When Tom Holland’s Spider-Man first showed up in Captain America: Civil War, his very presence in the MCU raised a bunch of questions. And now, with the release of his first solo movie, Spider-Man: Homecoming, many of those questions have been answered. But of course, there are still plenty of other dangling story threads regarding the ongoing story of Peter Parker and his friends in the Marvel Cinematic Universe that we’ll have to wait for future movies to see resolved.
That said, here are our 5 Biggest WTF Questions About Spider-Man: Homecoming… Spoilers of course follow!
As Homecoming wraps up, Zendaya’s character Michelle drops a bombshell: Her friends call her “MJ,” she says! Of course, this comes after months of rumors and reports that the actress was playing the MCU version of Spider-Man’s iconic love interest MJ, a.k.a. Mary Jane Watson. So was the Internet right about Michelle’s true identity? In a word, nope.
Marvel Studios boss and Homecoming producer Kevin Feige recently told IGN’s Jim Vejvoda the following: “We never even looked at it as a big reveal necessarily but more of just a fun homage to his past adventures and his past love. She's not Mary-Jane Watson. She never was Mary-Jane Watson. She was always this new high school character, Michelle, who we know there's an ‘M’ in Michelle and an ‘M’ in Mary. [laughs] So we're so clever and we thought, ‘Wouldn't it be neat if her initials were MJ?’ … Is she going to date Peter? Are they going to fall in love? She seems to be intrigued with him. There's a nice chemistry there. Who knows what will happen in the future films?”
At one point in Homecoming, Jon Favreau’s Happy Hogan namedrops some of the precious cargo being transported to the Avengers’ facility upstate. (Speaking of which, is it just us or is it kind of confusing that the move from the Manhattan headquarters is taking place now even though the new facility has been around since the end of Age of Ultron?) Happy mentions a couple of particularly noteworthy items, including Thor’s belt, the name of which he can’t pronounce but that we know from the comics is Megingjord (it increases his strength, don’t you know!). But another piece of equipment we learn of is a new prototype shield that Tony has been designing for Captain America, which… huh?
The thing is, Civil War ended with Tony and Cap beating the heck out of each other and parting ways. Yes, Cap sent Tony that note and phone with a “I’m still here for you, bud” message, but it’s still clear that Cap is a fugitive while Tony is running what’s left of the Avengers (more on that below). Also, Tony took Cap’s shield at the end of that film (“My father made that shield!”), so why would he be making the former Avenger a new one?
Of course, Cap has had other shields in the comics, including one built for him by Tony Stark in fact during the period when Steve Rogers stepped down as Captain America and became “The Captain.” But still, why make a new shield when you have the old shield? And why bother at all if you guys aren’t even on the same team anymore?
O.K., we’ve got Iron Man. We’ve got the Vision. And we’ve got… uh… who do we have?
After Civil War, the Avengers as a team was essentially fractured. Cap and everyone on his side in that conflict are now apparently fugitives from the law. Of Team Iron Man, War Machine was critically injured and learning how to walk again when we last saw him, Black Widow went on the run, Black Panther (who really was on his own side the whole time) returned to Wakanda, and Spidey went back to Queens. So there aren’t a whole lot of Avengers left, right?
And yet, Tony and Pepper Potts come this close in Homecoming to holding a press conference announcing Spider-Man as the newest member of the team. The Vision is also mentioned, which makes sense since he was still hanging around, morosely playing chess when we last saw him. But the implication in Homecoming is that there is an active roster of Avengers in play since Civil War. And maybe there is, but we’re certainly being kept in the dark regarding who they are. For now, anyway.
While it seemed like Peter exhibited his classic tingly spider-sense for a moment in Civil War while fighting the Winter Soldier, Homecoming doesn’t have any trace of that old Spider-Man ability. We do know that he wears those goggles and lenses to filter out all the information he picks up with his powers, but that’s not quite the same thing. And some fans have wondered if the Stark tech-suit Peter wears in the film simply means that the character just doesn’t need his sixth sense anymore.
But fear not, true believers. Kevin Feige says that Holland’s version of Spider-Man does have spider-sense. "No, I think he has it. And I think he has it with or without that suit," Feige told IGN. "I think how we explore it in a cinematic sense will change. I mean, that was sort of a big showy part of previous versions [on the big screen] and we thought that we'd make it more of an internal, sort of second nature thing for him."
Homecoming’s mid-credits scene features Michael Keaton’s the Vulture/Adrian Toomes now incarcerated and running into fellow criminal Mac Gargan (Michael Mando). Gargan is also known as the super-villain the Scorpion in the comics (and yeah, that tattoo he has in the film gives us a pretty good idea of where the live-action version is headed as well). When he quizzes the Vulture on the rumor he knows Spider-Man’s secret identity, Toomes lies and says that if he knew that he would’ve revealed it already.
But why wouldn’t Toomes want to tell everyone who Spidey really is? The wallcrawler busted him, got him sent to prison, and ruined all his plans for providing for his family (they even move out of state after his arrest). Could it be that he wants to save the secret of Peter’s identity for himself, so that when and if he’s ever freed he’ll be able to exact revenge on Spider-Man?
Well, maybe. But we think there’s more to it than that. Don’t forget, his daughter Liz had feelings for Peter, so he’d likely want to protect her. But also, Peter did save his life, and Toomes seems like the kind of guy who would respect that. Plus, when IGN suggested to Feige and fellow Homecoming producer Amy Pascal that Toomes “looks at this kid and he's got to see something of himself in there,” they agreed. “You get a gold star for that,” said Pascal.
What were your biggest questions coming out of Spider-Man: Homecoming? Let’s discuss in the comments!
Talk to Senior Editor Scott Collura on Twitter at @ScottCollura.
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