The Future of Spider-Man

Spider-Man: Far From Home caps off Phase 3 of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, with promise of more to come. But where does our friendly neighbourhood hero fit into this ever expanding universe? Spoilers ahead for Spider-Man: Far From Home, the latest installment in the ever chugging MCU train.

The end doesn't appear to be in sight for this colossal franchise, and that's not necessarily a bad thing, with the quality of its content seemingly getting better. I've spoken previously about over-saturation, worried I'll get bored of the constant churning out of these movies. This newest Spider-Man film has reaffirmed my confidence that Marvel can keep me invested and intrigued for the future of the MCU.

Spider-Man as a character has been done so many times, whether it's live-action, animated, or in literary form. More specifically Peter Parker has become somewhat of a household name. His origin story is as iconic as that of Bruce Wayne. I'm glad Tom Holland's Spider-Man respected the audience enough to gloss over the Uncle Ben Situation, while still making it an important aspect of Peter's life. It is of course one of his most defining moments.

In Spider-Man: Far From Home, similar themes are at the forefront, whereas this time it's the death of Tony Stark that haunts Peter's tour of Europe. He again seeks a mentor and thinks he finds it in Jake Gyllenhaal's Quentin Beck, aka Mysterio. But, as all comic book fans know, Mysterio isn't to be trusted. His eventual betrayal of Peter's trust is a turning point for the character, a moment for him to choose what kind of person he needs to be in order to save the world. With help from Happy Hogan and Stark tech, he is able to take the first steps into being that person, by constructing his own suit and growing up, just a little bit. He of course defeats Mysterio, gets the girl, and begins the next phase of his life. Get it? PHASE of his life.

The most important part of this whole movie for Peter is the mid-credits scene. It shows Quentin Beck before his death filming a video, revealing Peter's identity to the world, but what does this mean for Peter going forward?

Firstly, I am glad they went in this direction, it took me by surprise and it's the polar opposite to what we've seen previously from Spider-Man on film. Typically, the subplot of a Spider-Man movie revolves around his identity, usually keeping them seperate, now they're one in the same. With the secret out Peter has no choice but to merge his double life together, and it's going to be really interesting to see how he deals with something so transformative at such a young age.

One of the directions they can go is on a somewhat smaller scale, which would be how this affects those around him, for example Aunt May, MJ, and Ned. Something similar was done in the ultimate comic series which does deal with villains knowing Peter's identity. Those comics also opened the door to a whole new set of characters, spearheaded by Miles Morales, who is the most popular he has ever been thanks to Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse. So, it's not out of the realm of possibility that Marvel want to cash in on that popularity by introducing him into an already thriving property.

That being said, the direction I think they're going is the one they set up pretty extensively in Far From Home, which is that Peter will become the 'Tony Stark' of the Avengers. He's basically inherited Tony's company, been given all the resources, and even has Happy as his assistant. The closest thing we've gotten to this in previous Spider-Man incarnations is Parker Industries a few years back, which is a very similar company to that of Stark Industries. In the comics it was even on the same plot of land as the Baxter Building, the headquarters of the Fantastic Four. This I think is the more likely outcome and feels the most natural out the two.

Finally, whatever comes of this iteration of Spider-Man, I'm happy with what they've given us so far. Despite similar subplots they've atleast used different villains and maintained the heart of what makes Spider-Man great. While Tobey Maguire will forever be my Spider-Man, Tom Holland has given us the most true and most nuanced version of the character. He's making Stan Lee proud.

Signed,

Sam Jones