Spider-Man Gets a Papercut Makeover in Time for Chinese New Year

We may have had to put up with our heroes incongruously using QQ Messenger and drinking Mengniu milk, but one positive thing to come out of Hollywood’s persistent pandering to China’s massive box office market is the regular stream of awesome China-fied artworks we get for big American movies.

Latest case in point: these Lunar New Year papercut-style images for the Spider-Man family, albeit a month after Into the Spider-Verse hit Chinese cinemas.

Chinese papercutting is on UNESCO’s Intangible Cultural Heritage thanks to its supposed 1,500 year history, and is still a common element today when it comes to decorations for the Lunar New Year. Traditionally they feature animals of the zodiac rather than Green Goblin-battling superheroes, but we’re not complaining here.

Speaking of red-masked superheroes making moves to impress Chinese fans, Deadpool just did this:

.@VancityReynolds, the actor who plays #Deadpool, said on Thursday he was coming to #China to promote his new film Once Upon A Deadpool. He also dissed other superheroes – Wolverine, #SpiderMan, WonderWoman – by saying their trips to China were lame. pic.twitter.com/xcZHnZxd2j

— Global Times (@globaltimesnews) January 17, 2019

The video previewed a promotional visit to China this weekend by star Ryan Reynolds — or as he’s known in Chinese, Jianjian (“Bitchy”, a nod to his snarky one-liners). A special version of the movie will be released in China after producers made a series of cuts to make it more “family-friendly” and thus not run into problems at China’s age certificate-less box office. The PG-13 version also screened in the US last year.

Find lots more Chinese poster art right here.