#tom halland

[eternallyungrateful]

NWH SPOILERS

I still refuse to believe she's gone.

I

REFUSE

[pricelesstrashpanda]

Hahaha I just fell down another timeline rabbit hole while trying to work on a fic. This time it's about Peter Parker's MCU origin story, in particular the MCU story around Uncle Ben. If anyone's interested, here's my essay on the subject :)

When it comes to Ben Parker in the MCU, nothing, not even his existence, is canon, and it's making my brain hurt. I support not repeating Peter's origin story AGAIN, but it still frustrates me that they give us absolutely nothing.

Maybe they just wanted us to assume it all went down like in the other movies, but personally I don't think that makes a whole lot of sense for civil war/homecoming Peter we have for several reasons.

1. Peter is younger in the MCU.

The entire Spider-Man MCU timeline is a little screwed up, starting with the eight years later reference in Homecoming, but we know that he's fourteen and probably late in his freshman year in Civil War and fifteen and a sophomore in Homecoming.

By Infinity War, he's sixteen and in the second semester of his junior year, and then he's snapped away for five years. So he comes back and has to repeat the entirety of his junior year as stated in Far From Home, which takes place in the summer between that and what will be his senior year of high school.

Now exactly how old he is at this point is all-around unclear thanks to the snap and a once-again unclear timeline, but he's probably around seventeen.

That's as old as Andrew Garfield's Peter Parker is in his first movie, during his origin story, when he doesn't intervene in a convenience store robbery and the robber he could have stopped kills Uncle Ben. I can't figure out exactly how much time is supposed to have passed between The Amazing Spider-Man and the Amazing Spider-Man 2, so I'm assuming he's a junior at this point and an eighteen-year-old senior when he graduates in the second movie, but it's possible the first move takes place during his senior year as well. Either way, he was seventeen when he was bitten and Uncle Ben died.

Likewise, Tobey Maguire's Peter Parker is also seventeen when he is bitten and likewise doesn't intervene in a crime which leads to his uncle's death. He, however, graduates high school and starts his adult life in his first movie.

It's safe to assume Tom Holland's Peter Parker was bitten by the spider and given his powers at the beginning of his freshman year, giving him several months to develop his identity as a masked crime-fighter before Tony figures out who he is and contacts him towards the end of the school year.

This would make Peter barely fourteen when he's given his powers. That puts a big age-gap between him and the two alternate versions of Spider-Man.

If anything, I can see him being too scared to intervene in the classic crime which leads to Ben's death. And who can blame him? He's a child at that point.

I realize comic book versions of the story have this all happening when he's around fifteen, but still, Peter is so, so young.

2. Peter has a different personality in the MCU.

I haven't watched The Amazing Spider-Man, but the difference in personality between Tom Holland's Peter Parker and Tobey Maguire's Peter Parker is intense.

The MCU version simply isn't the kind of kid who'd see any appeal in chasing fame and glory like the older version is when he witnesses the crime which results in his uncle's death. And it's hard to picture him being simply too stubborn and bitter to intervene as he is in both former movie versions (I have watched the Ben death scene in The Amazing Spider-Man).

Once again, Peter being too scared to do anything is the only thing that really makes sense to me in this version of the story. I'm not saying that puts zero responsibility on his shoulders, but it's less than the revenge of the other two.

Homecoming was the first Spider-Man movie I ever watched, and when I went back and subjected myself to Tobey Maguire's version of the story, I was literally shocked and even disgusted at the attitude and personality of his Peter Parker. It's just so, so different than the Peter I'm used to, and I couldn't believe this was thought of as classic Peter Parker.

I realize we only see MCU Peter after he gets his powers and whatever pushes him to use them does so, but it still just doesn't connect to me. And once again, the age difference makes whatever past personality flaws he did possess quickly forgivable as he was, I repeat a child.

3. Before fighting Captain America, having a building dropped on him by his crushes' father, dying, coming back only to watch his surrogate father die, being betrayed by someone he's started to look to as his new mentor, literally being run over by a train, and then having his identity revealed to the whole world while being framed for a super villain's crime (and those are just the highlights), MCU Peter Parker doesn't seem to be the kind of traumatized a kid who caused his uncle's death would be.

