There aren’t many out there who would disagree when we say that watching the production of Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark is like watching a train wreck in slow motion. Â Watching the entire thing come apart in a flock of wrenched pieces of metal, bolts, and concussed actors is kind of beautiful, in a morbid way.
And the people behind the production seem to enjoy feeding this habit of ours, this time by reportedly hiring a new writer to completely revamp the show’s book. Â If the show faces no further delays, it’s due to be out in less than a month. Â Seems like a bad time to suddenly realize that you’ve got to rework the plot.
The writer tapped for the job, one Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa, actually has a not-inconsiderable comics career behind him. Â He’s written for Marvel Knights, Nightcrawler, The Fantastic Four, the X-Men, Loki, and even Spider-Man himself. Â He also has ten published plays under his belt, so there isn’t really a better candidate for the job of writing a Spider-Man musical.
Whether or not he, or anyone, is capable of saving a Spider-Man musical, is quite another question entirely.
