How No Way Home Finally Fixed Peter Parker

[Music] people love to talk about spider-man 3 and the bully mcguire dance number as being the lowest point in spider-man's cinematic journey but honestly peter parker controlling an army of drones might be the worst thing that happened to spider-man well ever and i've read identity crisis peter do you want me to cancel the drone strike on brad did you just punch flash no firing and yet somehow the key creatives behind this blunder gave us no way home quite possibly the best spider-man film of all time and most importantly the film that saved the mcu's spider-man first created in the pages of amazing fantasy number 15 by steve ditko and stan lee peter parker's eternal struggle between the weight of heroic responsibilities and the trials and tribulations of real life is a timeless tale that we've basically been consuming non-stop for close to 80 years straight spidey first appeared on the small screen in 1967. and has been a semi-constant in tv shows video games and movies ever since this obviously climaxed in the early 2000s with the sam raimi fronted spider-man trilogy which led into mark webb's two amazing spider films the second of which underperformed and led everyone's favorite wall crawler back into the loving arms of marvel you're the spider-ling crime fighting spider spider-man however there's one problem with the marvel cinematic universe's version of spider-man he's not really spider-man he looks like spider-man and he talks like spider-man you ever seen that really old movie empire strikes back but the stories he's in aren't really spider-man stories people who don't understand the structure of a spidey story always seem to think spider-man's origin is that he gets bit by a spider and gains the powers of a spider that's a piece of it but not actually the whole story the structural elements of what makes spider-man spider-man are the eternal themes of service dedication and responsibility in the face of uncompromising personal loss it's crucial that the character needs to misuse that power and then learn from that mistake and choose to dedicate himself to acting selflessly in the original comics it was using his powers to make money and gain fame and attention and then not stopping a thief from robbing a wrestling promotion that he'd taken part in you could've taken that guy apart now he's gonna get away with my money i miss the part where that's my problem this criminal later is the man who's responsible for killing peter's uncle ben that's the origin of spider-man it's peter being so consumed with guilt that he monastically dedicates himself attempting to make up for that one moment of selfishness that he wishes he could take back and the mcu spider-man went six appearances without having an uncle ben moment yes we've seen the origins twice we didn't need to see it again but what we did need was a spider-man who understood the cost of being spider-man and to make it even worse the mcu ostensibly just neutered the character he didn't make his own costume he didn't learn how to be a hero by himself he's not a socially awkward teenager by day and a wisecracking masked vigilante by night he's not a super scientist other than outlined by lip service who manufactured that i did he's not poor he's not a photographer for the daily bugle or any sort of media outlet basically everything that makes peter parker peter parker is gone in the mcu other than jokes web slinging and a costume that's sometimes red and blue his adventures really do mimic the jimmy olsen superman's pal comics from the 1960s these comics are always the same jimmy gets into a scrape or some weird adventure his inquisitive nature or bumbling acts complicate matters and then superman comes and saves him which is exactly what happens in homecoming but instead of superman it's iron man previously on peter screws the pooch you sneak around behind my back doing the one thing i told you not to do spidey on the avengers was never the main attraction on the comics but he was his own distinct person as opposed to in the mcu where he's basically iron man's ward but the weird thing about how they build out his placement is that iron man is his father figure without ever really exploring the fact that they've both lost their dads it's less that peter is lost and needs a father figure and more that iron man and peter are put together as a surrogate father and son because they're marvel's two most popular characters far from home as referenced before makes the increasingly bizarre plot decision to give teenage peter parker an unstoppable drone army isn't this the whole plot of avengers age of ultron literally the moral of the movie is that he's learned he was wrong and he's not going to do that anymore they decided to give spidey the exact same story but play it for laughs target is brad davis initiating strike initiating what now this is not a spider-man story at all who had this idea chris mckenna and eric summers they were two of the many writers credited on homecoming and they received solo credit on far from home and yet with great mischaracterization comes great opportunities for change spider-man no way home is the best live-action spider-man film since spider-man 2. the film really celebrates the legacy and the history of the live-action spider-man franchises that's what everyone wants to talk about with no way home it's all the cameos and interconnectedness and continuity but really the biggest strength of no way home is how writers chris mckenna and eric summers took the teenage misfit non-spider-man and evolved him into an actual living breathing spider-man you know it's a brilliant piece of writing when it can juggle the needs of an event picture like spider-man no way home the continuity needs of setting up a multiverse and the actual arcs of the cast and on top of all of that giving the mcu spider-man an actual freaking spider-man movie to star in at its core no way home is a coming-of-age tale it's about the youthful naivety associated with the i can save everyone viewpoint it's about peter parker embracing the idea of self-sacrifice for those people he loves most importantly though the film gives mcu peter his uncle ben moment during the initial brutal confrontation with the green goblin aunt may is badly injured and delivers the quintessential with great power there must also come great responsibility just prior to dying in peter's arms this is the moment where peter's character is actually pushed into realizing that spider-man truly is a heavyweight this is what the other mcu spider-man films are so crucially missing this crescendos throughout the film to peter actually having to make a crushing choice he has to choose to sacrifice his relationships with ned and mj in order to keep them safe and out of harm's way he chooses to allow them to move on with their lives free of his presence and it's not a one-time choice he has to continue making that sacrifice every day just like he has to continue to be spider-man every day it's a soul-crushingly sad idea a perfect spider-man status quo and then of course you have the last beat of the movie where we see peter parker making his own spider-man costume which looks like the classic john romita senior suit utter perfection spider-man is an enduring icon for a reason his timeless struggle between selflessness and the realities of existence are universal in their emotional connectivity they span generations walks of life and cultural backgrounds it's this struggle between trying to do the right thing and the world working against you that provides the foundational conflict that these stories exist on and very few examples of that have been seen in the mcu's version of the character it's been purely coasting off the interconnected universe's brand loyalty and tom hollands and men's charisma but chris mckenna and eric summers finally got it right they understood the character and that spider-man movies should be fun while spider-man stories should be about set what do you think will the inevitable next tom holland spider-man film be more in line with the classic status quo of the character why didn't nicholas hammond have a cameo in no way home let us know your thoughts down below and as always please like and subscribe for more videos like this from nerd nostalgic

