Spider-Man's MCU Journey, Explained

Director(s): Jon Favreau
Starring: Robert Downey Jr., Gwyneth Paltrow, Don Cheadle, Scarlett Johansson, Sam Rockwell, Mickey Rourke, Samuel L. Jackson
What was Spider-Man doing?: Being an Iron Man stan

While we didn’t know it at the time, the little boy rocking an Iron Man mask that got an autograph from Mr. Tony Stark was confirmed to be Peter Parker. (Kid even held up a toy repulsor at the real drones attacking the expo he was attending.) Holland, who is always down to drop a spoiler for some reason, confirmed it back in 2017. "I can confirm that, that is Peter Parker... as of today,” Holland said. “I literally had a conversation with Kevin Feige only 20 minutes ago.

"Maybe I've just done a big, old spoiler, but it's out there now,” Holland continued. "It's cool. I like the idea that Peter Parker has been in the universe since the beginning."

(Fun fact: Holland did not portray Peter Parker in this film; that young Peter Parker was played by director Jon Favreau’s son, Max.)

Director(s): The Russo Brothers
Starring: Chris Evans, Robert Downey Jr., Scarlett Johansson, Sebastian Stan, Anthony Mackie, Don Cheadle, Jeremy Renner, Chadwick Boseman, Paul Bettany, Elizabeth Olsen, Paul Rudd, Emily VanCamp, Marisa Tomei, Tom Holland, Frank Grillo, Martin Freeman, William Hurt, Daniel Brühl
What was Spider-Man doing?: Fighting alongside Iron Man and (some of the) Avengers

At this point, Tony Stark needs some more allies after beefing with Captain America; we are taken to Queens, where Parker, who’s already been bitten by the radioactive spider that changes his DNA (and his life), is already being a neighborhood superhero. Stark brings Parker along (under the guise of a grant program with his aunt) to battle the group of Avengers siding with Steve Rogers. We get to see Peter’s quick wit, his heroic spirit, and some dope webslining being incorporated into the battle.

As Parker’s still a teen, that fight tuckered him out, but by the film’s end, we are reacquainted with Parker, who discovers that Stark fitted his webslingers with a Spidey Signal. Man’s is lowkey an Avenger, right?!

Director(s): Jon Watts
Starring: Tom Holland, Michael Keaton, Jon Favreau, Gwyneth Paltrow, Zendaya, Donald Glover, Jacob Batalon, Laura Harrier, Tony Revolori, Bokeem Woodbine, Tyne Daly, Marisa Tomei, Robert Downey Jr.
What was Spider-Man doing?: Wanting to be more than your friendly neighborhood Spider-Man

Kind of. Parker’s dreams are bigger than Queens, and he spends roughly two-thirds of the film putting too much dip on his superhero chip at the expense of being with his classmates and living a regular teen life. With the Vulture out repurposing alien tech from the Battle of New York as both big-ticket black-market items and in his own evil doing, someone has to stop him. And while Parker felt alone, screaming to have someone pay attention, by the film’s end, you realize that Stark was tapped in the entire time, keeping his watchful eye on Parker before the situation got too big. He had his “Man in the Chair” Ned, a romance with the Vulture’s daughter that couldn’t go anywhere, and a huge secret that he has to keep.

Parker didn’t have balance in his life, and with the way the MCU was evolving, things weren’t going to settle down for him at all.

Director(s): The Russo Brothers
Starring: Robert Downey Jr., Chris Hemsworth, Mark Ruffalo, Chris Evans, Scarlett Johansson, Benedict Cumberbatch, Don Cheadle, Tom Holland, Chadwick Boseman, Paul Bettany, Elizabeth Olsen, Anthony Mackie, Sebastian Stan, Danai Gurira, Letitia Wright, Dave Bautista, Zoe Saldaña, Josh Brolin, Chris Pratt
What was Spider-Man doing?: Fighting Thanos before getting Blipped

While riding a bus during a class trip, Parker’s Spidey-Sense tingles. He likely wasn’t ready for a battle alongside Iron Man with the CULL OBSIDIAN before lunch, but an Avenger’s gotta do what an Avenger’s gotta do. Parker did so in a new suit that allowed him to breathe in space (thanks, Mr. Stark!), joining Doctor Strange’s cape on an adventure to save Strange with Iron Man.

Some time later, Parker is part of the Avengers team facing off against an Infinity Gauntlet-toting Thanos, taking his licks and putting in work, but ultimately being one of the many who were Blipped when Thanos acquired all the Infinity Stones and pulled off The Snap.

That was the end of Spider-Man, until…

Director(s): The Russo Brothers
Starring: Robert Downey Jr., Chris Evans, Mark Ruffalo, Chris Hemsworth, Scarlett Johansson, Jeremy Renner, Don Cheadle, Paul Rudd, Brie Larson, Karen Gillan, Danai Gurira, Benedict Wong, Jon Favreau, Bradley Cooper, Gwyneth Paltrow, Josh Brolin
What was Spider-Man doing?: Returning to, um, finish fighting Thanos

Due to being Blipped, Parker wasn’t seen until the very end of the film. He returned from his five-year absence and re-joined the Avengers to (checks notes) take out Thanos for the second time in the film.

Parker is one of the first people to run to Stark after he performs his own Snap to Blip Thanos and his army away, and is seen mourning Stark with his Aunt May at Stark’s funeral.

