Summary

• Sony's Spider-Man Universe has had some disappointing lows, but they've spawned hilarious memes.
• While the Venom movies have largely escaped the meme treatment, Morbius and Madame Web have inspired plenty.
• Humor in the form of memes has helped audiences deal with the shortcomings of the franchise, particularly highlighting the absence of Spider-Man and generally poor writing.

In stark contrast to the MCU, Sony's Spider-Man Universe has experienced a rocky road throughout its 4-film tenure, and some of the memes it has spawned sum it up perfectly. While Sony still owns the movie rights to Spider-Man, its Spider-Man Universe has yet to feature the web-slinger in any meaningful capacity beyond the briefest of cameos. Instead, it has been delving into other characters within the Spider-Man mythos, with villains, in particular, taking center stage.

Unfortunately, this has led to a general air of skepticism surrounding the cinematic franchise as the money-spinning property that is Spider-Man himself is notably absent from the stories being told. Audiences are apparently not as invested in lesser-known characters like Morbius, leaving Sony under a lot of pressure to deliver standalone Spider-Man movies that stoke enthusiasm. Given that Sony's Spider-Man movies have received mixed-to-poor reviews so far, things aren't looking too rosy for the franchise. At least the internet has introduced plenty of humor to the situation with some stellar memes.

10 The Marvels Receives Justice

Madame Web (2024) Vs. The Marvels (2023)

It's no secret that Madame Web has failed to stick the landing and is already being considered the worst movie in Sony's Spider-Man Universe. This makes the fact that The Marvels did so poorly at the box office, despite being a great movie, even more painful. As it stands, Madame Web doesn't look like it will fare much better financially, but as a dark mirror into what could have been, fans are now even happier to pin their flag to one cinematic franchise in particular. All that remains is for Kraven the Hunter or Venom 3 to prove their potential.

9 Scary Script Similarities

Madame Web's Script Is Compared To Scary Movie

Among the main criticisms of Madame Web is the clunky script, which left little room for the movie's stars to work with, resulting in some exceptionally unconvincing moments of dialogue and exposition. The situation was so bad that parallels can be drawn between the purposely over-the-top and hammy acting of Anna Faris' Cindy from the Scary Movie franchise. Unsurprisingly, this has led to such responses as "flawlessly?" as an ironic cult following is beginning to emerge from the largely poorly-received release of Madame Web.

8 Morbin' History

The Birth Of "It's Morbin' Time!"

The rampant meme culture that now seems to surround Sony's Spider-Man Universe undoubtedly began with a trend that saw audiences propagating a line from Morbius that did not exist: "It's Morbin' time!" This homage to The Thing from the Fantastic Four franchise (whose catchphrase is "It's clobberin' time!") became so widespread that it is largely credited with causing Sony to misguidedly re-release the movie in theaters, only to have Morbius flop for a second time. The unfortunate truth, however, was that the fabricated line was a satirical demonstration of how many people had not seen the movie.

7 Sony's Very Specific Niche

People Want To See How Bad Madame Web Is (And Enjoy It Regardless)

After garnering so many poor reviews, Madame Web has started to veer into the "so bad, it's good," subset of cinema. This, perversely, has encouraged some audiences to spend money on a ticket for a more unconventional reason: to laugh along, regardless. The Room is perhaps the most famous example of a movie that gained a cult following specifically for how bad it was, becoming a sleeper success several years later. While Madame Web certainly isn't as bad, and unlikely to achieve a similar cult classic status, this could be a bittersweet consolation prize for Sony.

6 Shut It Off, Sony

The "With Great Power" Line Is Butchered In Madame Web

Though it is still in vogue, Morbius is not the first of Sony's movies to be heavily memed. That accolade goes to Sam Raimi's Spider-Man movies, which have formed the basis for many meme templates - though with a decidedly more affectionate angle in recent years. Unsurprisingly, the Raimi memes have been coming in thick and fast, referencing Sony's new Spider-Man movies, with an unfortunate line in Madame Web providing the basis for this one.

