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So, one of the developing superhero universe stories of the late 2010s has been that Sony is looking to continue their own movie-verse that’s adjacent to Marvel’s. If you haven’t been obsessively following superhero copyright disputes and rights agreements, I’ll try and provide an abridged version. Sony owns the rights to Spider-Man as well as his attendant mythos of characters but the box office failure of the Amazing Spider-Man films coupled with the North Korea hack eroded the studio’s confidence. In the wake of dwindling returns, Sony elected to strike a shared custody agreement with Marvel Studios and Disney whereby Marvel would produce a new Spider-Man as part of their universe and Sony would get a share of the profits.
However, the rest of the Spider-Man stable of characters would have their rights determined on a case-by-case basis, which means Sony can make movies out of those characters without sharing the profits with Marvel/Disney. So far Sony’s confirmed they’re making a Venom movie with Tom Hardy and Gina Prince-Bythewood is on tap to direct a Black Cat & Silver Sable film. Now the latest hero rumored to be added to that line-up is a bizarre blast from the past in the form of…Nightwatch.
So, outwardly Nightwatch is one of those characters that I think a lot of people look at and dismiss as “the worst part of the ‘90s.” I’m somewhat tempted to disagree on that point, mainly because I’ve got a lot of genuine affection for the bizarre blend of earnestness and irony that informs a lot of the ‘90s more enjoyable oddities like Nightwatch or the Man Called Fate. Nightwatch came about during the Spider-Man franchise’s massive explosion in popularity.
He first appeared in 1993 and participated in the Maximum Carnage crossover event that really helped cement Spider-Man as Marvel’s big seller of the era. Unfortunately, that was also the event that got the marketing department to take over running the Spider-Man comics and subsequently ran them into the ground so Nightwatch never really got close to being anything more than a weird ‘90s oddity.
A big part of Nightwatch’s problem is that his origin is mired in contradiction and confusion, as was the style of Spider-Man comic at the time. This was the era of the ‘Clone Saga,’ a 3-year event that constantly went back and forth with clones, false memories, twists, and pointless reveals so that was the kind of storytelling that ended up informing Nightwatch. Real name Dr. Kevin Trench, his powers come from his high tech suit, which can turn invisible, repair itself, and features a prehensile cloak.
He discovered the armor during a terrorist attack when a mysterious figure wearing it showed up, saved the day, but was subsequently killed in the process. It ultimately turned out that the figure was Dr. Trench himself having come back in time from the future for reasons that were never made all that clear. Assuming the whole “older version of myself from the future” thing meant he was destined to adopt the mantle Trench took the suit from his dead future self and soon became Nightwatch, one of many Spider-Man supporting heroes of the ‘90s.
Most of Nightwatch’s antics are pretty firmly forgotten as comic fans tend to turn their backs on most things from the ‘90s. The only real reason people seem to remember him is because of the suspicious similarities he has with the Todd McFarlane character Spawn. Spawn was created a year earlier than Nightwatch and had a lot of the same powers like a prehensile cape and a similar black and red design aesthetic. What’s more, McFarlane had been a major force in the Spider-Man books before leaving Marvel to found Image Comics so there have always been some serious questions about whether Nightwatch was an attempt to steal the idea.
It’d certainly make sense at the time as Spawn was absolutely massive back in the ‘90s, to the point he stood alongside Batman and Spider-Man as an ambassador for the entire superhero medium. Nowadays I don’t think anyone really cares about Spawn or Nightwatch, though McFarlane’s continued attempts to get an R-rated Spawn movie off the ground in the vein of Suicide Squad or Logan probably factored into Sony dusting off this property.
Just in terms of shared universe potential Nightwatch is kind of a lateral move from the upcoming Venom film. As I mentioned he was involved in the event Maximum Carnage, which basically served as patient zero for the idea that the symbiote characters are so merchandisable. It was a massive hit comic, both commercially and critically, and launched Venom’s entire solo career in the ‘90s.
It’s been heavily hinted and implied that Carnage will be the villain of the upcoming Venom movie so I could actually see Sony trying to build a Spider-Man side-verse around a bunch of B and C list heroes going up against Carnage, in which case Nightwatch would be a logical addition to that particular roster. If that is the ultimate pitch I do hope we end up seeing some of the goofier other symbiotes from the comics like Anti-Venom and Toxin, I mean they’re not any sillier than Nightwatch.
Probably the most interesting thing about this pitch is that Nightwatch is a black superhero. That’s another thing his character is kind of borrowing from Spawn but it feels pretty notable given the current trajectory of superhero adaptations. Between 2016-2018 we’ve seen major strides made with Luke Cage, Black Lightning, and Black Panther to try and raise the visibility of black superheroes, not to mention the countless heroes of colors added to the CWniverse like Kid Flash, Martian Manhunter, and Firestorm.
As we enter the 2020s it’s starting to seem like diversity in front of and behind the camera is going to be a guiding light for the future of the superhero genre. If that really is to be the case, resurrecting a C-lister like Nightwatch might become a much more common practice as most black superheroes don’t tend to make the A-list. I’m not really sure how much of the representational angle was ultimately considered by Sony in considering Nightwatch but if they’re really serious about it there’s certainly precedent for a black urban superhero doing really well with a hard-r rating, just ask Blade.
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