Ah, another Comic-Con and another Spider-Man panel. These things almost feel like tradition at this point. But then again, for Marvel fans is that a bad thing?
Of course, the old Webhead made the biggest impact this evening at San Diego. And this is in no small part thanks to Andrew Garfield. Two years ago, the actor who would be Spidey appeared in the crowd as a fan and gave a sincere from-the-heart testimonial of what the Wallcrawler means to him. In that appearance he dressed as how a fan would dress as the character. This year for The Amazing Spider-Man 2? He came as Spider-Man. Literally.
Yep, Garfield showed up in the full regalia to announce what he loves about playing the web-slinger. “Everything,” he surely grinned. He also performed an unneeded mea culpa over his hilarious “gay Spider-Man” theory. Though it was told in jest, and his point about why there isn’t a gay superhero made painfully clear given the fanboy backlash to even thinking such a thought, he had to walk back the statements some.
Garfield promised that they needed to stay true to the character. "It would be weird if he was suddenly with a black man in the third one,” the Brit said with a look to co-star Jamie Foxx. Foxx, who plays the villainous Electro, just gave a devil-may-care shrug that may as well have said, “Why not?” Careful Jamie, or you may be doing your own PR penance on The Tonight Show or some such before long.
However, it was not all political at the panel. We also got some delicious footage that showed us many things. There were glimpses of the mundane details of Peter Parker’s life, such as making excuses to Aunt May as to why there were red and blue stains in the laundry (“I was washing the flag,” was his hilarious dodge). We also see Spider-Man saving a pre-Electro Max Dillon who is amazed that Spidey even knows his name (it’s from his ID card).
And while there is no Rhino in the trailer, we get plenty of glimpses of all the big bads scheduled to appear. Paul Giamatti is gleefully revealed as Aleksei Mikhailovich Sytsevich, a crook making a move at Oscorp and being all-nasty with his tattoos. Also, Electro’s transformation is glimpsed when he is electrocuted by a live wire and falls into a tank of electric eels (you read that right). And finally we are teased Norman Osborn (Chris Cooper) as he lies in his seeming death bed and decrees the lessons of such a fate to his son, Harry (Dane DeHaan). However, given Felicity Jones’ latest semi-spoiler about being the Green Goblin’s girlfriend, we can only wonder who will be appearing on the glider later in the movie.
Unfortunately, none of this footage is available online. But in case you missed it, here is the pre-Comic-Con Spidey teaser of Electro in action. Enjoy:
Back to the panel. All involved seemed happy to be there. Highlights include Webb admitting that while he pulled from many stories, Ultimate Spider-Man inspired him visually, at least in part, on this film. He also confirmed that Electro can disappear into electrical sockets, contributing to his “god-like” nature. That can only mean trouble for Spidey’s mechanical webshooters (Webb hinted at this). When asked if there were too many villains or if this would be similar to Spider-Man 3, Webb attempted to soothe fears, promising Electro is the main villain.
But the line of the event belonged to Garfield. When asked where he would like to see Spider-Man go next, he deadpanned, “The Avengers.” If only, if only.