What Garfield's Spider-Man Not Pulling Punches Would Mean (It's So Dark)

Spider-Man: No Way Home surprised viewers by bringing together the three live-action Spider-Men: Tom Holland, Tobey Maguire, and Andrew Garfield, with the latter opening up about how much his life changed after The Amazing Spider-Man 2 and how he stopped pulling his punches, which has a much darker meaning that it seems. The Marvel Cinematic Universe has been exploring the multiverse in its Phase 4, the beginning of the Multiverse Saga, and one of its biggest multiversal adventures was Spider-Man: No Way Home.

After Mysterio (Jake Gyllenhaal) revealed Spider-Man’s (Holland) identity to the whole world and framed him for his murder at the end of Spider-Man: Far From Home, No Way Home saw Peter asking Doctor Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch) to cast a spell that would make the world forget that he’s Spider-Man. However, the spell was botched and, instead, it opened the gates to the multiverse, allowing villains from past Spider-Man movies to cross over into the MCU. This also allowed Peter to meet two of his multiverse variants: Peter-Two (Maguire) and Peter-Three (Garfield), and they all shared some words of wisdom as well as some of their darkest moments, with Peter-Three telling them that, after Gwen Stacy’s (Emma Stone) death in The Amazing Spider-Man 2, he stopped pulling his punches, which makes Garfield’s Spider-Man better but also darker.

Garfield's Spider-Man Not Pulling Punches Makes His Story Better (& Darker)

Andrew Garfield made his first appearance as Peter Parker/Spider-Man in Marc Webb’s The Amazing Spider-Man, and unlike Maguire’s version, whose love interest was Mary Jane Watson (Kirsten Dunst), Garfield’s got involved with Gwen Stacy. In The Amazing Spider-Man 2, Peter and Gwen broke up but later got back together as they agreed to go to England together after Gwen got a scholarship, but the Green Goblin (Dane Dehaan) took Gwen to the top of a large clock tower. Gwen fell and Peter, although he tried, couldn’t save her, as when he caught her with one of his webs, she hit the ground and instantly died. As revealed in No Way Home, Peter has haunted by guilt over Gwen’s death, and he confided in Peter-One and Peter-Two that after losing Gwen, he stopped pulling his punches, meaning that he became more aggressive and, perhaps, even ruthless.

Garfield’s Spider-Man not pulling punches after the events of The Amazing Spider-Man 2 makes his character better as it makes his story even more complex and tragic, and along with Peter-One, who lost Aunt May in No Way Home, he’s the one who has dealt with most tragedies. Garfield’s Spider-Man radically changed the way he dealt with bad guys as a result of Gwen’s death and the guilt he felt, but this also means that his story got darker, as there’s no indication of how much he unleashed his full power, so he could have either badly hurt the villains he came across or he might have gone as far as to kill some of them.

We Need To See More Of Andrew Garfield's Spider-Man After No Way Home

Peter Three smiling at Electro in Spider-Man No Way Home

Peter-One and Peter-Two also went through some important transformations in their stories, such as when Peter-Two bonded with Venom and when Peter-One lost Aunt May, and the audience got to see these changes in them and the consequences of them – but that wasn’t the case with Peter-Three. The story of Garfield’s Spider-Man came to an end with The Amazing Spider-Man 2 as a third movie was canceled, so the audience didn't get to see how deeply Gwen's death affected Peter and how much he changed after it. No Way Home was a quick way for the audience to catch up with Peter-Three, but the reveal of him not pulling punches has made interest in his story grow. If there was ever a right moment to revive The Amazing Spider-Man 3, this might be it, as Spider-Man: No Way Home dropped interesting hints at what happened to Garfield’s Spider-Man and how much he changed after his second movie.

Next: No Way Home Set Up Garfield’s Spider-Man Vs. Venom (Before The Credits)