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The webslinger of the MCU delivered a severe beating to a villain in Spider-Man: No Way Home, but the web-head beat a villain worse in the comics.
WARNING: The following contains spoilers from Spider-Man: No Way Home, now playing in theaters.
Spider-Man: No Way Home was released in theaters this week, and movie-goers saw a rare side of the wall-crawler exposed as he delivered a brutal beating to Norman Osborn’s Green Goblin. However, as shocking as the display was, the Marvel Universe saw the usually upbeat and kindhearted hero manhandle one villain even worse when the life of his beloved Aunt May was threatened.
This scene occurred at an unusual time in the web-head’s comic book continuity. Not only had he recently acquired organic webbing in an attempt to match the Sam Raimi movies of the time, but following the events of Civil War, Peter Parker had unmasked himself on live television. The hero had avoided doing this for years out of fear for his family’s safety, and sure enough, telling the world his secret identity ended up nearly getting his Aunt May killed. Wilson Fisk, the Kingpin and a longtime enemy of Spider-Man, hired an assassin to end their rivalry once and for all, and Aunt May was literally caught in the crossfire. She survived, thanks to a blood transfusion from her nephew, but the normally calm wall-crawler was still understandably outraged.
In Amazing Spider-Man #542 (by J. Michael Straczynski, Ron Garney and Bill Reinhold), Peter tracked down Fisk in prison and angrily beat the much larger villain to within an inch of his life. An unmasked Spider-Man continues his uncharacteristic barrage by threatening the now terrified villain, explaining in detail how he could effectively kill him in three seconds by forcing a stream of webbing down his throat.
Spider-Man doesn’t cross the line, but he promises Fisk (with all of his cohorts watching) that if his aunt dies the villain would be joining her. It’s a promise the Kingpin believed, as Peter assured him that without his aunt he would have absolutely nothing left to lose.
In No Way Home, Spider-Man loses his Aunt May to the wrath of the Green Goblin. Despite spending most of the movie working towards finding cures for his various enemies, he can’t control his rage when he sees the Goblin again. Just like in the comics, nothing sets Peter off like a threat to his Aunt’s life, and filled with a sense of fatalistic justice, he attempts to stab the goblin with his own glider. Were it not for the interference of Toby Maguire’s Spider-Man, the Green Goblin probably would not have survived the encounter.
Although the beating featured in the movie definitely contained murderous intent on the part of Spider-Man, the comic book version of Peter would’ve behaved the same if his Aunt didn’t survive, and his method of killing is considerably more brutal. Although Marvel’s editors will probably never let May die for good (and the same goes for Kingpin), this moment shows that even a hero as iconic friendly as Marvel’s iconic web-slinger still has a limit as to how much he can take before crossing the line.
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