While Spider-Ham is going to be a father, Spider-Man’s beloved father figure is finally confirmed to exist in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. For the first time since Captain America: Civil War rebooted the character’s movie continuity, (a version of) Spider-Man said the words “Uncle Ben” in today’s episode of What If…?. Obviously, this isn’t the Tom Holland Spider-Man — the character was actually voiced by Mad Men and The Secret Life of the American Teenager actor Hudson Thames — but this exists explicitly within the shared multiverse of the Marvel movies, and features a version of Peter Parker who has the same lived experiences, and relationship with the other Marvel heroes, as Peter.
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The episode also sees this version of Peter turning down an offer to join The Avengers. That’s something that tracks more with the Peter of the comics (who wasn’t a regular member of the team for the first fifty or so years of his existence) than the movies.
After the Sam Raimi film franchise, the Amazing Spider-Man movies, and a number of animated iterations, it seemed as though Marvel and Sony had decided that it was better to introduce Spider-Man as a fully-realized superhero in Captain America: Civil War than to rehash his origin again. Unfortunately, that meant that the death of Uncle Ben had to go…and as a result, so did the character almost completely, being alluded to in the movies, but never mentioned by name until now.
Tom Holland’s Spider-Man has already appeared in Captain America: Civil War, two Avengers movies, and two Spider-Man movies (with a third on the way), and since the beginning, fans have been wondering when this key piece of his backstory would be addressed.
Needless to say, fans — some of whom have been pretty critical of the Marvel movies for writing out Uncle Ben in favor of building up Peter’s relationship with Tony Stark — were excited to hear it. You can see some of our favorite responses below.
That sounds an awful lot like Spider-Man
Hearing that What If’s Spider-Man mentioned Uncle Ben & turned down being an Avenger. Is this real?????
— younis (@younityyy) September 8, 2021
Disbelief
UNCLE BEN???? #WhatIf #WhatIfZombies pic.twitter.com/L3IIsjvayG
— takbir (@itstakbir) September 8, 2021
Literally
We rlly got a mention of Uncle Ben in Marvel Zombies before the MCU #WhatIf pic.twitter.com/vNmKNtHHYe
— Maxwell 🎸 (@xxMoCo3xx) September 8, 2021
What you’d expect
A passive Uncle Ben name drop in the midst of everyone asking Spider-Man, of all characters, how he stays so upbeat and joyful during dark times in a non-canon TV show is exactly how I expected the MCU to integrate Uncle Ben for the first time. lol
— GJK (@gjkcentral) September 8, 2021
Not enough
Uncle Ben is an integral part of Spider-Man’s character… a name drop will not do it for me pic.twitter.com/K4zLJS9gSI
— Omar 🍇 (@OmarOVO24) September 8, 2021
Shut up
“Peter mentioning Ben isn’t even canon to the MCU who cares” it’s the exact same Peter it’s just circumstances have changed which is their was a zombie apocalypse instead of the snap. So y’all have your uncle ben confirmation now so shut up 🙂 pic.twitter.com/XZDykCqClr
— Damo (@Fantastic4Shill) September 8, 2021
“Haters”
Since #WhatIf is technically part of the MCU, Spider-Man haters can stop saying Peter has never “mentioned” uncle Ben finally. LOL
— malachi (@MCUMarvels) September 8, 2021
A perfect thematic joke
Marvel fr just said “What If Uncle Ben was in the MCU” 💀💀
— Hassan Hamid | TASM Era (@HassanHamid266) September 8, 2021
Meme of the week
Spider-Man Twitter after Uncle Ben gets mentioned pic.twitter.com/Kkx7AHaRh0
— Foxy 🇮🇹 (@foxyITA_) September 8, 2021
My own snark
Uncle who, now? I only ever heard of Iron Man.
— Russ Burlingame, the #JosieBook Guy (@russburlingame) September 8, 2021
