By Chris Snellgrove | Published
Now that the DCU has made a successful debut, it’s more important than ever for the MCU to establish its own brand identity. Ironically, however, it appears that the next big Marvel project will borrow heavily from one of the greatest DC comic book storylines of all time.
New reports suggest that Spider-Man: A Whole New Day will have a mysterious enemy that will break Spider-Man’s colorful enemies out of prison, which is exactly what Bane did during the “Knightfall” storyline that ended with the villain breaking the Caped Crusader’s back.
Prison, shaken
Earlier this month, it was reported that Marvel was filming a scene in which Spider-Man would fight ninjas. Now, scooper Daniel Richtman (@DanielRPK on X) reports that Spider-Man: A Whole New Day will feature a scene where Spidey and Punisher fight villains controlled by Mike who are busy trying to break Scorpion out of prison. Collectively, these reports may depict a plot in which a mysterious new villain (perhaps Sadie Sink’s character) breaks the web-head’s biggest villains out of prison to form the greatest threat our hero has ever faced.
As a child of the ’80s, I couldn’t help but notice how similar this basic premise was to an element of Batman’s “Knightfall” storyline, which kicked into high gear when Bane freed the Dark Knight’s fiercest enemies from Arkham Asylum. His intention was to create a sort of gauntlet in which Batman would be tested to his limits. Once mentally and physically exhausted, Bane burst into the Batcave and broke Batman’s back.
Birth of the Sinister Six?
This is obviously only a superficial similarity, and we don’t yet know why the Spider-Man villain is breaking his enemies out of prison. Besides, we still don’t know who this bad guy is. They may, like Bane, want to create a gauntlet of powerful enemies for this local hero to fight (like Cap, he can do this all day long). Or maybe they’re trying to assemble a group (like the Sinister Six!) that can fight our friendly neighborhood Spider-Man as a group.
Either way, if Marvel is borrowing from the competition, they’ve chosen one of DC’s best stories for inspiration. “Knightfall” was exciting because it forced Batman to fight an iconic villain next, and that approach should work well in the MCU. After all, the only thing cooler than seeing Spider-Man fight a supervillain is watching him fight. several supervillains, preferably all at the same time.
Dark tights rise
Borrowing from “Knightfall” is also appropriate because it’s one of Batman’s darkest tales, one that crippled the Dark Knight and replaced him with a murderous religious fanatic. Spider-Man: A Whole New Day would have a much more serious tone than the previous films as it would deal with the emotional fallout of the entire world forgetting who Spider-Man is. In this case, a story in which a villain channels his inner scourge and breaks Spidey’s rogues gallery out of prison can create an external conflict that mirrors the chaotic inner turmoil of our main character’s emotions.
Only time will tell how Spider-Man: A Whole New Day will borrow from DC’s “Knightfall” storyline, and which part of the plot will be an entirely original creation. However, it’s one thing to copy the basic idea of ​​an older story, and it’s another to copy its inherently cool vibe. Unless Brand new DaYou can channel this classic DC tale while delivering an original story with the heart of Homecoming and the nostalgia of No way homeits box office could end up like Batman himself: beaten and broken.
