Robert Kirkman is no stranger to superheroes. Though best known for his original creations like Super Dinosaur, The Astounding Wolf-Man, Firepower, and, yes, of course, Invincible, he has lent his comic book stylings to the big heroes as well. In addition to the Marvel Zombies books, which allowed him to touch on nearly every character he could think of, Kirkman wrote The Irredeemable Ant-Man as well as the entire third volume of Marvel Team-Up, the iconic series that under his direction largely focused on Spider-Man, including the #14 issue where the wall-crawler met, who else, Invincible.
Suffice to say, Kirkman has been a staple of comic books for decades and knows a thing or two about superheroes; so when he offered a proper roast of a fan-favorite Spider-Man movie in a recent interview, it carries a bit of weight. While appearing on The Escape Pod, Kirkman was discussing superhero movie trilogies when the question came about what his feelings are about 2014’s The Amazing Spider-Man 2, prompting him to share: “Terrible, terrible. I don’t like to publicly talk about my opinions on movies. Still, The Amazing Spider-Man 2 is dogs**t.”
Kirkman didn’t let his feelings on the movie end with a simple lambasting of the film (which boasts a 51% on Rotten Tomatoes, the lowest-rated Spider-Man movie in history), instead, he offered some things he liked as well, adding: “As much as I love Jamie Foxx, I love Andrew Garfield. Andrew Garfield is a great Spider-Man. There are aspects to both of those movies that are spectacular, but that movie is a mess.”
To his credit, Kirkman is right. Though nostalgia for the films in the decade-plus since their release, and the return of Andrew Garfield to the role in Spider-Man: No Way Home, has seen the cultural reaction to those two movies from the 2010s be slightly rewritten. The two films, and especially the second, were not well received upon release. In particular, the second one, which arrived as an almost incomplete movie that was more interested in setting up more sequels and spinoffs. The Amazing Spider-Man 2 was also enough of a spectacular failure for its two villains that it had to reinvent the main one it brought back for the MCU (Foxx’s Electro).
Kirkman then went on to try to answer the question that started the entire discussion, his favorite superhero trilogy. While pondering the idea, Kirkman eventually settled on one, teasing: “I’ll wait till Incredibles 3 comes out.”
The upcoming Pixar sequel is set to premiere in 2028, with Kirkman adding that the first Incredibles movie is “perfect” but noting that Incredibles 2 is “fine,” with the potential for the trilogy largely hinging on the potential for the upcoming third movie and the perfection of the original.
“Incredibles 2 is… I don’t think I’ve watched it a second time,” Kirkman said. “I think I only saw it when it came out and in the theater I was like, ‘Oh man, that wasn’t as good as I wanted it to be.’ I feel like they should have done a time jump. I did not like how it continued right after the first movie.”
Time will tell if that’s how the Incredibles series will play out when that one arrives in June 16, 2028. Furthermore, time will tell if Andrew Garfield will return to the role of Spider-Man with the upcoming Avengers: Doomsday and Avengers: Secret Wars lingering around the corner.
