Hello, my friends. We’ve seen what our favorite wall-crawler has been able to accomplish all by himself. Now, it’s time to see what he’ll come across on the comic page when he’s alongside several other notable figures. On that note, I welcome you all to the final entry of this special series of comic reviews called…
We’ve now come across a unique turning point for our friendly neighborhood superhero’s cinematic outings. Following the critical and financial disappointment of “The Amazing Spider-Man 2”, Marvel Studios was able to work out a deal with Sony in 2015 that would allow him to finally cross over into their highly-successful Marvel Cinematic Universe. From there, he would go to make his debut within the massive entertainment series, but not by the regular means of his own solo movie.
Released on May 6, 2016, this Anthony & Joe Russo-directed entry kicked off the MCU’s third phase with a script that was written by Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely. Made on a budget of $250 million, it went on to make over $1.1 billion en route to earning mainly positive critical responses.
In preparation for his first solo entry within this line, Marvel would publish a two-issue series called “Spider-Man: Homecoming Prelude” in March & April 2017. The first issue would end up selling 10,905 copies, while the second part sold 8,423 copies. As for how writer Will Corona Pilgrim, artist Todd Nauck and colorist Vero Gandini handle the process of adapting the web-head’s first time under this spotlight (despite not being the main character of the story), let’s web-swing towards a proper side and see how they handle this.
We open within the NYC borough of Queens as Peter is web-swinging around the neighborhood in his makeshift Spider-Man outfit. With the help of his self-made web-shooters, he manages to prevent an out-of-control car from crashing into a public bus. As Spidey makes sure that everyone is fine before he takes his leave, he then wonders how the Avengers are able to “juggle it all”. From there, we shift over to Lagos, Nigeria as the titular team has caught up to Brock Rumlow a.k.a. Crossbones who’s in the country in order to swipe a bio-weapon. He’s soon defeated by Steve Rogers a.k.a. Captain America who then demands to know who’s his buyer, yet the disfigured Brock (who ended up that way during the events of “Captain America: The Winter Soldier”) refuses to tell, yet he does say that his mind-controlled friend James Buchanan Barnes a.k.a. Winter Soldier knew him and that he even got “weepy” until his superiors managed to put him under and wipe his mind. From there, Rumlow attempts to suicide-bomb himself in order to take Cap out. Thankfully, Wanda Maximoff was also present alongside the Avengers as she contains the explosion with her Hex Magic and attempts to fling it out of harm’s way. Unfortunately, she’s not able to contain it for long as it proceeds to take out several floors of a nearby building. Steve then contacts Sam Wilson a.k.a. Falcon and tells him to summon fire & rescue before they search for any survivors, while Wanda is horrified by what she was unable to prevent.
Meanwhile over at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Kresge Auditorium, Tony Stark shows off a holographic representation of the last time in his life that he was with his parents Howard & Maria, though with retroactively-added dialogue. As this demonstration ends, Tony describes this as Binary Augmented Retro-Framing, a pricey way to remove traumatic memories from a person’s brain. Stark then mentions how no one would ever fund this idea before he tells the attending students that the upcoming and grand innovations will be met with great risk as well as their own financial shortcomings. As such, he announces that they’ve become inaugural recipients to his newly-launched September Foundation Grant and that all of their projects have just been given financial approval. Shortly afterwards, he’s met backstage by a woman named Miriam Spencer who starts to chastise him by mentioning how “there’s a correlation between generosity & guilt”. She ultimately shows him a picture of her son named Charlie who was in Sokovia during the events of “Avengers: Age Of Ultron” and ended up losing his life during the devastating battle. Not only that, but she blames Tony for that and says that he & has his fellow heroes only fight for themselves. We then shift ahead by a month as Peter has packed up his Spider-Man outfit before he begins to head out. Just then, he notices a newscast that his Aunt May is watching as they learn that a bomb hidden inside a news van blew up over in Vienna and ripped through a United Nations building during a conference concerning the Sokovia Accords. The newscaster goes on to explain that it’s been approved by 117 countries and that it creates “a framework for the registration and deployment of enhanced individuals”. She then goes to mention that out of the twelve people who lost their lives in the blast, one of them was the King of Wakanda named T’Chaka. Not only that, but surveillance video of the supposed suspect has been released as the Winter Soldier gets identified as the murderer. As May wonders what this world is coming to, Peter assures her that “Cap’s got a handle on this”. As if on ironic cue, we then shift over to Bucharest, Romania where Bucky was hiding out while Steve & Sam went over to try and help their friend deal with this situation. However, the local officials intervened as well as the appearance of Black Panther as a chase ensues before Barnes is finally cornered. With the armed officials caught up and surrounding them, James “Rhodey” Rhodes a.k.a. War Machine flies in and tells the costumed figures to stand down. As Captain America and his comrades get arrested, Rhodey calls Cap a criminal, especially since he’s refused to sign the Sokovia Accords. Afterwards, Black Panther unmasks himself and reveals himself as the new King of Wakanda himself, T’Challa.
