Empire Australasia – August 2019

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7

mademelooklikethesmartest

guyintheroom.Simmons’

irascible,raspingJJJwasoneof

thestandoutsofSamRaimi’s

trilogy,andtoseehiminthis

Spider-verse,bustingPeter

Parker’sballs,seemedlikean

impossibledream.Butthenhe

poppedupattheveryendof

themovie,astheshockjock,

AlexJones-esquefigureheadof

TheDailyBugle(.net),andI

realisedGabriellewasright:

JJJJOINSTHESPIDER-VERSE

dreamscancometrue.Wecould

tieourselvesinknotsallday

aboutwhetherthisis somehow

thesameJJJoftheRaimi

movies,butit’sclearlynot.

Wattsandcocouldhave

reinventedJamesonasa teen

vlogger,butSimmons’turnas

JJJwassomemorablethat

fillinghisshoeswouldhavebeen

tough.Nowwegettoseehim

tormentPeterinthenextmovie.

Notallvillainswearcapes.

6 THEPETERTINGLE

Ben Travis: In Spider-Man 2’s ‘Spider-Mannomore’

storyline, Peter wanted to give uphisSpider-Man

duties and his powers start to fade.Here,Peter

needs a short break from his heroicexploits,

and his Spider-senses are diminisheduntil

he really needs to use theminthe

fight against Mysterio.

WARNING!

ILE

RS!

SPOILERS! SPOILERS!

SP

OILE

ChrisHewitt:A coupleofweeks

ago,I drafteda tweetinwhich

I posedthequestion,“Ifyou

coulddropanycharacterfrom

a non-MCUMarvelfilmintoan

MCUfilm,whowouldit beand

why?”I neverpressedsend,

largelybecausethatsentence

is soconvolutedyouneeda

degreetofigureit out.ButI wish

I had,formychoicewouldhave

beenJ.K.Simmons’J. Jonah

Jameson,andthatwouldhave

Righ

“Sp

you

A w

returnfor

J.K.Simmons’

irasciblemedia

nemesis,J.

JonahJameson.

Below:

The Filthand

the Fury.Except

the Filth— the

Skrulls— were

the goodguys

after all,led

by Talos.

8 THESECONDSTING

ChrisHewitt:Marvelpost-creditstings

tendtofallintotwocamps.Ones

immediatelyaftertheendofthefilmtend

tohavenarrativerepercussionsfortheMCU.

So,PeterParker’sidentitybeingrevealedtothe

worldfallsintothatcamp.Andtheonesrightat

theendofthemovietendtobea gas,a lark,a

laugh.AndFarFromHome’s revealthatNickFury

andMariaHillhaveactuallybeenTalosand

a fellowSkrullfromtheoffis certainlyallthree

ofthosethings.Butit alsoopensa canof

spaceworms.WhentheSkrullswere

announcedforCaptainMarvel, it wasn’ttoo

hardtoenvisagea scenarioinwhichsome

majorMCUcharactersturnedouttohavebeen

shapeshiftingaliensallalong.ThenCaptainMarvel

diditsownrug-pullbyturningtheSkrullsintogood

guys.Butthistwistshowsthatthatpossibilitystill

exists.A moviethatconstantlytellsusnotto

believeeverythingweseemayhavesowedlarger

seedsofdoubt.

BenTravis:ThesecondstingnotonlyrevealsTalos

is backonEarth— butthatFuryhasembarkedona

boozyvacationtothecosmos.TheS.H.I.E.L.D.

leader’songoingcontactwiththeSkrullsis a

potentialCaptainMarvelsequeltease— andcould

histripamongthestarsbringhimface-to-facewith

TheEternals?TheMCU’sfourthphaseremains

unnannouncedfornow,butreportsindicatethatthe

near-immortalgroupofspacedeitieswillarrivein

themovieuniversesoonerratherthanlater.Who

bettertowelcomethemthantheAvengers

assembler?

I

ht:

ider-Man,

’reFIRED!”

elcome