What I Want From MCU Spider-Man 4
After the brilliant ending of Spider-Man: No Way Home, the writers are left with a completely clean slate for MCU Spider-Man. The origin is explored, the motivations are established, and Spider-Man is now a fully developed hero.
Fans are excited to see where the writers take the wall-crawler in the next installment. Everyone has their own theories about and wishes for MCU Spider-Man 4.
And like others, I also have some things that I see fit for the upcoming movie — things that I want from the movie. Now, this is not an arrogant, ‘if this doesn’t happen then the movie sucks,’ checklist but rather a subjective wish-list — stuff I’d like to see explored.
BAM!
Let’s start, shall we?
Disclaimer: Major spoilers for Spider-Man: No Way Home — obviously.
Exploration of the Aftermath of Spider-Man: No Way Home
Though, Spider-Man: No Way Home didn’t do a terrible job with how it dealt with the aftermath of Spider-Man’s identity reveal in Spider-Man: Far From Home, it didn’t fully explore the concept in depth. Having a secret identity is and always has been an important aspect to Spider-Man’s character, and the movie didn’t focus much on the dire consequences of that reveal but instead had multiverse be the focal point of the story.
Nevertheless, Spider-Man: No Way Home’s ending gave the writers a pretty neat slate to work on. Peter’s on his own; he has a new suit; and literally no one remembers him. The fourth movie has potential to be a very engaging, dark story. A story where we see Peter Parker being Spider-Man 24/7, almost like Matt Reeves’ The Batman. The utter loneliness that Peter brought to himself by making everyone forget about him should be explored in-depth, and not ignored for another unrelated, and less interesting concept.
Darker Tone
The ending of Spider-Man: No Way Home directs Peter’s journey in a certain direction — he’s not a kid anymore. It sets Peter on a path that is much more mature and that should be reflected in the tone of the film. While the tone of Spider-Man: Homecoming, Spider-Man: Far From Home and Spider-Man: No Way Home suited the films and the stories they were telling, the next film should take a serious, and darker approach.
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The melancholy present in the last scene of Spider-Man: No Way Home is a good building point but it needs more focus — the next film shouldn’t shy away from showing the darker, more depressing aspects of the character.
Daredevil
Now that the Netflix’s Daredevil show is officially canon, we can finally get to see the Devil and the Spider fight together. A team up between Daredevil and Spider-Man is a long-awaited one since they have a well-known and fan-favorite friendship in the comics. Their dynamic in the MCU would juxtapose Spider-Man’s youthful and inexperienced approach to street crime with Daredevil’s seasoned, streetwise demeanor. Rumors suggest that he actually has a role in the film…so, yay.
Also, Daredevil is just cool.
Scorpion
Not just me but other fans have been waiting to see Scorpion appear again in his pure, villainous form. It feels like the MCU has forgotten this character. The set-up at the end of Spider-Man: Homecoming never really paid off. They teased him but then didn’t use him.
Given Peter’s current situation, he would be an ideal villain to reintroduce — a former acquaintance seeking revenge or employed by another antagonist to kill the web-swinger, such as J. Jonah Jameson (happened in the comics once) or perhaps someone like…
The Kingpin
The rivalry between the Kingpin and Spider-Man is one of my favorites in the Marvel universe. In the comics, Wilson Fisk is one of the most dangerous and powerful crime bosses in New York and a villain to both Spider-Man and Daredevil. In the MCU, the character is played by the fantastic actor, Vincent D’Onofrio, and is objectively the best MCU villain ever written. The Netflix Daredevil show gave us a fantastic hero vs villain rivalry, the best in the franchise. The chance to see Spider-Man go head-to-head with that same Kingpin is just too exciting to ignore, considering that there are rumors of Daredevil having a proper role in the film.
Another reason why the Kingpin fits perfectly into the next movie is because of the following point.
A Street-Level Spider-Man Story
The main plots of the MCU Spider-Man movies, so far, have dealt with high stakes and been related to the Avengers in one way or another — Homecoming was heavily connected to the Avengers and Iron Man specifically; Far From Home had a villain whose motivations were rooted in Iron Man; No Way Home although had less Avengers connections, it dealt with high stakes with its focal point being the multiverse.
After a whole trilogy that dealt with these high stakes — in the movies’ own terms: Avengers Level Threats — , it is finally time we get to see this version of Spider-Man be the street-level hero the comics portray him to be, for the most part. A Spider-Man fighting street-level criminals, crime bosses like the Kingpin, Hammerhead and Tombstone, and engaging with his own villains.
The crossovers shouldn’t be completely blocked out, Spider-Man can and should be able to partner up with his fellow crime-fighters like Daredevil and others but the crux of the stories going forward should be Spider-Man focused with little to no influence of other superheroes.
And that’s it for today! I will return with another exciting topic for another story another day but meanwhile, make sure to drop a clap and a follow!
All images, comic panels and covers used in this article belong to Marvel Comics.