Later, they get brought to the Joint Terrorism Task Force in Berlin as Steve, Sam and T’Challa learn from Dep. Task Force Director Everett Ross that Bucky will be contained for psychological evaluation and extradition. As Sharon Carter and Natasha Romanoff a.k.a. Black Widow accompany them, Ross informs the group that Rogers & Wilson’s superhero outfits & gear will be placed in lock-up while they’ll be allowed to work from a desk instead of a prison cell. As they reach the central chamber, they find Tony in the middle of a phone call with the press. Stark then informs Steve that U.S. Secretary of State Thaddeus “Thunderbolt” Ross wants both him and Sam prosecuted in order to inform the whole world that no one is above the law, not even the Avengers. Later, Rogers, Wilson & Carter oversee Barnes’ psyche evaluation from the main conference room. Steve then wonders why the task force would release James’ security photo, since it only succeeded in flushing his longtime friend out of hiding by the world’s authorities. Sharon then assumes that someone framed Bucky in order for them to flush him out. Suddenly, the whole building’s power goes out (which was explained in the movie as an EMP Device was sent to the power plant) while down in Barnes’ cell, the faux psychiatrist who’s actually Helmut Zemo then takes out a red book that he acquired and begins to read off the listed trigger words. Feeling his mind slipping, James forces his way out of his cell and tries to stop him, but Zemo is able to read them off and get him under his control.
By the time that Steve and Sam reach the cell and confront Helmut, they’re too late as the Winter Soldier attacks them and makes his way up the building. Tony, Sharon and Natasha try to fight him, but Barnes is able to take them down. T’Challa then intervenes and effectively engages him upon an upper level, yet after he kicks James over the side and jumps down to reengage, he discovers that his foe has quickly left. As Sam discovers Bucky’s jacket outside and realizes that he’s heading for the rooftop helicopter, Barnes reaches the aircraft and starts it up. At that moment, Steve catches up and grabs onto it just as James is taking off. Rogers then grabs onto the platform and uses his super-soldier strength to pull the helicopter back towards him, causing it to crash and land onto the side. However, Bucky punches though the windshield and grabs Steve as they and the craft end up plummeting into the water. Rogers then emerges with an unconscious Barnes as he swims away with his comrade. Later on within the Joint Terrorism Task Force, Thaddeus confronts Tony & Natasha and says that he intends to use Special Ops in order to find Steve, Sam & Bucky. Stark argues that “boys and bullets” won’t be able to effectively bring them in. As such, he promises to go out himself and bring them in alongside Romanoff. Thaddeus agrees, but he gives them only 1 1/2 days to accomplish their mission before he heads out. Natasha then says that they don’t have enough superpowered people to properly help them out, even though she’ll be able to have T’Challa accompany them. However, Tony says that he knows whom he can bring in.
We then shift over to the NYC borough of Queens as Peter arrives back at his apartment and mentions how there’s a “crazy car parked outside”, before he soon discovers Tony talking with May. Stark explains that he’s here to deliver the good news of her nephew acquiring a grant from the September Foundation. Peter then asks what he applied before, to which Tony says that he’s here to iron those details out and that it’s “well-funded”. From there, he gets permission from May in order to talk with her nephew in private. After they reach his room, Stark soon discovers that Parker has plenty of outdated tech that others have thrown out. After Peter says that he didn’t sign up for the grant, Tony soon agrees with him before he holographically brings up security footage of Parker’s exploits as Spider-Man. Peter tries to deny it, but Stark soon finds his outfit within his mini-attic. With his identity confirmed, Parker says that he was having a perfect day prior to this moment before he mentions that no one else knows his secret identity, especially not his aunt. As Tony continues to share his impressed nature over what he’s done in terms of putting into his superhero gig, he then tells Peter that he’ll proudly give him a suit upgrade. Stark then asks him why he goes out in a disguise and fight crimes, to which Parker says that he’s had his powers for six months at this point before he essentially says that he just wants to make things better “for the little guy”. And so, Issue 1 ends with Tony saying that he’ll be taking him to Germany, to which Peter says that he can’t just drop his schoolwork out of the blue. Stark then says that he’ll tell Aunt May that he’ll be taking her nephew on a “field trip”, causing Parker to shoot some web onto Tony’s hand and stick him to the door and makes him promise not to tell her. From there, they agree to work with each other for their overseas excursion.
