black suit during nighttime. Since he will be getting swarmed by an army of hostile machines, Spidey would need to get an actual armor. No, I'm not suggesting a return of Iron Spider suit, but instead I propose his take on the original Spider Armor. You know, the one that was used by that arrogant alternate version of Peter from Spider Wars arc at the end of The Animated Series? Even though this armor is more fancy than its version from the comics that I believe was just a regular armor, and I'm leaning more towards that. No nanotechnology, lasers or anything like that.

Antagonists.

Finally, I can fully address two elephants in the room. I think it was pretty obvious why I haven't talked too much about Spencer Smythe & Miles Warren in the previous "articles", despite them being a part of this trilogy's supporing cast since the beginning. Their names alone are a dead giveaway for Spider-Man fans to expect something bad eventually, but regular people most likely don't know much about these two. I thought it would be best for the story overall to have them always present and slowly move towards this final act.

As I've hinted at the end of my MCU's Spider-Man 5 post, both Miles and Spencer were the creators of a spider that gave Peter his powers. Although both of them were partners and friends for a long time, it was mostly Warren's ideas. Smythe was helping him out on technical side. They experimented with many species, such as lizards, bats and scorpions. However, the spiders were the most promising. The idea was simple: not necessarily to recreate the Super-Soldier Serum, but to improve people's health.

Group was equally passionate about this, but Spencer had personal stakes it in. His unnamed son or daughter was in serious condition and this dream was the only hope Smythe had at this point. Just as they tried to perfect their experiment, duo was also looking for funding whenever they could. It was during this time when Warren and Smythe had attended the Stark Expo and their path was crossed with Peter Parker for the first time. Not that either of them remember that, including Peter. It was a long time ago, after all.

They've failed. No matter how much they tried, their experiments went nowhere. Spencer's child passed away. The duo largely abandoned this idea, but Warren haven't completely gave up and resumed the project every once in a while. Both switched their focus towards Empire State University where they dedicated themselves to teaching students. Life went on, but then Miles and Spencer learned about Spider-Man. Smythe was quick to suggest that this vigilante robbed them of their success, Warren was more sceptical. Their views on Spidey were always different: Spencer shared Jameson's opinion since they're good friends while Warren admired the Webhead. At least, until they compared the sample of his blood with their modified spiders.

This was enough to enrage Smythe. Miles tried to play "devil's advocate", but Spencer had none of that. From his perspective, Spider-Man was the reason why he lost his child. Now that he knows that this Menace used their work to cause trouble in New York, the time has come for Smythe to take matters into his own hands. And Warren will help his friend not only because he feels responsible for the death of Spencer's kid, and he's just a pushover. Development of Spider-Slayers has become and, luckily for Smythe, J. Jonah quickly jumped into the opportunity to fund this endeavor.

Obviously, things wouldn't go too well and the friendship between two scientists will deteriorate. Miles would even go as far as to help Spider-Man behind Spencer's back to help him deal with Spider-Slayers. Smythe will learn about it and this would be the last straw to go over the line. Miles would be held by Slayers as Smythe forcefully inject all the "genetic animal stuff" they had or something along those lines, which results in painful mutations. During this process. Miles Warren will die. His body would be taken over by monster named Jackal, even though really he's more like "Ultimate's version of Goblin, except maybe more feral" (I'm not an expert here). I don't care if this loophole is stupid, I'll roll with it. Naturally, Spencer Smythe won't be able to survive Jackal's birth either.

Before that, there's still one more villain to fit in and I kind of stuck here. Peter would have to deal with many versions of Spider-Slayers before dealing with Jackal. This is probably already more than enough to handle for him, but I think it would be better to keep it simple. Again, maybe it would've been a great time for Superior Foes of Spider-Man. Since it's a final movie, having more enemies seems more fitting. However, I think I'm already past that since I've used Shocker and I don't want to exclude him.

I also think people might not appreciate having Boomerang and/or Beetle wasted for "Spidey's routine" montage where you just briefly see them fight and defeated. Perhaps we should look back at Freshman Year. Speed Demon, Tarantula and Unicorn were confirmed to appear in that animated series. We still haven't got any new details on it, but I think that in hindsight it would be a nice callback to see them getting utilized in such fashion.

Supporting Cast.

Alright, it's Jessica Drew's time. Some of you might be wondering why I picked her instead of Miles Morales, considering that there're rumours and expectations of him to appear in the next trilogy? The reason is simple: I don't buy it. I've also seen this character in Into the Spider-Verse and from Marvel's Spider-Man playthroughs on YouTube. Considering that these versions of Morales seem to be the most popular and beloved, I seriously doubt Sony would want to share him with Marvel. To me, it makes more sense to expect him to be used as "the" Spider-Man in a world with Tom Hardy's Venom and (so far) Morbius. Not to mention that we had Peter & Miles Morales together in both aforementioned projects. No matter how different they're going to approach it this time, it's simply going to be boring.

Meanwhile, I can certainly see Cosmic Circus being right about the characters in Madame Web and their list includes multiple versions of Spider-Woman and Spider-Girl. Which leaves me with Jessica Drew, the original Spider-Women. Except that she's not a superhero yet, but I still would view her as "mandatory Marvel cameo". Initially I thought about introducing her as someone who's already fully aware of her abilities and actively uses them, but now I'm not sure about that. My original idea was for her to be directly connected to Spencer Smythe or Miles Warren in some way with Jessica acting as a stand-in for Ultimate Spider-Slayer before having a change of heart.

