Taking Another Look at No Way Home’s Villains

Deciding to save the villains in No Way Home may have been tragic for our MCU Peter, but what he did for Maguire’s and Garfield’s universes is immeasurable and deserves another look.

Okay, let’s start with a quick recap of Spider-Man: No Way Home…

**SPOILERS**

Tom Holland’s Peter Parker asks Dr. Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch) for a spell that will make the world forget his true identity so he can save his friends and their collegiate prospects. However, Strange’s spell starts bringing everyone to their dimension who knows who Spider-Man is, resulting in various villains arriving *just before* their untimely deaths at the hands of their respective Spider-Man – namely Green Goblin (Willem Dafoe), Doc Ock (Alfred Molina), Sandman (Thomas Haden Church), Lizard (Rhys Ifans), and Electro (Jamie Foxx).

With the help of Aunt May (Marisa Tomei), MJ (Zendaya), and Ned (Jacob Batalon), Peter sets out to cure each of these villains until Goblin takes over Norman’s mind and ruins their attempts, resulting in the death of Aunt May. Our previous Spider-Man actors, in Garfield and Maguire, show up to help Peter and crew develop cures for all 5 of the villains and send them back home. I’m glossing over a lot here, but this is the basic gist of the situation. I do want to call attention to a few things:

According to our characters’ memories, they remember right up to their deaths, best evidenced by Sandman being alive and recalling that Doc Ock and Green Goblin died fighting Spider-Man. Additionally, Electro recalls that he was “whooping Spider-Man’s ass” but eventually remembers that he lost (e.g. died). Presumably, when Strange cancels the spell, he will be sending most of them to their doom (save Sandman, but obviously, he’ll still have his sand powers to contend with) and leave no chance for their Spider counterpart to save them, hence the urgency of Holland’s Peter to save them all now.

With that out of the way, let’s handle some logistics: I will be referring to each Peter by their number in No Way Home:

1. MCU Peter / Tom Holland
2. Original Sony Trilogy Peter / Tobey Maguire
3. Reboot Sony Peter / Andrew Garfield

Honestly, I would prefer putting them in release order (also to put some respect on Garfield and Maguire’s pre-MCU accomplishments). Since the movie gave us numbers, however, I don’t want to make this more complicated than it already is.

The Worst-Case Scenarios

At this point, let’s also go back and look at what each villain was dealing with before they died, because this is obviously the worst version of events that could have happened to them.

Norman Osborn (Green Goblin) had just attempted to rekindle his relationship with his son Harry (James Franco), even while the Goblin persona was taking over fully. He kidnaps MJ (Kirsten Dunst) and holds her hostage along with a bus full of children to prove a point to Peter 2 (Maguire). His death and subsequent request for Peter to keep his secret pushes Harry (James Franco) closer to becoming his own Goblin (especially once he learns that Spider-Man is his best friend).

Otto Octavius (Doc Ock), with his mind influenced by the artificial AI in his arms, builds another fusion reactor that could have destroyed the city. Peter is finally able to get through to him, and he regains control of his arms long enough to take his creation down into the river below, killing himself in the process.

Flint Marko (Sandman) reconciles with Peter 2 after their fight in the construction yard, but his efforts to reconnect with his daughter will likely be hampered by his sand powers and being a fugitive from the law. Penny has an unexplained illness that Marko escaped from prison to try and raise money for.

Dr. Kurt Connors (Lizard) had just killed Captain Stacy and nearly turned half of Manhattan into lizard people before Peter captured him. He was under pressure from the shadowy figures at Oscorp to complete his limb regeneration project (though it’s never quite explained what these figures want).

Max Dillon (Electro) believes Spider-Man has betrayed him, thinks of him as nothing, and goes as far as partnering with Harry Osborn (Dane DeHaan) and killing Oscorp executives to access a suit that helps him better regulate his powers. Electro borderline becomes Dr. Manhattan for a second with his powers near the end of Amazing Spider-Man 2 before he’s killed in a trap set up by Gwen and Peter 3.

The Better Case Scenarios

Norman Osborn / Green Goblin

Okay, so I’m going to start with one character, Norman Osborn, and explain why this one change could have profoundly affected the entire Maguire Spider-Man trilogy.

It should be said right off the bat, regardless of the Goblin’s influence, Norman is going to jail. If you recall: he killed several military top brass, corporate rivals, fellow Oscorp board members, and any New Yorkers who got in his way. But, his attempt to reconnect with Harry was genuine I believe. It may have started as an attempt to get information from him about Peter 2, but I think towards the end, it was really Norman saying those words. This is important because if Harry believes his father cares for him and sees the tragic mistakes he made, he’ll likely avoid making those same mistakes as he takes over Oscorp. After that, the most obvious benefit is his father will still be alive, he won’t see Peter as a traitor, our trio of friends (Peter 2, MJ, and Harry) will stay together, and he’ll avoid getting a grenade to the face.

Otto Octavius / Doc Ock

Next up, Otto’s life is significantly different as a result of Harry’s life change. If you remember in Spider-Man 2, Harry is more focused on finding out who Spider-Man is, winning a Noble Peace prize, and making tons of money off Otto’s fusion reactor design. Hopefully, this version of Harry is less demanding and pressing on Otto, which gives him more chances or opportunities to get his equations correct – or rather, shut down the reactor when things go wrong. Otto was a prideful man for sure, but if he didn’t have Oscorp breathing down his neck, is it possible he does the responsible thing and shuts down the reactor himself?