Issue 2 begins long after a series of events where Steve & Sam learn from Bucky about Helmut Zemo and that he’s on his way to a base in Siberia, in addition to their recruiting a few more superpowered figures onto their side and Sharon becoming a fugitive by acquiring Rogers and Wilson’s suit & gear. The comic itself properly starts at the Leipzig/Halle Airport as Captain America heads for a helicopter in order to chase down Zemo. However, it immediately gets disabled before he’s met upon by Iron Man, War Machine, Black Widow and Black Panther. Steve explains that Helmut is the true mastermind behind Bucky’s frame-up. However, Tony says that he wants him and Barnes to be brought into their custody, due to the loss of innocent lives at the U.N. meeting in Vienna. Steve then mentions how there’s five more super-soldiers lying in wait that Zemo is on his way towards and that he can’t let him get there. Natasha then tries to warn Rogers that he shouldn’t try to fight his way out, but Stark finally gets impatient and calls out for “Underoos”. Suddenly, Captain America gets his shield yanked out of his grasp before his hands get immediately webbed together as Spider-Man leaps in to make his presence. After Peter gets a bit chatty, Iron Man then chastises Steve for dragging their teammates into protecting a criminal and that he’s only trying to prevent the Avengers from falling apart, yet Captain America criticizes Tony and says that he did just that by siding with the Sokovia Accords. Stark then issues his final warning and orders Rogers to hand over Barnes in addition to turning himself in, since “a squad of J-Soc guys” will be coming in to do the job themselves. Just then, Falcon informs Steve that the Avengers’ Quinjet is hiding out in a particular hangar. Afterwards, a arrow shot by Clint Barton a.k.a. Hawkeye flies in and cuts Rogers’ hands free. Not only that, but Spider-Man gets attacked by Scott Lang a.k.a. Ant-Man who returns the shield to Captain America.
War Machine then picks up Winter Soldier and Falcon hiding out within the Terminal before Spider-Man asks Iron Man how he should approach them, to which Tony reminds him to keep his distance & web them up. As such, Peter heads out and engages them. Bucky & Sam are able to give the young hero a good fight, but Parker begins to turn the tide when he grounds Wilson and then webs up his hands onto a railing. He then starts talking tech, particularly about Falcon’s wings, to which Sam says that he’s not used to an adversary being this talkative during a fight. As Bucky steps in to intervene, Spidey web-swings in and kicks both him & Wilson down onto the ground before he sticks them to the floor with his webs. He then says that he’s trying to impress Stark, but just as he’s about to use more of his webs and subdue them, Wilson was able to summon his robot drone called Redwing to intercept his web-shot and drag Peter outside.
Later on during the scuffle, Captain America and his fellow anti-Accords teammates (Falcon, Ant-Man, Hawkeye, Wanda Maximoff & Winter Soldier) make a mad dash for the Avenger Quinjet. Suddenly, they get stopped in their tracks by Vision, allowing Iron Man and his fellow pro-Accords teammates (Black Panther, Black Widow, Spider-Man & War Machine) to gather together. With no other choice, both sides proceed to run towards each other as the massive superhero fight begins. Though he initially finds himself up against Wanda and her Hex Magic, Peter ultimately goes up against Captain America. Parker manages to trip him up and provide a good struggle, but Steve is able to get in more hits.
Rogers then weakens a passenger boarding bridge and forces Peter to lift it up in order to prevent himself from being crushed. Before he heads out, Captain America asks him where he’s from. When Parker tells him that he’s from Queens, Steve then smiles to a fellow New Yorker and says that he’s from Brooklyn. While Ant-Man messes around within Iron Man’s armor, Bucky tells Rogers that their target is on his way to Siberia. Cap then contacts Falcon on what their next move should be, to which Wilson says that they’ll need a big diversion. From there, Ant-Man grows in size and grabs War Machine by his leg.
While Rogers and Barnes make a mad dash for the Quinjet, Scott is able to provide a massive barrier for them and fend off the pro-Accords side. Spider-Man then comes up with an idea after he remembers a key scene from early on in “The Empire Strikes Back” as he web-swings around Lang’s legs and ties them up. From there, Iron Man & War Machine team-up and punch Ant-Man in the face, toppling him over. However, Peter gets unintentionally smacked by Scott and ends up crashing into some boxes, causing him to lose consciousness.
Shortly afterwards, Iron Man meets up with him and notices that Parker is still woozy. As such, Tony tells him that he’s done. Peter tries to say that he’s good, but Stark orders him to go home or else he’ll blab his secret identity to May before taking off. Parker tries to follow him, but he falls over and says that he’s done. With that being the last thing that he remembers, we then have the remaining key moments of Wanda, Clint & Sam imprisoned on the ocean-based prison called the Raft, Tony learning that Helmut Zemo was behind Bucky’s framing before learning from Wilson where Rogers & Barnes went and then him reaching them in order to help them catch their foe before the fiend shows security footage of a mind-controlled Winter Soldier killing Stark’s parents. This is what sparks Iron Man to rage out against Captain America and Winter Soldier, while Black Panther (whom discreetly followed Tony from the Raft) reaches Helmut Zemo and learns why he did this, thus declaring that he won’t let vengeance consume him before he properly captures him. As for the isolated fight, it results in James’ mechanical arm getting destroyed while Steve discards his shield in shame, yet he’s able to meet up with T’Challa and help Bucky get to Wakanda in order for the mind-controlling program within his brain to get permanently removed. And so, the comic ends on the movie’s post-credits scene where Peter is resting up back home as he examines his new web-shooter. He then hides it just as Aunt May comes in and asks him about his fight with “Steve” from Brooklyn while giving him an ice pack for his face, to which he mentions that he got a few hits in before she leaves. From there, he looks at his web-shooter as it suddenly shoots off an LED light containing his Spider-Man symbol.
