No Way Home Completes Marvels Unforgivable Aunt May Insult

No Way Home Completes Marvel’s Unforgivable Aunt May Insult

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Spider-Man: No Way Home delivers a crowd-pleasing adventure and a sense of closure — but it also finalizes the MCU’s trend of insulting Aunt May.

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No Way Home Completes Marvels Unforgivable Aunt May Insult

Warning: This article contains SPOILERS for Spider-Man: No Way Home.

Spider-Man: No Way Home managed to give not one or two but three Peter Parkers a poignant conclusion, but finalized the MCU’s overall insult of Aunt May in the process. As past Spider-Man movies have proven, having too many characters can often weaken a story and leave some lost in the shuffle. As evidenced by the positive Spider-Man: No Way Home reviews, the third solo outing for the MCU’s Peter Parker managed to navigate that tightrope with greater success. Regardless, many established Spider-Man: Homecoming trilogy characters were given very little to do. Conversely, Aunt May was finally given a more central and important purpose — but it was too little, too late, and also dramatically undercut by her being almost immediately killed off.

Played by Marisa Tomei, the new Aunt May was introduced alongside Tom Holland’s Peter Parker in Captain America: Civil War. The iteration skewed much younger than the comics, as well as Sally Field’s version in The Amazing Spider-Man movies and Rosemary Harris’ in Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man trilogy. It could be argued, however, that it was also much truer to life. Since Peter was still only in his mid-teens, having a traditionally elderly aunt wouldn’t have been too realistic. Regardless of one’s view, the MCU’s Aunt May nonetheless continued to receive short shrift. First when Marisa Tomei reprised the role in Spider-Man: Homecoming and then was barely above a cameo in Spider-Man: Far From Home.

With Spider-Man: No Way Home serving as the final chapter in the current trilogy, writers Chris McKenna and Erik Sommers, as well director Jon Watts somewhat redressed that balance. Aunt May helped directly to keep Spider-Man’s humanity in check and his purer brand of heroism in motion. Equally, she displayed more of her own. Aunt May interacted with the various villains among Spider-Man: No Way Home’s cast of characters, and aided Peter’s attempt to cure rather than indirectly kill them. When things got increasingly more dangerous, she also picked up a weapon and ran into the fray. That particular move proved to be Aunt May’s downfall (and a weaker part of Spider-Man: No Way Home) when she was struck down by the weaponized glider of Green Goblin (Willem Dafoe). Aunt May ultimately succumbed to her wounds and died in the arms of a distraught Peter.

Why Spider-Man: No Way Home Killed Aunt May

No Way Home Completes Marvels Unforgivable Aunt May Insult

The third installment of a superhero trilogy (especially in the MCU) has always centered on the hero being tested through the loss of their cornerstones. Iron Man 3 saw Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) have to briefly operate without his titular suit. Thor: Ragnarok saw the Norse god have to rediscover his true power within when Mjölnir was destroyed. And so on. Peter, however, already learned such a lesson in Spider-Man: Homecoming. As such, going deeper and more personal in that regard was the most logical step. And the death of his only remaining family member no doubt fit the bill.

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Of course, either MJ (Zendaya) or Ned Leeds (Jacob Batalon) meeting their ends would have had the same effect. The tragic deaths of a best friend and girlfriend have already been done, however, as pointed out by the returning Peter Parkers (Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield). The killing of Aunt May was untapped ground in cinematic Spider-Man adventures. As such, it likely fuelled the decision to kill her off and have Peter instead lose MJ and Ned through the memory wipe spell. Unfortunately, as emotional as the moment was, it reverted Aunt May to a mere plot device to spark Peter’s dark turn. Simultaneously, it undermined her purpose up to that point in Spider-Man: No Way Home — clearly wanting the variant Spider-Men to instead be his moral compass(es) and voice of reason for the end. As such, it hammered home a trend that’s existed throughout Spider-Man’s ongoing MCU journey.

The MCU Has Already Insulted Aunt May

No Way Home Completes Marvels Unforgivable Aunt May Insult

Since her debut, the MCU’s Aunt May has been a very passive figure. Though Spider-Man: Homecoming set up the potential for that to change, with her discovering Peter’s secret identity, next to nothing came of it. It had the potential to offer a fresh (more open) dynamic between Peter and May. Ultimately, however, the opportunity was squandered — with there being offered little more than a “Peter-Tingle” quip and Aunt May packing his suit. Signs of concern were few and far between (even after the tragedy of The Blip), there were no heartfelt speeches, and, generally, little sense of a lived existence or interiority outside of some brief allusions to her charity work.

