A Familiar Face Stopped the MCU’s Spider-Man From Crossing the Line (But They Don’t Deserve the Credit)

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The MCU’s Peter Parker always sees the good in people, to the point that it’s a character flaw. Being trustworthy makes him overlook all the red flags surrounding Mysterio in Spider-Man: Far From Home, which puts the entire world in danger. The next time Peter has a chance to let a sketchy character in, he does it, and it costs him dearly. Fortunately, there’s someone in his corner who stops him from going too far. It’s just a shame that Peter’s guardian angel steals the thunder from the real hero.

Doing the Right Thing Tears Spider-Man Apart in No Way Home

Peter is stuck between a rock and a hard place when No Way Home kicks off. His identity is public knowledge, and the media circus following him around is hurting his friends and family. While it’s a long shot at best, Peter reaches out to Doctor Strange, who offers to cook up a spell that will make people forget Spider-Man. Everything’s going swimmingly until Peter tries to make modifications to the incantation that screws the whole thing up and unleashes villains from the multiverse onto Earth-616. After capturing all the bad guys, Peter learns that they’re all marked for death, which doesn’t sit right with him. Ned Leeds and MJ agree to help their friend find cures for the doomed villains, so they waste no time getting to work.

Norman Osborn, aka the Green Goblin, throws a wrench in the plan, though, rallying his fellow villains to seize their second chance and conquer the world. During the chaos, Green Goblin calls his glider, hitting Aunt May and killing her. A devastated Peter goes off on his own to wrestle with his mistakes, but two Spider-Man variants, played by Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield, don’t let their grieving counterpart sulk for too long. The three heroes formulate a plan to cure everyone and push forward. It looks like they’re really going to pull it off until Green Goblin arrives and taunts Tom Holland’s Peter. Giving into his rage, Spider-Man attempts to kill his greatest villain, but he can’t get the job done because Maguire’s hero stops him in his tracks, which isn’t surprising. After all, another Sam Raimi character taught him an important lesson about life being sacred.

Tobey Maguire’s Spider-Man Gives Into His Rage

The only Spider-Man to get a third movie outside of Holland’s is Maguire’s, who discovers that his uncle’s real killer is still out there in Spider-Man 3. Flint Marko picks a bad time to resurface because Spider-Man has the symbiote on his side, making him angrier and stronger. When Peter finally catches up to Sandman, he doesn’t hold back, dousing the villain with water, seemingly killing him. Peter’s next move is to deliver the news to Aunt May, who he believes will be happy to hear that Spider-Man killed the man responsible for her husband’s murder. However, May is disappointed, explaining that nobody, not even Spider-Man, should decide whether someone lives or dies.

It takes some time for that lesson to sink in for Peter, but he comes to regret his choices and even teams up with Marko when Venom becomes a problem for both of them. Years later, Peters gets to show off what he’s learned by stopping his variant from breaking his code. Whether Earth-616’s Peter knows it or not, he made more than one version of his aunt proud by putting down the glider and making a different choice.

Spider-Man: No Way Home is streaming on Disney+.

Are you glad that Tobey Maguire’s Spider-Man stopped Tom Holland’s hero from killing Green Goblin? How do you feel about Aunt May’s lesson coming back around? Let us know in the comments below!