After what happened in Spider-Man: No Way Home, Peter Parker no longer has a mentor in the MCU, which might be for the best.
After what happened in Spider-Man: No Way Home, Peter Parker doesn’t have a mentor in the MCU anymore, but that might be for the best. No Way Home told a live-action Spider-Man story that had never been told before. It introduced Spider-Man to the ” multiverse ” idea and put him in a group with different versions of himself, played by Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield. Doctor Strange’s MCU story continued in No Way Home, with Benedict Cumberbatch returning after Avengers: Endgame. However, in Spider-future Man’s MCU projects, he might not work with an adult hero like usual.
Since Tom Holland introduced Peter Parker to the MCU in Captain America: Civil War, he has dramatically changed. He joined the Avengers, fought Thanos on Titan in Avengers: Infinity War, and dealt with threats from all over the universe with his different versions in Spider-Man: No Way Home. Parker was utterly alone at the end of the Phase 4 epic. This was because, with Doctor Strange’s spell, he had given up everyone’s memories of him to protect the stability of the multiverse. With the news that Marvel Studios is making Spider-Man 4, Peter Parker’s future adventures will be very different from those that have come before.
In the MCU, Spider-Man has always had a mentor
One of the most significant differences is that Peter Parker won’t get a mentor as he has in every other Spider-Man movie in the MCU. This started with Holland’s first appearance as Spider-Man in Civil War, where Robert Downey Jr.’s Tony Stark recruited the hero to fight with him against Captain America. Stark became Parker’s hero through Spider-Man: Homecoming, Infinity War, and Endgame. Spider-Man: Far From Home put Parker’s grief over his hero’s death in the spotlight. However, Quentin Beck, aka Mysterio, becomes Parker’s new teacher at the end of the Infinity Saga.
Peter Parker soon learned that Mysterio was a fake, but he still learned much from him. He also got advice from Nick Fury, who turned out to be Talos, the leader of the Skrulls, in disguise. In Spider-Man: No Way Home, Doctor Strange took on this role because he had gotten to know Peter Parker in Infinity War and was one of the few people Spider-Man could turn to when he needed help. Strange gave Spider-Man knowledge and background for his quest across universes, but he was also much less patient with the young web-slinger than either Stark or Fury had been.
Spider-Man: No Way Home was a big step in Peter Parker’s journey through the MCU. Not only does he find a new mentor in Doctor Strange, but he also ignores Strange’s orders and does what he thinks is right away. Step one on Parker’s path to independence was putting Strange in the Mirror Dimension so he could find a way to save the lives of the villains from different realities who were about to die in their realities. Even before he asked Doctor Strange for help, Parker tried to get his friends into MIT. He was trying to clean up his mess, which would become a big part of the story No Way Home.
Parker’s growth continued further. In Spider-Man: No Way Home, he loses Aunt May, bonded with his other Spider-Man versions over their similarities and differences, and works with his enemies to try to save their lives. But Spider-last Man’s action in “No Way Home” showed that he no longer needs a mentor. He willingly gave up everyone’s memories of him to save the multiverse. Even though Strange’s spell made it impossible for anyone to find out who was behind the mask, Peter’s heroic self-sacrifice made it clear that he could now live on his own.
No Way Home Set Up An Independent MCU Spider-Man
At the end of Spider-Man: No Way Home, nobody remembers who Peter Parker is. This means that Parker is now completely alone. In later MCU movies, like Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness and Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, it was shown that people still remember Spider-Man, but that his identity as Peter Parker has been erased, and he now acts entirely anonymously. While MJ and Ned were eventually accepted to MIT, Parker had to take a GED class and find a small studio apartment in New York City on his own.
These steps make Spider-Man more independent for future MCU projects. He will no longer look to other adult superheroes for advice and instead trust his decisions. In Spider-Man: No Way Home, Parker made his Spider-Man suit but didn’t use any fancy technology to do it. Instead, he sewed it by hand and got ideas from how his other cases looked. This was a significant change for Parker in the MCU. Future projects may include crossovers with other heroes, just like his Marvel Comics stories, but he could finally take the lead instead of being told what to do.