YMMV / Sony's Spider-Man Universe

• Broken Base:
  • The concept of making a Shared Universe about Spider-Man-related characters owned by Sony without including Spider-Man has faced plenty of criticism, most of it being similar to the criticisms of Sony's last attempt at starting a cinematic universe. Those who are against it feel that Sony is just trying to hold onto the rights and that the SSU prevents the MCU from making better adaptations of characters like Venom. On the other hand there are those who feel the idea is not necessarily a bad one given how many characters are connected with Spider-Man and it could give more obscure characters a chance to become more popular, much like what happened with the MCU, but have complained about Sony's decisions in regards to which characters get films. Venom made plenty of sense due to being one of the most popular Spider-Man foes, and to a lesser degree so did Morbius and Kraven the Hunter due to both characters already having fans, but people have been left confused that characters like Madame Web, El Muerto and Hypno-Hustler are also getting films.
  • The decision to make films about Spider-Man villains has also been criticised, with the Madame Web film and the planned Silk TV show being the only exceptions. While it's understandable considering that the most well known Spider-Man characters tend to be his villains, it's been pointed out that Sony could have made films on the heroes associated with him such as the Hobie Brown version of Prowler or Spider-Man 2099. Those who dislike the idea feel that Sony is attempting to superficially appear more mature and Darker and Edgier than the MCU, while those who don't mind it feel that it at least sets the SSU apart from the MCU and other superhero films.
• The Chris Carter Effect: A major criticism of this "cinematic universe" is that, even several movies in, no one is sure how any of them are meant to consolidate into a "universe" at all, and it feels more like the writers are throwing random Spider-Man periphery characters at a wall just to see if anything sticks, making it hard to get invested in the overarching story when none of the characters have connections to each other and the scripts are being rewritten repeatedly. This is especially apparent with the post-credits scenes for Let There Be Carnage and Morbius, both of which teased some sort of connection to the MCU, but ultimately caused far more confusion than hype. The franchise's frustrating tendency to continue baiting the audience with tantalizing hints of Spider-Man (including with blatantly misleading trailers and dubiously canon Word of God), but repeatedly refusing to even mention him or give even the slightest indication of his role in this continuity after several movies also makes the idea of any worthwhile payoff seem unlikely.
• Complete Monster:
  • Venom (2018) has both halves of the Big Bad Duumvirate:
    • Dr. Carlton Drake is the CEO of Life Industries with a god complex. Coming into possession of the symbiotes, Drake experiments with homeless people, having them attached to and devoured by the symbiotes in massive numbers to learn how to control them, even using the Symbiote to murder a doctor who assists Eddie Brock. When he merges with the Symbiote Riot, Drake eagerly embraces his newfound power and assists Riot in killing all in his path, intending to bring the Symbiotes to devour all humanity to satisfy his ego.
    • The Riot symbiote is the "team leader" of the planned symbiote invasion force coming to Earth, and one of the four symbiotes brought back to Earth by the Life Foundation. Riot escapes, surfing from host to host and eating them alive from the inside-out — with two of his hosts being an old woman and a little girl — while leaving a slew of slaughtered innocents behind him. Riot bonds to Carlton Drake in the climax to send out a probe to bring the rest of his kind to Earth and allow them to feed on all humanity, massacring the entirety of Drake's staff when he's informed there may be a delay. Riot is apathetic to the death of even the other symbiotes who died in Carlton Drake's care, and decides to even kill Venom when he goes renegade.
  • Let There Be Carnage: The Carnage symbiote, after being born from a distillation of Eddie Brock/Venom's blood within the body of the psychotic murderer Cletus Kasady, comes to bloody life by massacring a prison's worth of guards in order to breakout. As sadistic as Cletus but with none of his redeeming features, the Carnage symbiote murders and eats dozens of innocents on the streets of San Francisco, such as those who plead they have innocent families and a priest it munches for a cheap power-up, and it gleefully intends to slaughter the rest of San Francisco. In the climax, the symbiote tries to murder its "father" Venom alongside Eddie's ex-girlfriend Anne, and callously attempts to kill Cletus's beloved partner-in-crime Frances "Shriek" Barrison out of sheer annoyance with her powers and the effect they have on it.
• Fandom Rivalry: With some fans of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, at least in regards to those who enjoy Tom Holland's Spider-Man films, as they feared it could cause Sony to revoke Spider-Man's permission to be in the MCU if were successful enough (which, surely enough, turned out to be the case briefly after the release of Spider-Man: Far From Home before the deal with Marvel Studios was renewed). The existence of these movies also means that fan-favorite characters like Venom are now unusable in the MCU, where many feel that the characters would receive a much better adaptation due to Marvel Studios' generally better track record. And even with The Stinger of Spider-Man: No Way Home teasing that the MCU will have its own version of Venom in the future, the fact that this was only able to happen because Tom Hardy's version of the character left behind a part of the symbiote in that universe had plenty of fans feeling conflicted about the explicit connection. The fact that Sony's previous attempt at creating a Shared Universe revolving around only Spider-Man and his associated characters died with its second film hasn't helped, especially since the SSU goes one step further than that and removes Spider-Man entirely from these characters' backstories, despite many of them, like Venom, requiring his involvement in order to even exist. This rivalry increased after Michael Keaton's Vulture from Spider-Man: Homecoming appeared in the mid-credits scenes of Morbius as a consequence of the events in Spider-Man: No Way Home, with them being one of many who hated the the idea since it felt like Sony was trying hard to make more connections to the MCU regardless of plot holes it causes and also prevents the character making a reappearance in future MCU Spider-Man films. This continued when it was announced that Donald Glover would portray Hypno-Hustler in the SSU, which seemingly might end any hopes of him returning as the Prowler in the MCU, having played Aaron Davis in Spider-Man: Homecoming.
