Through a major tragedy, Spider-Man 3 can finally complete Peter Parker’s MCU origin story. Captain America: Civil War and Spider-Man: Homecoming notably skipped over his iconic comic book backstory, but elements of it can still be adapted to the big screen through Spider-Man 3.
Similar to Batman and Superman, the wallcrawler has one of the most well-known origin stories in the history of comics. In the 1962 comic, Amazing Fantasy #15, high school student Peter Parker was bitten by a radioactive spider. A side effect of the bite saw him receive super powers. Looking to profit off his new abilities, Peter fought against a wrestler and won. In the aftermath, he made the mistake of purposely letting a thief get by him as he was mad the wrestling boss refused to pay him for his win. To his horror, his beloved Uncle Ben was murdered by the escaping criminal. For many years, Peter remained haunted by this heartbreaking moment, which helped him shape him into the hero he is today in Marvel Comics.
A version of the story was adapted in Sam Raimi’s trilogy and The Amazing Spider-Man movies, but was left out of the MCU. Spider-Man: Homecoming discussed the spider bite, but never really explored it. As for Uncle Ben, he was alluded to but ultimately excluded from Peter’s MCU origin story. Either way, his impact on Tom Holland’s Spider-Man isn’t clearly felt in the same way that it is in the comics or in the last two movie franchises. Instead of using Uncle Ben’s death to develop Peter into a hero, the MCU has been accomplishing this in a different way. Marvel has used the presence of characters like Iron Man (Robert Downey, Jr.) to mold the MCU’s Peter into the character from the comics.
At this point, Peter has endured a number of trials, but his transformation is yet to be complete. Peter is still learning what it means to be a superhero, which means his full MCU origin hasn’t been finished yet. That could change in Spider-Man 3, which can deliver what the first two films didn’t. Peter has encountered loss before, but not something on the same level as his comic book counterpart. Not only did Uncle Ben die in the comics, but he died because of a mistake Peter made. Living with this pain taught Peter responsibility, and is perhaps the most important part of his character development in nearly all versions of the story.
In both solo MCU Spider-Man movies, Peter has seen that his mistakes have consequences, but Spider-Man 3 could go a step further with that. Of course, flashbacks of Uncle Ben’s death wouldn’t have the same impact as a moment that happens in the present, so instead of looking to his character, Spider-Man 3 should go down this road with a different person in Peter’s life. It could be Aunt May (Marissa Tomei), Ned (Jacob Batalon), MJ (Zendaya), or someone else entirely who meets their end in the movie. This would follow the standard MCU formula of other MCU heroes like Captain America (Chris Evans) and Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr), who had their stories propelled forward by a tragic death.
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January 26, 2021 at 05:20AM