Channel: Nerdstalgic

Views: 728,454

Keywords: Spider-Man, Spider-Man No Way Home, Spider-Man Peter Parker, Spider-Man Origin Story, Nerdstalgic, Nerdstalgic Spider-Man, Spider-Man Tom Holland, Spider-Man Andrew Garfield, Spider-Man Tobey Maguire, Spider-Man Aunt May, Spider-Man Uncle Ben Death, Spider-Man Marvel Comics, Spider-Man Comic Books, Spider-Man Marvel, Marvel, Marvel Studios, Marvel Cinematic Universe, Into the Spider-Verse, The Amazing Spider-Man, Tom Holland, Corridor Crew, Screen Crush, New Rockstars, Nerdist

Id: NXapAX9u7Ic

Length: 7min 59sec (479 seconds)

Published: Fri Apr 01 2022

Reddit Comments

[u/Kalwest]

I agree with a bunch he said but not with everything. I don’t agree that marvel was getting it wrong. No one wanted to see uncle Ben murdered again. So Marvel introduced him as a young Peter. Yea he’s def not a poor kid and he’s a little too cool but it’s more like a new age Peter. Nerds are cool now, so it makes sense. His connection with Iron man was fantastic. They have the same bond in the comics. Atleast until civil war. The drone thing was dumb but it makes sense. Tony did learn from his mistake but he’s not like the road runner. He doesn’t make a mistake and just try a different plan. He adjusted and those drones were better thank Ultron to him. More controlled and also I think it was a kind of test for Peter. I very much agree that no way home was the first time we saw marvels Spider-Man in a real Spider-Man story. Yes that’s definitely the structure. Spider-Man is my favorite super hero and it’s always been because he continuously loses things and still preserves.

[u/Professional_Ebb_936]

Yeah I guess