Theory Thursday- so, a reboot. ok.

Earlier this week we got the image of the Spider-man logo for the Sony/ Marvel reboot within the Marvel cinematic universe. We have heard a couple things like how we are going to see more heroes introduced in the story and some of the cast members, but I think with the new logo we can learn a lot about how the movie is going to feel and vibe with comic book fans.

Remember the spider-man series from the 90’s? That was a series that defined what Spider-man was for an entire generation of fans, with its deep involved storylines to its quips and character development, and even faithful adaptions of classic stories like the clone saga (ew). So let’s look at that logo and see what we can observe.

More spiked than logos that came before, sharp edges, bright red and yellow colors. According to the color theory, yellow and red evoke a sense of excitement and energy. The background in the dark blue add a sense of power and seriousness. The font with the jagged edges and sharp points are definitely from the 90’s, but that’s how we recognized danger and thrills.

This same kind of thing can be said about the series from 1967 (you know the song. Stop singing in your head and read my article)

 

In live action adaptions of Spider-man, we start with the T.V. series from the 70’s. The logo this time around was rather smooth with not much ornamentation to it. The series had a lot more drama in it and, since it was a rather low budget show, most of the action came from Peter Parker doing espionage stuff before he shows up at the last minute as Spider-man to save the day. Not as much action, but more drama and social issues. Ultimately, while the 90’s and 60’s series both focused pretty hard on Spider-man heroics, this one reflected more of Peter Parkers side of things (if you haven’t seen the spider-man series of the 70’s, I suggest you do. Behind the cheesy effects and bad costumes is a rather entertaining show).

Spider-man of 2002. The first Theatrical adaptation of Spider-man in a time when comic book movies were proving their worth and showing the world how good they really good become. This logo was more of a minimalist type of look with a stainless steel finish and the occasional sheriffs on the ends and edges. More sharp angles. This series had a lot of drama in it and even the super heroics in the film were almost overshadowed by the kind of drama that was happening before and after the fights. Part action movie, part romance, part popcorn movie, part everything. To me this logo gives a feeling of seriousness and no-nonsense.

And now the new logo- Marvel/ Sony Spider-man: homecoming. There are 2 fonts used in the logo with Spider-man in a logo rather similar to that of the 70’s series. While there is some ornamentation in the lettering, I think it’s safe to say that we are probably going to get a very Peter Parker oriented Spider-man film like we did in the 70’s series. I hesitate to think that it would be another origin story, but there are plenty of good story opportunities for Peter Parker to shine over his web covered alter ego.

The next thing is the second font for the word “Homecoming”. Why homecoming? It is a spider-man story arc published but as we are seeing from the civil war trailers and Age of Ultron, the MCU isn’t too close to comic books at all. This kind of font gives a type of homemade elegance feel. Sophisticated almost. The spider-man logo in the “O” is comforting as that is a classic symbol of old-school spider-man.

The first thing I noticed though is that the color scheme is the same as the 90’s logo, making me wonder if the movie is trying to appeal to a nostalgic sense in the audience. A sort of “this movie is going to feature the spider-man that you have missed”.

My prediction: this upcoming Spider-man film slated for 2017 will feature a younger, high school aged Spider-man who has been in the webs for a couple months, possibly a year or so. It is going to be highly set around Peter Parker and his personal life rather than Spider-man action. We are going to see a lot more humor than the 2002 series and a lot more of the kind of action that the same series had.

What do you think about this logo? I missed a lot of examples of Spidey logos from the past so what are your insights? Let me know in the comments below.

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