Sony and Marvel might soon have a deal that will introduce Spider-Man to the Marvel Cinematic Universe yet while most of the major heroes and villains are in Sony’s wheelhouse when it comes to Spidey at the moment , there is a decent sized list that they can’t use and surprisingly the majority of these are actually lesser known villains.

Yes, of all things Sony has rights issues for a bunch of C-Listers.

The list is entertaining as they wanted to use the Santa Claus Burglar who was in the 1980s run of the Spider-Man comics. He used his Mall Santa costume to convince kids to let him know where they lived in order to break into their houses and rob their parents before the real Santa ended up stopping in. What is interesting though is that in 2011 Sony was interested in having the rights to the character.

I would assume this would be a villain for Parker to stop and not Santa. Honestly, I have to say this was a villain that could feasibly be in the current ‘Amazing Spider-Man’ universe but not one that I would really care to be watching for any extended period of time when there are so many fun villains out there. His best usage would have been in an origin story which I believe we’re all pretty done with at this point.

Next up on the list is The Amazing Bag-Man! Long time fans of Spidey will know that this is actually just Spider-Man. Why can’t a Spidey movie use Spider-Man? Well, it’s because the character is “frozen.” My guess is that because it’s Spidey with a paper bag over his head and, more importantly, wearing a ‘Fantastic Four’ uniform. I’m going to give you one guess on why rights can’t be shared and it has nothing to do with what he’s wearing on his head.

Next up is a lesser known villain called Xandu the Unspeakable who is an elder mustached man that has a cape and “hypnotic eyes.” With Mysterio I believe being a usable character, I don’t even know why they would care to bring up this second rate villain.

Hack or not, Xandu was able at one point able to wield the Eye of Agamotto and truly did look the part of a sinister classic villain. It should probably be noted that that while he tangled with Parker on numerous occasions, he really was more of an enemy of ‘Doctor Strange.’ I don’t see Marvel using him either but he’s off the table for at least Sony.

We’ve got another 80s character next that actually could feasibly be an interesting one to use in Thermo the Thermatronic Man or The Street Stalker. His power was kind of boring as he shot lasers from his hand but what was fun is that he also started a cult that worshiped him as a God. With so many actual Gods walking around the Marvel Universe this could be a great addition if updated for a modern day limited run. Well, in the comic run at least as he’d be boring in the Sony Spider-Man Universe as is.

Speaking about shooting lasers from their hands we also have The Black Abbot who wore a hooded robe and could shoot energy beams from his hands. Don’t they have the rights to The Shocker? Why yes, yes they do, which is probably why Sony had no interest in the character as they stated quite bluntly that “We don’t care about this character.”

Good choice.

Another lesser known that I’m not sure why they would want to use is Hypno-Hustler and the Mercy Killers which is a funk band who used magic goggles to hypnotize his audience and steal from them. Clearly with all of these characters being brought up it seems that someone was interested in a situation where we could see some mass hypnotization going on.

Looking to up the spy angle that could have involved an investigation into the disappearance of Parker’s Parents? How about by introducing Agent 003 who works for M15 and as a rip off of James Bond though in all actuality works for Roxxon Oil Company that is not the nicest company in the Marvel Universe? Well, considering Sony also owns the rights to the James Bond movies and weren’t a fan of this spoof to begin with, this is firmly on their “Don’t Want” list.

Now if you really want to hit the bottom of the barrel of Spidey’s villains we have Mother Inferior who is a an overweight woman who controls both rats and cockroaches and only is able to say “Skree” which is how she controls her army. Instead of trying to get the rights though the studio, Sony quite smartly put down “Recommend letting this one go.”

If the above was an indication of how the studio deals with cockroach characters there was also Tordenkakerlakk who is a magical space faring cockroach that Spidey actually wasn’t able to beat and pretended to be injured so someone else would take care of his problem. With great power comes great… abilities to put it off on another guy. Way to live the mantra Peter.

However, the most fun addition to the list has to be Spider-Ham who also goes by Peter Porker. Spider-Ham not only had a 17-Issue run but he has shown up in various forms and comics over the years including the currently running “Spider-Verse” story arc that is spreading over all of the Spider-Man titles and has launched a few new ones to compliment it. In 2011 Marvel informed Sony that the character was frozen and I’m not sure what the rights issue on this one is. I can only imagine Sony was pondering doing some kind of an animated flick with the character but for the life of me I have no idea how they would have put him in the live action movies.

What do you think of the list of characters that Sony is passing on or weren’t allowed to use. Could you see any of them having fit into ‘The Amazing Spider-Man’ universe that Sony had created? Share your thoughts below True Believers!

Source: Business Insider UK