Spider-Man has always been Marvel's most recognized hero on a worldwide scale, so it was really no surprise that when Sony decided to get into the superhero business they chose Peter Parker as its mainline hero. While the company's tight grip on the Spider-Man property has mutated into the Tom Holland incarnation know today, newly surfaced material suggests Sam Raimi's take on the characters included a fantastic idea for what the Vulture could look like on-screen in the axed Spider-Man 4.
Without taking away from Michael Keaton's brilliant performance in Spider-Man: Homecoming, which made for some of the tensest scenes seen in the MCU so far, some fans may have felt that this particular Adrian Toomes did not make for the best high-flying action one could expect to see from the Vulture and Spidey across the New York City skyline. However, it turns out Raimi's canceled Spider-Man 4 had very different plans for introducing the villain, most notably an alternate look that resembles the character's comic book origins way more than the technological wizardry seen in Homecoming.
Ultimately, Spider-Man 4 was canceled due to a confluence of issues, namely the huge creative differences between producers and Raimi after Spider-Man 3 was not met with the same kind of positive reception its two predecessors did. Yet judging from early work on storyboard drawings and animatics prepared for the canceled sequel, it's hard to argue against Raimi's vision of casting John Malkovich as the Vulture. The entire sequence is a fully-fledged battle between Tobey Maguire's Spider-Man and the Vulture, which includes a much more different reaction from the latter when he finally finds out his nemesis' true identity.
Aside from the fact that the entire scene seems to take place during broad daylight, perhaps the most noteworthy moments are when Spidey shoots out his web parachutes, which back then were a completely organic product, unlike the current MCU and comic book version that has Peter Parker craft his own web-shooters. Although the wall-crawler manages to get the best of the Vulture, he still comes out scarred from the fight, with half his mask torn out before the reveal and a bunch of shattered glass stuck on his back.
It's hard to figure out retroactively what Raimi's Spider-Man 4 could have brought to the superhero film genre. However, considering the director even planned to cast Anne Hathaway and introduce Felicia Hardy/Black Cat into Peter Parker's life, it's fair to say it would have explored additional romantic complications for everyone's favorite web swinger.
Funnily enough, Spider-Man 4 was being worked on between 2008 and 2010, roughly around the same time Marvel Studios was launching its bold Iron Man and The Hulk bets for what would become the MCU, which admittedly learned a lot from those early Spider-Man films before becoming the standard for what a superhero movie needs to be to find widespread success.
Spider-Man: No Way Home is scheduled for theatrical release on December 17, 2021.