Now, we’ve reached the last film within this long line that solely features our familiar hero and have some tie-in materials as well. Released on July 7, 2017, this movie had Jon Watts helming the director’s chair, while also co-writing the screenplay alongside Christopher Ford, Chris McKenna, Erik Sommers, Jonathan Goldstein and John Francis Daly (with the latter two exclusively coming up with the story). Made on a $175 million budget, it went on to rake in over $880 million and receive some critical acclaim.
In terms of adaptations, we have a two-issue tale called “Spider-Man: Far From Home Prelude”, published in March & April 2019. Will Corona Pilgrim returns to write this translation, while Luca Maresca handles the artwork and Lee Loughridge takes care of the coloring duties. Issue 1 ended up selling 11,186 copies, while Issue 2 had 9,250 copies initially flying off the shelves and into the consumer’s hands. As for how Spidey’s inaugural solo outing within the MCU gets handled when going from the big-screen to print, let’s suit up and find out.
We open back in 2012 following the devastating Battle of New York as a man named Adrian Toomes and his team of salvage workers are in the middle of cleaning up the wreckage. Suddenly, they’re met upon by a group of executives who announce that they’re now in charge of cleaning up areas following a superhuman battle and that Toomes & his team must hand over “any and all exotic materials” that they’ve come across. Adrian says that he and his men need this assignment in order to financially support their families, but the head suit tells him that all he can do is take it up with her “superiors”. Later, he and his men watch a newscast that announces the creation of the Department of Damage Control being created by Stark Industries & the U.S. Government for this kind of massive cleanup. When one of his guys asks about their remaining stash of Chitauri stuff, Toomes tells him that they’ll keep it, so that they can adapt to their ever-changing world. We then shift to present day as the group has made some significant progress in only a few years. As Phineas Mason a.k.a. Tinkerer mentions how all of this otherworldly tech has opened loads of business doors for them, Adrian returns as the Vulture and mentions how he takes his business seriously and that it’s being good to him. We then shift over to Queens as Peter is being driven back to his apartment as Tony helps share a video message to May about her nephew doing incredibly well at the “Stark Internship Retreat”. Once they arrive, Happy Hogan gets asked to retrieve Parker’s suitcase. From there, Stark tells Peter that while he’s allowed to keep his suit, Happy will serve as his point man and that he shouldn’t stress him out too much. Tony also tells him to operate within a specific area, mainly not doing things that he would do and not doing things that he wouldn’t do. When Parker asks when his next mission will be, Stark tells him that he’ll have “somebody” call him before he finally drops him off. During his subway ride to school the next day, Peter eagerly texts Happy when he’ll be done with school for the day and that he’s ready for the next mission. Over at Midtown Science & Technology, he’s soon met by his friend named Ned Leeds who invites him over to help build his Lego Death Star. However, Parker declines since he’s focused on his “internship” with Stark in the hopes of landing “a real job”. After he agrees, Ned says that he’ll get started with it at his place before he eventually comes over to finish it off. However, Peter isn’t entirely listening since his sights are focused on an attractive young lady named Liz Allan as he just casually agrees. He then goes through a series of classes, ranging from getting an answer right against his fellow classmate Flash Thompson to him discreetly creating the web for his shooters during chemistry class. From there, he joins his fellow debate teammates as he tells his teacher named Roger Harrington that he can’t attended the upcoming National Academic Decathalon in Washington, D.C., due to his “internship”. With his teammates disappointed in him, to which even a young girl named Michelle mentions how he’s already dropped out of both Marching Band and Robotics Lab, Flash ultimately gets Parker’s spot.
Once school is done for the day, Peter immediately dashes over to Mr. Delmar’s bodega and gets a sandwich before he goes into an alleyway, changes into his outfit and performs his local duty to the neighborhood. After doing several deeds that range from stopping a bike thief to helping a lost Dominican lady (in which he was rewarded with a churro), he leaves Happy a voice message about what he did and once again asks when his next mission will be. Just then, he notices a group of masked robbers heading towards a series of community bank ATMs and using high-powered machines on them in order to steal some money. Spider-Man steps in and gives them fits, but their high-end gadgets are also able to cause some trouble for him. As if that wasn’t bad enough, Delmar’s bodega ends up getting blasted by one of their devices and ends up on fire, causing Spidey to forgo the group and rescue the convenience store owner.
