Finally, a post dedicated to your friendly neighborhood passion blog, umm I mean friendly neighborhood Spider-Man! The protege to Tony Stark, and everyone’s favorite masked web-slinger/ high school student. The rights to Spider-Man were actually bought by Sony in 1999 for around $10 million, in which Sony also refused a $25 million deal which included Spider-Man AND every other character in the Marvel comic books. Sony turned it down as they believed no one would care for any character other than Spider-Man and unfortunately for Sony, they were awfully wrong. When Disney acquired Marvel (for a whopping $4 billion in 2009) they wanted to bring Spider-Man back into the Marvel family. So aside from the Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield renditions of the webbed-slinger (although more on those two later), Spider-Man entered the MCU through Tom Holland and has since appeared in five MCU films, including his first appearance in Captain America: Civil War, two stand-alone films, and the two most recent Avengers films. Another Spider-Man standalone movie is in the making right now, with many speculations of what to come soon.
Captain America: Civil War saw the first appearance of Peter Parker, better known as Spider-Man, in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Tony Stark travels to Queens, New York to enlist the web-slinger to join his comrades in Germany, to fight the fugitive, Captain America. Under the allude of an “internship” at Stark Industries, Peter Parker gets permission from his guardian, Aunt May, to go with Stark. Spidey steals Captain America’s shield, almost bests both the Winter Soldier and the Falcon simultaneously, stands his ground against Captain America, and eventually gives the brilliant idea of wrapping up the giant Ant-Man, finally bringing him down. Spider-Man is injured in the fight, sent home, and isn’t seen until his first standalone film: Spider-Man: Homecoming.
Spider-Man: Homecoming was a humorous and adventurous growing up story for the high school scholars student/ vigilante, as he tries to prove himself a hero to his own personal hero, Tony Stark. Parker is seen early on going about his normal superhero routine, rounding up purse-snatchers, stopping illegal weapons trades, and causing a disturbing car alarm. Unlike most of the other heroes in the MCU, Parker has a secret identity unknown to anyone other than Stark and himself. Parker still reminisces of his adventures in Germany alongside team Iron Man, especially since he got to keep the modern Spider-Man suit built by Stark Industries. We also meet Ned, Peter Parkers nerdy but witty best friend, who provides comic relief throughout the movie. Ned quickly finds out Peter’s identity after waiting in his room to build a Lego Death Star set but instead finds Peter swinging in through the window. Peter had been in the middle of a bank robbery, trying to stop a group of robbers wearing Avengers masks, but equipped with strange alien technology that almost levels the entire city block. Peter begins investigating to find the man responsible. His name is Adrian Toomes (who hails from my hometown of Staten Island!) and he was a cleanup crew worker who was in charge of picking up the remnants of Manhattan following the Battle of New York in The Avengers. Toomes and his company were replaced by SHIELD operatives when Toomes decided to smuggle some alien technology from the Chitauri, weaponize it, and sell it to the public. Spider-Man chases down Toomes, who is in a flying combat suit that he uses to smuggle the technology, which he calls The Vulture. Spider-Man pursues the Vulture all the way to Washington DC, posing as a school trip, where he saves his classmates in the Washington monument and locks himself in a SHIELD bunker with his personal AI assistant, Karen. When Spider-Man comes home, Iron Man warns Spidey to not continue his investigation. Spider-Man does not abide Starks’s warning to stop pursuing the case and tracks a weapons sale on to the Staten Island Ferry. The result is the weapon goes off, Toomes gets away and Iron Man has to save Spider-Man who was too busy keeping both sides of the ferry together using his “webs”. Tony in turn takes back the suit as punishment, and Peter is left to battle Toomes all by himself. Meanwhile, he must undergo an even more frivolous task. High school prom. Peter finally gets the courage to ask out his crush, and she says yes! Hard part over, or at least it seemed so until Peter went to pick her up only to discover her father is Adrian Toomes. The two recognize each other, although Peter did so in the house while Toomes did so in the car ride to school. Toomes threatens Parker to leave him be as he only has one heist left, the plane carrying the belongings of Avengers Tower to the new Avengers campus upstate. Spiderman, with his old makeshift gear from before the Stark suit, battles it out with Toomes and ultimately wins, although the plane crashes. Toomes is arrested, his daughter moves away with her mother (leaving a girl named MJ, played by Zendaya, to be Parker’s new love interest), and Stark gives Peter the suit back, with a new surprise. Parker is taken to the Avengers campus in upstate New York and asked to be an Avenger. He declines, wanting only to be a friendly neighborhood Spider-Man and while joking about how Stark was merely testing him. When he left, Pepper Potts walks in demanding Tony where the kid is, and that she has hundreds of reporters waiting on some big news. Instead of Parker’s acceptance as an Avenger, the big news is Pepper and Tony’s engagement.
So Peter kind of died. He came back, but I’m still drawn between how to feel about it as I love Spider-Man, and my girlfriend loves Tom Holland, so his absence in most of Endgame was a compromise. Anyways, Infinity War was a tough ride for Peter. He had to abandon a field trip to fight Cull Obsidian and Ebony Maw, members of the Black Order of Thanos, then stowed away on an alien ship (although he did get a new Iron Spider suit!) and helped Iron Man, Doctor Strange, and the Guardians of the Galaxy (most of them anyway) go to Titan and battle Thanos. Spider-Man was the one that almost got the gauntlet off of Thanos, before being disturbed by Star-Lord, and ultimately failing. Peter also saved Mantis’ life with the Iron Spider suit, while also catching the rest of the Guardians mid-air with his web slingers. When Parker and the company failed to defeat Thanos, they remained on Titan, Thano’s home planet, until eventually, he snapped in Wakanda. This left only Iron Man and Nebula alive on Titan, with Peter being the last of the deceased to die. However, Peter felt the pain of death and was the only one to do so, because of his spidey-sense, leaving us with one of the most emotional scenes in Marvel history, as seen below.
