Spider Man Homecoming The Hero 39;s Journey

[Griselda Humbarger]

SpidermanHomecoming is the third incarnation and it's the best we had yet. Now fully integrated into the MCEU while still with Sony, the new Spiderman is just pure entertainment from start to finish.

Thrilled by his experience with the Avengers, Peter returns home, where he lives with his Aunt May, under the watchful eye of his new mentor Tony Stark, Peter tries to fall back into his normal daily routine - distracted by thoughts of proving himself to be more than just your friendly neighborhood Spider-Man - but when the Vulture emerges as a new villain, everything that Peter holds most important will be threatened. Written by Benett Sullivan

The writing is fun and the movie manages to not be an origin story while still giving enough explanation should anyone not know who spiderman is. Although Spiderman is already established and was introduced in Captain America: Civil War, we still get the hero's journey, we get to see Spidermans potential only to have it taken away from us in the middle of the movie. One of the best things of that heros journey is that we see, how much Peter Parker has to sacrifice to be Spiderman. Peter struggles to combine being Spiderman and also being a normal teen in school and several times we see him missing out on school thing or activities with friends and we see how hard that is for him.

Another great thing is the Vulture as a great villain. Micheal Keaton gives a great performance as Adrian Toomes, as you would expect. His performance, and the good writing creates one of those villians who's motivation you can kind of understand. You never feel he does those things out of pure perniciousness, but out of necessity. As a last element the Vulture suit is a great interpretation of the original comic suit. The metal wings that can be used as hands and as weapons, combined with the mask, turn Adrian Toomes into a truely scary monster. What by all accords shouldn't work, an old man with wings, is turned into on of the most memorable villains of the MCEU.

Recent MCEU movies had this bad habit to not allow dramatic scenes to play out, but to abruptly end it with a quick gag to ease the tension. Mantis is hit by a rock in Guardians of the Galaxy 2 and when Dr. Strange puts on the cloak, it starts messing with his face. I always found this things annoying, as if the director didn't trust their actors to properly act out the drama. So I was ecstatic, when in the few dramatic scenes we get in Spiderman Homecoming are actually allowed to play out, let the drama and fear take effect.

The conectiv tissue to the MCEU is Tony Stark who is tutoring Peter. And while he was very present in the marketing, especially the trailers, his role in the movie is rather small. He is used in a few key moments to further the story and drive spiderman on, but the movie is a spiderman. In all parts the movie is about Peter Parker and his journey.

If I have to mention something I feel could have been done better, I would like to see more regular interaction of Peter with his friends and aunt. Yes there are a lot of scenes with Peter and Ned, but that is mostly focus on Peter being Spiderman. The other schoolmates and even his aunt May come a bit short for my taste.

Peter is a skinny, wimpy, thoroughly relatable high school senior. He gets picked on by his classmates, he has a BFF named Harry, and he's madly in love with his neighbor, Mary Jane. He lives with his Uncle Ben and Aunt May in Queens. They're kind of corny, but they're loving surrogate parents for Pete.

Okay, "suffers" is probably too harsh a word here since that gnarly looking spider bite gives Peter a set of rad superpowers: enhanced strength and speed, the ability to crawl up walls, web shooters, and precognition. Peter is physically transformed into a buff dude capable of stopping the bullies that once picked on him. He's capable of stopping criminals, too.

Peter refuses to use his enhanced abilities to stop a robber who holds up the wrestling tournament Peter just participated in. In this moment, he's called to use his superpowers for good; when he lets the robber go, he essentially says, "Thanks, but no thanks."

On graduation day, when Peter is missing Uncle Ben something fierce, Aunt May reminds Peter that Uncle Ben loved him and knew he was destined to do great things. In effect, she represents both herself and Ben now, mentoring Peter by proxy and reminding him of his values and what he's fighting for.

Peter's chief allies are his best friend, Harry, and his oldest friend, Mary Jane, with whom he's also secretly in love. The whole situation is complicated by the fact that once Peter and Harry become roommates after high school, Harry and Mary Jane start dating. Sorry, Pete.

Peter's #1 enemy, as Spider-Man, is the Green Goblin. Gobby firmly believes that people are terrible: they'll never appreciate the sacrifices you make; all they'll do is betray you. The Green Goblin proposes that he and Spidey team up and become allies, presumably in chaos and destruction, fueled by their bitterness over being taken for granted by the world.

