Tracing Tom Holland’s Spider-Man Journey
Has Across the Spider-Verse made you hungry for more Spider-Man? Then good news! The MCU Tom Holland Spider-Man films are easily accessible (though not all of them are on Disney+, sadly) and, once you know how to watch them in order, make for a compelling story.
Spider-Man’s journey to (and through) the MCU was a tough one because of rights issues, and the fact that there had been not one but two Spider-Man movie franchises beforehand, one with Tobey Maguire and one with Andrew Garfield. If those previous movies had never happened, this particular Spider-Man universe could have had events transpire very differently! But here’s what happened on Earth-199999.
Captain America: Civil War (2016)
The MCU’s version of Peter Parker didn’t get a solo movie until after his appearance in someone else’s movie, namely Captain America. In this flick, he’s recruited by Tony Stark as the Avengers fight over a serious matter that’s caused them to take sides. He’s already Spider-Man by the time Tony gets to him, so unlike with the past two Spider-Men we never actually see Tom Holland’s Spidey get bitten by a radioactive spider or lose his Uncle Ben. In fact, the MCU has never clarified for absolute certain if Peter even has a dead Uncle Ben in this universe!
By the end of Civil War, Tony Stark has taken Peter under his wing, and that leads us to …
Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017)
Tom Holland’s first solo outing! Spider-Man: Homecoming did its best to differentiate itself from Spider-Man movies of the past, partly by giving him a new love interest (Laura Harrier’s Liz, who appears to be loosely based on Liz Allen from the comics) and partly by having Iron Man play such a large role in the story. There have been criticisms about this early Spidey being more of an “Iron Boy Jr.” and I see where they’re coming from, but what could be more Spider-Man than giving him a superhero mentor only to lose him tragically? Which brings us of course to the epic two-parter that tied the MCU’s “Infinity Saga” together …
Avengers: Infinity War (2018)
Poor Peter Parker, he was only just settling in as a hero before Thanos came along and wiped out half the universe. Including Peter himself. Sure, he gets to wear a new “Iron Spider” suit and go to space in Avengers: Infinity War, plus trade a few quips of course, but Thanos snaps his fingers and he turns to ashes in Tony’s arms. A whole generation of Spider-Man fans were traumatized by Holland’s delivery of “Mr. Stark, I don’t feel so good …”
But you can’t keep a good superhero down for long.
Avengers: Endgame (2019)
Spider-Man joins all the other superheroes returning from the dead in one of the most crowd-pleasing moments of the decade! Sure, Tom Holland doesn’t have a lot of screen time in Endgame, but he makes what he does have more than count. Then he and Tony switch their roles from Infinity War and Peter has to watch him die, and it’s a permanent death this time. Spider-Man has lost the Avenger closest to him, not to mention five years of his life, but he emerges a more mature hero.
Spider-Man: Far From Home (2019)
Peter Parker deals with his grief over Tony’s death, not to mention the aftermath of half the world being Blipped for five years, in his second solo film, Spider-Man: Far From Home. That’s not all he’s up against, though, as a colorful man with a helmet shaped like a fish bowl is determined to ruin his life and (spoiler alert) manages to do just that by the end. Just as things are finally going great with Peter, and he’s even become romantically involved with Zendaya’s MJ, Jake Gyllenhaal’s Mysterio reveals Spider-Man’s true identity to the world and everything is ruined. The next movie picks up exactly where that one left off…
Spider-Man: No Way Home (2021)
To some, Spider-Man: No Way Home is little more than fan-service, and to others it’s the best Spider-Man movie ever made. Watch it and see what you think. In this (so far) final outing for Tom Holland’s Spidey, he meets two other Spideys—Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield’s versions of the character—but the only reason he meets them is that a memory-erasing spell he asked Doctor Strange to cast goes horribly, horribly wrong. By the end of the film Peter’s secret identity is safe again, but he’s paid a huge price and suffered yet another terrible tragedy. Jeez, the poor kid just can’t catch a break.
(featured image: Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures)
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