Spider-Man: No Way Home’s ending answers the ultimate Peter Parker question

Peter Parker is looking for a dad more than anything. No matter who’s telling the Spider-Man story, it’s so defined by the loss of Uncle Ben — the original sin Peter never gets over — that it’s easy to breeze past the loss Peter can’t blame himself for: his parents, who are already missing long before the story usually starts. Peter is acutely missing Uncle Ben, and he longs for a father figure. The most prominent members of Peter’s rogues gallery include Otto Octavius in Sam Raimi’s films, Curt Connors in the comics and Norman Osborn. Mentors like Norman Osborn and Otto Octavius in Sam Raimi’s films, Teachers like Curt Connors in The Amazing Spider-ManPotential role models that have been turned against them by forces such as Adrian Toomes Spider-Man Homecoming or Mysterio in Spider-Man is Far From Home

This is the latest news from this site. Spider-Man, There’s No Way Home, doesn’t initially seem concerned with any of that history. It seems that the film is a excuse to do a multiversal smashup. This pits Spider-Man’s current Marvel Cinematic Universe movie against Spider-Man villains. At first, it appears to be an exciting but fan-servicey slugfest that doesn’t frontload the emotional heft Spider-Man stories are known for. It changes mid-way. You can’t go home!To become Extremely invested in Peter Parker and what he’s lost.

[Ed. note: Major spoilers for Spider-Man: No Way Home follow.]

Peter in the MCU is unique because we do not see the initial losses. Like the radioactive spider that bit him to give him his powers, it’s an element of the story we’ve already seen repeatedly, and don’t need to revisit. Instead, Tom Holland’s version of Peter Parker gets a new loss to add to the pile: His Aunt May (Marisa Tomei), killed by the Green Goblin (Willem Dafoe). It’s this final wound that breaks Peter, already brought low by the death of his idol Tony Stark (Robert Downey, Jr.) in Avengers: EndgameBy the treachery of Mysterio, his short-term friend (Jake Gyllenhaal), he was framed for an attack on the terrorists at the beginning of Spider-Man Far from Home.

He is shaken and retreats from his friend. You can’t go home!’s real meta magic begins, as Peter Parker at his lowest is lifted up by the two previous on-screen Peters, played by their original actors, Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield.

Image: Sony Pictures

What’s surprising about You can’t go home! isn’t that Maguire and Garfield reprise their roles, but that they’re actual CharactersIn You can’t go home!The second half of the film’s second-half was dominated by him. They don’t just support the current Peter’s story; they get bittersweet grace notes of their own. Maguire’s Peter, who spent three films agonizing over the self-sacrifice being Spider-Man demanded of him, gets to show two younger men that the pain can lead to something beautiful, too. Garfield’s Peter, whose film series was cut short and whose story never got to end, has farther to go: In the space between his last Spider-outing, The Amazing Spider-Man 2,Please see the following: You can’t go home!We learn from him that he succumbed to rage and is now effectively dead as Peter Parker.

These aren’t just lessons to impart to the current Peter, they’re helping hands extended three ways, linking all three versions of the character. The most touching moment in the film. You can’t go home! occurs when Holland isn’t even present, as Maguire, the best-adjusted Peter Parker, tells Garfield’s Peter that he’s great, and tries to get him to say it too. “No, you are amazing — I need to hear you say that,” he says. Garfield’s Peter never does, but in a flash of vulnerability, we can see that he desperately wants to.

It is this thing that makes it difficult to read the entire book with a cynical eye. You can’t go home!: The film’s script doesn’t just use the other Peters for a cute cameo, it attempts to wrestle with the slightly different shades they bring to the current Peter Parker’s pain, and how their meeting each other might help them all grow. Because they all still have room to grow, and they’re all still so lonely.

Photo: Sony Pictures

What sets the latest version of the character apart is that for a while, he wasn’t. An Avenger recruited him and gave him a solitary, but supportive, minder. He was part of a team and shared his experience with his two closest friends. His young mind was able to expand in new ways thanks to the support of a rich benefactor. He was fortunate to have Aunt May, who knew Spider-Man well and helped him with his heroic work. However, he was still a superhero. You can’t go home!’s tragic arc reaches its climax, Peter learns that none of this will help him in his private grief, nor will it help anyone understand him better.

Peter is not only affected by the multiverse’s tragedy, but it also gives him an opportunity to feel more understood. He can work alongside two different versions of himself for a while. It gives him brotherhood for a while.

This is the moment of catharsis. You can’t go home! arrives at the end of a convoluted road that began with Peter Parker’s arrival in the middle of Civil War Captain AmericaHe was a child before he fought the first alien. It was worth it, despite the snarky jokes and confusing plotting. You can’t go home! director Jon Watts and screenwriters Chris McKenna and Erik Sommers ultimately choose to center the beating heart of the kid behind the mask, who’s role-playing at being a man. This decidedly isn’t a story about Spider-Man, it’s a story about Peter Parker. Peter has to learn yet again a lesson about responsibility and power. One way to make sure bad things don’t happen is to be aware that you have the ability to do some good for others, but to not.

Chuck Zlotnick/Sony Pictures

Spider-Man, There’s No Way HomeIt’s a sort of funeral. Even as it’s bringing in Doctor Strange, magic, and multiversal visitors from other Spider-Man movies, it’s also stripping away all the accoutrements Spider-Man accumulated in previous MCU installments. Spider-Man is forced to part with his support system, friends and fancy gadgets in his attempt to avoid multiversal catastrophe. When he asks Doctor Strange to wipe his memory from the world, he’s losing the Avengers who know and respect him, the friends who remember his name, and any sense of found family to fall back on. End of the movie: Peter Parker, in his homemade costume and holding a scanner app from the police, is off to do whatever good he can just for being himself.

These are the following: You can’t go home!This can be seen as an unexpected cautionary tale about the dangers inherent in cinematic universes. The continuity, the crossovers, the cool gizmos that come with superhero cross-pollination — none of that will help Peter get back up again after he falls. He is not what he has become because of it. And perhaps he can’t be the best version of himself until he chooses to be free of it.

Peter Parker will never get that dad, just like he’ll never get to see a world where doing the right thing doesn’t come with a painful cost. But he can choose to get up every day and do it anyway, to believe he’s making a difference. Because he knows that there is someone else out there who will also see him and feel inspired.

Spider-Man, There’s No Way Home It is currently playing in theatres