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Why We Should Be Worried About Spider-Man After Avengers: Endgame

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Spider-Man’s about to become the new Iron Man. It’s looking like he’ll be getting all of the gadgets and gizmos that come with the position as well: private jets, advanced suits, everything. He’ll be the next genius, billionaire, playboy, philanthropist. Okay, okay, the next genius, billionaire, philanthropist. Regardless of which nouns you pick out of the four to describe Peter, his future remains the same: he’s becoming the next Iron Man, and that terrifies some people.

Spider-Man and Iron Man are two fundamentally different heroes. One has actual superpowers while the other doesn’t. One typically tends to live his life in poverty while the other lives in extravagance. Basically, Peter’s new title or position makes it almost seem like he’s not going to be Spider-Man anymore. This is how some people see Spider-Man’s upcoming future turning out. “Spider-Man’s going to lose the charm that makes him Spider-Man,” they say. Or, “He’s going to lose what makes him lovable as Spider-Man.”

Intro Interlude: Iron Spider-Man

There’s some pretty good reasons behind these concerns, we’ll admit. Peter Parker has become Tony Stark to his own detriment in the past. In the Superior Spider-Man storyline, Peter’s body was taken over by Otto Octavious, and Otto used it to create his own multibillion dollar company. In the storyline that followed, Peter, of course, later regained control of his own body, and as a result, he assumed control over Otto’s creation. This effectively made him Iron Man (it actually made him a pretty weird fusion of both Iron Man and Bat Man but whatever). Peter would go around the world in high-tech suits and save people while at the same time running his super successful company and indulging in its benefits. The storyline was so Iron Man-esque, in fact, that the writer of it was assigned to write Iron Man’s stories immediately after, and the character of Peter Parker was promptly returned to his roots as a broke, working class citizen. As you can imagine, the storyline wasn’t the most popular one among Spider-Man fans.

Regardless of these reasons, though, this is only one way to look at Spider-Man becoming Iron Man. There are other ways to interpret the meaning of his taking up of the responsibility.

Here’s how we think the wallcrawler’s new mantle is going to play out for him in his upcoming MCU adventures:

Grown Up Peter Parker

For starters, we don’t think the MCU’s crowning of Spider-Man as the new Iron Man is an attempt to actually make Peter Parker into Tony Stark. We think it’s actually their way of propelling high school Spider-Man into his “adult world.” Spider-Man’s life has two phases: Highschool Peter Parker, and Graduate Peter Parker. Spider-Man goes in and out of these two phases depending on whatever his stories call for. Once Far From Home comes and goes from theaters, the story will call for Peter to go from high school to graduate, and graduate Peter, instead of dealing with things like school, deals with things like the Daily Bugle and his struggle to pay bills on time so as not to end up homeless.

Basically, by “becoming the next Iron Man,” Spider-Man will finally be coming of age. We say “finally” but really it’s only been three years since he was first introduced -- doesn’t at all seem like it, though. Regardless, Spidey’s battleground is about to extend from being just that of the friendly neighborhood to all of New York City. In other words, the “graduate” Spider-Man of the MCU, will be taking on all of Iron Man’s previous responsibilities as a hero. With this in mind, high-school Spidey may give way to working-class Spidey sooner than we think. The likely time will be somewhere between Far From Home and Spider-Man’s third movie.

There’s another way to look at this as well (you can even look at it as an addition to the previous view if you want). We think that by pushing Spider-Man to become the next Iron Man, the MCU is propelling Spider-Man into the limelight. In other words, Spidey will more than likely be picking up the title of “de facto main character.”

Tony Stark’s dead, and most everyone can agree he was the main character of the MCU. Someone’s going to have to take his place now, and, unless we’ve been obliviously blind for the past three years while watching these movies, it’s obvious Spider-Man’s been groomed for the role. Tony was closer to Peter than he was to any of the other new Avengers on the MCU rooster.

Finally, there’s one last advantage to Peter becoming the next Iron Man. Because of Peter and Tony’s relationship, Peter has access to some of Tony’s technology. This gives Peter the basis he needs to become more like the Peter Parker of the comic book world. What’s that mean? It means that Peter, in the MCU’s own way, is about to start doing Peter Parker-things and taking the initiative of designing Spider-Man’s costumes onto himself.

Fans have been waiting for Peter to show his genius since he was first introduced on screen. We got the web shooters, but never anything beyond that. The only suit that Peter’s ever designed that we know of was his homemade cotton one. Due to some of the trailers from Far From Home, however, it looks like Peter’s going to be designing his own suits from now on using Stark tech. The Black and Red costume we see him in is such a suit.

This might seem like it’s falling into the same pitfalls as the Parker Industries storyline, but it’s not. Peter’s not inheriting Tony’s company, living like him, or anything else of that nature. He’s using the wares Tony left behind to design his own things. He’s being innovative with what he has, just like comic book Peter. The only difference between the two would be that MCU Peter’s creations would be a bit more realistic (if you look for realism in your movies about people with spider powers) considering MCU Peter now has access to more advanced technology, whereas comics Peter doesn’t.

