So there's obviously a lot of talk about the possibilities of Spider-Man (the character and The Amazing Spider-Man as a film) joining the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU). The big missing link is that the Oscorp tower from TASM was intended to be included in the skyline in The Avengers, but wasn't finished digitally in time. There are arguments for both sides of the debate, but I want to talk a little about the evidence we have. The biggest question is "if Spider-Man was around for the Avengers, why didn't he help out in the Manhattan battle?" Which, let's face it, is a stupid question. People seem to forget that the time span of when the heroes discovered where the tesseract was, to the portal opening, to the whole fight ending with the aliens shorting out, didn't really take that much time. So by the time Parker would have heard the news, changed into his suit, and gotten there, it might have been over. The same concept applies to War Machine's absence, which Marvel actually explained in their tie-in comics.
However, a much more interesting theory has come up, and it warrants me re-watching both The Avengers and The Amazing Spider-Man. The idea is that TASM actually takes place AFTER the events of The Avengers. Which means a couple of things. Firstly, the reason Spider-Man didn't help out the Avengers could be simply that he didn't have powers yet. Another common question is if they co-exist, why didn't the Avengers help out with the Lizard? Again, consider the actual time span, the Lizard was never out in public for a super long time. But if TASM takes place after The Avengers, after Thor has returned to Asgard, Banner is probably hiding out again, and Stark is in some place that I won't tell because I know I have readers that don't want to know that spoiler yet (hi Derek!), basically the Avengers have gone Cosmic and Global (Cap joining SHIELD), so local, relatively minor threats in NYC don't really concern the "big guns" of the MCU anymore. Which leaves a niche that needs to be filled, as you can read about in an earlier blog post. And Spider-Man can help fill that void, and Marc Webb is setting up a huge Spider-Man universe that you can read about on other blogs and news sites, with multiple heroes, Oscorp and Osborn, possibly leading to a sinister six storyline. Which could be its own mini-verse inside the larger scale MCU.
Among other things, this could lead to Norman Osborn stealing the Iron Patrior armor (because in the comics Iron Patriot was worn by Osborn, and in Iron Man 3 it's worn by Rhodes/War Machine.
But there's another fun possible fact linking this concept to reality.
Anyone find it odd how many cranes there were in TASM near the end? I loved that scene, absolutely loved it, it was such a powerful and uplifting scene, but in the back of my mind, behind all the awe, I thought, is it normal to have that many cranes on one road?
So the point has been brought forward. What if TASM takes place after The Avengers? And what if all those cranes are there because they're rebuilding major parts of the city that were destroyed by the aliens? A fun idea, and it makes me want to rewatch both movies to see if there are any more possible hints of breadcrumbs for me to follow. If you can think of any, please comment on this post.
An extra fun thing here. In the old Spider-Man comics, he tried early on to join the Fantastic Four, but he had a bad public image, and a mask, and the FF couldn't trust him since they didn't have secret identities. This could translate well into the MCU. Originally in the comics, all of the Avengers had secret identities (except Cap) -- Iron Man, Giant Man and Wasp, Thor, later on Hawkeye, Quicksilver, and Scarlet Witch. These heroes all had secret identities from each other. But in the MCU, every identity is public. Stark announced himself to the world, Banner didn't really have much control over the government finding out who he is, Hawkeye and Black Widow are just agents whose identities are known to everyone who matters, everybody knows who Cap is, and Thor has no "secret" human identity, he's just the prince of Asgard (although photos of the new Thor movie suggest he'll become King). So without any secret identities, the same issue could arise for Spider-Man as the FF in the comics.
So many thoughts! So many ideas! I hope to get so many comments! Get started!
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