Thoughts on the First Image of the New Spider-man Suit

Sony Picture's reboot of the "Spider-man" franchise is currently shooting and is scheduled for a summer 2012 release. The announcement of the reboot came shortly after negotiations with Sam Raimi the director of the previously "Spider-man" films, fell through for him to return and direct a fourth entry in his series. The announcement that not only would Sony be rebooting the franchise but would actually be covering Spider-man's origin once again and setting the story during Peter Parker's days in high school was met with surprise by most fans. Though most felt that "Spider-man 3" was a disappoint a full on reboot seems like overkill, especially when it would effectively be retelling the same story as the first "Spider-man." The word that the budget would be dialed back to under $100 million also has been the cause of some concern. However Sony has released the first image of Spider-man in costume (minus the mask) on the facebook page created for the movie and it seems like they at least got that part right.

First the suit is not a huge departure from the fairly iconic look of the suit worn by Tobey Maguire in the Sam Raimi version of Spider-man. However there are some notable differences. While the suit remains textured to avoid the look of over-stretched spandex it's not quite as high-tech looking. The raised webs on the suit used before has been toned down to a more general textured look which honestly looks more like something a teenager could make themselves than the suit in the original films. This of course doesn't show what the mask looks like which would still go very wrong. There are few key things to be noticed about the image that aren't the suit itself. The first is the backpack which seems to reinforce the intent that the film will be set in high school.

There's also something in the picture that is far more subtle but may have bigger implications than anything else. The hands of the costumes are angled wrist away from camera however there appear to be slight metallic bumps at the wrist on each hand. This many be an indication that Spider-man will have mechanical web-shooters as he does in the comics. In the comic book Spider-man doesn't create webbing on his own, it's a compound he created that is loaded in cartridges and dispensed from shooters mounted to his wrists. The first series of films opted for organic web-shooters which were just part of Peter Parker's new powers because they feared audiences wouldn't believe that a high school student could invent such a device. The choice of organic web-shooters was controversial amongst fans at first but they seemed to quickly accept them once the film was actually released. It's interesting that the new film may be opting for the mechanical web-shooters when the organic ones have been so well established on film.

There are still many unanswered questions about the upcoming "Spider-man" movie. As cast and crew have been announced the fan reaction has still mostly one of confusion and surprise. First director Marc Webb was hired, who doesn't really have anything in his resume to indicate a talent for action or large scale stories. Then Andrew Garfield was cast as Peter Parker/Spider-man which given that he's 27 years old seemed an odd choice for a story going back to high school. Then Emma Stone was announced as the love interest, the surprise here was that it would Gwen Stacey (played by Bryce Dallas Howard in "Spider-man 3") and not Mary Jane Watson as fans were used to. Ryhs Ifans has been cast as Curt Connors who is expected to become the villainous Lizard in the film. However there's been no release of any imagery regarding this character yet, and with a tight budget for a film this size it's questionable how well a giant lizard will be realized on the screen.

Most fans still don't seem to be completely sold on the idea of a reboot, however Sony seems to be working hard on changing their minds. The cast includes some noted actors such as Martin Sheen, Sally Field and Dennis Leary in supporting roles. Garfield has also been doing some interviews with magazines and movie websites to express his enthusiasm and hopefully get the fans on board. Ultimately the fans of the comic book are likely to turn out regardless, how the fans who know the movies but not the comics will take tot his retelling is more of an open question.