Afterwards, he calls up Happy and tries to inform him about what just happened. However, Hogan isn’t too interested in hearing him out since he’s currently in the process of packing up several items since Avengers Tower was just sold off and the team’s newest compound is located upstate. When Peter asks if Tony needs him, Happy simply tells him to steer clear of anything too dangerous since he’s in charge of making sure that he’s safe. Later, Parker manages to wall-crawl back into his bedroom in a silent manner. However, he soon discovers that Ned was waiting for him there and has accidentally discovered his secret identity. Peter then tells him that Stark gave him his suit (thus confirming that this is part of the faux internship) and that no one else knows about all of this. He especially doesn’t want Aunt May to know, since it would emotionally burden her. As such, Leeds promises not to tell anyone. Later, Peter and May have gone out for dinner as she says that she’s not a big fan of either Tony or his internship program, since it’s making her nephew become greatly distracted. They then hear a news broadcast about the recent bank robbery before she tells him to run away if he ever comes across an incident like that. We then cut to the next day at Midtown Science & Tech where Ned keeps asking Peter numerous questions about his powers and the Avengers. Leeds then offers to be his point man before they overhear Liz talking to Betty Brant and Flash about Spider-Man taking on the bank robbers via the online videos that they saw. After she mentions that she would like Spidey for the man that he is underneath, Ned then blabs out how Peter knows him. Parker says that he knows Spider-Man through his internship with Stark before Thompson says that Liz is hosting a party tonight and that he should show up with his “personal friend” Spidey. While she doubts that Peter will be there due to how busy he’s been, Flash assures her that he’ll show up. Later that night, Parker did show up before he heads over to a nearby rooftop and suits up while wondering how he’ll handle this. Just then, he sees a blue explosion in the distance and decides to go investigate. Spider-Man then arrives and sees a pair of thugs attempting to sell an illegal weapon to a guy, yet he only wants something that he can use to stick someone up. Suddenly, Peter’s cell phone starts ringing as he hides and tries to silence it, which causes to goons to assume that their buyer is setting them up. Spidey then emerges to engage them, but one of the thugs uses a powerful shocker device to stop him in his tracks before he gets in the van. Spider-Man then manages to place a tracker on the vehicle (which takes the place of a later scene where a pair of goons investigate his school before Parker gets a tracker on one of those men) before he shoots some web on the van and gets dragged around the neighborhood. Suddenly, he gets picked up by Vulture before his suit recognizes that he’s too far up in the air, thus deploying a parachute and allowing him to escape the fiend’s grasp. However, Peter was upside-down when it came out as he ends up tangled within it before he plummets into the water. Just then, Iron Man flies in and saves him. Afterwards, Parker explains how a “guy with the wings” is behind “the strange weapons” that’ve been showing up within his neighborhood. From there, it’s revealed that Tony isn’t in his suit, but is actually remotely controlling it from a far-away land. He then tells Peter to not worry about Vulture and stay close to his neighborhood watch while he slowly builds up his own superhero reputation. Also, he tells Parker to contact Happy if he comes across one of those weapons again before he concludes his call. While Spider-Man walks back to the party, he soon discovers one of the weapons that fell out of the fiend’s van.
We then shift to the next day at school as Ned is initially bummed about being bailed last night before he notices the glowing artifact that his friend is working on. Peter assumes that it’s “some kind of power source”, while Leeds says that because it’s connected to various microprocessors, it has to be “an inductive charging plate”. Parker then says that the people behind this scheme is combining the alien tech with their own and that they must figure out what this is & who’s making it. Ned says that they can put the artifact within the mass spectrometer, while Peter says that they can eventually find out where the goons have gone to. Later that night at Parker’s apartment, they find out that the fiends have wound up in Maryland as Peter assumes that their actual base is located there. Leeds then wonders how he’ll get there since it’s a great distance from their hometown, to which Peter notices that it’s not too far from Washington, D.C. As such and on the day that they depart for the National Academic Decathalon, he shows up and asks for readmission to the team. Flash rejects him on the fact that he can’t just quit on them and then be welcomed back like that. Thankfully, Roger immediately accepts his return and main status on the group. During the bus ride, Parker gets a phone call as Happy tells him that he’s left the city. Peter says that he’s on his way to the Academic Decathalon before he also mentions that he doesn’t like this violation of his privacy. Hogan then says that it’s no big deal for now, but he’ll be watching. Eventually, the group arrives in D.C. as they get step up in the hotel. Later on in their room, Ned has connected his laptop to Peter’s suit as they discover that a tracking device is on it. Parker then manages to peal it off before he mentions how he has to follow those goons before they head out and that he doesn’t want Tony to know about this. From there, Leeds discovers that the suit has various subsystems installed, yet they’re locked out via a “Training Wheels Protocol”. Annoyed by the belief that he’s being treated like a kid, Peter convinces his friend to remove the protocol from his suit. After telling Ned to hide the glowing artifact, Parker begins to head out before he suddenly bumps into Liz who’s heading down to the pool with her teammates and offers him to join them. However, he says that he wants to continue studying for the main competition and declines her offer before he heads out to suit up.
