Editorials Reviews Previews Essays Worth Playing

Movies & Series

Movies & Series 02 January 2021, 18:00

author: Marek Jura

Scarlet Spider (Kaine Parker). Marvel's heroes who deserve their own movies

Table of Contents

  1. What it should be: a psychedelic action movie with a plot twist at the end
  2. What would interest viewers to begin with: a mature story from Scarlet Spider-Volume 1: Life After Death

Scarlet Spider is a great example of a side character created for the needs of only one series, which has gained enough popularity among fans that he managed to stay in the universe for longer. Nothing strange in that - from a rather cliched idea of being another clone of a well-known superhero (in the case of this hero, of course, it is Peter Parker), he became an incredible alternative to often (though not always!) written and drawn for slightly younger Spider-Man fans.

In a sense, Kaine Parker (because he is mentioned – Scarlet Spider was also the nickname of other superheroes) is just an improved R-rated Peter Parker. In addition to sharing Spider-Man's spider pack, he can burn out Kaine's mark, is undetectable by spider-sense, and boasts quite substantial claws (similar to Wolverine's Adamantite claws). For a while, he could even turn into giant arachnid... something that earned him the nickname tarantula.

Kaine competed for a long time with another Parker clone, Ben Reilly, teetering on the edge of being an anti-hero and "the good guy." In the end, however, he reconciled with his great rival and started working as a superhero (although - as the Marvel equivalent of IRS would put it – officially unregistered). The people of Houston gave him the nickname Scarlet Spider. If you haven't read the comic book, take my word for it, the potential for a stand-alone movie is huge... except it might be hard to stick it somewhere. Rumors about the creation of a film with Kaine appeared a decade ago, but nothing came of it. Now there is speculation about the chances of seeing this character in the sequel to Doctor Strange or in the new Spider-Man, but – to tell the truth – I fear that Scarlet Spider will wait for his debut for at least a few more years. But I wouldn't mind if I was wrong.

A refreshed take on the superhero team convention was the New Warriors team, which appeared in 1989 with the help of Tom DeFalco and Ron Frenz. The team (in its various incarnations), besides Scarlet Spider, included among others Nova (who has a chance to debut on the big screen in Guardians of the Galaxy 3), Sun girl, Speedball, Water Snake or Namorita. It is a pity that the comedy show was canceled after filming the pilot (and apparently even the management liked it). However, this gives an opportunity for the next installment of the adventures of New Warriors to be a little more faithful to the comic book original.

Marek Jura

Marek Jura

In 2016, he graduated in philology at UAM. Since then, he has been reviewing prose, poetry, movies, series, and video games for GRYOnline.pl. He took his first steps in the journalism industry as a newsman in a local tabloid. He ran his own company - he designed, created, tested, and sold board games. He published several short stories and is also preparing his debut volume of poetry. Trains martial arts. A feminist, vegan, fan of pineapple on pizza, cat lover, dislikes Bethesda and Amazon, likes Lovecraft, Agents of SHIELD, P:T, Beksiński, Hollow Knight, performance, abstract art, game mods and dumplings.

more

See/Add Comments