By Neveah Morofsky
With the intense amount of movies and shows produced by Marvel since the release of “Avengers: Endgame” in April 2019, it’s been hard to keep up with the Marvel Cinematic Universe timeline.
There’s been so much to watch that many have neglected to watch anything at all. But, with the release of a new Spider-Man-centric film on the horizon, knowing what you missed in the meantime will make your theater experience all the more amazing.
This guide won’t be a full recap of everything since the defeat of Thanos almost 10 years ago, but it will be a solid look into the introduction of the loveable Peter Parker, as well as a small glimpse at other characters that may play a role in the new film.
There will be two follow-up additions to this story recapping the events of “Spider-Man: Far From Home” and “Spider-Man: No Way Home,” but for anyone who is familiar with the MCU and their form of production, there is far too much information in each individual movie to cover them all at once. So, keep an eye out for parts two and three of this Collegiate series to be posted in the coming weeks.
Tom Holland’s Peter Parker is first introduced in May 2016 in “Captain America: Civil War.” The timeline of the main MCU movies gets a bit dodgy, so there will be a secondary story that’ll explain Peter’s role in those as well; this story is focused on his individual movies.
Although he only had about 20 total minutes of screen time in “Captain America: Civil War”, Peter established a solid presence within the Marvel Cinematic Universe. So, it only makes sense to give him his own movie.
The ending of “Captain America: Civil War” leaves the Avengers dismantled, with Team Cap, as it’s been called, left operating outside of the Sokovia Accords. While the Avengers have their legal and global moral conflicts to manage, Peter Parker has his own problems: high school.
“Spider-Man: Homecoming” is the next installment in the Spider-Man story, released in July 2017. Now that the groundwork has been laid and the audience knows who this Spider-Man is, it’s time to meet the kid behind the mask.
This film is focused on Peter Parker managing how to balance his secret identity and the struggles that come with crimefighting with his normal high school life. “Spider-Man: Homecoming” asks the unlikely question: what if your homecoming date was the daughter of a villain?
In this new movie, we’re introduced to characters like Ned Leeds, Peter’s best friend, played by Jacob Batalon, and Michelle Jones Watson, or MJ, played by Zendaya. Laura Harrier was cast as Liz Allan, and, most notably, Michael Keaton takes on the role of Adrian Toomes.
The movie opens with Toomes being assigned to clean up the aftermath of the last Avengers escapade, including disposing of alien Chitauri technology, until the Department of Damage Control, under the leadership of Tony Stark, takes over the project and essentially fires Toomes and his entire crew.
And thus, a villain was born.
On Peter’s end, he’s been getting the cold shoulder from Stark since his mission in Berlin during the events of “Captain America: Civil War.” Stark won’t recruit him for stronger missions, though Peter feels like, if he can fight with the Avengers, he deserves to be treated like one.
Peter is shown struggling with balancing homework and crimefighting, though he’s dealing with more petty crime and helping locals: bike thieves, helping people with directions, and occasionally mistaking someone as a car thief when they were simply locked out.
Until bank robbers in plastic Avengers masks arrive with alien technology.
This leads Peter down a rabbit hole trying to track down where those weapons came from, which led him directly to Toomes, who had held onto remnants of the disaster site he was kicked off of.
Peter and Toomes’ team have a few run-ins, and he learns that the Chitauri energy core that he managed to take from them is unstable as he’s running late for his Academic Decathlon finals in Washington D.C.
After saving his Decathlon team and partially destroying the Washington Monument, Peter tries and fails to take down an arms deal on a large ferry involving Toomes, getting in the way of Stark’s FBI operation to accomplish the same thing. Stark tells him off for acting childish and putting many passengers in harm’s way, demanding that Peter return the suit he gave him in “Captain America: Civil War.”
Peter decides to separate himself from Spider-Man, focusing on his personal life and finally manages to ask Liz Allan to the upcoming homecoming dance.
He quickly realizes that Toomes is the man he’s been searching for, and Toomes figures out that Peter is Spider-Man, and has been getting in the way of his work recently. He decides to spare Peter because he saved Liz in Washington, but does not promise the same for the future.
During the homecoming dance, Peter learns that Toomes is planning to strike the Stark Cargo Plane that’s carrying weapons to the new Avengers headquarters. He leaves the dance, switches into his old homemade suit, and heads to Toomes’ lair to stop him.
Toomes attempts to recruit Peter, and when he declines, Toomes blows up the building and leaves Peter trapped under the rubble. Peter struggles with his own strength given the fact that he’s in his outdated suit, as well as his own self-doubt about his powers, and ultimately frees himself to go after Toomes.
Peter intercepts the cargo plane and steers it toward Coney Island, where he and Toomes engage in a confrontation which ultimately leads to Peter saving Toomes’ life and turning him in to the police.
Toomes is arrested, resulting in Liz and her mom packing up and moving to Oregon. MJ is appointed the new team captain for the Academic Decathlon team, and Happy Hogan returns to escort Peter to the new Avengers headquarters to speak with Tony.
Stark offers to recruit Peter to be an official Avenger, even giving him an even more upgraded suit. Peter declines the offer, opting to stay as a friendly, neighborhood Spider-Man for the time being.
While Peter is trying on his original upgraded suit that Stark returned at home, Aunt May walks in on him, and his secret identity is not so secret anymore. Aside from a post-credit Toomes scene where he elects to keep Peter’s identity private, that wraps up “Spider-Man: Homecoming.”
There are still two other movies to cover before “Spider-Man: Brand New Day,” and those will be discussed in upcoming stories. As things begin to ramp up, there will be more to cover, so those will be more in-depth than this.
Keep an eye on the horizon for the next Spider-Man recap, which will go into detail about the 2019 hit, “Spider-Man: Far From Home.”
“Spider-Man: Homecoming” is available to stream on Disney+ and Hulu.
