The latest film in Sony’s Spider-Man Universe is set to grace the big screens on February 14, 2024 in the form of Madame Web. The Marvel character is new to the SSU as well as any major motion picture. Let’s get to know her.
Madame Web first appeared in The Amazing Spider-Man #210, published November 1980, and was created by writer Denny O’Neil and artist John Romita Jr. She is usually depicted as a supporting character in the Spider-Man comic book series, where she appears as an elderly woman with myasthenia gravis, connected to a life support system resembling a spiderweb.
Madame Web possesses psychic abilities including telepathy, clairvoyance, and prescience. She can also perform astral projection and appear to others in spirit form. Additionally, in the comics she is legally blind, however she is able to compensate for this by using her psychic powers.
In the movie adaptation, Madame Web, portrayed by Dakota Johnson, is a paramedic in Manhattan and a clairvoyant who, after an accident, develops psychic abilities which allow her to see future events within the “spider world”. Johnson was interested in playing a female character whose superpowers stems from her mind, and by the prospect of seeing into the future while understanding their past and present.
Director S. J. Clarkson was inspired by the psychological and cerebral aspects of the character, with Cassie questioning her sanity which she battles within herself and attempts to understand. The pair sought to differ the character’s portrayal in the film from the comic book version, which is a blind and paralyzed elderly woman connected to a life support system and has telepathic abilities.
Madame Web hits theaters across the country on February 14, 2024.
