Careful! This article contains spoilers for Spider-Man: No Way Home.

Everything is going to be different for Tom Holland’s Spider-Man going forward, but his story in Spider-Man 4 may see some lasting influence from his alternate universe counterparts, played by Andrew Garfield and Tobey Maguire. Spider-Man is one of the most popular comic book characters ever, but the MCU’s incarnation of him has been vastly different to other versions of the character. After the ending of No Way Home wiped the slate clean, will Spider-Man’s next on-screen appearance feel more like the past versions audiences were more familiar with?

In the comic books, Spider-Man's association with the Avengers dates all the way back to 1964, and plenty of comic book readers were delighted to see him join the team on the big screen. The result, however, was a very different version of Spider-Man to the one with whom most people were familiar, and this didn’t quite sit right with many viewers. As Spider-Man, Maguire and Garfield were both very different from each other, but their movies contained a few elements which a lot of people would argue are key aspects of the character. Unfortunately, the MCU’s Spider-Man is lacking some of these, simply because he hasn't had the opportunity to develop them.

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Part of the core appeal of Spider-Man is that, under the mask, he could be anyone. This is often reflected in the way he’s written. Peter Parker has the same worries as the rest of us, often alone and struggling with self-doubt. He has to try and juggle all the things in his life, like paying his rent or working a part-time job, and he has to do it while also being a superhero. The compelling heart of his stories is an inherent contradiction — Spider-Man lives a dramatic life full of danger and heroism, while Peter Parker lives the kind of profoundly unglamorous life that anyone can relate to. The Tom Holland Spider-Man movies have been excellently written, but it’s more difficult to relate to Peter Parker when he’s funded by a billionaire and friends with wizards and space gods.

The three Spider-Men, Holland, Garfield, and Maguire, in their suits.

Both Garfield and Maguire’s Spider-Men were homemade heroes, with homemade suits and equipment. Part of their appeal was that they were smart and ingenious enough to figure things out for themselves. The MCU's Peter Parker has a rough-looking homemade suit in Spider-Man: Homecoming, but his “true” suit was made by Tony Stark. Holland’s character has the potential to be just the same, as scenes during No Way Home showed. Now that he needs to be self-sufficient, he’ll have a chance to prove it. As his latest appearance on-screen so far was wearing a homemade suit, made in his new NYC apartment, this looks certain to be the direction he'll be following in the future.

The other big part of Spider-Man’s character which has been missing from the MCU movies is that the people of New York City are supposed to love him. The Amazing Spider-Man sees all of the construction workers of New York working together, moving their cranes to help him get where he needs to be. One of the most powerful moments in Spider-Man 2 happens when Spider-Man nearly tears himself apart trying to stop a runaway train. Afterward, it's the passengers who carry him to safety, hand back his mask, and promise not to tell anyone who he really is. Moments like these, showing how much respect everyday people have for him, carry a huge emotional impact. Tom Holland’s Spider-Man deserves more of them.

Now that Spider-Man: No Way Home has left future stories free to go in a new direction and fix any mistakes, it would be refreshing to see these parts of the character fleshed out in Spider-Man 4. The writers of the MCU Spider-Man movies clearly have a deep understanding of the comics, incorporating iconic moments from the comic books into their stories, so the character is likely in safe hands. For Spider-Fans, there’s plenty of reason to be optimistic about the cinematic future of everyone’s favorite web-slinger.

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