By: Matt Stock
Marvel’s Greatest Hero (yep, we said it) takes his show on the road in “Spider-Man: Far From Home”
Everything’s changed. The war against Thanos has left the heroes of the Marvel Cinematic Universe in transition, with no clear leader in sight. Iron Man and Black Widow are gone, and Captain America is living the retired life. Captain Marvel, Thor, and the Guardians have returned to space, and the resurrected Black Panther and his crew are probably ready for a little chill time in Wakanda after being dead for five years.
Bad guys, however, don’t take breaks. Especially monsters. So, when a group of elemental creatures rises overseas, once again endangering mankind, Nick Fury knows just the man for the job. Well, the kid for the job. Peter Parker’s class trip to Europe just got a lot more interesting.
Despite popular opinion, the final film in Phase 3 of the wildly successful MCU was not “Avengers: Endgame”, but rather is this month’s “Spider-Man: Far From Home”, which takes our friendly neighborhood web-slinger out of Queens and thrusts him into international intrigue. According to Marvel executives, the purpose of the film is to place Tom Holland’s title character front and center as the new focal point of future films, a decision that has some fans scratching their heads and tapping away feverishly on their laptops in online discussion groups. Is Peter Parker ready to take the mantle of his dearly departed mentor, Tony Stark?
The short answer is, hell yes, of course he is! An instant success upon his print debut in 1962, Spidey has remained one of the most beloved and heroic characters in Marvel’s storied history. Much of this adoration stems from the character’s timeless relatability. He was the first youthful comic character not relegated to sidekick status, and his creators, Stan Lee and Steve Ditko, took great pains to incorporate the day-to-day trials of being an adolescent into Spider-Man’s tales of teenage heroism. Orphaned after his parents’ deaths and raised by his Uncle Ben and Aunt May, young Peter dealt not only with bullies, rejection, academic stress and girl troubles, but also with terrible loss and grief, especially after tragically losing girlfriend Gwen Stacy in a battle with archnemesis Green Goblin in one of comic history’s most shocking moments. In learning that “with great power comes great responsibility,” Spider-Man was often forced to go it alone, burdened with protecting his secret, not letting anyone get too close in the interests of protecting them. Still, he remained an enduringly optimistic, brave, and very funny hero, one willing to stand on the front line when anyone, anywhere, from a shopkeeper in Queens to the Avengers in the deep reaches of space, needed help.
After two mostly successful big-screen incarnations starring Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield, the character became fully realized with his LONG-awaited introduction to the MCU, with Holland donning the suit. In his standalone debut, “Spider-Man: Homecoming”, and several Avengers films, he quickly became a fan favorite, with millions of fans in mourning after his tragic death in “Infinity War”. Still, you can’t keep a good man down, and Spidey was triumphantly resurrected in “Endgame”, wisecracking his way through the final battle to save humanity and learning about ultimate sacrifice from his personal hero, Iron Man. Backed with Stark technology and the lessons of his hard-fought intergalactic battles alongside the Avengers, there’s no doubt that he’s the dude we want protecting us, or that he’ll have a swinging good time doing it.
“Spider-Man: Far From Home”, directed by Jon Watts, written by Chris McKenna, and starring Tom Holland, Zendaya, Jake Gyllenhaal, and Samuel L. Jackson, debuts July 3, 2019.
