Spider-Man: Freshman Year

I still dream of a spectacular spider-man revival against all odds.

Technically, it is MCU-adjacent. In the sense that it exists in the MCU's multiverse.

The marketing benefit of introducing a multiverse is that you can use brand name recognition to sell products without even having to fit them into continuity. Morbius is technically an MCU film too.

Edited by TobiasDrake on Aug 17th 2022 at 8:25:17 AM

The multiverse branding means that any Marvel film made from now on is technically an MCU film regardless of whether its actually directly apart of the MCU.

Even if say 50 years in the future, decades after the MCU has ended, they make a Moon Knight movie and its still technically an MCU film.

multiverse branding existed way before the MCU, marvel had already established long ago that any officially licensed marvel thing is on the same multiverse somewhere.

In the comics, sure, but nobody reads the comics. Comic readers got to make in-jokes to each other about the multiverse, and there would be issues that came out with sly references to things like Tobey Maguire Spider-Man. But it was all very one-sided and didn't affect the films/shows/etc. being released in the slightest.

Nobody went to Dr. Strange thinking, "Let's see how Earth-199999 is doing." That terminology was just some meaningless technojargon for comic nerds to whisper among themselves. These movies were never Earth-199999, no matter what the comics said; They were the Marvel Cinematic Universe. That was the name, that was the brand, that was what got famous, and that's what people turned out to see.

(In fact, officially, they still aren't. The MCU isn't in the same continuity with the comics at all.)

So the difference is that the multiverse isn't just an in-joke for comic writers and comic readers to whisper to each other in the back alleys of the fandom anymore. It's the official marketing strategy of Marvel's entertainment division now. The multiverse has gone mainstream, and that directly affects how products will be sold to audiences.

Edited by TobiasDrake on Aug 18th 2022 at 8:10:33 AM

that's what the MCU has done for better or for worse, introduce concepts to mainstream audiences that previously only hardcore nerds were aware of and cared about, and I honestly think that's pretty cool, it means that the things that we love are now shining more brightly than they ever were before, 20 years ago no one could have predicted that the avengers, a B-list group of heroes, would end up spawning the most successful movie franchise of all time, in the 90, most didn't know who ironman was and now he rivals in popularity big names like batman or spiderman, it's amazing, that's obviously good for us since it helps normalize nerd culture and makes more people into one of us.

(what do you mean by officially they aren't? they're officially part of the same multiverse by the word of god of the company that's as far as official as it can get)

Edited by Kiobi20 on Aug 18th 2022 at 5:22:41 AM

Officially, the main universe in the Marvel Cinematic Universe is not Earth-19999. That's just a number that a person who wrote a guidebook years ago made up for the sake of being able to reference the movies, but that has never once appeared in a comic book or film.

Officially, the main universe in the MCU is Earth-616. Just like how the main universe of the comics is Earth-616. They do not occupy the same multiverse. They are wholly separate continuities, and never the two shall meet. The films are an adaptation of the comics, and not a supplemental universe to them.

Kevin Feige is pretty insistent on this, and has not been contradicted by anyone above him.

Edited by TobiasDrake on Aug 18th 2022 at 6:48:41 AM

The one time I recall the name Earth-19999 appearing in a comic was in the 2013 Young Avengers run where the name is seen as a stamp on Loki’s passport implying the YA passed through in their multiversal journey.

It would amuse me greatly if Marvel Studios and Marvel Comics actually went to the trouble of putting together a small cameo crossover, seen from both sides onscreen and in a comic, but they probably never will.

Edited by Tuckerscreator on Aug 18th 2022 at 7:44:20 AM

What's the point of keeping the movie universes in a separate multiverse than the everything else multiverse? that just sounds like they're overcomplicating things for no reason.

So that the comics and MCU are both able to do massive events effecting the entire multiverse without having to worry about stepping on each others toes.

Also America Chavez is supposed to be the only America Chavez in her multiverse (thus if the MCU was in the comics' multiverse they would be basically forbidden from using her to any meaningful degree).

Edited by Deathcon on Aug 19th 2022 at 10:58:39 AM

ok, I can't understand distancing them in order to not get in the way of the other but I don't see the point of limiting America Chavez to just one version in the comics without variants, that one sounds like limiting possibilities for no reason.

Kieron Gillen’s reason for giving her that detail was that it showed how she was born in a dimension outside of the Multiverse. That and it would’ve been way overpowered for the YA to fight an army of evil America Chavezes in the climax of his run.

I like it because it gives her a unique perspective as the Paramedic of the Multiverse, seeing all the dimensions and appreciating each one.

The main reason for keeping the multiverses separate is so that the MCU is not beholden to status quo changes with the comics multiverse. Comics move at a much faster pace than films down, and trying to coordinate things between them would be an exercise in futility.

Kevin Feige does not want to be in a position where someone from the comics side comes to him and is like, "Yeah, the comics just blew up the multiverse so you need to cancel all the movies you're making." Or "So, Ultron just conquered the multiverse in the comics and that will be the status quo for the next nine months. Go back and reshoot the three movies we're releasing this year, because they need to be about life in an Ultron-controlled world."

That would be a completely asinine way to try and make movies. The films need the freedom to do their own thing without worrying about the 87 new status quo changes that just happened last month. So, hard break; The films do not take place in the same multiverse as the comics, and are not beholden to changes in the comics. When Secret War annihilates the multiverse for a year, the MCU is not required to make four Secret War tie-in films that nobody watching the movies will even understand anyway.

They can just be their own entity. Until one day in the distant future when the MCU is no longer producing movies and has been long abandoned, and is thus fair game for the comics to adopt. And on that date, we might see a resurrection of the Earth-199999 number.

I had already got that, you didn't have to write that wall of text it had already been explained.

Some storyboard artists attached to this series were suddenly laid off after their time on Season One; this is despite the show being Renewed Before Premiere, which usually means job security.

According to another Marvel storyboard artist, the reason behind the layoffs is "because there is no appetite for animation right now".

And no, they're not being "replaced for season 2", because I've seen that theory floating around, even if it makes no sense.

What in the absolute hell?

It’s really disillusioning how rapidly the industry has decided animation doesn’t matter only a year or two since animation carried the studios on their back during the pandemic.

According to Anime News Network, the 3DCG Japanese studio Polygon Pictures just posted that they're hiring for animation work on the series.

It's an interesting development, seeing as all of the concept art revealed at SDCC gave no impression that they were doing a 3DCG series. So retroactively, we can assume that the series will be using Painted CGI, kind of like What If…? (2021), but with a different approach to art style and animation timing.

That's a shame, I didn't like the animation style in What If...?

There are many 2d animated series that incorporate 3d animation. Doesnt mean 2d yet since the article doesnt make it clear if its producing animation for the entire show.

Polygon has shown their prowess before but they pump out choppy and weightless work. Hopefully someone at Disney puts their foot down and makes them get back into shape.

Looks like the show got a new name as confirmed by the show's head writer and executive producer: Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man

My gut says they changed the name because they realized they might not want to just have the events of the show take place over the course of one year.