Spider-Man has been on the silver screen multiple times over the years, and has had a successful run of movies (for the most part). Spider-Man was owned by Sony though so that meant he could never be a part of the ever growing Marvel Cinematic Universe. Eventually though Sony and Disney were able to cut a deal that allowed Disney to use Spider-Man in the MCU. He made his first appearance in Captain America: Civil War, but it’s time to talk about Spider-Man’s full film debut in the MCU. Spider-Man’s back home!
Plot
After Iron Man recruited him to fight Team Cap in Berlin during Civil War, Peter Parker has been itching to prove himself to the Avengers. However, Tony Stark hasn’t returned any of Peter’s calls and he has been stuck doing menial tasks such as helping lost old women and stopping bicycle robbers. That all changes whenever Peter comes across some thugs using weapons infused with alien technology. Tony tells Peter to stay out of it, but Peter thinks this is his big opportunity to prove that he is worthy of fighting alongside the Avengers. Little does he know that he’s about to get in way over his head, and that he has a lot to learn before becoming a true hero.
Villains
Adrian Toomes owned a salvage company and was assigned with cleaning up the destruction left from the Battle of New York eight years ago. While removing the alien tech the Department of Damage Control stepped in and confiscated it all. Well most of it, Toomes had one truck’s worth of alien technology and decided to put that to villainous use. With the help of someone known as the Tinkerer and some others he builds a winged suit and becomes the Vulture. What makes Vulture stand out from the myriad of other villains in the MCU is that he’s got good motivation for his actions. Throughout the first 2/3 of the film, Vulture sticks to mostly selling weapons on the black market aka smaller crime. You realize he’s not really evil, he just wants to provide for his family. However, once Spider-Man starts getting in the way of his illegal deals, he gets darker. He begins to get bitter towards superheroes, believing they don’t care about “the little people,” and all the little people are good for is cleaning up after them. Also, he threatens to murder Peter and everyone he loves so that’s nice. He also attempts to steal all of the Avengers gear from Avengers Tower during their move. His suit is powered by alien tech so he’s definitely a considerable threat too. What makes Vulture a good villain though is mostly his character, story arch, and the fact that he’s played by the excellent Michael Keaton.
Vulture also has two underlings that fans of the comics will instantly recognize: Shocker and the Tinkerer. Tinkerer is the main man responsible behind fusing all of Vulture’s gear with alien technology while Shocker is more of the muscle behind the job. He was responsible for selling the technology to criminals, and he was equipped with a larger powerful gauntlet that, you guessed it, shocked whoever it touched. It was cool to see both characters in the film, but they don’t have a particularly large amount of screen time.
Best Scene
Peter Parker confronts Vulture in a warehouse after learning he plans to steal all of the Avengers’ gear. Vulture though isn’t phased and remotely sends his suit after Peter. At least that’s what it seems. Really though Vulture was destroying the support beams in the warehouse around Peter which causes the roof to collapse and trap Peter. At this point, Peter no longer has his super suit given to him by Tony, so he has no help in trying to escape. Peter panics and screams while he is unable to move, but it’s clear that nobody is coming to help. It’s at this point that Tony’s words echo in Peter’s mind: “If you’re nothing without the suit, then you don’t deserve it.” Peter then uses his own power to lift the debris on top of him and frees himself. It’s an emotional and powerful scene that makes you want to stand up and cheer. It’s the point in the movie where Peter learns how to truly be worthy of the title of a hero.
Stan Lee Cameo
In a montage early in the film, Spider-Man is swinging throughout Queens stopping small crimes. At one point he finds a man that is seemingly breaking into a car. Peter stops him but the man says that it’s his car. The alarm goes off and people in nearby buildings start yelling at Spider-Man for causing a ruckus. One of them is Stan Lee who says “Don’t make me come down there you punk!!!” Another lady says hi to him and he says “Marjorie how are ya!? How’s your mother?” Stan Lee threatening to beat up that punk Spider-Man is nothing short of amazing.
Post Credit Scenes
Vulture is walking down a hall in prison when he’s stopped by Mac Gargan, the man Vulture was making a weapons deal with during the big ferry action sequence. Gargan has some serious scars from his fight with Spider-Man, and asks Vulture for Spider-Man’s identity. Vulture though refuses to give up Spider-Man and the two part ways. Gargan, for those who don’t know, is actually a pretty big Spider-Man villain known as Scorpion so it’s pretty obvious we’ll be seeing him again sometime in the near future! Spider-Man has the best rogues gallery of any hero in my opinion so I’m always excited to see new villains show up in his films!
The second post credits scene is without question the best post credits scene the MCU has ever done. Throughout the film Peter watches this hilarious educational videos featuring “international criminal” Captain America. The final post credits scene gives us the best educational video yet:
“Hi, I’m Captain America. Here to talk to you about one of the most valuable traits a student or soldier can have. Patience. Sometimes, patience is the key to victory. Sometimes, it leads to very little, and it seems like it’s not worth it, and you wonder why you waited so long for something so disappointing… How many more of these?”
Fans waited for the entire end credits to be met with the biggest troll the MCU has ever had. It was amazing, hysterical, and slightly infuriating but you have to appreciate a good troll.
Final Thoughts
This was a great return for Spider-Man. The Amazing Spider-Man series was cut short for it being… kind of lame so it was great to see Spider-Man come back with big success. Tom Holland is an excellent young Spider-Man and is one that fans will love for years to come. The villain is great and I love how the whole film is on a smaller scale. There’s no world ending threat, it’s just your friendly neighborhood Spider-Man stopping a heist. This was never meant to be a movie where Peter saved the world. That all being said, I think this movie is a TAD overrated. Don’t get me wrong, I thoroughly enjoyed this film, but I definitely wouldn’t consider it one of the MCU’s best by any means. Tobey Maguire will always be my favorite Spider-Man and the first two films are still some of my favorite superhero films of all time so I never expected this to outdo them. Nevertheless, it’s great to see Spider-Man where he belongs: in the Marvel Cinematic Universe! Just in time too because Thanos will be arriving in the very near future!
Thanos Meme of the Week
The Magical World of Dids 