Spider-Man: Homecoming Adds This Crucial Piece to the Marvel Cinematic Universe

Spider-Man: Homecoming is now in theaters, and fans are overwhelmingly happy with how Spider-Man has been integrated into the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

Getting Spider-Man linked with The Avengers has been a long time coming, but Marvel Studios did more than just find a way to redefine and revitalize the Spider-Man movie franchise – the studio found a way to use the story of Peter Parker/Spider-Man and his world to expanded the Marvel Cinematic Universe in an important new direction.

Here is The Crucial Piece That Spider-Man: Homecoming Adds to the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

Grounded Marvels

There is a line early on in Spider-Man: Homecoming where Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) tells young Peter Parker that he needs to stay close to the ground, operating as a friendly neighborhood hero, rather than the grandstanding Avenger he wants to be. The line is a great little reference to Spider-Man’s early comic book days; however, it is also a great tease for the film’s main thematic thread. 

More so than any other Marvel Cinematic Universe film – or even the TV extensions (Agents of SHIELD, or the Netflix Defenders universe) – Spider-Man: Homecoming establishes the more grounded, real-world impact of the fantastical happenings within the Marvel Cinematic Universe. 

Sure, Spider-Man isn’t in the streets with the gritty crime tales that Daredevil, Jessica Jones, Luke Cage, or Iron Fist tell – but those shows are mostly presented as real-world crime tales, which only tangentially reference the larger happenings of the MCU. However, Spider-Man: Homecoming takes a “grounded” approach to the MCU that fully acknowledges and embraces the history and events of the universe, while simultaneously making them feel “real” from the perspective of everyday people. 

Time For A Change

The most obvious development that Homecoming adds to the MCU is the evolution of status quo amongst everyday people within this fantastical universe. 

Adrian Toomes (Michael Keaton) and his crew aren’t just your standard cartoonish archvillain types: they’re regular, working-class guys that evolve along with changing world around them, to become a new kind of criminal. The way that Homecoming handles that story thread is carefully plotted and balanced, showing how these new types of super-crooks operate under the radar of larger forces like The Avengers, while steadily spreading their influence through the underworld, thereby changing the entire status quo of crime within the MCU. 

This is an important development, as characters like Toomes, Mac Gargan, Shocker (#2) and Phineas Mason / The Tinkerer (Michael Chernus) now provide a foundation for how many other MCU super-crooks can be created. What’s really smart about the angle Homecoming takes, is that this evolution feels natural and grounded in a way that bridges a major gap that has existed in the MCU up until now, between the big fantastical movies, and the TV properties that draw upon the films. 

Young World

As stated, Spider-Man: Homecoming is the MCU project that best sells the idea that all of this fantastical comic book fantasy could actually exist in our world. The idea of a new breed of criminal is expertly sketched, but so is the idea of everyday life for everyday people within this world – especially young people.

There is little doubt or argument amongst Marvel movie fans that Spider-Man: Homecoming is the best Spider-Man movie (or MCU movie) to sketch the picture of high school life or modern life for a real-world New York City kid – and that is a big win for the MCU. 

Homecoming is praised as being as much of a Peter Parker story as a Spider-Man story, and through that sketch of Peter’s world, Marvel has essentially fleshed-out the street-level side of the MCU in a way that perfectly syncs up to the movies the studio puts out. That’s a gap that the TV or Netflix series haven’t quite been able to bridge – even though they are, in and of themselves, very enjoyable. When it comes to the life of kids in the MCU, Spider-Man: Homecoming is the exclusive portrait of how that existence works within a world of superhero inspirations, and supervillain threats. If you never thought that the teen angst insights of John Hughes could be married to the high fantasy of superhero action, you were wrong.

For millions of young Marvel fans, there is now something intensely relatable and familiar for them to pull from when it comes to the Marvel Cinematic Universe. And, thanks to director Jon Watts and his cast, that universe has been expanded into a crucial new direction that makes it feel a little more real, and complete. 

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Have a theory on what that new Spider-Man costume is? Let us know @Comicbook or @ComicbookNOW 

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Spider-Man: Homecoming is in theaters now! Give it your personal rating below!

A young Peter Parker/Spider-Man (Tom Holland), who made his sensational debut in Captain America: Civil War, begins to navigate his newfound identity as the web-slinging super hero in Spider-Man: Homecoming. Thrilled by his experience with the Avengers, Peter returns home, where he lives with his Aunt May (Marisa Tomei), under the watchful eye of his new mentor Tony Stark (Robert Downey, Jr.). 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 (Michael Keaton) emerges as a new villain, everything that Peter holds most important will be threatened.

The cast includes Tom Holland, Michael Keaton, Zendaya, Donald Glover, JacobBatalon, Laura Harrier, Tony Revolori, Tyne Daly, Bokeem Woodbine, with Marisa Tomei, and Robert Downey Jr. It also includes Jon Favreau, Martin Starr, Kenneth Choi, Michael Mando, Selenis Leyva, Isabella Amara, Jorge Lendeborg, Jr., JJ Totah, and Hannibal Buress.