Spider-Man swings back into the fold!

Long rumored and longer desired, Spider-Man is finally coming to the shared Marvel movie world. The news broke last night that the most vexing of the properties that Marvel farmed out back in the day and has always wanted to get back will no longer be sequestered: Sony and Marvel have agreed to a partnership that will allow Peter Parker and co. into the Avengers-verse. And many hallelujahs rang out amongst fans of the spectacular/amazing one.A fresh solo film has already been announced for 2017, and it’s almost a given that he’ll pop up before then, perhaps most logically in Captain America: Civil War, given the source material. (Long before anything was official it was whispered that Marvel was eager to get the rights back to incorporate him into that Captain America vs. Iron Man framework.) The roadkill here is Andrew Garfield, who I thought was capable in the two films that were middling at best — can’t argue with Marvel wanting a clean slate, though.

The screen Marvel Universe feels much more whole now. As much as one loves the Fantastic Four, they’ve never felt quite as vital as the wall-crawler — it’s the affiliated characters (Doctor Doom, Galactus, the Silver Surfer, etc.) that glitter the most. And the X-Men, while a huge chunk of Marvel doings, have always been sequestered to a degree in their mutant sphere.

Anyway — Spider-Man is no longer locked in his own little movie bubble. Soon he’ll be up there alongside Thor and the Hulk and Iron Man and all the rest. Good news no matter how you spin it.