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No Way Home's Ending Takes Spider-Man's Most Iconic Line Too Far
The end of Spider-Man: No Way Home cements the theme of 'with great power comes great responsibility,' but Peter's decision is ultimately a bad one.

No Way Home's Ending Takes Spider-Man's Most Iconic Line Too Far

Spider-Man: No Way Home continues the character’s iconic theme of “with great power comes great responsibility,” but Peter Parker takes it too far in the end. All the Spider-Man movies to this point have dealt with the web-slinger’s famous line about responsibility. Toby Maguire’s Peter Parker got his lesson from Uncle Ben, as did Andrew Garfield (though in a more convoluted way). Tom Holland’s Spider-Man received his in Spider-Man: No Way Home from Aunt May, just before she succumbed to her injuries at the hands of Green Goblin. The movie’s ending takes Spider-Man’s theme of great power and great responsibility down a bad path for the character, however.

Since his introduction in Captain America: Civil War, Tom Holland’s Spider-Man has matured significantly over the course of six movies, and by the end of Spider-Man: No Way Home he’s finally turned from “Spider-Boy” into Spider-Man. Peter Parker has always been the put-upon hero who suffers more than most, but Spider-Man: No Way Home goes further than ever before. Through his trials and tribulations, though, the lesson of always being responsible with his power is cemented into his being.

As formative as that line has been on him, though, Spider-Man’s interpretation of its meaning can go too far at times, as is the case with Spider-Man: No Way Home‘s ending. Realizing the only way to undo the damage he caused to the multiverse was to have Doctor Strange erase him from everyone’s memory, Peter promised to find MJ and Ned afterward and make them remember him. However, upon seeing MJ’s injury, he decided his friends are better off without him and broke his promise. While it was a noble, selfless, and (in some ways) mature decision, it was also a disrespectful one. Unilaterally deciding to not tell Ned and MJ of his existence after he promised to do so robbed his friends of their right to free choice. As a hallmark of his character, however, it’s not just in the MCU that Peter has taken the burden of responsibility too far. Peter Parker, both in comics and movies, has often taken responsibility for something that, by rights, others should have a say in, as well. Mary Jane even calls Peter out on it at the end of Spider-Man 2, saying, “Can’t you respect me enough to let me make my own decisions?

It’s heroic of Peter to want to protect the ones he loves, and consistent with his character. Spider-Man will never take the easy way out, and May’s lesson will echo through every important decision he makes. Just because he holds that great power, though, it doesn’t mean he can’t share the burden with others in the MCU. The Avengers (or indeed any team) is built on the notion that a problem shared is a problem halved. Spider-Man: No Way Home showed MJ and Ned to be courageous and resourceful; Ned even has latent magical powers. Peter should have trusted his friends to have a voice; by taking responsibility from them he denies them the dignity of having a choice.

Peter’s bad decision to shoulder the responsibility alone and not to bring Ned and MJ back into the fold puts Spider-Man on his own, but it’s extremely unlikely that this will remain the case for long. The MCU has never been beholden to the classic secret identity trope for its heroes, and though Spider-Man: No Way Home explored the repercussions of having his identity known, Tom Holland’s Spider-Man works best as part of a team. When Spider-Man returns to the big screen (either in Spider-Man 4 or another Spidey project), expect MJ and Ned to not be far behind. Whether Peter learns to share responsibility, though, remains to be seen.