The scene in question uses the line "When you take on the responsibility, great power will come," in reference to Cassandra Web's clairvoyance. With Uncle Ben's "With great power comes great responsibility" line in Raimi's Spider-Man being so iconic, this gratuitous jumbling of similar words fell decidedly short in Madame Web, highlighting Sony's preoccupation with vapid callbacks and references. Here, the sentiment is mirrored by Eddie Brock's attempt to stop Peter Parker from destroying the symbiote in Spider-Man 3; much in the same vein as how Madame Web butchered an otherwise iconic line.

5 Is Morbius Really That Bad?

Some Fans Genuinely Enjoyed Morbius

After the release of Madame Web, Morbius is no longer the default worst movie in Sony's superhero catalog. This might lead some to look back at the movie a little more kindly, though the sentiment was not nonexistent even around the time of its release. Despite poor reviews taking aim at its shoddy script once again, Morbius still had plenty of redeeming features that made it a largely enjoyable watch, including Morbius himself and Leto's performance. Unfortunately, this was not enough to save Morbius from Sony's perceived mishandling of the Spider-Man universe.

4 A Not So Villainous Universe

Sony Is Turning Spider-Man's Villains Into Heroes

While Spider-Man has one of the most iconic rogues' galleries in history, there seems to be a distinct departure from the source material occurring in Sony's cinematic adaptations of their origins. While Venom and Morbius have played the role of villain and antihero in the comics, Kraven the Hunter's upcoming foray into heroism is a little harder to explain. Plus, Sony's Spider-Man Universe has yet to depict what everybody wants to see: Spider-Man fighting his most iconic villains. Whitewashing the villains' images before the chance arises, therefore, doesn't bode well for the future of the franchise.

3 The MORBCU

Fans Are Creating Their Own Morbius Cinematic Universe

The phenomenon of shared cinematic universes has become incredibly prolific since the MCU, and those behind the rampant Morbius memes have wasted no time in inserting their favorite hero into his own cinematic universe. This has led to many doctored images of other movie posters, including Black Panther: Wakanda Forever and Avatar, featuring Morbius' transformed face and "Morb" shoehorned into the title. The upcoming release slate for the DC Universe is another movie franchise to receive the treatment, with "Supermorb: Legacy," and "Batmorb: The Brave and the Morb," leading the slate.

2 Let Me Take Control

Fans Clamor For Marvel To Reacquire Spider-Man Rights

The poor performance of some of Sony's Spider-Man movies became a much harder pill to swallow after Marvel's integration of Spider-Man into the MCU landed so well. This has led to the widespread belief that Spider-Man, the rights to which are still owned by Sony and essentially on loan to Marvel when he appears in the MCU, should return "home" to Marvel, which has proved more capable of handling his stories. Given that Spider-Man is such an incredibly profitable character, Sony is highly unlikely to relinquish him, however.

1 Sony's Spider-Less Universe

Sony's Spider-Man Universe Has A Lot Of Gaps

The lack of a titular hero in his own cinematic franchise is certainly one thing, but Spider-Man isn't the only glaring omission from Sony's Spider-Man Universe so far. The creative license being deployed has led to some perceived slights against some of Marvel Comics' most iconic villains, which include a lack of Spider-Man in Venom's origin story, and a supposed lack of hunting in the upcoming Kraven the Hunter movie. Now that Madame Web has turned Ezekiel Sims into a villain, it looks like the changing of the source material won't slow down any time soon.

Key Release Dates

• 

  Deadpool & Wolverine

  Release Date:

  2024-07-26

• 

  Captain America: Brave New World

  Release Date:

  2025-02-14

• 

  Marvel's Thunderbolts

  Release Date:

  2025-05-02

• 

  Marvel's Fantastic Four

  Release Date:

  2025-07-25

• 

  Blade (2025)

  Release Date:

  2025-11-07

• 

  Avengers: The Kang Dynasty

  Release Date:

  2026-05-01

• 

  Avengers: Secret Wars

  Release Date:

  2027-05-07