Peter and Tony are alike in this way anyways. They’re both capable of building useful things with little to no resources and creating flatout impossible things whenever they do have resources. Their likenesses helped shaped their satisfying MCU relationship just as much as their differences did. They’re both intelligent. They both love to quip, and they both carry heavy responsibilities.

Spider-Man and The Sinister 6

We said that when Peter comes of age his battleground is going to become a whole lot bigger. That means he’s going to be taking on a much larger roster of villains as well, and there isn’t a more fitting city-wide challenge that comes to mind than the Sinister 6. Once Spider-Man’s adopted all of New York, his fighting the 6 seems like a likely possibility.

During the credits scenes of Homecoming we saw the Vulture meet up with the Scorpion in prison. Both of these villains are infamous for their involvement with the Sinister 6. Scorpion isn’t infamous enough a villain to warrant his own movie so why show him and Vulture together if not for a potential team up? Even if Scorpion did merit his own movie -- which, now that we think about it, could actually be likely due to Marvel’s want to use different villains for Spider-Man -- why tease him in Homecoming if he’s not going to be a major player in the sequel, Far From Home. It’s pointless. It’d be like Doctor Strange teasing Baron Mordo and not using him in Doctor Strange 2. The only option then for Scorpion’s reveal is that he’s one piece of the villain roster to come in a future movie. It’s likely that Spider-Man 3 will feature Peter’s fight against these guys to protect New York.

Now we know what this sounds like: a Spider-Man 3 that features more than one villain? For some reason you can’t express that idea seems to tug at repressed memories buried deep in your subconscious. Hear us out. Sam Ramsey’s Spider-Man 3 was a bit of a train wreck, yes, but that was Sam Ramsey’s Spider-Man. This new Spider-Man 3 will be of the MCU. Marvel has proven that they can handle a plethora of characters in the same movie. There are enough damn characters in Infinity War for the Avengers to create their own version of the PokeRap. Yet, despite this, or maybe even because of it, Infinity War is one of the best movies the MCU has ever put out. This new Spider-man 3 will be the same: a payoff to the new Spider-Man trilogy and to Peter’s graduation to that of a real hero.

There are, of course, some minor details about this theory that need to be pressed out. For one, Otto Octavious is the rightful leader of any and all Sinister 6 teams (except for maybe one). Thing is, Otto appeared in Sam Ramsey’s Spider-Man 2, and not only was that movie amazing, but Alfred Malina’s portrayal of Doc OC was pretty good too. Depending on how strongly Marvel wants to stick by their policy of using non-movie-featured Spider-Man villains, they may avoid Doc Oc. Then again, maybe they won’t. It’s been 15 years since Spider-Man 2, and Marvel’s already used two more obscure Spider-Man villains in both Mysterio and Vulture. Uniting them and the rest of the Sinister 6 in Spider-Man 3 probably wouldn’t be a big deal to them.

Avengers 5

Since Far From Home is Peter learning how to be the next Iron Man, Avengers 5 will be him applying his lessons. We don’t know how Avengers 5 is going to work, but if Peter steps up like Far From Home is demanding, he’ll be playing a much bigger role in whatever it is to come than he has in any of these last two Avengers movies. The other new Avengers, such as Captain Marvel, Doctor Strange, and Black Panther, should be playing bigger roles too, but Peter’s actions and presence should be determining factors. Iron Man was the one who saved New York in the first Avengers. Iron Man was the one who created Ultron and came up with the plan to stop his doomsday mission. Iron Man was the reason Doctor Strange allowed the Infinity Gauntlet to be completed, and Iron Man was the one who killed Thanos once and for all. Whatever Peter ends up doing in Avengers 5, there’s no doubt that it’ll be on the same level as any of these actions if he’s taken Iron Man’s Place.

Wrap Up

Peter is not going to be running around changing his name to Tony Stark or donning Iron Man’s armor and giving up his spider onesie anytime soon. His new position just means that he’ll be getting more responsibilities and bigger roles to play in future movies. He’ll become Iron Man in the sense that he’ll watch over New York and the world with as much vigor as Iron Man did before passing. It’s almost quite literally Peter mastering the “with great power comes great responsibility,” lesson that he’s famous for.

Becoming the next Iron Man will also be a testament to Peter growing up. He’ll face bigger challenges and greater villains. He’ll also probably take up a much more active role with the Avengers than he already is. It’s looking like Black Panther may end up as the leader of the Avengers, Captain Marvel as the secret weapon, Doctor Strange as the brains, and Spider-Man as the heart.

Just because Marvel is claiming that Peter will be the next Iron Man, doesn’t mean that Peter’s going to become Iron Man. It might not sound like a distinctive difference, but it is. Spider-Man’s whole arc is a coming of age story. There’s no better way for characters like him to do that than by upholding the responsibilities left behind by someone they looked up to. Spidey is Spidey, and there’s no reason to doubt that Marvel’s going to change that.