Spider-Man: Far From Home follows a literal class trip, but it's also a head trip, and
that goes for the characters in the movie as well as its events.
Some characters play bigger roles than expected, some aren't who they appear to be, and still
others are a total surprise.
Here are some characters from Spider-Man: Far From Home with more meaning than you realized.
Be warned: Spoilers are undoubtedly coming.
As she does in Homecoming, Betty Brant first appears in the Midtown High School news show,
and later she goes on the trip with the rest of the class.
Her role is largely comic relief, with her sudden, hyper-close dating relationship with
Ned undercutting some tension.
It's also her curiosity that leads Ned to invent "Night Monkey," the great character
find of 2019.
What you might not know is that Betty has as long a history in comics as just about
any Spider-Man supporting character, first appearing in Amazing Spider-Man #4 in 1963.
She and Peter met as employees of the tabloid newspaper the Daily Bugle, where she was Publisher
J. Jonah Jameson's secretary, a role the character also filled in the Sam Raimi-directed Spider-Man
films.
Comics Betty even dated, then married Ned Leeds, though the comics version of Ned doesn't
share too many similarities with the movie incarnation.
Comics Ned died, and now Betty is an investigative reporter herself.
Though Robert Downey Jr. doesn't have any scenes in Far From Home, - well any new scenes,
he’s in the BARF flashback - Iron Man hovers over everything like the Mark V armor.
Obviously, there's his relationship with Peter, which leads to Peter being entrusted with
"EDITH," the augmented reality system powered by Tony Stark's glasses, whose initials stand
for "Even Dead, I'm the Hero."
There's also his connection to Mysterio.
The big reveal that Mysterio is a fraud and criminal is no surprise to comics fans, but
the detail that Quentin Beck once worked for Stark Industries, creating the hologramatic
"therapy" tool we saw Tony use in Captain America: Civil War, is totally new.
"Plus, 611 million dollars
for my little therapeutic experiment?
No one in their right mind would have ever funded it."
It immediately ties Mysterio into the MCU in a compelling way, and gives him something
in common with The Vulture from Spider-Man: Homecoming: hatred of Tony Stark.
It's ironic that Tony yelled at Peter for making messes in Homecoming, but Peter's had
to clean up Tony's messes twice now.
And Iron Man does technically appear at one point, rising out of Tony's grave in one of
Mysterio's illusions.
Based on the character design, it's a moment that's a clear nod to fans of the Marvel Zombies
comic series.
We've never seen Peter's Uncle Ben in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
He's barely even been mentioned.
Ben's violent death at the hands of a nameless crook, thus teaching Peter the tough lesson
that…
"With great power comes great responsibility."
...is a story that's already been told twice on film, in 2002's Spider-Man and again in
2012's The Amazing Spider-Man.
Plus, Tony Stark has filled the role of Peter's father figure in the MCU.
But Ben's presence is felt in Peter's innate humility and his deep-down need to help the
little guy.
Peter carries his uncle's lessons with him.
He also carries his suitcase.
As Peter is packing up to head off to Venice, there's a quick shot of a set of initials
Peter's luggage: "BFP" for "Benjamin Franklin Parker."
It's the most overt reference to Uncle Ben in an MCU movie yet.
Not only does blustery newsman and Daily Bugle Publisher J. Jonah Jameson appear in Far From
Home's mid-credits scene after Spider-Man gets framed for Mysterio's crimes, he's also
played by the actor who played him in the Sam Raimi Spider-Man trilogy, J.K. Simmons.
"Spider-Man wasn't attacking the city.
He was trying to save it.
That's slander."
"It is not!
I resent that!
Slander is spoken.
In print, it's libel."
He looks a little different than he did in the Raimi movies; Simmons' naturally bald
head has replaced the comics-accurate flat top he sported in the earlier films.
But he's perfectly Jonah in every other way, stoking public sentiment against Spider-Man
and painting the superhero as a threat.
Or maybe a menace.
Jameson's appearance and the news report that accompanies it sets a whole new status quo
for MCU Spider-Man going forward, in which he'll surely be regarded with a lot more contempt
from the public.
Can the Anti-Spider Squad be far behind?
Once Mysterio's plan involving the holograms and drones is revealed, the audience is left
to wonder when the Nick Fury and Maria Hill they've been seeing have been the real ones,
and when they've been fakes generated by Mysterio's tech.
Certainly it's worth parsing the movie to see when the two former S.H.I.E.L.D. operatives
are holograms and when they're not, but even the "real" Fury and Hill aren't who they seem
to be.
In the post-credits scene, it's revealed that they've been Talos and Soren, the husband-and-wife
Skrull leaders from Captain Marvel, the entire time.
Fury has asked them to take his and Hill's place for a bit while they relax on a virtual
vacation.
That is, until Mysterio causes all that chaos and Talos has to call Fury to come back.
Knowing that recontextualizes every scene with Fury and Hill, and invites a second viewing.
Also, Soren's a pretty great shot with a sniper rifle, huh?
Though Mysterio builds them up as hyper-powerful mythological beings, the Elementals are little
more than a trick of the light.
They're realistic projections emanating from the holographic technology Quentin Beck created
as a Stark Industries employee, and the damage they do comes from the drones built by fellow
ex-employee William.
But, as Mysterio observes, people believe they're real in a post-snap world, because
they'll believe anything.
They're really close to being believable for the comics fans in the movie audience, too,
because three of them closely resemble the Spider-Man villains Sandman, Hydro-Man and
Molten Man.
At one point, Flash Thompson even reads a Wikipedia entry for Morris Bench, the comics
alter-ego of Hydro-Man, reciting a creation story that pretty closely resembles Hydro-Man's
comics origin.
It clearly seems like a fake-out directed at all the Hydro-maniacs watching.
Brad Davis, who didn't get snapped and therefore had five extra years to grow up and get handsome,
serves the role of Peter's romantic rival.
Peter's so desperate to beat him out for MJ's affections that he accidentally almost kills
him with a drone.
There was a version of Brad who appeared in exactly one comic issue: 1979's Amazing Spider-Man
#188.
Mary Jane Watson goes on a couple dates with him while on a break from dating Peter.
He's an Empire State University football star and kind of a jerk, but he doesn't take any
pictures of anyone with their pants down like the movie version does.
Also worth noting is Jason Ionello, who appears once again as Betty Brant's co-anchor on the
Midtown High news show, was a recurring character in the comic series Untold Tales of Spider-Man.
He ran with Flash Thompson and a group of other popular teens, often picking on poor,
nerdy Peter Parker.
Dimitri appears to be Quentin Beck's right-hand man through much of the first half of the
movie, staying mostly silent while ferrying Peter back to his Venice hotel and driving
the bus that takes the Midtown High students to Prague.
We never quite figure out what his deal is in Far From Home.
After the big reveal that Mysterio has a whole team of former, embittered Stark Industries
employees working with him, Dimitri sort of just disappears from the movie.
Pre-release rumors pegged the character as Dimitri Smerdyakov, also known as The Chameleon,
one of Spider-Man's oldest villains.
Maybe he still could be.
Someone had to hand that doctored video over to the Daily Bugle, after all.
And, like the Skrulls, the Chameleon can change his appearance to look like anyone.
He could be hiding in plain sight.
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