It sounds interesting on paper, but Spider-Man already had a conflict with another hero in this trilogy. You know, Punisher going after Sin-Eater and fighting Spidey who stands on his way. I don't really have a specific idea of how Jessica gets her power, other than that they originate in the same way as Peter's. Both characters have different powers, and you can explain it by another branch of spiders. While I don't want Jessica to be your typical damsel in distress, having her caught up in the middle of Spider-Slayer's hunt makes a lot of sense. Either way, Drew is here to be properly introduced into MCU as a new hero.

At this point, it's about time for Peter Parker and Betty Brant to be a couple. She probably still suspects him to be Spider-Man, but maybe it would be a nice change of pace if this Peter manages to keep his secret identity hidden from everyone around him. I thought about making an exception for Betty, Jessica and Matt Murdock. Then I thought about how I'm trying to make different things with this trilogy and protagonist's love interest being not aware that he's a superhero is different from other Spider-Man films. Betty still works at The Daily Bugle after graduating from Empire State University and her relationship with Peter goes great, but she was considering leaving New York for better job opportunity.

The reason why John Jonah Jameson agreed to help out with creating Spider-Slayers is simple: he's retiring. It's his last days as the host of The Daily Bugle and Jonah wants to end his career by dealing with Spider-Menace once and for all. I think it's important to see different sides of Jameson throughout the trilogy, but it would be even more appropriate to see him being fully explored in this finale. Show that J. Jonah Jameson is actually not really that awful, finally learn why he doesn't like Spider-Man and see him grow as a character by admitting his mistakes.

Honestly, I don't know what to do with Randy Robertson and the rest of this supporting cast. If anything, I think it's fair to say that I've failed with it fleshing out. There wasn't a good start and I didn't want to drastically change what was before, which is why I went nowhere with Randy, Joseph "Robbie" Robertson who may or may not actually be Lonnie Lincoln and Anna Maria Marconi as another teacher from Empire State University instead of another student connected to Superior Spider-Man storyline. I think I should've not only fully committed to bringing Flash Thompson back, but add Debra Whitman into the mix. Alas, the least I can do is state that Randy should be still doing fine and mostly stay out of trouble. He went through more than enough in Distant and Troubled Neighborhood.

Conclusion.

Once Jackal enters the picture, all hell breaks loose. Miles Warren is beyond saving and Spencer Smythe's wounds were too severe. This mutated monster destroys everything on its way and the scale of this chaos started matching The Battle of New York. Spider-Man took his stand against Jackal, but the odds didn't seem to be at his favor. As the situation starts to get pretty dire, Peter realizes that there really is not way to bring Warren back. You could have Jessica trying to make some kind of antidote or something along those lines, but it won't work. That's when Spidey makes a desperate decision to defeat this monstrosity. Huge explosion ensues, and it seems like both Jackal and Spider-Man were perished.

Both Betty Brant and J. Jonah Jameson are getting worried about Peter Parker as they haven't heard of him for a while. Of course, Jameson wants this exclusive material from Spidey's fight against Jackal, but he's not totally heartless. Just as they're about to assume the worst, Peter comes in with videos, photos and a lot of bruises. Jameson hosts his last broadcast where he delivers a heart-warming speech. Monster's body was recovered and identified as Miles Warren and same goes for Spencer Smythe. While there's no concrete evidence (besides the damaged fragments of his suit), Spider-Man is also declared dead. Similarly to the end of The Dark Knight Rises, "fallen" hero gets a monument and becomes a symbol of hope with many of his colleagues coming in to pay their respects.

The Daily Bugle shuts down around the same time as Jameson retires. People move on to better endeavors, which is true to every character in this trilogy. Just let everyone have a happy ending here, even though I can't really say about it. Sorry about that. I think it's obvious where I'm going with this: Betty Brant decides to leave New York and Peter Parker goes with her. The idea of moving out of this city seemed impossible to him at first, but now it just feels right. Peter Parker already ceased to exist, now it's Spider-Man's turn. He stops by Jessica Drew's place to drop a "secret" present from a "mutual friend", visits May's grave for the last time and then drives with Betty into the sunset.

Obviously, this film has to be called Spider-Man: Friendly Neighborhood. It's a conclusion of not just the second trilogy of MCU's Spidey, but Peter Parker's story as a whole. He already died and came back to life, so I don't feel too bad about copying Ultimate comics in a certain way. Because of that, I think it's also important to tie up loose ends by finally looking into the origins of this Spider-Man and make sure there's a proper sense of conclusion in his story. Going full circle. Spencer Smythe & Miles Warren duo just felt a natural choice for that. Even though there's enough drama, Friendly Neighborhood is meant to be more... hopeful, I guess? More heroic, positive and bittersweet.

As for this mini-series within Just an Idea Category, I think it was a great experiment overall. A breath of fresh air, if you will. Returning to Spider-Man was pretty sweet on itself and these episodes of "derpy creativity" extended the fun. This allowed to me try out something kind of new and ascend beyond writing just personal or gaming-related "articles". Maybe I'll do something similar in the future. I think that Distant Neighborhood could use a "revitalization" treatment similarly to what I did with Trial of Runes (although I think that mod concept could still use a lot of work): fleshing out the support cast, picking up actors and writing down the full story. There's definitely some room for improvement, especially in two latter parts (yes, even this one). However, it was still a lot of fun. and I'm happy that I wasted my time on this nerdy nonsense. If you have read this thus far, I hope you enjoyed at least some parts of this post (and other ones, if went through all of them).

No middle and/or post credit scenes this time. They're not needed here.