Spider-Man: No Way Home: the real Webweave of the Marvel Cinematic Universe

Spider-Man

From here on there will be several spoilers about Spider-Man: No Way Home. What you are about to read is not intended to be a spoiler-free review of the last chapter of the cinematic adventures of the Tessiragnatele of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, a topic already well addressed in our preview, but rather a broader discussion on the emotions and future evolutions of the MCU. Because let's be honest, in addition to the visual appeal of what Jon Watts staged, the incredible work of Chris McKenna and Erik Sommers, authors of a screenplay that, despite showing one or two unfortunate points, still managed to introduce us to a wonderful Peter Parker. On closer inspection, Spider-Man: No Way Home is an excellent close to the first solo trilogy of Arrampicamuri in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, which originated after his first appearance in Captain America: Civil War.

ATTENTION: how much follows contains spoilers about Spider-Man: No Way Home

An atypical life, from a cinematic point of view. Almost all of the heroes who made it to the big screen, especially at Marvel, have had their origin story as a debut story. Whether it was the Rebirth Project or the desperate from a cave in the mountains of Central Asia, the great characters of the MCU were introduced to the public immediately giving them a complete vision of what motivated them to be superheroes. For Spider-Man, on the contrary, it was decided to drop him in media res, immediately bringing him to confront the bigwigs of the Marvel superhero world. Not bad for a teenager from Queens, who was hugely impressed by this fascinating and adventurous context, ending up fighting alongside the Avengers in space during Infinity War, only to return one last time to the side of Earth's Mightiest Heroes in Endgame.

Spider-Man: No Way Home, Parker's origin story in the MCU

An incredible experience for the young Parker, but which led the boy to have a distorted perception of the role of hero. Thanks to the choice of making the character very different from the original paper, avoiding showing his much more earthly concerns, from economic to social ones, making him more light-hearted and immediately well integrated into a team. With all due respect to the very first stories that saw him on the contrary in search of support, aware of how his powers were not enough to make him a hero. A fresh and current vision, that of the Spider-Man of the MCU, which has displeased the most uncompromising fans of the Spider, but which at the same time has shown how the continuity of the MCU is the daughter of a carefully articulated planning, as demonstrated by what was seen in Spider. -Man: No Way Home.

Spider-Man: No Way Home If we think back to the scream of Iron Man with which Spider-Man is called into question, to his first fist fight made of jokes and irreverent comments, review Parker facing the events of Spider-Man: No Way Home seems incredible. Between these two events, let's not forget, Peter faced his first defeats (Spider-Man: Homecoming), the loss of his beloved mentor (Avengers: Endgame) and the search for his own independence as a hero, accepting his role (Spider- Man: Far From Home). Moments lived with less and less adolescent irony and an emotional crescendo that reflects the growing adolescent, who develops his own awareness, but who has not yet decided who he really is. The Legacy of Spider-Man: Far From Home is an unmasked Parker, unjustly accused of being a murderer and pilloried as a public enemy.

The first sign of a tendency to rejoin his original paper. Not only that, but also a clear hint of how Spider-Man's solo adventures, culminating in the film currently in theaters, are a long, three-chapter origin story. The most complex of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, dedicated not by chance to the most human mask of the Marvelian pantheon. An origin story that sees its most dramatic moment, the most identifying of the character, in Spider-Man: No Way Home. Because let's not forget, Peter Parker becomes Spider-Man in the tragedy, in the losses. Whether it's Uncle Ben and the guilt that comes with it, or renewing his being Spider-Man by promising death to Goblin after he just killed his beloved Gwen Stacy.

Parker misses Holland, until now, was this essential element of the Spider, this streak of drama. The definitive transition from boy to man was missing, a central moment in the true definition of Wall Climbing, an absence that was not in the least compensated by Stark's sacrifice (sacrifice, non-violent death, attention). As is often the case with Marvel heroes, Peter needed a stabbing wound to become Spider-Man for good. And on this point, the emotional fulcrum of Spider-Man: No Way Home revolves.

May's death, at the hands of the always flawless Goblin Willem DaFoe, is the instant in which everything changes. We don't need to see the bite scene, we just need to hear Peter say it, because that's not the moment Spider-Man was born. Tessiragnatele lives thanks to a historical phrase: From great powers, great responsibilities come. In the most poignant moment of Spider-Man: No Way Home, this sentence hits the heart, entrusted to a Peter consumed by hatred and thirst for revenge. Human, understandable and so close to the character.

Here comes the Spider-Man

But it's time for Parker's future to be decided. Give in to the dark side or give up on his role as a hero forever? On the other hand, Strange does not fail to remind the boy of a sad truth: you will always have problems if you try to live two lives. An idea that in the comics had led to the famous Spider-Man No More, also honored in this film, but which on the big screen leads Peter to want to give up the role of him, only after revenge. And here comes the poem of the arrival of the other two cinematic Spider-Man. Maguire and Garfield are different from the MCU Spider, in spirit above all, but it is their presence, the sharing of their difficulties and their losses that keep Peter steadfast, preventing him from making an irreparable mistake, giving voice to the Golden Rule of Spider- Man: don't kill yourself. "It's our ethics," says Parker Maguire.

Almost a catharsis of the multiverse. The two previous Spider-Man who come to act as big brothers to Holland's little Parker, help him not to get lost by reminding him who he is, what his true power is. In the moment in which they complete together that sentence that is the history of the comic, in the desperation on Holland's face, in the angry tears of Garfield and in the still frank face of Maguire, all the nuances of the Spider are seen. And with a heartbreaking poem, old Spideys are given the chance to make peace with their demons, whether it's healing an old friend or making a rescue that heals wounds that have long poisoned the soul.

Here is the Spider-Man origin story of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. The mourning that tears the soul and puts in front of a choice, the acceptance of one's role, with the awareness of the sacrifices required to keep faith with one's commitment, one's responsibilities. In Spider-Man: No Way Home, we initially find a genuinely good boy to the point of being naive, but in the end we are given a conscious man, ready to sacrifice in the name of his mission. There is no longer the Spider Child, but Spider-Man, no more hi-tech suits, but a simple costume, which also visually recalls Ditko's cartoon Spider, the purest and most authentic one. Curious, how in these three films the most identifying and symbolic moments of the Spider-Man spirit always turn to Ditko, aren't they?

After Spider-Man: No Way Home, we will no longer have the light-hearted Parker and teenager. His tomb is made from the rubble of a collapsed building and from the sheets of a shield that recalls another loss of the MCU. A man has risen from the ashes of the boy, ready to become one of the central figures of this superheroic universe, a new vision of the character that unmistakably approaches his paper counterpart.