Just as he puts his mask on, he hears an A.I. voice congratulating him on completing his training wheels protocol. He quickly adjusts to it and tells her to locate a tracker that he placed before it properly guides him. Later, he arrives at a discreet road in Maryland before he comes across Vulture attempting another heist upon a cargo truck. After the A.I. convinces him to go into Enhanced Combat Mode, Spider-Man engages his foe and attempts to shoot some web. However, it comes out in a rapid fire mode as the A.I. tells him that it’s the default setting for Enhanced Combat Mode. Vulture then takes advantage and knocks him into the cargo hold where he hits his head and loses consciousness. Later, he wakes up and assumes that he’s in the villain’s main lair. As he anticipates a fierce fight, he rams his way out and discovers no one in sight. The A.I. then tells him that he’s in the Damage Control Storage Unit and that it’s the most secure facility on the Eastern Seaboard. After a while (where the movie showed him testing out his various web-shooting modes), Peter decides to name his suit’s A.I. as Karen before he asks if he should tell Liz that’s he Spider-Man, especially since he’s worried about her reaction. Karen says that if she was Liz, then she wouldn’t be disappointed in him before she tells him that he’s only been here for 37 minutes. Peter then decides to search through the Vulture’s bag and find anything that could help him escape. He then notices a familiar glowing artifact within the stash as Karen tells him that it’s an explosive Chitauri energy core and that it’ll go off if it’s exposed to radiation. Parker then tells her that she has to help him hack the time lock in order to warn his friend. Back at the hotel, it’s morning and their teammates are about to head out to the competition as Ned decides to place the energy core in his Decathalon jacket.
Back at the storage vault, Spider-Man goes through hundreds of trials before he finally does one that allow him to open the doors and begin his time-crunching trek back to D.C. Not too long after Liz, Ned, Michelle, Flash and the rest of their team win the Academic Decathalon, the group proceeds to go check out the Washington Monument. Michelle decides to wait outside due to the fact that the structure was “built by slaves” before Ned gets called by Peter and lets him know that the energy core is in his backpack. Parker tries to warn him not to let it go through the x-ray, but he’s unable to deliver his message due to the call getting dropped. As the group rides the elevator while the tour guide informs them about the structure, the energy core begins to build up. By the time that Spider-Man arrives, Issue 1 ends with the energy core going off and causing massive structural damage to the monument. Karen then informs him that the core has caused some major damage to the elevator, while Michelle tells him to save her friends.
Issue 2 begins with Spidey hurriedly climbing up the monument in order to reach his classmates. Just as the group is about to climb out, the safety cable ends up snapping. Thankfully, Spider-Man swings in and uses his web to hold the elevator up in order for his classmates to climb out to safety. Just as Liz is about to do so, the webbing snaps and the elevator plunges towards the ground. Thankfully, Spidey was able to save her and help her reach solid ground before his own web-line snaps and he comically falls down the shaft. Later, Peter has arrived back home as he talks to Karen about the identity of the weapons dealers that he came across. She mentions that she can do facial scanning off of the footage that pertains to what he sees. As such, he has her go back to last Friday’s incident. Unfortunately, she doesn’t have any criminal records on the two dealers. Thankfully, she does recognize the buyer as a minor criminal named Aaron Davis and that he lives in the same neighborhood. As such, Peter decides to go interrogate him.
One interrogation later, we then shift over to the Staten Island Ferry as Spider-Man looks over an illegal dealing that’s about to go down. From there, he intervenes and beats the goons up. Elsewhere on the ship, Adrian gets contacted about Spider-Man’s appearance and heads out to deal with him. Back with Spidey, he takes care of the thugs before Toomes yells out that he’s finished. Just as Spider-Man realizes that he’s the Vulture, he’s suddenly approached by several FBI agents as he questions why they’re here. Suddenly, Vulture emerges with a high-tech weapon and goes on the offensive.
Spidey manages to evade the shots before he uses his web and yanks the device out of Toomes’ hands. However, the impact of his webs has caused it to malfunction as Peter frantically tries to web it up. However, it overloads and ends up slicing the ferry in half. As the ship starts to sink, Parker frantically tries to hold the craft together with his webs. Unfortunately, it’s too much for him to deal with. Suddenly, he notices the ship is coming back together as Peter finds out that Iron Man is the one saving the day and he’s not happy with his pupil. Side Note: In the film, Tony called Peter up during his ferry investigation to offer his appreciation, yet the fog horn gave away Parker’s location. Later, Stark meets up with Peter who chastises him for not listening to his initial weapons warning. However, Tony says that he did and it’s why he hired some FBI agents to initially deal with this. He then tells Peter that he would’ve been responsible for any lives that would’ve been lost, while Stark would have to bare the biggest guilt if Parker died. Peter then says that he was only trying to be like his mentor, to which Tony says that he wanted him to be better before he tells Parker to hand over his outfit. Peter says that he’s nothing without it, to which Stark says that he shouldn’t have it if that’s the case. Parker then says that he didn’t bring any other clothes, while Tony tells him that they’ll “sort that out”. As such, Peter narrates how he can just forget about being an Avenger since the team is moving fairly soon.
