Hey, brother! What do you think, is this too subtle for today's video? Hashtag 'Merica. Happy Independence Day everyone, or if you're not in America
Just regular 4th day of July,
Hope the weather is nice. Speaking of subtlety though. Do you know what's not Subtle?
American flags in Spider-Man movies. And since Spider-Man Homecoming comes out this week, and it's basically American flag day,
I want to take today to discuss the weird relationship these two things have developed in recent history
HEY, BROTHER!
If you are unfamiliar with this particular easter egg it started way back in
2002 at the end of Spider-Man 1. Spidey is swinging through the City
And he ends on a giant flagpole somewhere in New York
Which is bearing the American flag. And hey, it's New York, it's a tall building
Maybe there would be an American flying up there. Probably you didn't even think twice about it.
Then it shows up again in Spider-Man 2 pretty much at the exact same moment.
During the end scene where Spider-Man is swinging through the city- a scene by the way which they are definitely trying to show off their impressive
2004 CGI graphics and I have to say great scene!
Does not hold up. But nonetheless boom American flags, but again. It's New York city. Maybe there would be American flags there.
Who's to say this is intentional? Well enter
Spider-Man 3
I don't know if you guys saw that it was very subtle somewhat easy to miss American flag in that seems about it's right
HERE!!!
Ugh!
Spider-Man three ruined it! And by 'it,' I mean
Everything! Y ou made it so that I can't tell people the Toby McGuire version of Spider-Man is my favorite one because you're what everyone thinks of.
Because seriously unless you were like there,
Experiencing the Spider-Man phenomenon as it was happening
It's kind of hard to explain to people especially today when we have so many great superhero movies
but back then in
2002/2004 all we had was Spider-Man sure there were some Fondly remembered Batman movies
and yes people like some of the old Superman movies, but mostly what we had were things like Daredevil or
Elektra or Hulk or
Catwoman but nothing in the superhero genre ever came close to achieving what Spider-Man did. I mean when it came out?
It was the number one highest grossing movie of all time
It had everything you wanted in a superhero movie with good writing good storytelling memorable characters
Bright colors, good fight scenes, good CGI that aged poorly, but we didn't know that at the time, and I mean
Do you remember just how many other things in Pop culture
Had to copy the "Spider-Man kissing Mary Jane scene in the rain"? Because it was everywhere!
But no, you don't remember it because everyone just remembers Spider-Man 3 and this stupid
Stupid Emo dance. Ugh, and the Dance aside, I mean they just ruined everything. I mean do you know how excited
I was to see Venom and then they did this!?
*SIGH*
So yeah after at Spider-Man 3, Sony decided to lay off of the character for a while,
but if Spider-man doesn't appear in a movie after a certain number of years, they lose the rights to the character, so
Reboot! Enter the Andrew Garfield
Era, where, right out of the gate, you can tell they are doing everything
Imaginable to get you to forget about Spider-Man. 3 Mary Jane? Nope, Gwen Stacy. Biological web shooters?
Nope, mechanical. Aunt May? Way younger.
Remember Lizard? The villain they set up in Spider-Man 2 that should have been the only villain in Spider-Man 3? Yeah boom,
He's the bad guy. I mean they didn't even let Uncle Ben say, "with great power comes great responsibility."
Although they do dance around it really awkwardly: "Do good things for other people. You had a moral obligation to do those things, not choice. Responsibility."
I mean literally everything is different, but you know what they didn't drop? Boom.
American Flags.
Yes,
Somehow despite all the changes, THAT easter egg snuck through, and I know what you're thinking,
The American flag doesn't count easter egg. It could just be in any movie,
It's just it's just a regular thing right? No. It is definitely on purpose.
I mean, one, let me remind you of that Spider-Man 3 scene, and then, two, in the amazing Spider-Man 2,
They're basically starting to make jokes about it: "Last time you did the laundry, you turned everything blue and red!"
"Because I was washing the... The American Flag, please just-"
"No one washes a flag!"
Now to be clear, I don't have any issue with the American flag, or this Easter egg in general.
I'm just trying to understand it because there's nothing
particularly
American about Spider-man. I mean yes, his suit is the appropriate color scheme.
And he is generally based out of New York, but his like
Motivation and credo is "with great power comes great responsibility." That's why he's doing it.
It's not, you know, "truth and justice and the American way." That's Superman, who, to be fair, is a DC character.
but if it were me, and I was going to pick a marvel hero to be all Americanized, I would pick um... uh...
Tony Stark! King of Capitalism. Or no, who's the other one? Yeah, Captain America.
Speaking of which, that brings us to the latest version of Spider-Man portrayed by Tom Holland and again
There's even more changes: Aunt May gets even younger, and the web shooters get even MORE mechanical, and now his entire suit
was literally built by Iron Man. And yet,
Do you remember the very first reveal of this character in the Marvel cinematic universe?
It was at the end of a trailer for Civil War, and boom:
Carrying Cap's shield. I mean Spider-Man existed for exactly one second in the Marvel cinematic universe
Before they put a flag on him, and if you're thinking, "well yeah, but that's not even one of his movies," don't worry!
They've got you covered.
The trailers have already revealed this easter egg, and they take it one step further
He's literally having fights on top of the Washington monument
So, what is the deal?
Why does the American flag keep getting tossed in with Spider-Man despite his general lack of overt Americanism?
The answer is September 11th, 2001.
As I said earlier, Spider-Man 1 came out in
2002 so they were well into production during 2001 when the 9/11 attacks happened.
And of course they realized they were filming a movie in New York that involved a lot of explosions in New York, so yeah, some adjustments
Definitely had to be made. They actually edited out a few scenes where you could see the Twin Towers
in the background and the addition of the American flag on the flagpole at the very end of the movie was
Decided late into production. And like I said earlier, at the time,
Spider-Man was literally THE most popular movie EVER, and that scene at the end with the flagpole was iconic.
It showed a strong United America and New York just one year after the attack. It showed us
Surviving and coming together, but was also a fun and entertaining movie that everyone kind of needed at the time, so, at that moment,
Spider-Man unwittingly became an American icon. That is why I think no matter how many versions of Spider-Man we see
Throughout the years,
They will ALWAYS include the American flag, because it's a nod to that moment; the moment when Spiderman for just a few seconds
Wasn't just fighting the Green Goblin that day. Happy 4th of July everyone! Let me know in the towel section below, "Who is your favorite Spider-Man?"
These socks are amazing!
and a special thanks to these Patrons who support Super Carlin Brothers on Patreon.
Guys, thanks for watching as always. Please remember to like this video if you haven't already, and subscribe so you don't miss any future
Marvel action from us. If you want to see my Spider-Man Google Autofill video, you can check that out right here.
Or, if you want to see Stan Lee's cameos explained, you can check out that theory right here. Ben, that's all I've got for you today, man.
I will see you in another life, brother.