Back in 1999, Marvel pulled off one of the most remarkable deals in Hollywood history when it sold the film rights to “Spider-Man” to Sony Pictures for a mere $7 million. This strategic acquisition has since played a monumental role in shaping Sony’s dominance in the superhero movie arena. The transaction empowered Sony not only to collaborate with Marvel Studios on the popular Tom Holland-led films but also to independently develop its own Spider-Man universe, separate from the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU). While this power has often led to acclaimed successes like “Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse,” it has also resulted in less stellar outings such as the infamous “Morbius,” reflecting the varied quality of Sony’s expanded universe featuring Spider-Man’s notorious villains.

The ambitious endeavor, originally labeled the Sony Pictures Universe of Marvel Characters (SPUMC) before settling on the more succinct Sony’s Spider-Man Universe (SSU), always faced a daunting challenge: the absence of Spider-Man himself. Despite the collapse of Sony’s initial plans to further the Andrew Garfield-led “Amazing Spider-Man” series, they ventured into a niche market, churning out villain-centric films reminiscent of the pre-superhero cinematic surge.

Although technically still breathing, especially with the “Spider-Noir” series in development, the SSU suffered a significant blow with the release of “Kraven the Hunter” in 2024, a film both critically and commercially torpedoed. At present, the universe boasts six “Spider-Man” spin-off films, so let’s delve into these productions to determine which ones managed to shine amid the mediocrity.

While some entries within the SSU offer glimpses of excitement, “Kraven the Hunter” stands notably as a film that never manages to gain momentum. Aaron Taylor-Johnson, who previously portrayed Quicksilver in “Avengers: Age of Ultron,” re-emerges in the Marvel domain as Sergei “Kraven” Kravinoff. This version of Kraven presents as a fierce yet peculiar vigilante with a penchant for taking down international villains. After surviving a traumatic lion attack in his youth, Kraven receives a serum that enhances his abilities, granting him superhuman attributes with a wild edge. His quest for justice intensifies upon discovering his crime lord father Nikolai (played by Russell Crowe) was responsible for killing the lion. Kraven’s tangled journey involves reconnecting with his former ally Calypso (Ariana DeBose), rescuing his sibling Dmitri (Fred Hechinger), and battling the fearsome mercenary Aleksei Sytsevich, also known as the Rhino (Alessandro Nivola).

Detaching Kraven from his more sinister comic book persona, which reveled in hunting humans for sport, leaves us with a tired, flat action trope devoid of allure. Despite Taylor-Johnson navigating a slew of complex narratives, he is anchored in a lethargic movie seemingly indifferent to itself. Even Nivola’s portrayal of the Rhino fails to add any depth or interest, inadvertently making Paul Giamatti’s criticized stint in “The Amazing Spider-Man 2” appear inspired by contrast. This iteration of the iconic Marvel villain is reduced to a laughably flawed human-animal hybrid.

Marred by abysmal ADR, murky CG landscapes, and an ensemble who couldn’t look more bored, J.C. Chandor’s “Kraven the Hunter” is easily one of the worst Marvel movies to date.

With the success of the prior two “Venom” films came the opportunity to explore other monsters in the Marvel universe, but “Morbius” all but dashed that momentum by hiring an actual monster. In addition to being about a comic book character that casual moviegoers knew nothing about, the casting of alleged sexual predator Jared Leto in the title role was a major turn-off. He plays Dr. Micheal Morbius, a biochemist with a rare blood disease who’s dedicated his life to combating it. The breakthroughs of his artificial substitute compels him to push even further for an all-out cure that potentially lies in the genes of Costa Rican vampire bats. This goes about as well as you would imagine, turning the doctor into a super-powered bloodthirsty vampire.

“Morbius” became meme fodder from the moment it dropped its first trailer and sadly, the film itself didn’t help. This is a tedious comic book movie with awful pacing and a placid performance at the center. Despite playing a super-powered vampire, Leto never looks like he’s having any fun. Jared Harris, Adria Arjona, and Tyrese Gibson all look lost trying to figure out their place in this soulless venture. The “Morbius” MVP, however, is Matt Smith as Micheal’s adoptive brother Milo aka Lucien, whose resentment for gatekeeping the cure to their shared blood disease leads him to take it for himself. Those few sequences of him vamping out are almost worth sitting through the movie. 

Almost is the key word here.

If there’s a success story to be found in the SSU, it’s Venom earning his own trilogy. “Venom: The Last Dance” is by far the weakest of the three Tom Hardy Venom movies, stuck in a tug-of-war between three movies fighting for relevancy. In the wake of their blink-and-you-miss-it multiversal vacation in “Spider-Man: No Way Home,” Eddie Brock (Hardy) and symbiote Venom (also Hardy) return to resume their lives as fugitives. Among those trying to capture the pair is Imperium, a top secret government program tasked with seizing other symbiotes that have fallen to Earth. There’s also the matter of extraterrestrial hunters called Xenophages that have been tasked by symbiote creator Knull (Andy Serkis) to retrieve the host-reviving codex within Venom, which possess the capabilities to set him free. 

