Welcome back to Marvel Studios, Spiderman. Of course, the studio rolled out the red carpet and gave the webbed one a warm and raucous welcome. Spiderman: Homecoming is in every possible way a double meaning. The film exists on two levels: 1) to reintroduce Spiderman as the high school ‘avenger’ and 2) to reintroduce the MCU to all of their possible titles. In fact, the central conceit of the movie is that it exists as a ‘We’re moving’ movie whose plot swirls around the fact that Tony Stark sold the Avengers tower to an unnamed entity. I wonder what group has a symbol that looks strikingly like the A in Avengers tower and has been looking for a cinematic home to do them justice?
That being hinted at wasn’t the whole ballgame here. The Spiderman movie works on a level that feels slightly above the mayhem of the Hell’s Kitchen gang, but still exists on a power level far below the world-breaking madness the Avengers deal with every film. In other words, Marvel nailed it.
If you look closely you’ll see a film that is layered with easter eggs and in in every possible way a reboot that removes the iconic versions of characters such as Flash and MJ, replacing them with racially different versions. This is a thing now, but it didn’t feel like so much of a thing that it was distracting. Instead the film ignored iconic love interests and focused on a more fun and nuanced approach to the high school life and interests of the Superhero.
If that isn’t enough, the last line of the movie is perfectly set up throughout and delivered in amazing hilarity. I laughed and clapped and people looked at me like, ‘wow, he really liked that.’
Well, I did.