Spider-Man has one of the most well-known origin stories in superhero media. Just about everyone with even a passing familiarity with the wall crawler knows about Uncle Ben’s easily preventable death, which taught Peter Parker a hard lesson about the great responsibility that comes with great power. That tragedy shaped Spider-Man into the hero fans have known and loved for decades, as he pushes himself to the limits to ensure something like Ben’s death never happens again to anyone else. Taking on the responsibilities of being a superhero doesn’t make things easy for Peter Parker, but that’s what makes him such an endearing character.
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Uncle Ben is such a vital part of the Spider-Man mythos that it’s borderline impossible to imagine telling a Spider-Man story without him. However, the Marvel Cinematic Universe has found a way. Since Tom Holland’s Spider-Man debuted a decade ago in Captain America: Civil War, the franchise has made no direct mention of Uncle Ben. And after seeing this summer’s Spider-Man: Brand New Day, it’s almost as if Ben Parker didn’t even exist in the MCU.
The MCU Seemed to Reference Uncle Ben, But Actually Changed Spider-Man’s Origin
When audiences meet Peter Parker in Civil War, he’s already been active as Spider-Man for months, fighting crime in New York with his own homemade materials. Mercifully, the MCU bypassed depicting the traditional origin story, which made a great deal of sense. By the time Tom Holland was cast as Spider-Man, moviegoers had already seen two Uncle Bens die in two different Spider-Man origin movies. We arguably didn’t need to see Andrew Garfield’s Peter Parker go through this ordeal in The Amazing Spider-Man. It definitely wasn’t necessary to see Uncle Ben die on screen again for the third live-action Spider-Man in 14 years. Jumping straight into Peter already being Spider-Man was the right call for the MCU, and there seemed to be subtle hints of what happened to Peter before he met the Avengers.
During his fateful first meeting with Tony Stark in Civil War, Peter says, “When you can do the things that I can, but you don’t, and then the bad things happen, they happen because of you.” At the time, this sounded like a roundabout version of the famous “with great power comes great responsibility” mantra, implying that Peter was responsible for “bad things” that greatly affected his family. It’d be reasonable for audiences to fill in the blanks by picturing the MCU’s Uncle Ben dying in Peter’s arms after being shot by a criminal Peter failed to stop. However, that wasn’t the case. Earlier this year, Civil War co-director Joe Russo revealed that Holland’s Peter “wasn’t responsible for Uncle Ben’s death.” According to the filmmaker, if Peter was responsible in any way, it would have changed Holland’s iteration into “a more intense interpretation of the character.”
There were other small references to Uncle Ben sprinkled throughout the Infinity Saga’s Spider-Man movies; in Homecoming, Peter mentions “everything that’s happened” with Aunt May when explaining to Ned why he needs to keep his superhero alter ego a secret. And in Far From Home, Peter apparently brings Ben’s old suitcase (which has the initials “BFP”) on his school trip to Europe. But there was never an overt reference to Uncle Ben; the character hasn’t even been directly mentioned by name, let alone appear in some sort of flashback sequence that fleshes out Peter’s backstory. He’s completely out of the picture, which is strange for Spider-Man media. Ben’s death continued to hang over Tobey Maguire’s Spider-Man in the Sam Raimi trilogy, for instance.
Spider-Man: Brand New Day had the perfect opportunity to address Ben’s mysterious absence from the MCU, but didn’t do anything with it. Throughout the film, Peter visits Aunt May’s grave, and curiously, her headstone stands alone in the cemetery. Apparently, May was not buried next to her late husband, which raises more questions about what happened with Uncle Ben in the MCU. It would have been very easy to have May and Ben’s graves sitting next to each other, but the filmmakers opted against that. It’s always possible the MCU’s Uncle Ben was cremated, but nothing in any of the films has cleared this matter up. The briefcase in Far From Home works as confirmation that Ben did exist at some point (who else could “BFP” be?) but for all intents and purposes, it’s like he never had a role in Peter’s life.
The MCU Used Other Characters to Fill the Uncle Ben Role
Outside of the fact that audiences had already seen two Uncle Bens get shot, the character’s absence from the MCU can probably be chalked up to Marvel Studios using other characters to fit Ben’s typical role in the Spider-Man mythos. Uncle Ben is a mentor for young Peter, a father figure who tries to guide him on the right path before his untimely death. Because the MCU is a shared universe where all the characters can interact with each other, the filmmakers looked to take advantage of that by establishing entertaining and poignant character dynamics with Spider-Man. Tony Stark became Peter’s mentor figure, taking the teenage hero under his wing and setting him up with some much-needed upgrades. Tony wasn’t afraid to dish out tough love when necessary (see: him taking away Peter’s suit in Homecoming), doing his part to hammer home “great responsibility.”
Turning Tony into an Uncle Ben-type figure fit the MCU. Growing up in a world populated with superheroes (the Avengers first assembled for the Battle of New York, Peter’s backyard), Peter probably idolized the Original Six Avengers growing up, taking a great deal of interest in Iron Man for obvious reasons. It’s clear in Civil War that the idea was to have Tony be a surrogate father to Peter, and their relationship is a huge part of the emotional core of the Infinity Saga’s latter stages (missing Peter is what makes Tony devise a plan for the Time Heist). Considering this, Uncle Ben might have come off as superfluous in the context of the overarching shared universe. It doesn’t make his complete absence any less strange, but Stark’s involvement in Peter’s life is a logical explanation.
Tony shared the Uncle Ben role with May, who even got to say the famous “with great power there must also come great responsibility” line in Spider-Man: No Way Home. Her death in that film is what has the most profound impact on Peter. He blames himself for what happened to May, informing his actions in No Way Home‘s emotional third act. Marvel Studios actually looks at the first three Holland-led Spider-Man films as an extended origin story for the titular character — essentially spreading the first act of Sam Raimi’s first film over a full trilogy. By the end of No Way Home, Peter has experienced so much that he’s ready to be the true Spider-Man that New York needs him to be, which is where audiences find him at the start of Spider-Man: Brand New Day. Following May’s example, Peter tries to carry out his great responsibility (though, director Destin Daniel Cretton’s script notes confirm Peter has a very warped misunderstanding of what May meant).
If the MCU was going to make a direct reference to Ben Parker, it probably would have happened by now. At this point, after everything Peter has been through (losing two mentor figures in the span of three films), it wouldn’t make much sense to go back and detail what happened to a third — particularly one that moviegoers have no emotional attachment to. This is one unanswered MCU question that fans are going to have to make peace with or draw their own conclusions.
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