Sony Pictures’ new project, Madame Web, features quite a few changes from the original comics. Fans have begun complaining about the character being unrelatable when the film hit theaters this week.
Madame Web stars Dakota Johnson as Cassie Web and is a live-action adaptation of the original comics. It also sets up the storylines of three Spider-Women. However, the adaptation is a fresh take on the story and is very different from the comics.
In the film, Cassie Web is portrayed as a paramedic who has the ability to see the future. Cassie also meets Julia Cornwall, Mattie Franklin, and Anya Corazon, all of whom have the same ability as Cassie and are set to become Spider-Women.
However, the three women are under threat from Ezekiel Sims as he has seen his death in their hands.
For your convenience, here are all the changes from the Madame Web comics and the film!
1. The Origin Story and Cassie’s Powers
As per the Sony film, Cassie’s mother was researching spiders in Peru when she was pregnant with Cassie. She wanted to find a spider breed that had healing properties and could heal her unborn child with a muscular disorder.
Meanwhile, Ezekiel was also looking for spiders, but he wanted to get their powers as per various myths and legends. Ezekiel shot Cassie’s mother when she found one of the magical spiders.
However, a tribe of spider-powered warriors called Las Aranas made sure Cassie was born despite her mother’s death. A bite from a rare spider also cured her disorder. The spider’s bite leads to Cassie developing the ability to see the future, which is very different from her origin story in the comics.
In the comics, Cassie was born a mutant capable of seeing the future. She was also born blind and paralyzed. Her husband later built her a web-like system, which eventually cured her.
Cassie used her powers to help superheroes such as Spider-Man and other Spider-Women. She is also much older in the comics than in the film.
The film version of Cassie does not get blind or paralyzed until the end. The twist was a forced one to make her more relatable to the comics fans. Moreover, in the comics, Ezekiel is Peter Parker’s mentor and not a villain.
The other Spider-Women’s origin stories are completely ignored in the film, and viewers are supposed to assume that they all got their powers from the same spider that bit Cassie.
2. Who are the Las Aranas Spider Tribe?
The spider tribe called Las Aranas, who helped in Cassie’s birth, is not from the original comics. The Peruvian warriors and the spiders are new creations in the film. They are used to explain the source of Cassie and the other Spider-Women’s powers.
Moreover, there is no explanation about the source of Spider-Man’s powers in the Sony universe and if the Peruvian spiders are responsible for it. In the comics, Spider-Man was bitten by a radioactive spider.
There’s also no information about the origins of La Aranas and their history and background. We also don’t find out what happened to the people in the present timeline in the film other than the role of a warrior named Santiago.
In the movie, Santiago helps Cassie unlock her powers when Cassie suddenly decides to travel to Peru amid Ezekiel’s hunt for the girls. Moreover, this sequence is also responsible for changing Uncle Ben’s classic Spider-Man line about responsibility and power.
3. How Madame Web’s Altered Backstory Affects the Spider-Man Universe
The origin of the spider-powers for Cassie, Ezekiel, and the three future Spider-Women seems to be a simple bite from a Peruvian spider, each granting different abilities.
Yet, the implications of this for Peter Parker’s fate in Sony’s Spider-Man Universe remain unclear and frustrating, especially with the comic book’s backstory.
On the whole, the concept of Peruvian spiders is a massively convenient way to explain all the unique powers without delving into the backstories.
Therefore, it will alienate most of the fanbase connected to these Spider-Man characters from the original Marvel Comics.
4. About Madame Web
Madame Web is an upcoming American superhero film based on the Marvel Comics character of the same name, produced by Columbia Pictures and Di Bonaventura Pictures.
Distributed by Sony Pictures Releasing, it is intended to be the sixth film in Sony’s Spider-Man Universe (SSU). The film is being directed by S. J. Clarkson from a screenplay by Burk Sharpless and Matt Sazama.
The cast includes Dakota Johnson, Sidney Sweeney, Emma Roberts, Adam Scott, and more. Madame Web is scheduled to be released in the United States on February 16, 2024.
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