We then shift to the next day at school as Parker narrates how he told May that he “lost” his Stark internship, yet it can allow him to get his personal and school life back in order. As he walks through the hallways, he comes across Liz and apologizes to her for bailing on their Decathalon team. She tells him that’s it good, especially since her own safety ended up taking bigger priority by the end. He then says that he likes her, to which she says that she knew due to him being “terrible at keeping secrets”. After learning that she still doesn’t have a date for the Homecoming dance, he successfully manages to ask her out before they go their separate ways. One preparation session later, Peter arrives at Liz’s house and rings the doorbell. To his horrifying surprise however, Adrian answers the door and reveals that he’s Liz’s father. Toomes then says that because he’s heading out of town, he’ll drive his daughter and Parker to the dance. During the drive over, Adrian tells Peter that his voice sounds familiar and suspects that he’s seen him before, to which Liz says that he’s been busy with Stark’s internship and that he’s met Spider-Man. Toomes then quizzes him about the incident at the Washington Monument, to which Parker says that he saw it all from the ground. Once they arrive, Adrian tells Liz to head inside in order to give her date the “Dad Talk”. Just as she heads out, Toomes then reveals to Peter that he knows his secret identity and learns that his daughter is unaware. Adrian then says that while he does appreciate Parker for saving his daughter, he wants him to stay put at the dance, never mention this conversation and don’t get in his devious way, or else he’ll kill him and his loved ones.
Shortly after Toomes takes his leave, Peter walks up to Liz and sorrowful says that he has to leave and that she doesn’t deserve this. From there, he runs into the school and gets his original homemade costume. From there, we skip over several scenes where Spidey initially tries to go after Adrian, but he immediately gets attacked by his right-hand man named Herman Schultz who has just become Shocker. After a timely intervention from Ned, Spidey forces Flash out of his father’s car and drives over to Adrian’s location, while Leeds uses the library computers to guide him there and even try to contact & warn Happy to no avail. Spider-Man ultimately confronts Toomes and learns of his hatred for the wealthy elite constantly screwing over his fellow working-class citizens. He then uses his wings to destroy key foundational pillars and pin Spidey down before taking his leave. From there, a frightened Peter calls out for help before he remembers Tony’s words: “If you’re nothing without the suit, then you shouldn’t have it.”. From there, he uses his enhanced strength to free himself. We then move back into the comic as a cargo plane carrying the remainder of Avengers tech departs to complete the move from the former team’s tower. Vulture takes off after it, unaware that Spider-Man has shot a web onto his wings and is holding on. They reach the aircraft as Toomes begins his big theft, while Peter hangs off the side of the plane. Ultimately, Adrian notices him and proceeds to fight him. However, their scuffle ends up damaging the plane and causes it to plummet out of the sky.
As Hogan notices this from afar, Spidey uses his web to turn the damaged plane away from innocent civilians before it ultimately crashes on a beach right outside Coney Island. Just as a battered Parker takes off his mask, Vulture assaults him one last time before he attempts to fly off with a box of Arc Reactors. Peter notices that his badly-damaged wings are about to explode and tries to warn him, but Adrian doesn’t listen as they blow up and consume him. Thankfully, Spider-Man rushes over and manages to rescue him. Later, Happy and the police come across the recovered Avengers tech with Toomes webbed up in them. Over at school the next day, Peter learns that Liz and her mother have to move far away due to Adrian’s actions. As a result, Michelle became the new leader of their academic team, with the added bonus of her actual name being revealed as “MJ”. Later on, Tony would bring Parker to the Avengers’ base and offer him the chance to join the team, complete with a new suit. However, he declines since he wants to stay close to his neighborhood. Once he gets home, he soon discovers that Stark has allowed him to have his other suit back. And so, the comic ends with him wearing it once again in confident triumph. However, May had accidentally seen this and has now unintentionally learned her nephew’s secret identity.
For our final movie tie-in comic for this whole series, we now shift our attention to a semi-obscure and digital-only book called “Spider-Man: Homecoming — Fight or Flight”. Taking place after the events of the film, this appears to be a promotional tie-in with the famed toy store Toys “R” Us. For this eight-page tale, Marc Sumerak took up the writing duties, Craig Russeau handled the art work and Guru eFX was given the task of coloring this book. So what did our famous web-head find himself in after his inaugural solo outing within the MCU? Let’s make our way into one last wall-crawling venture and find out.
We open on a Saturday morning in Queens as a little girl named Ellie is celebrating her sixth birthday at Toys “R” Us with her parents alongside her as she struggles to decide what toy she would like to take home. In an attempt to help her make a decision, her dad tells her that he would look for something that gave him “a special connection”. Meanwhile, Spider-Man is chasing after a costumed bank robber. After learning that the fiend goes by Beetle, they ultimately make their way to Toys “R” US as the customers inside see the outside struggle. An employee in a Geoffrey Giraffe costume makes sure to keep Ellie safe before she asks him if he’s able to help Spidey, to which he says that he’s sure that our hero can handle this. Meanwhile, Spider-Man times his dodge as he evades Beetle’s charge before firing some webs at him.
