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Spider-Man's cryptic new teaser leaves Marvel fans spinning

The saga of teasers that don't make immediate sense continues.

Jennifer Bisset Former Senior Editor / Culture
Jennifer Bisset was a senior editor for CNET. She covered film and TV news and reviews. The movie that inspired her to want a career in film is Lost in Translation. She won Best New Journalist in 2019 at the Australian IT Journalism Awards.
Expertise Film and TV Credentials
  • Best New Journalist 2019 Australian IT Journalism Awards
Jennifer Bisset
2 min read
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Help us figure this out, Spidey!

Sony Pictures

Avengers: Endgame directors Anthony and Joe Russo teased their latest with carefully arranged furniture. We picked it apart, endlessly. Now, Marvel has another web for us to unravel, not to mention comic book artist Alex Ross throwing more confusion into the mix.

On Sunday, the official Marvel Twitter account presented a picture of a "4" spun from spiderweb, with a caption saying only, "#MarvelComics."

Following that, Ross, who contributed concept and narrative art to Sam Raimi's Spider-Man and Spider-Man 2, piped up with a painting of Spidey and Kirsten Dunst's version of Mary Jane. He wrote "#SpiderMan4," before subsequently deleting the tweet.

Spider-Man: Far From Home is due to swing in June 28. Given it's the second in Tom Holland's run as the hero, it seems premature to announce he's on track for a fourth. We turn to Marvel Comics, which has a few Spider-Man releases out this month. How does the "4" come into play? Immediately it brings the Fantastic Four to mind. Maybe a team-up is on the cards, but it might not be what we expect.

Then there's Ross' input. It points to Raimi's unmade Spider-Man 4, which entered development in 2007, with Anne Hathaway reportedly involved to play Felicia Hardy, and John Malkovitch to play Vulture. However, Sony cancelled it and served up Andrew Garfield's reboot instead. Is Ross just toying with us? Could Raimi's Spider-Man 4 be on the way? Or is Ross involved some way in the comic? Note the drawing is from the beginning of Spider-Man 2, when it recaps what happened in the previous film.

But given that Ross quickly deleted the tweet, we can probably relegate this to being a teaser for any of his art featuring at the upcoming San Diego Comic-Con.

Still, let the speculation continue, and let us turn to Twitter to see what we can collectively piece together.

First, we should probably stick to the right publisher.

A start could be eliminating the possibility of this referring to Spider-Man 4.

The most likely meaning.

Another look at a meaningful "4".

It implies a team-up, but which team-up?

While some hope for Spider-Man sequels...

Some might end up being crushed.

Whatever it means, read this, Marvel.

Originally published June 16 at 5:19 p.m. PT.

Updates, 7:01 p.m.: Adds Alex Ross' tweet; 7:36 p.m.: Adds Ross deleted his tweet.

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