While it's easy to criticise Marvel Studios' Spider-Man trilogy (Homecoming, Far From Home, No Way Home) for one reason or another, Kevin Feige and filmmaker Jon Watts saved a franchise that was being destroyed by Sony's incompetence.
That meant tying Peter Parker to Tony Stark, but given Spidey's history with Iron Man on the page, it's not like that was the biggest departure from the comics. Overall, Watts did a splendid job and made Spider-Man a franchise capable of earning nearly $2 billion, post-COVID. That's an amazing feat.
Still, with filmmaker Destin Daniel Cretton looking to take this character back to his roots with a street-level adventure in Spider-Man: Brand New Day, there are certain creative decisions from the past that we'd like to see fixed. In this feature, we explore those and how Marvel Studios can make up for past missteps.
To check them out, you'll just need to hit the "Next"/"View List" buttons below...
5. Proper Battle Damage
Peter Parker definitely got a little beaten up in the MCU movies he appeared in, but wearing a technologically advanced suit meant that some scorch marks and a few scuffs were really as bad as it got for the web-slinger.
Now that the hero is decked out in a homemade suit, we want to see the whole shebang: a torn-up mask exposing part of his face, bloody slashes across the rest of the suit, and signs that this hero has been in a fight for his life.
It may seem like a small or unimportant request, but the comic book fans among you—or, indeed, fans of Sam Raimi's 2002 classic, Spider-Man–will surely agree that this is a must for a street-level Spidey.
4. Spider-Man Doesn't Need Another Mentor
It makes all the sense in the world to include a prominent MCU character in Spidey's movies, particularly as it firmly establishes his place in this world and helps increase those all-important ticket sales (which pleases Sony and keeps its partnership with Disney alive).
However, the trope of heroes like Iron Man, Nick Fury, and Doctor Strange serving as mentors to Spider-Man needs to go away. We don't want to see The Punisher doling out advice, and certainly don't need The Hulk to be keeping an eye on the wall-crawler.
Like his comic book counterpart. Spider-Man should be isolated from his fellow heroes. That doesn't mean he can't cross paths with them or have a quick team-up, but this is meant to be Spider-Man, not Spider-Boy.
3. Scrap The Gadgets
The comic book version of Spider-Man has used many gadgets over the decades, but we're ready to bid farewell to all those Stark Industries accessories—including the Iron Spider suit—that have been so prominent since 2016.
All we want to see Spidey swing into action with in Brand New Day and beyond are his trust web-shooters and a handful of Spider Tracers. We wouldn't be against seeing Impact Webbing, for example, but even ditching the web wings is a must to truly ground Peter.
Marvel Studios needed to give Spider-Man a fresh coat of paint after Sony's movies, so we get why he was given so many upgrades. Let's keep things properly street-level for the time being, though, eh? It'll make the Symbiote pop that much more, after all...
2. Explore The Origin Story
We totally get why Marvel Studios didn't feel the need to rehash Spider-Man's origin story when he made his MCU debut, but what's weird is how subsequent movies have basically ignored it.
Uncle Ben's death has been alluded to, but we didn't even get the "Great Power" line until No Way Home. We don't necessarily need flashbacks, but there's got to be a way to make Peter's past a compelling part of future stories, even if it's as simple as the process that creates Scorpion being linked to the spider responsible for biting the teenager.
Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man took some big swings with Spidey's origin and delivered a brilliant, unexpected new take on it. That's what we want to see in the MCU moving forward.
1. A Stronger Supporting Cast
Was the supporting cast that bad in previous Spider-Man movies? No, but it was never much better than "fine." In an attempt to move away from Mary Jane Watson and Harry Osborn, we got MJ and Ned, along with pretty paper-thin versions of Flash and Betty.
With Peter heading to college, we're eager to see new versions of Gwen Stacy and Harry, and certainly wouldn't be against some surprises (just look at what Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man did with Nico Minoru and Pearl Pangan).
MJ and Ned are set to return, and we look forward to them reuniting with Peter and remembering him. In the meantime, this franchise would benefit from some fresh faces with closer links to the comic books. Felicia Hardy, anyone?