He manages to get some strands onto the fiend’s wings and is able to guide him away from the store. Beetle ultimately manages to get our hero off of him, but Spidey manages to put him down for good by using his webs to rip his wings off and permanently ground him. After wrapping the fiend up in webs for the police to handle, the comic ends with Ellie approaching him. Spider-Man notices that she has a birthday gift and asks her if it’s one of her favorite heroes. She tells him that while he’s one of her favorites, she actually got a Geoffrey Giraffe doll as she hopes that he’ll help Spidey next time. From there, Peter happily takes his leave.
Overall, the tie-in comics from this era felt respectful to its cinematic source before ending on a comfortable fluff piece. For the adaptation of “Captain America: Civil War”, it does mostly follow things from Peter’s point-of-view while maintaining as much of the movie’s plot as it can. While I may have wanted a more pure adaptation from somewhere else within the vast line of MCU tie-in comics, it’s still pretty impressive what’s able to be contained within the first two issues. Yes, the narrative meat is mainly in the first issue while the big airport fight pretty much takes up all of the second issue. While it does contain as much narrative substance from the film, it’s still a condensed version of the film. While you can watch the movie in order to get more weighty meat from its story, the comic is a light read that gives a good idea of what our heroes were forced to go through. The conflict still felt genuine, especially since Cap’s side and Tony’s side have had plenty of prior material to flesh out their ideals and why they’re either respectfully opposed or for the Sokovia Accords forcing registered superheroes to work under the watchful eye of governmental officials. Just like the film, it is odd that Stark would recruit a young hero into his battle while he’s trying to make a good case for the Accords, yet the comic captures the youthful energy, exuberance and raw loyalty that Tom Holland brought to the role. Either way, this two-part translation is backed by good artwork, fluent pacing and as much loyalty to the film as it can. As for “Spider-Man: Homecoming” and its handling from movie to comic, it did a better job at making the translation than its predecessor. Yes, notable henchmen like Shocker & Tinkerer were scaled down here and a number of omitted scenes could’ve easily been reinstated had this been a three-issue adaptation, but it still captures the basic gist of the film’s plot mostly well while also showing Peter’s self-maturing arc in a fine fashion. While I’ve would’ve reinstated the scene where Parker has to lift himself out of the debris in order to preserve the notion that just like how Tony is the Iron Man persona and not the suit, Peter himself is what makes him Spider-Man, most of the movie’s narrative is still nicely brought over and helps the story resonate as best as it can. Not to mention, it carries Vulture’s main theme of a working-class man trying to stay relevant amongst a changing world, albeit after being cheated out by a noble consequence from Tony himself. While Stark uses his rich status to try and make the world a better place, his action has accidentally spurred Adrian out of a job and thus, he ultimately plans on getting back at him for taking his main occupational source of income away. All of the various elements present here are given their due with colorful artwork, nice pacing and as much intriguing narrative presentation as it can carry over. Finally, we have “Fight Or Flight”, which presents itself as a simple story with a tie-in to a toy store that’s sadly fallen from grace throughout its original self-existence. Spider-Man’s battle against an original foe gets the job done, but it missed out on a chance to expand on some other element from the movie following its conclusion. Because of the limited amount of narrative space presented here, it doesn’t allow itself to make any of its originally-created characters stand out. It would’ve also been nice if the employee dressed as Geoffrey could’ve used the identity in a more narratively important manner, thus making the character’s role model appeal more solid and helpful towards the license. While I don’t get why this wasn’t just printed out like other mini-comics, the overall content is fine for what it is. It doesn’t contribute too much to the universe, but it’s also a light-hearted romp that’s colorful, well-natured and serves as a breezy read. Either way, it’s still worth checking out along with the official MCU comics that bare Spidey’s name.
In the years that followed, Sony has been busy as ever with their famous film license. While the MCU version of the character has gone on a European trip and even blossomed a romance with MJ, he’s also gone up against an illusionary master who takes advantage of his trust in order to get back at him and a familiar company that he and several others on his team used to work for. Even though Peter ultimately stopped him, his foe managed to get the last laugh and blabbed his secret identity to the whole world, thus having a good portion of the populace brand him as a murderer. With this also affecting his friend and girlfriend’s chances of getting into college, he visits a Sorcerer Supreme to help fix things. Unfortunately, Parker’s constant meddling has created a spell that allowed familiar foes of past Spidey films to crossover into his world. When his attempt to rehabilitate them mostly backfires, he gets some unexpected help from two other previous web-heads. Outside of the MCU, Miles Morales has made a spider name for himself alongside Ghost-Spider and other spider heroes across the animated Spider-Verse, while a Lethal Protector and a Living Vampire have started the groundwork for a Spider-Man universe that (as of this article) has yet to have a Spider-Man show up. Despite Sony’s wild results, the various films across two decades have entertained, bewildered and brought various levels of joys to its audiences. Even going through all of the tie-in comics was quite a venture and have brought some form of preservation towards the different eras of the overall film franchise. No matter what direction Marvel, Sony or anyone else decides to take Peter Benjamin Parker and his various cast of characters on, may it be on a glorious path filled with great power and great responsibility.
Spider-Man (created by Stan Lee & Steve Ditko) is owned by Marvel.
