Some days, I rewatch clips from the 2002 Spider-Man. I think about how just our luck that Tobey Maguire apparently goads people in poker with impossible gambling bets in สล็อตเว็บตรง UFABET. At least Andrew Garfield, for being in a flawed reboot, seems to be a decent human being. And Tom Holland, Shameik Moore, Chris Pine and other Spider-Men are similar in moral character.

Spider-Man: Far From Home came out this month. It’s a sequel to the Avengers movies, and to the first MCU Spider-Man movie. Peter Parker goes to Europe for a high school trip, only Nick Fury hijacks it. Unlike in his first movie, Peter wants a break. He doesn’t get one. But he does find out who will stick up for him when the chips are down.

We are going to talk about a recently released movie, so we are putting this warning. Ignore at your own risk.

Spoilers

Peter is mourning Tony’s death from the Endgame. He only come back to life a few hours before at best, and doesn’t understand why Tony would die instead. Peter is now an Avenger, but worries about what that means since he should be twenty but is still mentally fifteen. And he’s worried about living up to Tony’s image.

This is all great! I don’t have issues with Peter suffering trauma from the previous iteration. This Peter is not Sony’s Peter Parker, who became his own person. My issue is more about the villain’s motivations. Our villain is revealed as a selfish and opportunistic liar with a grudge.

Parker Luck and Bad Guys

No villain hates Peter Parker, or want him dead for any reason in Marvel Cinematic Universe continuity. Clasically, most Spiderman villains have a tangible motivation to go after Peter. The Green Goblin hates how Spider-Man refuses his offer to team up and keeps being good despite all the crap thrown at him. Dr. Octopus sees Spider-Man as an obstacle to his goals. Harry Osborn wants revenge or to use Peter. Rhino wanted the status of killing the web slinger.

The MCU broke the streak of villains with a tangible grudge. Spider-Man first fought renegade Avengers, including legend Captain America. The Vulture was the first villain overall to break the streak because he says he likes Peter and actually doesn’t want to hurt the kid who saved his daughter’s life. We like the Vulture, even as we condemn him.

This brings us to Mysterio. He seems to be the perfect replacement Avenger, combining Thor’s powers with Iron Man’s charisma. Peter thinks that Quentin Beck can handle the responsibility of saving the world. He is dead wrong.

The reveal is that Mysterio lied about everything. He’s not a magician from a parallel universe. Instead, he’s a former vengeful Stark employee that wants to make himself look like a hero, with tech he stole after the company fired him. He lies to Peter and to SHIELD about how the Elementals are destroying Europe so that he can fill the vacuum that the Avengers left behind.

Quention Beck, on realizing he’s been busted, tries to kill Peter and his friends to prevent the world from knowing. He also outs Peter to The Daily Bugle. And one concern is that it be one thing if Mysterio was angry or something Peter did. But his actions show that he hates Mr. Stark more, and his reasons are more morally ambiguous.

 

Spider Man Should Not Bear Iron Man’s Sins

I am all for Tony and Peter’s close mentorship. Peter wants to meet his hero’s expectations. He wants to be exactly like Tony Stark, while the older man is trying to guide Peter down a different path. Tony sends mixed messages to Peter, who is just a kid.

We see these mixed messages in both Civil War and Spiderman: Homecoming; Tony recruits Peter to join him in Germany by threatening to tell his Aunt May about the hero antics and saying “Captain America was crazy”. Later on, Tony admits he doesn’t know what he was thinking since Peter wisecracks like a boss, references old movies, and suffers a concussion while taking down a giant Ant-Man. He gives Peter a suit, but doesn’t take any of his calls. Happy Hogan also doesn’t respond to them positively.

The thing is that Peter isn’t Tony’s son, either in the literal or metaphorical sense. Tony doesn’t treat Peter like family. They don’t hug until one or the other is close to death, and Tony rarely does house calls the way Happy later does. Peter Parker is Tony’s protege, ideally the next in line to protect the world.

Morgan is Tony’s kid, through and through; he spoils her rotten, plays with her using old hero equipment, and wants to protect her from the old and new world. Yes, Morgan isn’t even in grade school, but she is the center of Tony’s world. If anything, a movie about Pepper having to handle a man like Quentin would be more interesting, since Pepper has seen Tony at his best and worst, and they were separated at the time.

Tony Repeats His Father’s Mistakes

In the Iron Man films, Tony speaks bitterly of Howard Stark. He notes that Howard was distant from him, leaving Jarvis the butler to babysit. While Howard loved his son, he was cold and stern. This led to Tony acting out by getting into alcohol, sleeping with anyone he could find, and blowing off school.

Tony loves Peter, but doesn’t want to get too close. He pretends that, instead of hugging him in Homecoming, he’s reaching for the door. Then he blows off Peter for most of the movie and is condescending while saving him. By the time he tries to be reasonable and apologetic, Peter is in no mood to listen.

At one point, Tony realizes he’s being exactly like his father, after saving Peter and everyone on the ferry. Even so, he doesn’t apologize and focuses on Peter’s mistakes in going after a villain on his own and didn’t care that he could have been killed. His idea of rewarding Peter for stopping Toomes is to give the suit back.

This is very close to what Howard did. He would shoo Tony away, banter with him, and never really say he loved him. When Tony learns who killed his parents, he focuses on his mother dying. He also points out that his father created Vanko by getting the man’s father deported, and let a man like Obadiah Stane get a stronghold in Stark Industries. The cycle broke for Morgan, but not for Peter.

The Two Villains Being Screwed Over By Stark

Both of Peter’s main villains have no personal grudge against him. Toomes argues he’s trying to make a living, and Quentin wants to get access to the tech that he claims is his. Even so, they both try to kill a child when sufficiently motivated. Toomes at least only focuses on Peter, and abstains from ruining his life; Quentin goes in, hook line and sinker.

Here is the thing: Adrian Toomes being screwed by Tony Stark is understandable. No matter how much good Tony does, he is inevitably going to harm someone else. It’s by sheer coincidence that Peter discovers what Toomes is doing at the same time he’s coming into his own. Brice sets off a weapon to go off in the suburbs, and

Quentin Beck being screwed over? That’s less acceptable. Tony knows better than to use someone else’s technology and to present it as his own. Quentin may have lied about that, but even so it shouldn’t be Peter having to deal with Tony’s sins.

Again, Peter shouldn’t have to bear Tony’s sins. He’s not someone who benefited from either scandal. If anything, Tony “stealing” Quentin’s technology to process his trauma made things worse; he tried to atone for what happened in Sokovia, only for war to ensue within the team. If Tony had been actually focusing on working with the Avengers as a team over their PR problem and Wanda’s mistake rather than taking it on alone, they could have avoided so much pain.

As for the Vulture? Toomes was a legitimate businessman. His daughter Liz and Peter could have been together for real if Tony hadn’t offered another contract to the city, and their lives would have been different.

Marvel, Erase The Stark Burden

Give Peter more than trying to live up to the Iron Man legacy. He loves Tony like a mentor, but not like a father. At this point, his villains should have ties closer to Queens and his life. Let Pepper and Morgan deal with the next disgruntled guy.