It all becomes way too much for one movie. “The Last Dance” is at its best when Eddie and his alien boyfriend are left alone to partake in their road-trip comedy, with one of the highlights being a shared dance with beloved shopkeeper Mrs. Chen (Peggy Lu). Unfortunately, any burst of energy comes to a grinding halt whenever Chiwetel Ejiofor, Juno Temple, and their dull crew of government scientists crash the party. To make matters worse, the film’s overstuffed screenplay has to serve the whims of a boring space antagonist in a chair who leaves no impact. At least “The Last Dance” ends on a touching note of finality that honors Hardy’s commitment to the role.

Making with a Venom movie without Spider-Man felt like a miscalculation from just about every angle. But while the Ruben Fleischer-directed supervillain spin-off has its share of flaws, the concept is ultimately saved by Tom Hardy’s insane dual performance. Here, Eddie Brock is a San Francisco-based investigative journalist looking into the shady practices of a bio-engineering company. His prying, however, leads to both him losing his job and engagement to Anne (Michelle Williams). Months later, Eddie receives a tip that leads him to discover that the company is using people as human lab rats to experiment with alien symbiotes. One going by the name Venom forcibly latches itself onto Eddie with the intent of sowing chaos, but is convinced to use their shared tether against bad people.

“Venom” suffers from a lot of generic superhero movie tropes, namely with Riz Ahmed’s Carlton Drake transforming into a boring grey reflection of the central antihero. But the film soars whenever Hardy take the wheel. There’s such an immediately lovable chaos to his deep-throated Venom making Eddie perform these death-defying feats, and then poking fun of him for not being able to handle them. Even the symbiote’s physical appearance, with its inky black tendrils, razor sharp teeth, and protracted tongue, straddles the line of intimidating and goofy that works in its favor. It’s no wonder the Eddie-Venom coupling sustained the SSU for as long as it did.

The thing with movies is that you’ll often come across some that can’t be easily deemed good or bad and belong in a weird middle ground, as is the case with “Madame Web.” After New York paramedic Cassandra Webb (Dakota Johnson) nearly drowns, she experiences psychic premonitions of future events. One day on the subway, she envisions a man killing three teenage girls, Anya (Isabela Merced), Julia (Sydney Sweeney), and Mattie (Celeste O’Connor). That man turns out to be wealthy explorer  Ezekiel Sims (Tahar Rahim), who believes the teens will kill him after becoming super-powered Spider Women. Through her abilities to see into the future and never open the Pepsi cans she has in her hands, Cassy attempts to keep them alive.

“Madame Web” is a uniquely memorable disaster that doesn’t make a lick of sense, features some of the worst ADR in any 21st century tentpole, and teases you with a superhero team that never gets their powers by the end. In spite of everything, it’s a consistently baffling cult classic that ends up being a campy good time.  A large part of that is due to Johnson’s incredible performance that doubles as professional disassociation. She knows exactly what she’s in, and every choice she makes, such as watching “A Christmas Carol” in the middle of the summer, is worthy of academic study. It’s hard to predict the future, but there’s no doubt this serves as one of the crown jewels of the SSU.

All the lulls in the first “Venom” are nowhere to be found in the deeply entertaining sequel “Let There Be Carnage.” It fulfills the promise of an MCU alternative that’s unconcerned with ties to a broader universe, but rather, indulging in its own infectious manic energy. In it, Eddie Brock has been granted access to a rare interview with Cletus Kasady (Woody Harrelson), an imprisoned redheaded serial killer. After Eddie and Venom deduce where he buried his victims, Cletus is sentenced to death by lethal injection, but not before getting a nibble in. This results in Cletus inadvertently bonding with a meaner red symbiote named Carnage who helps him and his institutionalized girlfriend Frances aka Shriek (Naomie Harris) escape.

The Carnage mayhem is incredibly fun on account of Harrelson’s over-the-top performance. But what makes “Let There Be Carnage” great is the evolution of Eddie and Venom. The film acts as a stealth relationship comedy between a sad journalist and his lonely alien boyfriend who just wants to be seen. Venom even has a “coming out” declaration at a neon-drenched rave surrounded by a bunch of queer folks — something you’ll never see in a Marvel Studios production. 

“Let There Be Carnage” isn’t without well-earned drama though, putting Eddie and Venom in a place where their ultimate reconciliation comes with consequences. Director Andy Serkis’ refreshingly earnest take in emulating those late ’90s comic book offshoots unquestionably puts it at the top of the SSU.