The last time we saw Tom Holland’s Spider-Man, he was crumbling into dust while whimpering in abject terror. Fortunately, with the announcement of Spider-Man: Far From Home, we can be pretty sure that he’s going to return over the course of Avengers 4. And after a pretty crappy experience like dying, Spidey has definitely earned the European holiday adventure teased in the upcoming sequel (even if it’s apparently to be supervised by the perpetually grumpy Nick Fury).
While plot details regarding what the hero will be getting up to overseas remain under lock and key, rumor has it that Disney and Marvel Studios have been showing off concept art depicting Spidey swinging through various European cities, including Venice, Prague and London. What’s even more interesting though is that the Venice portion apparently shows him doing battle with Hydro-Man.
Now, let’s be honest here, Hydro-Man isn’t exactly in the top tier of Marvel villains. Hell, he’s not even in the Sinister Six (I think he was added to the expanded Sinister Twelve at some point, but my memory is a bit hazy).
For those of you not in the know, Hydro-Man’s pretty much what you’d imagine him to be – a supervillain with water-based powers. His origin is that he was Morris Bench, a sailor on a Navy ship who manages to get knocked overboard while Spidey’s doing battle with Namor at precisely the same time a powerful experimental generator’s being tested.
Even worse, there’s also unknown bacteria in the water and a load of radiation. How could Morris not end up with superpowers? Naturally, this gives him water manipulation abilities and from then onwards he’s occupied a solid spot amongst the C-ranking Spidey baddies.
If Spider-Man does end up in Venice in the Homecoming sequel, Hydro-Man’s an excellent villain with which to exploit the city’s aquatic layout and architecture. It’s even possible that the decision to include him indicates that we’ll see a specific antagonist in each of the cities visited in the film? Chalk that up as speculation for now, but if he does squelch onto screens in Spider-Man: Far From Home, expect Hydro-Man to be more an exotic henchman for someone a little higher up the ladder of evil.
