Sony Rumored to Allow Spider-Man to Join Marvel’s ‘Avengers’ Movie Universe [VIDEO]

The latest rumor circulating Nerdville is that Sony, who own and have horribly mismanaged the movie rights to Spider-Man, are considering a deal where Spidey would join the Avengers in Marvel's movie universe... holy s***!

Now, as usual, this is still largely a rumor, but according to HitFix it's an option that's currently being explored by both studios:

"Sony, on the other hand, may be doing things the opposite way. While I can't get the confirmations I need to verify the story, I'm hearing that there are some very cool 'Spider-Man' plans being discussed that would help Sony refocus their enormously important franchise while also opening up some connections in the onscreen Marvel movie universe that would blow fandom's minds. Will it work out? I don't know. I would love to be able to state for sure that it's happening. What seems clear from what I've heard is that Marvel wants to be able to play with all of their characters, and if they can make that work creatively and on a corporate level, they will, and that means the world gets bigger again."

Obviously, this is what the fans have wanted since the jump. As an old-school Marvel die-hard, the version of the 'Avengers' I've always wanted on screen included the current lineup (minus the regular people -- Black Widow and Hawkeye) plus Wolverine and Spider-Man. Unfortunately, the rights of those properties belonging to different studios is what has prevented such a team-up thus far.

Fox has finally got their X-Men properties back on track thanks to '...Days of Future Past' and are planning to expand that universe, which possibly includes bringing it to the small screen as well --  so count Wolverine out.

Sony, on the other hand, have pretty much destroyed Spider-Man... twice. They rushed Sam Raimi's third 'Spider-Man' and the result was the festering turd that caused the too-soon-reboot 'The Amazing Spider-Man.' Then they ruined anything good they did with that in the sequel, which had all the same problems we saw in the third 'Spider-Man.' They've since put plans a few of their plans to expand/continue the Spidey franchise on the slow track, which is why this rumor makes a lot of sense.

Grafting Sony's broken Spider-Man onto the incredibly not-broken 'Avengers' universe is a win for them even if they get zero dollars out of the deal. Then at least they'll have their lead character in a solid, well-executed franchise movie that will boost merch sales and, potentially, interest in his solo franchise. I just wish they would have realized that this was the best approach four years ago instead of moving forward with the reboot.

Still need convincing that this is the right thing to do, not just for the fans, but also for Sony? Watch the video below and tell me that they're doing a great job with Spidey while also keeping a straight face. You can't.