Director(s): Jon Watts
Starring: Tom Holland, Samuel L. Jackson, Zendaya, Cobie Smulders, Jon Favreau, J. B. Smoove, Jacob Batalon, Martin Starr, Tony Revolori, Marisa Tomei, Jake Gyllenhaal
What was Spider-Man doing?: Having his identity exposed after a school trip

With Parker and the rest of the world mourning Stark, he chose to keep his superheroing up, in an effort to live up to what Stark would have wanted him to be. Despite that, Parker decided to bring suits for a class trip to Europe, one where he planned to confess his true feelings for his classmate MJ. While trying to get his flirt on, Parker got into some superhero shenanigans (thanks to May packing his suit and webslingers) because of the random anomalies happening across Europe. Little did Parker know that Mysterio, leading a group of big brains who hate Stark, planned to steal E.D.I.T.H., the AI-enhanced tech glasses Parker got from Stark, in an effort to hack into it and the rest of Stark Tech.

Parker, along with MJ, figured out how Mysterio was pulling off his elaborate ruses—while MJ also basically figured out that Parker was Spider-Man. (That brought the count to Aunt May, his homie Ned, and now MJ as people in Parker’s life who knew he was Spider-Man outside of Stark and his associates). The actual problem is that, while doing battle with Spider-Man, Mysterio ended up framing Spider-Man for his apparent demise, revealing to the world that Spider-Man is, in fact, Peter Parker!

Director(s): Andy Serkis
Starring: Tom Hardy, Michelle Williams, Naomie Harris, Reid Scott, Stephen Graham, Woody Harrelson
What was Spider-Man doing?: Bridging the Spider-Verse and the Multiverse

This was really just building on the “Spider-Man’s identity has been revealed” of it all, with Eddie Brock and Venom randomly dropping into Spider-Man’s universe, catching a news segment on Parker being Spider-Man on TV.

Director(s): Jon Watts
Starring: Tom Holland, Zendaya, Benedict Cumberbatch, Jacob Batalon, Jon Favreau, Jamie Foxx, Willem Dafoe, Alfred Molina, Benedict Wong, Tony Revolori, Marisa Tomei, Andrew Garfield, Tobey Maguire
What was Spider-Man doing?: Making the MCU forget who Peter Parker is

With his identity now revealed, the DODC wasted no time bringing in Parker, Aunt May, MJ, and Ned for questioning. Shout out Matt Murdock for helping Parker and his squad get out, but their college dreams are now in jeopardy with this “Parker’s an international murderer” lie in the air.

In an effort to fix this huge issue, Parker devises a plan to have Doctor Strange cast a spell to have everyone forget that Parker is Spider-Man, although through tampering with the specifics of the spell, Parker actually opened up multiple rifts in the Multiverse, which instead allowed multiple bad guys who dealt with Spider-Men across the Multiverse to find this “Peter Parker” and attempt to take him out. This brought on two different Spider-Men from different dimensions, with all three (plus help from Strange and the other homies around) to reverse the spell cast and place everyone back in their realms—even though, for many of the bad guys, it meant going back to the moment they were dying. Ouch.

Speaking of dying, throughout this tumultuous ordeal, Aunt May ended up perishing. With plans to continue being the friendly neighborhood Spider-Man, Parker makes the difficult decision to go through with his original wish. He told MJ what was going to happen, and through tears, told her he’d explain everything to her, but when it came time for him to approach an MJ who had no idea who he was, he decided to walk away from it all, giving his life to being a lone vigilante in the Big Apple. Sure, Parker and Strange added to the harm many have put onto the Multiverse, but at least he had peace of mind…for now?

Director(s): Destin Daniel Cretton
Starring: Tom Holland, Zendaya, Sadie Sink, Jacob Batalon, Jon Bernthal, Florence Pugh, Tramell Tillman, Marisa Tomei, Mark Ruffalo
What was Spider-Man doing?: Being lonely while always saving New York City

An entire college lifetime later, Parker is still holding down Queens without anyone knowing who he truly is. While dealing with changes to the arachnid DNA inside of him, Parker is also tracking a series of attacks on DODC facilities. Through his own detective work, Parker recognizes the pattern and approaches Bill Metzger of the DODC, who quickly becomes an ally (likely because he wants to gain all of the information to help build more weapons to attack superheroes, but Parker doesn’t know that yet.)

Parker’s detective work takes him to speak with both the Black Widow and Bruce Banner, who helps Parker better understand the inhibitor he uses to keep the Hulk at bay. Parker uses that knowledge to make an inhibitor for his own raging arachnid DNA while also creating a universal one, which eventually gets thrown onto Jean Grey, who he successfully identifies as the powerful telepath terrorizing the DODC in search for “V Max”.

Outside of all of this, Parker’s practically stalking MJ and Ned, even attending a party in the apartment they share (which holds the Spidey Tracker HQ for Ned, who runs the app after feeling some kind of connection to Spider-Man after being saved by him so many times over his life). Grey even literally uses MJ against Parker, having them kiss one moment before throwing MJ off a building the next. MJ survived that and the revelation of the truth about her past relationship with Parker, which she definitely didn’t remember. Many theorize that she may remember something after the spell Grey put on a chunk of the city after finding out what V Max really meant.

Spider-Man ended up surviving a possessed Punisher and a possessed Hulk, a possessed band of Hand members, and a bullet to make it to the end of the film. He found out his inhibitor worked, but not before he had captured Jean Grey for the DODC; he also found out he didn’t need it, growing organic webs and experiencing heightened awareness in the process. It also looks like Ned remembers who he is, so Peter got his best friend back?

That said, Ned’s Spidey Tracker started noticing some unusual movements from Spider-Man at the end of the film. With Doomsday upon us, one has to wonder what that means for Peter Parker and the rest of the Avengers.