MCU Spider-Man Movies Failed Aunt May Worse Than Uncle Ben

The Marvel Cinematic Universe brought a new version of Aunt May (Marisa Tomei) to accompany its version of Peter Parker (Tom Holland) and left Uncle Ben out, but the MCU’s Spider-Man movies ended up failing Aunt May worse than Uncle Ben. After a long wait, Spider-Man finally joined the MCU in Captain America: Civil War and has now embarked on three solo adventures, the latest one with huge consequences not just on the MCU’s multiverse but also in Peter’s personal life and his superhero journey.

Spider-Man: No Way Home saw Peter Parker dealing with a big multiverse problem as he and Doctor Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch) accidentally opened the gates of the multiverse, and his battle against villains from past Spider-Man movies brought tragedy to his life. During a fight against the Green Goblin (Willem Dafoe), the latter stabbed May with the Goblin Gilder and deployed Pumpkin Bombs before leaving, but the first hit left May severely injured. Peter saw Aunt May die, and while it was a truly heartbreaking moment, it continued the MCU’s bad treatment of Aunt May, failing her even worse than it did Uncle Ben.

How The MCU's Spider-Man Failed Uncle Ben

Spider-Man Far From Home Uncle Ben Easter egg

The MCU decided to approach Spider-Man’s story differently from what Sam Raimi and Marc Webb did in the Spider-Man trilogy and The Amazing Spider-Man movies, respectively. Instead of exploring the character’s origin story and showing him being bitten by a spider, after which he acquired superhuman powers and spider-like abilities, the MCU introduced a Peter Parker who had already become familiar with his new powers and had decided to become a vigilante/superhero. As such, the MCU skipped one of the most tragic parts of Peter’s story, which was shown in both Raimi and Webb’s universes: the death of Uncle Ben, which was a key moment in Peter’s journey as Spider-Man.

Not only was Uncle Ben not shown in the MCU’s Spider-Man movies (and not even in photos), but he was also never mentioned. The closest there was to a reference to Uncle Ben’s existence was an Easter egg in Spider-Man: Far From Home, in which Peter is seen packing a suitcase with the initials “BFP”, which stand for “Benjamin Franklin Parker”. As a result, nothing is known about Uncle Ben except for the obvious – he married May at some point and they raised Peter together –, and while it’s understandable that the MCU chose to stay away from showing Uncle Ben’s death, it’s not fair to the character, his legacy, and his role in Spider-Man’s journey that the MCU avoided any mention of him. To make it even worse, No Way Home had a dying Aunt May deliver Uncle Ben’s famous “with great power, there must also come great responsibility” line, leaving him completely out of the picture.

No Way Home Made The MCU's Aunt May Failure Worse Than Uncle Ben

Spider-Man No Way Home has Aunt May played by Marisa Tomei

Even though Uncle Ben wasn’t seen nor mentioned in the MCU’s Spider-Man movies, that doesn’t mean they didn’t fail Aunt May, and her role in Spider-Man’s story was a bigger failure than ignoring Uncle Ben. Aunt May wasn’t given a prominent role in the MCU, and she accidentally learned her nephew is Spider-Man because she saw him in his room wearing the suit. The dynamic between May and Peter was shown in Spider-Man: Homecoming but wasn't really explored, and after that, her role was massively reduced to barely a cameo, accompanying Peter to Tony Stark’s funeral at the end of Avengers: Endgame and then becoming a member of the Salvation Army post-blip, while also becoming Happy Hogan’s love interest.

No Way Home actually gave May a bigger role by showing her defending Peter following the reveal of his identity and doing everything she could to keep him safe. Once the multiverse’s gates were opened and Peter had to deal with all those villains from other universes, May helped her nephew while he worked on a cure for the bad guys, and she even stepped up to avoid the destruction of the cure and was ready to fight the Green Goblin in order to save her nephew. All this suddenly ended with her death, and obviously, one movie wasn’t enough to make up for the MCU’s past mistakes with Aunt May. The biggest mistake was not exploring her relationship with Peter (like Raimi did with his version of May by having her tell stories from her past and showing the struggles she went through after Ben’s death) and using her just for laughs, as a romantic interest for Happy, and just posing as the “cool, young aunt”.

Spider-Man 4 Will Struggle To Fix Its Aunt May & Uncle Ben Mistakes

Aunt May during the Damage Control interrogation from Spider-Man: No Way Home.

At the end of Spider-Man: No Way Home, Peter was left completely alone as the solution to his multiverse chaos was a spell that would make everyone forget him. Peter was last seen starting all over again, in a new (and very small) apartment, and making a new suit, while also missing his friends and, of course, Aunt May. May’s death will surely help shape Peter’s journey in Spider-Man 4 and she will finally have the role that Uncle Ben had in past Spider-Man movies, with her final words and her sacrifice pushing Spider-Man to be a better hero. However, this won’t fix how the MCU’s May and Uncle Ben mistakes, as it can no longer explore their relationship with Peter and develop their characters – and in Uncle Ben’s case, with May now gone as well and the MCU never referencing him, it would make no sense to start acknowledging now that he existed.

Next: MCU Better Explained No Way Home's Ending Spell & Made Peter's Fate Darker