ScreenCrush’s Comic Strip is a weekly roundup of the hottest superhero movie/TV news items. From Marvel to DC and points in between, if it pertains to costumed comic book heroes, we’re covering it here, bringing you our expert analysis. This week, a potential title for the new Spider-Man movie may contain some story hints, new Fantastic Four information teases a weird change from the comics, and a potential update on the new Aquaman villain.

The New Spider-Man Movie May Have a Title

It’s hard to read about superhero news (and to write about it!) without stumbling across the work of the infamous El Mayimbe, who has been breaking comic book movie news over at Latino Review for years. However, the infamous scoop-master has recently revealed that he’s starting his own site in the near future ... and he dropped a very tasty morsel of news on his Instagram page as evidence of his newfound freedom.

Although he emphasizes that this is entirely unconfirmed, he claims that the working title for the upcoming Spider-Man reboot, which will work a teenaged Peter Parker into the Marvel Cinematic Universe, has a working title. And that working title is Spider-Man: The New Avenger.

For movie fans, that title should immediately remind you of Captain America: The First Avenger, a film that used its title to directly tie its lead character to the larger MCU mythos. For comic book fans, that title may bring up images of the various teams that have been called “the New Avengers” over the years, with many of them operating as completely separate (and often very unique) groups independent of the main team.

But wait! There’s more. A little while back, we heard rumors that the first solo Spidey movie would feature the webslinging superhero attempting to impress Iron Man so he could get a spot on the Avengers line-up. This is, of course, loosely based on the first issue of The Amazing Spider-Man, where a naive Peter Parker “tried out” for the Fantastic Four in a desperate attempt to find work with his newfound powers. Since Marvel’s first family can’t exist in the MCU thanks to rights issues, this sounds like a really unique way to recreate that storyline. And let’s just be honest: A Spider-Man movie that also features Robert Downey Jr. would clean up at the box office.

Of course, we don’t know anything for sure. Heck, there still hasn’t been official confirmation that the stupidly talented Drew Goddard is writing and directing the movie. Still, like all great rumors, this one is a ton of fun to mull over.

Will Adam McKay Direct a Marvel Movie (and Other News)?

One of the silver linings in the debacle that was the Ant-Man development process is that it brought Adam McKay into the Marvel fold. Although he ultimately turned down the director’s chair on the movie, the insanely smart and hilarious director of Anchorman rewrote the script with star Paul Rudd, which is the kind of news that almost makes us feel slightly better about the departure of original director Edgar Wright. Almost.

We are very interested to see a superhero movie with McKay’s fingerprints on it because we truly have no idea what that movie looks like. But we do know that Marvel apparently likes what it has seen. In a new interview with Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige, the mastermind of the MCU revealed that they want McKay involved in future movies in some capacity:

Adam McKay is in the running for everything. Adam McKay is a great, great writer and director. He did an amazing pass on the Ant-Man draft with Paul Rudd for us, and I didn’t know him before then. And we got to know him through that and liked him very much, and have met with him a number of times trying to find something else, so we’ve talked about a lot of characters with him.

McKay isn’t a good fit for Captain Marvel or Black Panther, but he may be an inspired choice for something as offbeat and weird as Inhumans. Hell, why not let him bring a comedy-driven series like Damage Control or She-Hulk to Netflix? Let him flex those comic chops that have won us over time and time again.

And finally, we arrive at the here and now. Avengers: Age of Ultron opens stateside in only a few days, so you probably shouldn’t watch these two new clips. Then again, you have free will and can do whatever you please.

The Latest With X-Men and Fantastic Four

It’s weird to imagine Oscar Isaac, one of the most talented and naturalistic actors working today, in any superhero movie. However, it’s especially weird to imagine him playing the X-Men villain Apocalypse, who is such a product of the ‘80s that it’s hard to imagine him being brought to the big screen in 2016 without significant changes. But we do know this: whatever Apocalypse ends up looking like and whatever he ends up doing in X-Men: Apocalypse, he will probably be totally great thanks to Isaac alone. There’s no way he wasn’t offered a bevy of other superhero movie roles, but he settled for this one. That’s odd for sure, but it’s also intriguing.

Anyway, Isaac spoke about the character with IGN, explaining how his supervillain gathers his loyal “horseman” to do battle with the X-Men:

Without giving anything away, the recruitment of the Four Horsemen is very cool. It’s very interesting the way that he does that. You know the idea of – the way that cult leaders do – they find people that are in need of something and try to fulfill that thing in them – as it relates to every one of the Horseman….On an individual level he’s able to reveal the true power of his Horsemen and what’s true to them. And I think to reveal the weakness – how weak we’ve become. Because this is an ancient entity. So to come to – I think 1983 – and say, ‘How did the world become so weak? How did we allow ourselves to become to weak and to enslave ourselves.’ I think that’s where he’s coming from.

And while we’re on the subject of Marvel characters owned by Fox who are probably going to undergo radical changes in upcoming movies, the official website for Fantastic Four launched and brought some really weird information with it. While the quick bios for ben Grimm, Sue Storm and Johnny Storm should sound familiar enough for those with even a passing interest in these iconic superheroes, the entry on Reed Richards is ... Well, just read through them all right here:

REED RICHARDS IS A SCIENTIFIC PRODIGY WHO HAS BEEN QUIETLY EXPLORING THE UNIVERSE’S DEEPEST MYSTERIES IN HIS GARAGE, AFTER SCHOOL. AFTER BEING TRANSFORMED BY ONE OF HIS EXPERIMENTS, HE CAN WARP THE SPACE AROUND HIM, AND APPEAR TO STRETCH HIS BODY INTO IMPOSSIBLE FORMS AND TO INCREDIBLE LENGTHS.

SUE IS BRILLIANT AND BEAUTIFUL, INDEPENDENT AND SARCASTIC. THE POWER TO BECOME INVISIBLE AND TO GENERATE HER OWN FORCE-FIELDS CAN MAKE HER HARDER TO REACH THAN EVER—BUT THAT WON’T STOP SOME OF HER TEAMMATES, ESPECIALLY REED, FROM TRYING.

A TROUBLEMAKER AND A THRILL-SEEKER, JOHNNY IS THE ROCK STAR OF THE TEAM. HIS POWERS ALLOW HIM TO SHOOT FIREBALLS, FLY AT BREAKNECK SPEEDS, AND REALLY LIGHT IT UP.

A RARE BREED BRAWN AND HEART, BEN IS WARM, EVEN SENSITIVE, DESPITE HIS ROUGH-AND-TUMBLE UPBRINGING. HE IS ROCK-SOLID—IN MORE WAYS THAN ONE. A LOYAL AND PROTECTIVE FRIEND, HIS STONE BODY GIVES HIM EPIC STRENGTH AND MAKES HIM VIRTUALLY INDESTRUCTIBLE.

So Mr. Fantastic just being able to stretch wasn’t good enough? Now he has to bend space to create the illusion of stretching? With all due respect to everyone involved with a movie that we haven’t seen yet, that sounds like a really dumb choice that overcomplicates one of the coolest superpowers in the Marvel comic book world. Hopefully, the final movie will showcase why this is necessary because right now, it just seems like a willfully obtuse creative decision.

And yes, we’re getting whiny because a fictional superhero’s stretching powers may have been compromised. Our priorities are waaay out of whack. We should be yelling about Jared Leto’s Joker tattoos or something.

Everything Else

Could Common’s Suicide Squad mystery character be the Aquaman villain Black Manta?

Now that he’s taking a break from Marvel, Avengers director Joss Whedon says he’d like to make a DC superhero movie.

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