The middle-case for Otto is that he still has the tragic accident in this version and loses his wife, but when he comes back with the arc reactor, it goes a long way to smoothing over his actions, saving Oscorp (which is likely financially battered by this point) and minimizing his jail time. The other wild card is with Norman alive, he already helped Peter 1 develop a new inhibitor chip (the chip designed to keep Otto in control of his arms) so it’s possible they could work together before Otto ever gets off the rails.

Another wrinkle between Harry, Otto, and Norman is Peter 2’s identity…remember, they all found out his identity at the worst possible times, when they were already angry at him or near death. But flip the script a little bit: think about Harry reunited with his father and already aware of who Peter 2 is? Think about how they teamed up towards the end of Spider-Man 3? Wouldn’t that result in a significantly less-depressed Peter 2 in Spider-Man 2? Maybe Peter 2 is able to express his feelings to MJ earlier because he’s not stressed out? With Harry and Norman both alive, maybe Peter 2 can work at Oscorp rather than the Daily Bugle (he chose to do that so he could make his own way, but maybe a semester struggling with freelance pay would change his mind) and help Otto with his reactor earlier?

There’s plenty of better scenarios that result from Harry and Norman having a better relationship, which improves the chances for Otto and Peter 2 interactions in Spider-Man 2.

Flint Marko

For the third Maguire film, we don’t know when Flint will be sent back, especially since No Way Home played a little fast and loose with the time they were brought back (how do Norman and Otto know who Spider-Man is, but not realize that they died…that timing doesn’t make sense). Like Norman, he will be in a similar legal situation – he killed Ben Parker and escaped prison for a separate offense. So if he comes back cured, he’ll likely go to jail, but having Spider-Man in his corner now could make a world of difference. The larger issue is Penny’s health. Flint broke out so he could raise money for his daughter, but with Peter 2 and Harry working together, they could cover her expenses and / or hopefully figure out a cure for what’s ailing her. Also, how cool would it be if Peter 2 was speaking on Marko’s behalf at a parole hearing, showing how far both of them have grown in forgiveness / reconciliation?

Kurt Connors

Well, when you change people into lizards, that’s going to get you some jail time (I mean…I would hope so)…but maybe this version of Connors gets saved before he launches the machine, and better yet, before he kills Captain Stacy. This would make Peter 3’s life complicated – having to work side-by-side with his girlfriend’s father going forward – but at least he would be alive and not haunting Peter 3’s mind.

Max Dillon

Similar to Marko and Connors, Max is in an odd boat regarding timing. He killed an Oscorp member to help Harry get access to spider venom (to potentially stop Harry’s disease) and obviously fought and lost against Gwen and Spiderman. But like Maguire, if Peter 3 has Captain Stacy with him, he never gets into a fight with Gwen (or at least, not a fight about their future, conflict over Captain Stacy’s request), and he figures out how to stop Max sooner and maybe Harry never uses the venom. Now, Peter 3 will likely still have to contend with a frustrated and angry Harry’ Goblin in some form or fashion, because he absolutely cannot give Harry his blood as a cure. However, there’s a great chance that the Gwen Stacy death never happens, Dillon never kills that board member, and the only potential foes left on the board are Harry and Rhino. Not a perfect situation, but much better than what Peter 3 was left with.

Notably Missing

Both Harry Osborn / Green Goblin versions (Franco and DeHaan) and Eddie Brock / Venom (Topher Grace) are missing from this multiverse team-up, which makes no sense based on the spell and the time at which people perished. How did Flint Marko get pulled in while Harry 1 (James Franco) and Venom stayed behind? Or how about Electro getting brought in while Harry 2 (Dane Dehaan) is nowhere to be found?

Now the easiest answer is: holy mackerel Batman, that’s a lot of characters to fit into one runtime.

(Also, if you’re unaware of James Franco’s sexual harassment history, it makes complete real-world sense why he wasn’t invited…)

And yeah, you’d be right. Trying to write a satisfying narrative with more than the villains we got would have been a bit wild. The only disappointing thing is that this team-up may be the closest we get to adapting the Sinister Six storyline. If having one less villain made the overarching narrative stronger, then I’d rather have a multiverse Sinister Five than a lackluster purist adaptation.

How the hell is Sony’s solo Venom attached to this universe?

Speaking of lackluster, Venom / Eddie Brock is currently being portrayed by Tom Hardy in two financially successful, but critically-panned solo films (with a third on the way) that have largely existed on their own until we got a little Easter egg as Venom: Let There Be Carnage rolled the credits. We quickly realize that Eddie was inside the MCU the whole time as he hears the revelation of Peter Parker’s existence on national television like everyone else…except…not really. At the end of Spider-Man: No Way Home, he gets teleported back to wherever he came from, presumably under the same spell that sent back the other villains. It creates an Easter chicken or Easter egg issue that Marvel / Sony will have to inevitably solve since they didn’t think this one through.

Or if you’ve seen the new Venom: The Last Dance trailer, you know this just got more complicated (more on that another time).

Regardless, if you’re willing to accept that the selected villains for this film were due to narrative and practicality, then these type of unforced errors makes it harder to swallow that logic.

Conclusion

Peter 1’s decision to save the villains from their fate did more than simply save their lives. It potentially opened up several positive outcomes for many of the villains that likely won’t be explored in follow-up movies, but allows us to dream up scenarios as fans and hope they are living out better situations as a result.

None of this eliminates some legitimate criticism about Peter 1 or Dr. Strange’s ummm… “other choices” in this film, but I’ll talk about that next time.

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