The dust has settled, the bad guys have been defeated, and all is right with the Marvel
Cinematic Universe now that Spider-Man: Homecoming has finally made Peter Parker an official
part of the MCU.
But while Homecoming answered some questions, it posed a few more — especially with the
way it ended.
Here's a spoiler-filled explanation of just what the ending of Spider-Man: Homecoming
means.
The press conference
Peter turning down Tony Stark's offer of membership in the Avengers was a bit of a surprise, but
it also had some hidden meaning — not to mention implications for future films.
Fans of the comics probably recognized that the press conference sequence closely mirrored
a similar event in the comic book version of Civil War, where Peter joins Iron Man's
side and reveals his secret identity to the world.
Luckily, in the movie, Peter turned down Stark's offer, because in the comics, it eventually
led to a deal with the devil.
Dodged a bullet there, Spidey!
More importantly for film fans, Peter's non-membership in the Avengers sets up some interesting questions
heading into 2018's Avengers: Infinity War.
Just what will Spidey's role be in the movie if he's not a member of the team?
Will he have a central role, or just be relegated to a cameo?
Whether he's on the team or not, here's hoping we get to see a lot more of Tom Holland's
Spider-Man in the future.
Peter's love life
At the end of the film, Peter's love interest Liz moved to Oregon.
But more importantly for fans, we learn that his acerbic classmate Michelle is actually
the MCU version of Mary Jane Watson, who has traditionally been Spider-Man's true love.
Considering there's no sign yet of Gwen Stacy in the MCU, it seems as though Marvel may
be skipping Gwen's tragic death in the same way they decided to skip Uncle Ben's death.
"(crying)"
Boring!
Seeing how Peter's relationship with MJ develops in future films should be interesting.
The guy in the chair
One of the coolest parts of Spider-Man: Homecoming was Peter's relationship with his awesomely
nerdy best bro, Ned Leeds, a.k.a. his "guy in the chair."
One thing, though: he might also become one of Spider-Man's deadliest supervillains.
That's because in the comics, Ned Leeds eventually becomes a Hobgoblin.
And if that plot sounds a little too close to the stories in the previous Spider-Man
trilogies, where Peter's best friend Harry became the Green Goblin, there's good reason:
in the comics, Hobgoblin was born when Ned Leeds found a stash of the deceased Green
Goblin's weapons and gizmos.
Of course, comics being comics, that was later retroactively changed.
But will Ned do a heel-turn in the movies and become Peter's mortal foe?
We sure hope not, but we wouldn't put anything past Marvel.
Those other supervillains
While the Vulture ended up in prison, it was less clear what happened to the film's other
supervillains, the Shocker and the Tinkerer.
But chances are pretty good we'll be seeing them in future films, especially since the
mid-credits teaser hinted at the creation of the supvervillain team known as the Sinister
Six, which in the past has included both Vulture and the Shocker.
And with the Tinkerer still out there making supervillain suits, introducing other members
of the Sinister Six like the Scorpion and the Beetle should be easy.
What's the big deal with the plane?
Considering the big lecture Tony Stark gave Peter about the recklessness of starting a
fight with the Vulture on the Staten Island Ferry, it seemed even more dangerously reckless
when Peter nearly crashed a plane into a Brooklyn neighborhood just to stop Vulture from making
off with some of Tony Stark's leftover junk.
Didn't Spidey learn anything?
"Remember, with great power comes great responsibility."
But there are two pretty big reasons why Peter actually did the right thing: the Tesseract
and Ultron.
In both Avengers and Avengers 2: Age of Ultron, the Earth was nearly destroyed when the good
guys lost control of massively powerful goodies they were safeguarding.
There's no telling what might have happened if Vulture had been able to sell stuff like
the Hulkbuster armor and Thor's magic belt to psychopathic supervillains.
So even though Peter endangered thousands of lives to save an unmanned plane, he may
have actually saved millions of innocent people in the process.
The X-Men and the Fantastic Four
With Homecoming, Marvel proved it can make better Spider-Man movies than Sony.
So imagine what they could do if they teamed up with Fox to make a Fantastic Four movie?
The success of Homecoming may theoretically make that possible.
Right now, Fox isn't making a dime from Fantastic Four or other related properties like Silver
Surfer.
Even splitting the proceeds with Marvel, they'd make a lot more cash co-producing an MCU Fantastic
Four film than they ever will on their own.
That could spur Fox and Marvel to bury the hatchet and bring the F.F. — and possibly
even the X-Men — into the MCU fold.
And if Spider-Man can help reunite all of Marvel's heroes in one film universe, that
would be his greatest feat of heroism yet.
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