Endgame was a short screen-time performance for Holland, as he came back in the final climax of the movie after Hulk’s snap brought everyone back from the dead. Spider-Man had reunited with Tony in a heartfelt conversation which was met with a hug between the two before they continued their battle. Spider-Man snatched the gauntlet from the battlefield, before handing it off to Captain Marvel. Spider-Man is then seen comforting the dying Iron Man after he had snapped Thanos and the Chitauri away, crying as his mentor and hero passed on from this realm to the next. Spider-Man is seen at Iron Man’s funeral before getting his second standalone film, Spider-Man: Far From Home.
To be honest, I have only seen Far From Home, the second Spider-Man standalone film, three times. Since it is not on Disney+, I had to rent it on Amazon Video and binge watch it twice in a row following its original release in theaters. With that being said, I may miss a few details, so bear with me. This film is also the most recent MCU film to date and highlights Peter Parker finally having to fill in Tony Stark’s shoes following his death in Endgame, so careful of spoilers if you haven’t seen this one yet! Parker is now doing appearances as Spider-Man with Happy Hogan, Stark Industries’ head of security, and his Aunt May. His high school is running a European field trip, and Peter decides to take a break from Spider-Man following his loss in Endgame. Stark leaves Peter his glasses, which come fitted with AI and a multitude of uses (like sending a homing missile at your classmate who may or may not be flirting with your crush. Thanks, Tony!). The glasses are called the EDITH glasses, or Tony’s love of acronyms spelling out, Even Dead, I’m The Hero. Parker is overwhelmed with the responsibilities of the glasses and filling in Stark’s shoes, so he does not do much with them yet. Meanwhile, Nick Fury and Maria Hill of SHIELD are battling out elemental creatures, giant monsters made from water, fire, wind, sand, etc. They are helped by a man from another universe, known as Mysterio. True Marvel fans already knew that this guy was up to no good. In Italy, Spider-Man meets Mysterio while fending off one of the elementals, and teams up with him to battle the other emerging creatures, such as the fire monster in Prague. Parker has a difficult time juggling his social and personal life with his Spider-Man identity, unable to choose between a date with MJ and saving the world. In Austria, Parker is given a new black suit to spy around Europe and accidentally lets off a homing missile to his classmate, yah yah, you already know. Following the defeat of the fire monster, Parker sits down with Mysterio and talks about his feelings and his stress. He surrenders the EDITH glasses, thinking that Mysterio is a better fit to fill in for Iron Man than Peter ever was. When Peter leaves, Mysterio reveals that it was all a hoax, as he had secretly hated Stark and wanted to see his corporation burn down from the inside. Mysterio banded together with a team of disgruntled ex-employees of Starks and made fake image renderings that acted as elemental creatures being attacked by Mysterio. Unlike comic-book Mysterio, Jake Gyllenhaal had no superpowers. Peter and MJ go on a date, where she suspects Parker of being Spider-Man. She gives him a projector which displays the rendering proving Mysterio to be a fraud, and now in control of millions of Stark Industry drones. Mysterio planned to stage an Avengers-level threat and defeat it, making himself a hero. Spider-Man pursues but through illusions from the projectors, Spider-Man is hit by a train. Yep. Somehow, he survives, and Happy Hogan picks him up to bring him back to London. On the flight, Parker makes a new suit and prepares for his battle against Mysterio. Parker took down many drones but lost most of his web fluid in the process. Happy Hogan leads the class to safety, as Peter uses his genius to create weapons on the spot. Parker breaks Mysterio’s dome, revealing the drones and losing most of their control. Parker almost arrests Mysterio, before he realizes he is another illusion, and just nearly prevents Mysterio from killing Spider-Man, as Peter takes back the glasses and stops the attack. With great power comes great responsibility, and Peter should not have the power nor responsibility of these glasses in my opinion. Mysterio dies on the bridge, but not before recording himself revealing Spider-Man’s identity and acting as if Peter had killed him. These files are linked by Mysterio’s old friends, exposing Peter Parker as Spider-Man to everyone, and told to NYC by none other than J. Jonah Jameson. Also, we see that Fury and Hill were never really there, but instead Skrull impostors working on Fury’s orders from space.
I have never been more excited for a movie than I am for this next Spider-Man movie. The next phase of the MCU is rumored to introduce the multiverse and having Garfield and Macguire reprise their roles as Spider-Man but from alternate universes. This is every Spider-Man fan’s dream come true, as the debate of the best Spider-Man may finally be settled. It is also rumored that the Sinister Six will be included, the six most deadly Spider-Man villains, Tom Hardy’s Venom, Ryan Reynold’s Deadpool, and the Miles Morales and Gwen Stacy from Into The Spiderverse. If even half of these rumors come true, I will be watching this movie many, many, many times. You guys have no idea how excited I am for the next phase of Marvel movies, and the collaboration of Spider-Man that may make this the best movie of all time.
“I’d rather just stay on the ground for a little while. Friendly neighborhood Spider-Man. Somebody’s got to look out for the little guy, right?”―Peter ‘Spider-Man’ Parker to Tony Stark about joining the Avengers
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