Origin Stories and Moral Gray Areas
By: Susanna Mendenhall
Spider-Man is a character built on traversing moral grey areas and coming out on the other side a more responsible and ‘good’ hero. The hero’s iconic origin story from radioactive spider bite to Uncle Ben’s demise is evidence of this. In previous adaptations of the story, we meet Peter Parker before he is bitten and develops powers. Then, in some way Peter Parker makes a decision to not step in and help someone when he could have, and it winds up leading to the death of his father figure, Uncle Ben. With the devastating loss the words his uncle had told him earlier —“With great power comes great responsibility”— ring truer than ever before, and Peter Parker learns that having these abilities makes it his responsibility to help people. Thus far, it seemed Uncle Ben always had to die in service of this lesson to give the world the Spider-Man we know and love.
Tom Holland’s Spider-Man movies, however, is a reboot that does not intend to replay and rehash the mythos of the past. One of the biggest differences between Marvel’s Spider-Man movies and those of the past is that we don’t see the iconic Spider-Man origin story play out on screen, it isn’t even alluded to until the second movie. Instead we meet Peter Parker months after having been bitten and after he had gotten his abilities under control. The Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) Spider-Man movies are the only adaptations of the story where Uncle Ben doesn’t have to die on screen for Peter Parker to learn about the responsibility of his powers. In Avengers: Civil War (2016) — the first appearance of Tom Holland’s Spider-Man—Peter Parker says to Tony Stark that “when you can do the things I can, but you don’t, and then the bad things
happen, they happen because of you.” Despite it being unclear exactly how Tom Holland’s Spider-Man got his powers, and what role Uncle Ben played in him learning the critical lesson that made him the friendly neighborhood hero, it is clear that the MCU’s Peter Parker understands the responsibility he holds because of his powers likely because of a situation where he didn’t step in to help when he could have. Spider-Man canonically finds his purpose as the friendly neighborhood hero, and eventually a member of the Avengers, because of the lesson he learned after falsely thinking that helping strangers ‘wasn’t his responsibility.’
Despite Spider-Man repeatedly learning this lesson as a pivotal point in his origin story, it doesn’t bar the hero from further forays into moral grey areas. Both Tobey Maguire’s Spider-Man and Andrew Garfield’s Spider-Man sought to avenge the death of Uncle Ben, becoming excessively and indiscriminately violent in the process before remembering their responsibility and choosing to do good once again. In Spider-Man: Far From Home, Peter Parker is distraught following the death of his mentor Tony Stark and in a moment of crisis gives control of Tony Stark’s glasses and assistance system, E.D.I.T.H, to Mysterio who uses them to cause chaos and eventually reveal Spider-Man’s identity to the world. Of course, in the way superhero movies go, Spider-Man eventually realizes that he misplaced his trust in Mysterio and fights to take back the glasses and assume responsibility over his and his friends’ safety.
In Spider-Man: No Way Home, all three live action Spider-Men come together in Tom Holland’s Spider-Man’s world to fight their respective villains. Following a harrowing fight that led to the death of Marissa Tomei’s Aunt May, the three Spider-Men sit on a rooftop and commiserate over their losses. Andrew Garfield’s Spider-Man said that he was so hurt by losing Gwen that he didn’t hold back punches he should have, and Tobey Maguire’s Spider-Man said that he got his wish of having Uncle Ben’s killer killed. Tom Holland expressed desires to get revenge for his aunt’s death, but then was reminded that she said it was worth it to die trying to do the right thing because with “great power there must also come great
responsibility.” This reminded the other Spider-Men of the times Uncle Ben had told them the very same phrase, and they came out of their darkness choosing to do the right thing. Superhero movies place good and evil on opposite sides of a clearly defined border, but Spider-Man movies seem to place good and evil on a spectrum acknowledging both the goodness and the evil in people. However, Spider-Man aims to be morally good and he does not let the pain of his circumstances distract him from making the world safer.