*Full and complete spoilage for No Way Home. This is your warning.*
Okay, I promised more spoilery thoughts on No Way Home, and that begins today! I have stuff about the overall plot that I want to talk about, like particular beats of the story and how particular characters were or weren’t served by the plot, but all that’s going to have to wait. Because everything I most want to say about No Way Home is on a very particular subject, and I knew my desire to talk about it would easily fill a whole post. Today is about one thing and one thing only: Spider. Men!
That’s right—the title of the post is “A Few Thoughts on Peter Parker,” to avoid spoilers, but in actual fact, this is a Relationship Spotlight for Peter Parker, Peter Parker, and Peter Parker. Just beginning with a little on my own feelings/reactions before I get into the meat of their dynamic in the movie. First, even though I was, like, 98% sure that Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield were going to be in it, I was glad that I managed to avoid any spoilers confirming they were in it. The second Ned opens that portal to Spider-Man and it’s not immediately obvious that it’s Tom Holland, I was in heaven. While I went into the film excited about the 98%-sure prospect of seeing the former Spider-Men appearing, I think I underestimated just how much it would mean to me to see all three Peters onscreen together like this. But enough about me: onto the Relationship Spotlight!
(Note: For the sake of clarity, I’m just going to refer to the different Peters as Tom, Tobey, and Andrew. It’s so much easier!)
No Way Home isn’t a perfect movie, and there are definitely things I take issue with, but everything about the three Spider-Men is everything I never knew I wanted. Right from when Andrew first steps through the portal, begrudgingly letting Ned and MJ badger him to prove that he’s really Spider-Man, to the lovely hug between the three of them at the end, I had the biggest, dumbest grin on my face. The hits just kept on coming, moment after moment. Andrew saving MJ, getting choked up as he asks her if she’s okay. The morbid curiosity over Tobey's organic web-shooting. Tobey getting Andrew to call himself "amazing." Andrew cleaning cobwebs off the ceiling and later saying, "Sorry, lola," to Ned's grandma. Tobey looking like a “cool youth pastor.” Neither Tobey nor Andrew knowing who the Avengers are (it kills me how excitedly Andrew asks Tom if he’s in a band, like that would be cooler than any of them being superheroes.) Tobey's conversation with Otto. Andrew being sympathetic to Max's disappointment that he’s not Black. "With great power comes great responsibility." All of this is the right kind of fan service: backed up by the story (instead of just being shoehorned in) and, even more importantly, done with love. These aren't just cheap callbacks to manipulate fans, the people who made this movie genuinely care about all three live-action franchises.
I like the way that each of them is very clearly Peter Parker while also being somewhat distinct from the other two—this is just one of ways I was reminded of a multi-Doctor special from Doctor Who. It really helps in that regard that they’re not Peter Parker at the same point in his life. In their respective universes, Tobey did become Spider-Man in the early 2000s, Andrew in the early 2010s. This means they’re both older and more experienced than Tom, and in a way they all act a bit like long-lost brothers to one another. Tom is the youngest, prone to impulsive/excitable dumb decisions but still a kid with a decent head on his shoulders, one who desperately wants to do what’s right and feels the heavy weight of that responsibility when things go wrong. Tobey is the oldest, someone who’s mellowed with time and seems to have found a way to bring balance to his life. He’s understatedly comfortable in his skin and his relationships, and he offers slightly-hokey but sincere advice to the other two. That leaves Andrew in the middle, someone who lost himself in his guilt over Gwen’s death but has fought to regain himself. He sells himself short compared to the other two, but he’s filled with compassion and regard, quietly longing for Tobey’s stability while urging Tom not to make his mistakes.
One way that the three Peters are very unlike multiple regenerations of the Doctor getting together is that there’s basically no squabbling or jockeying for position. Instead, it’s all mutual support and admiration. Whether it’s about confronting villains, dealing with emotional turmoil, or just commiserating over back pain, these Peters are in each other’s corners. Even when they literally assign each other numbers to keep track of who’s who, there are moments when they’re confused about who has what number, but no one makes the order into an ego thing.
In a way, the relationship between the three Spider-Man is a wonderful distillation of everything Peter Parker is. It’s just so nice that these other two are there to help Tom through such a challenging time, that we get to see a Tobey who’s found a way to make it all work, and that Andrew seems to have found some healing he’s been needing for a long time. Wenwu is still my Marvel MVP of 2021, but this trio of Peter Parkers is something real special, a great reminder of why I’ve always been a Spider-Man fan.
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