With so much coming out of the Warner Bros., 20th Century Fox, and Marvel panels at Comic-Con, it's been easy to gloss over the many developments that emerged out of Sony's Spider-Man presentation. A great deal of The Amazing Spider-Man 2 footage was shown to the buzzing Hall H crowd, introduced by director Marc Webb, and stars Jamie Foxx, Dane DeHaan, and Andrew Garfield. Much of the footage centered on the villain Electro, and it shows his human alter ego Max Dillon to be a downtrodden man who has no power in his life, until he has a chance encounter with Spider-Man, which forces him to reevaluate everything. There's a great scene where Spidey saves Dillon, then helps to fix the character's bad comb-over by having him lick his hand. We also see that Electro's origin involves a vat full of electric eels. It also appears that some of the other villains in the film, such as Paul Giamatti's Rhino, will only have small appearances initially.
Webb has been making the press rounds almost non-stop all week, and he clarified a little on an earlier comment by Felicity Jones that her character would be the girlfriend to the Green Goblin, and quite evil in her own right. For obvious reasons that had people thinking she'd be dating Harry Osborn, since the actor Dane DeHaan is closer to her age. But while speaking with Cinemablend, Webb says that Jones' character actually has a more "special relationship" with Norman Osborn, played by Chris Cooper. Not necessarily romantic, and probably not considering the 30+ year age gap, but one never knows. So this would mean that it will be Norman turning green first, and if the usual plotline is being followed, he'll be defeated with son Harry taking up the mantle. In the footage shown, we see a Norman Osborn who is old and sickly, and may be a patient at the Ravencroft Institute. How that factors into the story is anybody's guess, but my guess is that it will involve the character played by Colm Feore.
Speaking of which, Webb addressed rumors that we could be seeing the formation of the Sinister Six, a collection of villains who all have a serious mad-on for Spidey. He spoke with Crave, and revealed a major clue about an obscure character who may be responsible for bringing the villains together...
Webb: "Think about the Gentleman. I’m just saying. Put that in your… There’s your little tidbit. Think about The Gentleman."
In the comics, the Sinister Six is largely formed by Doctor Octopus after getting his butt kicked one too many times. But in the series of novels by Adam-Troy Castro, the team is formed by a figure known as The Gentleman. His real name was Gustav Fiers, and he hated Spider-Man because of the actions of his parents, who years earlier had thwarted many of his criminal schemes. There would have to be some tweaks to the story, but this would be a logical way to tie-in a story on Peter Parker's quest for knowledge on his parents' activities, while building to the emergence of the Sinister Six in future films. My guess is that this man who forms the team in the movie will turn out to be Feore's character, who we know is associated with Ravencroft, but seems to mostly be shrouded in mystery.
It should be noted that the Gentleman storyline introduced a new character named Pity, a woman who was ostensibly his slave, but had superhuman powers matching those of Spider-Man, and she could nullify his "spider sense". She was a member of that version of the Sinister Six, and it was Electro who took a special interest in her. Coincidence that Webb would reference this particular storyline with so many connecting pieces? Doubtful.
So lots going on with Spidey right now, and there's plenty more to learn about as the film doesn't open until May 2nd 2014.