Rosemary Harris’ version was only a supporting presence in the Tobey Maguire-led Spider-Man movies. And yet she was gifted a much more deeply-rooted characterization. She told stories from her past. There was a sense of a life being lived and struggles being faced even when Peter wasn’t around. Viewers got to see her reckon with revelations and her own grief. She even got in on the action from the very beginning — attacked by both Green Goblin in Spider-Man and Doctor Octopus (Alfred Molina) in Spider-Man 2. Even Sally Field’s version offered a taste of that, with some secrets of her own, albeit equally muted in comparison.

The MCU’s interpretation of Aunt May went even further in the wrong direction. For the most part, her main function in Spider-Man: Homecoming was to fuel jokes regarding how attractive she was to everybody who encountered her. Though the Spider-Man: Far From Home (which also set up Secret Invasion) featured more of her altruism, the bulk of her story amounted to being the object of Happy Hogan’s (Jon Favreau) affections. In fact, he got a lot more screen time and more to do than Aunt May did. Essentially, he was filling an Uncle Ben-shaped void and serving a function that Aunt May could have actually been blessed with.

While it made sense that Marvel Studios didn’t want to retread the famous origin story, that didn’t mean it had to be erased altogether. The fact it didn’t seem to factor at all into Aunt May’s story diminished her sense of an inner life all the more. To have Aunt May defined by grief would have been a mistake. Still, even having it as a mere facet would have afforded her a more established personal history within the MCU Spider-Man movies. And that would have been better than reducing her simply to “hot and/or cool aunt” and Happy Hogan’s would-be girlfriend. As it stood, there was a lot of tell (like Peter saying how she would react to things) and no show. That was the case for two whole movies, and when the MCU finally began to rectify that mistake, they rapidly cut it short by effectively fridging her. In short, Aunt May’s death insultingly had more impact on the characters than her life was allowed to.

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How Aunt May’s Death Sets Up Spider-Man 4

No Way Home Completes Marvels Unforgivable Aunt May Insult

The clear point of Spider-Man: No Way Home was to wipe the slate clean for Peter Parker. It was previously believed that the MCU movie title referred to Electro (Jamie Foxx), Sandman (Thomas Haden Church), and the other trapped Garfield and Maguire Spider-Man villains. In truth, it was a depiction of the classic phrase, “you can’t go home again.” Peter’s life has been forever changed and the only familial comfort will be his memories. After all, even if Aunt May had lived, she wouldn’t even remember him, as per Doctor Strange’s climactic spell.

The potential butterfly effect of him removing Peter Parker from the lives of MJ and Ned will likely fuel actual plot points in Spider-Man 4 — allowing him to see his impact wasn’t entirely negative. In terms of Aunt May, she will likely have a more spiritual and moral resonance. In essence, she will more overtly be for the MCU’s Spider-Man what Uncle Ben was for the other iterations. It’s her lessons, message, and capacity for goodness that he will carry forward as he strives on despite inner turmoil (as Spider-Men are wont to do), and becomes finally more akin to a friendly neighborhood Spider-Man. Plus, the idea of honoring Aunt May’s memory will no doubt help Peter stave off the influence of a certain symbiote fragment that may be making its way to him ahead of Spider-Man 4.

May’s “Great Power” Speech Is Too Late

The MCU pulled off an admittedly solid retcon, one that put Aunt May back on the right track. She was gloriously defiant against intimidation, fierce, intelligent, compassionate, heroic in her own right, and a whole bunch of other things. Aunt May finally became a character befitting Marisa Tomei’s considerable charisma and talents. It was just a shame that it came far too late and that both actress and character hadn’t been gifted such screen-time and material from the start. Firstly, it would have made her demise more impactful. Secondly, it may not have felt like such waste, nor an egregious example of fridging in Spider-Man: No Way Home (which also teases Doctor Strange 2).

The fact of it being too late was hammered home by Aunt May’s imparting of the classic mantra, “With great power there must also come great responsibility.” It can be ignored that the MCU’s Peter Parker clearly seemed to never have heard it from Uncle Ben. Equally, the unconfirmed notion that Aunt May might have got it from him doesn’t require much pondering. What does stand out, however, was that Aunt May should have been imparting this kind of wisdom the entire time. It might have been different had she just learned that Peter and Spider-Man were one at the same, but she hadn’t. As things stand, the treatment of Aunt May likely won’t diminish the impact and popularity of Spider-Man: No Way Home. Regardless, barring a huge retcon, it’ll now forever remain a shame that Aunt May’s greatest legacy within the MCU will be a posthumous one.

Link Source : https://screenrant.com/spiderman-no-way-home-aunt-may-death-insult/

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