Again, I'm not sure about Andrew Garfield's version, but in the 2002 movie, Peter has a certain attitude following Ben's death... maybe he's determined to be a martyr? I'm not quite sure how to explain it. He's caring this huge weight of responsibility for the world or at least the city, and he's tiredly resigned to carrying it.

In the MCU, Peter has a shadow of that, but it's not nearly as intense until Far From Home. He still has this youthful innocence and excitement for his role as a superhero that doesn't quite fit the normal backstory.

Furthermore, he and May don't exactly seem to be grieving a super recent death. Everyone handles grief differently so I can't say for sure, but they simply seem to be pretty used to it being just the two of them.

All of that to say, I don't think it's the exact same story. So what is Peter's MCU origin and motivation? Does Ben even exist in this version? I don't know, but we do know a few things.

1. Peter does have some kind of a "with great power comes great responsibility" story.

When he's talking to Tony in Civil War, he doesn't say the line, but he conveys the exact same idea. So obviously, he had his abilities, and something bad happened, and he had some sort of reason to blame himself.

This suggests what I mentioned earlier... maybe he was just too scared? Maybe he was just at home, refusing to use his powers because they terrified him, and something terrible happened?

Maybe it wasn't as personal as, "I didn't stop this and my uncle died," but maybe it was, "I didn't stop this and someone died." Again, it wouldn't have to be spite/revenge. Maybe he was just too scared.

2. May has been through a lot.

We don't know specifics, but Peter's, "after everything she's been through" definitely suggests some kind of major loss, even beyond the death of Peter's parents and her raising him herself.

Maybe her husband died, maybe he left, but given what we know about Peter Parker's normal origin story, it's a pretty safe assumption that the comment refers to something to do with Ben.

So, while some argue that Ben Parker simply doesn't exist in the MCU and has been replaced by Tony Stark, a compelling theory based on how Tony's story progressed to his eventual death, which was very traumatizing for Peter, those bits in Civil War and Homecoming still suggest otherwise.

I guess the theory I've landed on is Ben existed and was killed in a violent crime while Peter was still too scared to use his powers. I know I just said it doesn't seem like Peter and May lost him that recently, and I still stand by that, but that's just the theory that makes the most all-around sense to me.

The other one I like is Ben either left or was killed earlier in Peter's life, and Peter non-intervention didn't result in the death of someone he knew, but rather just one of the "little guys" out there in New York City.

I don't know. This entire thing is a mess. It just frustrates me that we don't know. It's possible that more will be revealed in No Way Home, but at this point I feel like they're pretty comfortable in not explaining. People have theorized that since Doctor Strange is going to be in No Way Home, he might briefly bring Ben back as a gift to Peter as he does in the comics, but given Peter's story in the MCU, it would make way more sense for him to do that with Tony if he was going to do it with anyone. I would live for that, but that's not the point of this post.

Anyway. If you've actually read this far, congratulations. What are y'all's headcanons about Peter's origin and Uncle Ben in the MCU?

[loveandshadows]

Can we just talk about this for a second. This needs to happen.

[peggykicks-ass]

My dash today

Or

[itsybitsybatsyspider]

[chill-and-eat-some-gummies]

[quizkid-jerrylundegaard]

films seen at the cinema in 2019: 18. Spider-Man: Far From Home

[sagebaileyspeaks]

Soon I’ve finally seen Spiderman: Homecoming and I stand firm in my belief that it is the fourth best Spiderman movie. 

The original Spiderman is the better origin story because it’s self-contained. I’m very vocal in my...indifference to Tony Stark as a character but his overarching presence is a detriment to this film. I don’t like that Peter didn’t build his own suit. I don’t like that Peter’s main motivation is to impress Tony Stark and become an Avenger. Anytime that Peter isn’t calling Tony Stark or referencing him, it’s to the benefit on the movie. 

I wanna watch Spiderman, not Tony Stark Jr. 

Another thing is there are moments that feel very familiar. Like, the ferry scene when he’s trying to hold the ferry together with webs....feels very Spiderman 2ish. Or the Vulture, talking to Peter in order to distract him from his wing attack which is straight up the ending from the original Spiderman. I like Ganke Ned, I like Liz, I legitimately believe these are all high school students. There is a certain authenticity to teenagehood that was missing from the original trilogy, but I also would’ve liked a simpler story that was divorced from the larger world of the Avengers. 

I still give it an 8/10.