The ongoing Sony hack saga has taken a turn that will interest the geeks of the world, as emails reveal that Marvel Studios tried to get Spider-Man to appear in Captain America: Civil War. In the comics Spidey is a huge part of the story, beginning on Iron Man's side and unmasking himself on television before finally joining Captain America's anti-registration rebellion. Fans hoped and prayed that recent rumors about Marvel trying to get a Spidey crossover was about Civil War, so they should be happy to see that Marvel gave it a shot... and failed.

That isn't all the hacks reveal about Spider-Man. Doug Belgrad, Sony Pictures president, pitched a new Spider-Man trilogy to be produced by Marvel but distributed by Sony, a compromise that would have made fans happy as well, especially in the wake of the dismal Amazing Spider-Man 2. That plan also fell through.

What is Sony doing with Spider-Man? The Wall Street Journal says that there's a comedic Spider-Man cartoon on the table with Phil Lord and Chris Miller at the helm - that's awesome. Everything else will wait until January, which is when Sony executives will have a summit to discuss the future of their struggling (and sole) franchise.

My thoughts: this only bolsters the image of Marvel as a forward-thinking, fan-friendly studio and only reinforces the image of Sony as a studio unable to figure out what to do with this property. They had the answer right in their face and blew it. We almost lived in a world where Andrew Garfield, Chris Evans and Robert Downey Jr duked it out for the future of the Marvel Cinematic Universe.