No Way Home Proves Spider-Man Doesn’t Need To Be An Avenger Anymore
While it was once his dream to become an Avenger, Spider-Man: No Way Home proves Peter Parker no longer needs to be one to be a great hero.
Thanks to , Peter Parker no longer needs to be an Avenger. While it may have been his dream following Captain America: Civil War, when Spider-Man was recruited by Iron Man, the journey he’s gone on has seen Peter mature to the point where having that Avengers’ status is no longer such a large priority in his life. However, that doesn’t mean Spider-Man shouldn’t ever work with other heroes in the near future. Now that he’s seemingly become more of a street-level hero, as opposed to one of Earth’s Mightiest Heroes, there are plenty of new faces for the web-slinger to meet and join forces with.
At the end of Spider-Man: No Way Home, the entire world no longer remembers that Peter Parker is Spider-Man thanks to Doctor Strange casting a spell that saved reality itself from being destroyed by a rampant multiverse. Now, Peter is on his own with a new suit he made himself that looks a lot like a classic costume from the comics, signifying a new era for Spider-Man where he’ll seemingly be working solo, given his reluctance to reveal his restored secret identity.
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However, even if the spell hadn’t been cast by Doctor Strange in No Way Home, Spider-Man has still grown a lot and matured enough that being a part of the Avengers isn’t as much of a concern or focus as it was in the first or second films of the Homecoming trilogy. He’s become his own hero rather than his identity being so tied up as the protogé and potential replacement for Tony Stark’s Iron Man. Instead, the lessons Peter learned in Spider-Man: No Way Home from his Aunt May-along with Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield’s Spider-Men from alternate universes-helped him grow into a more independent superhero. He has become more of the friendly neighborhood Spider-Man that’s seen in the comics, who more often than not operates without the full support of a team.
Just because being an Avenger has likely taken a back seat doesn’t inherently mean that team-ups and crossovers are done for Peter Parker. Spider-Man’s greater street-level status opens up a whole new realm of possibilities where he could team up with more grounded heroes such as Daredevil, who had a beloved No Way Home cameo as Peter’s lawyer who also has a secret identity to protect. Just like in the comics, Spider-Man is now primed for smaller crossovers with one or two heroes rather than full-on teams like Earth’s Mightiest Heroes. While he may still technically be an Avenger-assuming that the Avengers are still operating together following the destruction of their headquarters and the loss of three core members in Avengers: Endgame-it’s hard to tell considering the global effects of Strange’s spell with no one knowing who he really is under the mask. Being dubbed an Avenger by Iron Man in Infinity War and fighting in should be intact, though memories have apparently been adjusted, which could have some interesting results in the future.
At any rate, Spider-Man does some of his best work when he’s on his own, being one of the few heroes in the comics with one of the most protected secret identities ever. While the support and mentorship of Iron Man were inspired by arcs from the comics and served as the perfect means of integrating Peter Parker into the MCU, his evolution into a hero who can stand on his own two feet has been completed thanks to Spider-Man: No Way Home. Peter Parker was originally so obsessed with being an Avenger and it was all he wanted in the first Homecoming film. Now, it’s much less of a concern for the iconic web-slinger, opening him up to stronger stories with potentially more unique and personal team-ups down the line.
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Originally published at https://screenrant.com on April 13, 2022.
