Back in the early 2000s, writer J. Michael Straczynski (Babylon 5) took the Spider-Man comics into a new direction, shaking the fundamental foundation of his powers and his purpose while simultaneously creating one of the comic’s most controversial villains: Ezekiel Sims. Who now looks to be the key villain in Madame Web
Sims appears at a time of crisis for Peter Parker, and steps up to become his new mentor, with similar powers and seemingly a whole lot more knowledge of the radioactive spider that started everything, resulting in Pete’s world becoming a whole lot wider and seemingly more tangled. While not directly credited, Straczynski’s storyline looks to be an influence on the direction Sony and Marvel are going with the Spider-Verse – an interconnected web of all things spider.
In the trailer for the upcoming movie Madame Web, it looks as though Straczynski’s creation is the movie’s main villain, not that he knew it was happening, taking to Twitter to state that the trailer was the first time he realised Ezekiel would be included in the upcoming movie, which is due in cinemas next February starring Dakota Johnson.
Watch the trailer here…
Find out more about the comics with a behind-the-scenes look at the Madame Web movie here…
“And well, this just happened,” Straczynski said on Twitter. “It’s definitely the character I created for Spidey, but it feels like they may have merged it with Morlun a bit. (Don’t ask for any details because this is the first I’m hearing of it, so my guess is as good as yours.)”
When met with a slew of questions, including whether he can sue for the use of his creation he replied: “No, because comic writers don’t own what we write on a work-for-hire basis, which is how comics work for the most part (creator-owned stuff aside)” and then when asked on clarification on whether he’ll get paid for the use of the character he stated: “No, nothing.”
Want to find out where the character came from? Ezekiel Sims was first seen in The Amazing Spider-Man vol. 2 #30 by J. Michael Straczynski and drawn by John Romita .Jr. Order your copy here.
Madame Web will be in cinemas on 14 February 2024
