The coverage of the Disney/Sony Split over the Spider-Man films has been overwhelmingly negative and as a result, there have been more than a few theories about what Sony\’s plans for the Spider-Man Universe are. So here’s mine. After buying the entire Spider-Man Universe there are at least seven films planned and no doubt Sony wants to cameo their heroes in each other’s films before bringing them into one big film. But, what event is big enough to involve all the Spider-Man universe particularly Morbius who unfortunately is a C list figure in the comics. The answer- Maximum Carnage.

Cletus Kasady has already been introduced in Venom. The Spider-Man 3 movie game already had Shriek and Morbius married so there’s a chance she could appear in the Morbius film (at time of writing little information has been released on the film). After all Michael tries a wide variety of experiments to cure himself so why couldn’t he try something on Shriek or even as a way to atone for his mistakes he works on inmates. Following that huge cliff-hanger in Spider-Man- Far From Home I’ve been thinking of ways that Peter could get around the public knowing his secret identity. I don’t think we are going to get a Mephisto style deal like in One More Day so another way of solving this is clones.

Before everyone groans about the 90’s Clone Saga which admittedly did go on far too long, remember that one of its goals was to get Peter back to how he used to be. Also by focusing on clones you would get rid of one of mine and no doubt other people’s biggest criticism of the Disney’s Spider-Man films- Iron Man inadvertently creating his villains. Anyway now that I have attempted to justify clones, it’s time to show how clones could solve the secret identity crisis in one sentence. Have Ben Reilly die in front of everyone and evaporate like clones do whilst Peter is in public view. This ending reminds me of the comics where Prowler and countless others have stood in so that Peter and Spider-Man could be in the same room.

How would clones fit in with Maximum Carnage? Well the Doppelganger from the storyline was a six armed demon Spider-Man, a character that could easily be retconned to become a failed clone. Speaking of failed clones another character in Maximum Carnage was Carrion one of the first clones. That leaves Demogoblin as the only character from Carnage’s family/team that couldn’t easily appear on the big screen. However, there are several other Spider-Man Universe films planned like Black Cat, Kraven the Hunter and even Nightwatch so there are plenty of other villains who could replace Demogoblin. That’s my theory about the continuation of the Sony Spider-Man Universe. What’s yours? David Jenkins