Spider-Man also faces minor opposition from J. Jonah Jameson, the editor-in-chief of the Daily Bugle who insists that Spider-Man is a public menace, even while everybody's favorite wall-crawler is out there stopping burglaries and saving babies.

Throughout his journey, Spider-Man faces several tests. The first big one is stopping the Green Goblin when he crashes Oscorp's World Unity Festival. He's too late to stop Gobby from blowing up Oscorp's board, but he saves Mary Jane's life, as well as the lives of countless ordinary citizens.

Later, the Green Goblin shows up at the Daily Bugle and hits Spider-Man with knockout gas. He doesn't kill him; he takes him to a quiet, little out-of-the-way place and proposes that they team up. Next, the Green Goblin lures Spider-Man into a burning building. When Spider-Man formally declines his offer to be partners, he and the Green Goblin throw down again.

This is where our hero prepares for his biggest challenge. In Spider-Man, it's also where our hero eats turkey. At Thanksgiving dinner, when Norman spots the cut on Peter's arm, he realizes his son's pal is his nemesis, Spider-Man.

The Green Goblin kidnaps Mary Jane and holds her hostage on top of the Queensboro Bridge. See, Harry, not knowing what he was doing, told Norman that Peter is in love with M.J., which means the Green Goblin knows exactly how to get to Spider-Man. Whoops.

Spider-Man comes to M.J.'s aid and rescues her. He also saves a tramway car full of innocent kids in the process after Gobby tries to force Spider-Man to choose between the two. Spider-Man: all about that multitasking.

The resurrection is where the hero returns order to the world and ends the conflict. Here, it's when Spider-Man defeats the Green Goblin once and for all. Technically, we suppose the Green Goblin kind of defeats himself since he's impaled by his own glider after Spider-Man dodges it, but still.

Spider-Man: Homecoming really impressed us with its villains, while also proving that multiple foils can be done for the hero's journey in New York. Michael Keaton as Adrian Toomes (the Vulture) and his team of goons delivered true greatness in Jon Watts' film, which detailed Peter Parker's adjustment to the full-fledged superhero life after Captain America: Civil War. Tinkerer was cleverly done as the genius who built up the tech for the baddies, while we saw two separate incarnations of the Shocker, as well as a tease of Mac Gargan, the Scorpion!

Watts' depictions of these ne'er-do-wells also bodes well for future instalments, as Spider-Man has one of the most extensive rogues galleries in all of comics. In fact, Sony is hedging their bets that this shared partnership with the MCU will be more than enough to propel solo films for Venom (who is rumored to be taking on Carnage), Mysterio and Kraven. With these four big names taken off the list and word officially emerging that this movie will occur after the fourth Avengers film, CBR decided to dive into villains that we need to see, and some that we don't, when the Homecoming sequel swings into theaters.

Norman Osborn has gotten air-time in Sam Raimi and Marc Webb's franchises so let's ease him into this rebooted world. What stood out in Homecoming was that Stark Tower in NYC was sold. To expand Pete's world to that of something that's more familiar to comic fans, why not have it become the new Oscorp Tower?

Now, we're not petitioning for Norman to go full-villain because he could simply be monitoring Spidey's activities, as well as that of all the criminals, to really get a feel for the ground and how he can capitalize. Pete would be distracted so it would allow Norman to work in the shadows, scheming up scientific plans on how he can take over. His philanthropy can be introduced first, setting the stage for bigger things, which could end with recruiting a genius like the Tinkerer for, say, H.A.M.M.E.R., a la the Dark Reign in the wake of Thanos.

We would love to see Mephisto in the MCU someday but just not in Spider-Man. The two don't mix well, as seen with the travesty that comics fans know to be One More Day. We don't need the devil offering a youngster any sort of deal for his soul, or mixing with a science-heavy world.

Mephisto would be better suited for a supernatural property like Blade or Ghost Rider. Fans are still trying to get the taste out their mouth when Joe Quesada and company engineered Mephisto as the man who erased Pete's marriage to Mary-Jane in an attempt to resurrect Aunt May. It's better to let sleeping dogs lie, especially as the kid already has enough trouble with his love-life, detention, keeping his identity secret, and oh yeah, policing Queens!

Gargan was taken to task by Pete on the ferry when he scuppered the FBI raid Tony Stark orchestrated to catch the Vulture in a weapons sale. The mid-credits later showed a scarred Gargan in jail insisting Toomes reveal Spidey's secret identity, as rumor had spread that Vulture found it out. Toomes played it down, however, offering something in the way of redemption after Pete saved his life in the movie's climax.

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