Marvel’s Spider-Man Trilogy: A Heartbreakingly Beautiful Story

Marvel has given Tom Holland’s Peter Parker the best Spider-Man trilogy. It’s time to recap this epic journey!

Meeting Peter Parker in the MCU

Spider-Man makes his MCU debut in Avengers: Civil War when he is recruited by Tony Stark.

The Avengers are on polarizing sides, with tensions quite high and morale running low. But 15-year-old Peter is a breath of fresh air! While we don’t know how Peter got his powers, at this point in time, it’s only been six months since he got them.

Whatever his reasons for helping Stark are, Peter’s principles remain the same, as he voices out,

When you can do the things I can do but don’t do it… And then bad things happen, they happen because of you.

Peter Parker

His innate drive to help is probably why he gets an invite to join the Avengers.

A Deep Dive into Peter’s Life

We get a real feel for Peter’s world in Homecoming: His dynamics at school, his friendship with Ned and MJ, and his bond with May.

Stealing Captain America’s shield was commendable, but it is during his fight with Vulture that he truly begins to understand the magnitude of danger involved in an “Avengers’ level threat”.

If he doubted his decision to decline joining the heroes, he no longer does.

In contrast to Peter’s tale, we have the Vulture who turns to the maleficent side when he is deprived of a paying job by the Stark partnered Department of Damage Control. When you think about Homecoming and Far From Home retrospectively, you’ll find that the people Stark angered were also the ones who later hurt Peter.

The Making of a Superhero

Peter’s part in Infinity War was more of a chance encounter. After all, the kid did find Stark fighting Thanos’ minions only because he was on a school trip to MoMA. But he does make the conscious decision to stay and continue helping when he sneaks into Maw’s spaceship.

Not only is this Peter’s first involvement with a world-ending battle, it’s also his first experience with real, tangible loss — The death of a loved one and mentor. In a tragic cycle, Tony loses Peter to the blip in Infinity War, while Peter loses Tony for good in End Game.

The Great Fall

Mysterio makes for a formidable enemy in Far From Home. You can’t really blame Peter for getting tricked when this villain had Nick Fury and Maria Hill wrapped around his fingers.

Now the thing to note is, Peter is happy to be your friendly neighborhood hero, but he is done with all high threat missions. This is why he constantly declines aiding Fury. In fact, Fury forcing Peter to work with Mysterio is what causes NWH’s mess.

Peter learns his lesson when he defeats Mysterio — to never trust so easy. He’s soon to learn one more: being a superhero means the fight is never really over.

Becoming Spider-Man

No Way Home forces Peter to grow up all too quickly. It is a movie that started with Peter simply wanting people to forget he was Spider-Man so that his friends could get into college.

And in the end, he had to give his whole existence as Peter Parker in order to save the world.

It reminds me of the Shakespearean line, “Some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have greatness thrust upon them.” Sadly, like most of the Bard’s plays, Peter’s story also has a tragic winding.

But in a world where anything is possible and reassured by his counterparts (Maguire and Garfield) from other universes, I hope Peter comes to realize that being Spider-Man is one of the best decisions he could make.

Aren’t we all grateful that there is someone like Peter Parker looking out for the little guy?

About Spider-Man: No Way Home

Spider-Man: No Way Home is an upcoming American superhero film based on the Marvel Comics character Spider-Man. It is intended to be the sequel to Spider-Man: Homecoming and Spider-Man: Far From Home.

The film was directed by Jon Watts and stars Tom Holland as Peter Parker / Spider-Man. He is joined by Zendaya, J,B. Smoove, Jacob Batalon, Marisa Tomei, Jamie Foxx, Benedict Cumberbatch, and Alfred Molina. The film is not yet available for streaming on Disney+ but the BluRay package is set to arrive March 22.

It will pick up from the events of Spider-Man: Far From Home whose ending revealed Peter’s Spider-Man identity to the world. Numerous villains from previous movies such as Doctor Octopus and Electro are also set to return.