• Friendly Fandoms:
  • While the Venom films are disliked by some, overall Tom Hardy's portrayal of Eddie and Venom has been well received. As a result, while MCU fans tend to dislike the SSU as a whole they're more accepting of the Venom films, with many being open to the idea of Hardy's Venom being integrated into the MCU.
  • A minor example, but fans of The Amazing Spider-Man Series have gravitated to the SSU since the release of Spider-Man: No Way Home as the positive reception to Andrew Garfield's return to the character has led many to hoping that the films will be made part of the SSU. This way Garfield can return as Spider-Man and have his story continued, while also fixing a common complaint about the SSU which is its lack of connection to Spider-Man (or in the case of Morbius trying too much to connect with the MCU's version of the character). Madame Web however shows Peter Parker being born in 2003, which conflicts with the timeline of The Amazing Spider-Man films, so unless Madame Web is retconned to be non-canon to the SSU then this is not going to happen.
• Just Here for Godzilla: Some fans will admit to watch the Venom movies less because they find the plot or the superheroe-related stuff interesting and because they enjoy the Venom/Eddie dynamic.
• Memetic Badass: With the announcement of a solo movie for El Muerto, a character who only appeared in two issues in 2006 and is so obscure he doesn't even have a proper article on Wikipedia nor his own folder on the Spidey Rogues page on TV Tropes, fans have joked that this luchador must be absurdly strong if he got his own movie.
• Memetic Mutation:
  • "Didn't see that coming." ^ExplanationThe reaction many people had on social media when Aaron Taylor-Johnson was cast as Kraven the Hunter, referring to Pietro Maximoff's Character Catchphrase in Avengers: Age of Ultron.
  • "Kraven the Animal Lover." ^ExplanationAaron Taylor-Johnson described Kraven the hunter as an "Animal Lover", despite the fact that he is a hunter who literally wears a jacket made of lion hide leading to confusion among fans.
  • El Muerto, a character appearing in only two issues getting his own movie instantly became meme fodder, with universal bafflement over the fact that he of all people joining the SSU.
• Narm Charm: The most common description of these films is that they feel like comic book films from the 2000s but with more modern CGI and special effects, which for some has an odd appeal. A similar reason for enjoying them is that, for better or for worse, they are different from MCU films which have often been accused of being formulaic where fan expectations are usually met, so it makes sense that some would enjoy Marvel films that don't follow this formula.
• Older Than They Think:
  • A common criticism about the SSU is how Sony is trying to turn Spider-Man villains into anti-heroes, which many claim is the reason why it doesn't work. However, this is actually been untrue so far; while both Venom and Morbius started out as villains, they have been anti-heroes for a long time, with Kraven being the only villain character being made an anti-hero. A likely reason for this perception is that many adaptations primarily focus on Spider-Man's early years and never show characters like Venom becoming anti-heroes like in the comics, creating the impression that he has always been a villain.
  • The SSU has gotten flack for creating standalone films for both Spider-Man villains and allies like Venom, Morbius, Madam Web, and Kraven without the main character of Spider-Man who should, in theory, be there to tie them all together. However, the SSU starting with Venom (2018) wasn't the first time something like this was attempted on a cinematic scale. Back in the 1990s, DC released Steel as a standalone movie where Steel, a supporting character to Superman, got his own solo movie where the iconic hero Superman was completely Adapted Out. The only difference between then and now is that Steel never got his own cinematic universe despite being a more obscure character at the time who got an independent outing divorced from the main hero he was normally associated with.
• So Okay, It's Average: In the most generous reviews, the movies of the SSU are just considered mediocre, being very typical beat-for-beat regurgitations of "pragmatic superhero origin" movies, once you take away the vague Spider-Man periphery connecting the movies, with frequent criticisms that they feel like they're riding on a trend about fifteen or twenty years too late (a trend which was rarely done well to begin with) and don't really stand out from said trend outside of using Spider-Man characters.
• Unexpected Character:
  • El Muerto getting his own movie is especially odd given that the character only appeared in a two-parter in the pages of Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man in 2006, and hasn’t made a single appearance since. At the time the film was announced, he didn't even have his own folder on the Spider-Man character page on This Very Wiki!
  • A Hypno-Hustler film got a similar reaction to the El Muerto announcement, though in comparison people were a little bit more optimistic and positive due to Hypno-Hustler at least being a reoccurring member of Spidey's rogues gallery, even if he isn't that popular, while many noted having Donald Glover play a music-themed character makes some sense due to him being a singer and a rapper.

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