Implications of the ending of Spider-Man: Far From Home

[Mister Mets]

It kinda goes without saying that this conversation is going to have some major spoilers.

Far From Home is probably going to be defined more by the mid-credits sequence than any MCU film, and it sets up a lot of interesting stuff going forward.

There are two big questions..
1) How does the twist at the end affect the series going forward?
2) How is it going to affect the comics, given that this will likely be a status quo for a few years.

One of my friends is pretty happy about it because it probably means Sony and Marvel are going to be working together for the foreseeable future.

[Snoop Dogg]

Public ID Peter would be terrible for the books that tell more Spider-Man stories in a year than the MCU will ever get to tell.

but holy canoli will those future movies be lit

[Personamanx]

spoilers:

Keanu Reeves will play Mephisto in the next movie.

end of spoilers

[Jekyll]

Public ID Peter would be terrible for the books that tell more Spider-Man stories in a year than the MCU will ever get to tell.

but holy canoli will those future movies be lit

Agree on both accounts! I yelled,"holy ****" at that mid credit reveal. That twist shocked me more than infinity war OR endgame! I can't wait to see where they go with this.

[Celgress]

Agree on both accounts! I yelled,"holy ****" at that mid credit reveal. That twist shocked me more than infinity war OR endgame! I can't wait to see where they go with this.

As large as it doesn't involve a deal with Mephisto I'm fine with wherever they take this lol.

[Jekyll]

As large as it doesn't involve a deal with Mephisto I'm fine with wherever they take this lol.

That thought had crossed my mind..........but I don't think it would have the same meaningful impact as it did in the comics because MJ & Peter aren't married. I'm thinking maybe a Doctor Strange intervention?

[Revolutionary_Jack]

We don't know when the next Spider-Man movie will come out. At a minimum it has to be 2 years, but it wouldn't surprise me if a sequel is announced for next year. The MCU for next year hasn't been announced yet.

Likewise the denouement also depends on what Sony's plans are. Sony remember are only on board for three films with Tom Holland. Maybe that deal has been updated, maybe not. Disney are famous for protecting their trade secrets. Nobody knows until they tell us. So who knows.

I kind of feel that,

spoilers:

Given that JK Simmons is back. I feel the next film has to be the Jonah story and a sendoff to Simmons. He's older now than he was when Raimi made him a movie star and God-Tier Character Actor. I am sure he's in excellent health but I doubt anyone wants a Carrie Fisher situation especially since the whole point of Simmons coming back as Jonah was about the relationships the audience had with the actor. So you need to give Simmons-Jonah his own private Logan...Old Man Jonah ["I hurt Spider-Man today/To see if I still feel"]. So the next movie has to hit the stops...stuff like Spider-Slayer, My Dinner with Jonah, No One Dies, that bit in Ultimate Spider-Man where Jonah has an epiphany seeing Peter save drowning people in the Ultimatum Wave. The issue of Tom Holland being unmasked is not important. Because again so many people know Peter's identity already in the MCU, that the impact of that is totally lost. It literally wouldn't matter. I mean I guess they could put Peter into the Future Foundation and make him friends with Johnny Storm and so on. Maybe Sony-Marvel has the idea of having Dr. Strange erase Peter's identity and then make Spider-Man this unknown loner hero no longer tied to anyone in the MCU. That's kind of like a comic book "reset to status-quo" thing and it gives MCU Spider-Man closure. So that would mean Spider-Man can show up in Sony movies, like Venom or whatever, and he can show up in the MCU later films and both can still be Tom Holland or whoever they want to recast and so on. Ideally Sony want to have their cake and eat it too, and good for them. Arranging a situation where any Sony movie (Venom, Black Cat, and whatever) is technically in the MCU since they bring in Tom Holland, but at the same time doesn't have to be in the MCU, and so pay Marvel money is what they want. They want the MCU to work for them.

end of spoilers

I don't expect this to be done in the comics though. I mean I can't see Spencer being interested in this. Spencer's whole point is to focus on Peter's personal life and go back to a more traditional space. The whole stuff with Boomerang simply won't mean the same if Freddie learns Peter is Spider-Man. I mean sure that might happen later on and he might find out but the status-quo you now have, Boomerang unknowingly having Spider-Man as a roommate loses the comedy and suspense that animates it if that didn't happen. Maybe you bring back USM because Peter is a publicly known superhero as of the end of Spider-Men II.

[Celgress]

...I'm thinking maybe a Doctor Strange intervention?

I could live with that. I just don't want Mephisto to become anymore associated with Spider-Man than he already is. The character has no connection to the Spidey Mythos other than the much-maligned deal, heck he isn't even a Spider-Man villain and never has been.

[Digifiend]

spoilers:

The issue of Tom Holland being unmasked is not important. Because again so many people know Peter's identity already in the MCU, that the impact of that is totally lost. It literally wouldn't matter. I mean I guess they could put Peter into the Future Foundation and make him friends with Johnny Storm and so on. Maybe Sony-Marvel has the idea of having Dr. Strange erase Peter's identity and then make Spider-Man this unknown loner hero no longer tied to anyone in the MCU. That's kind of like a comic book "reset to status-quo" thing and it gives MCU Spider-Man closure. So that would mean Spider-Man can show up in Sony movies, like Venom or whatever, and he can show up in the MCU later films and both can still be Tom Holland or whoever they want to recast and so on. Ideally Sony want to have their cake and eat it too, and good for them. Arranging a situation where any Sony movie (Venom, Black Cat, and whatever) is technically in the MCU since they bring in Tom Holland, but at the same time doesn't have to be in the MCU, and so pay Marvel money is what they want. They want the MCU to work for them.

end of spoilers

I don't expect this to be done in the comics though. I mean I can't see Spencer being interested in this. Spencer's whole point is to focus on Peter's personal life and go back to a more traditional space. The whole stuff with Boomerang simply won't mean the same if Freddie learns Peter is Spider-Man. I mean sure that might happen later on and he might find out but the status-quo you now have, Boomerang unknowingly having Spider-Man as a roommate loses the comedy and suspense that animates it if that didn't happen. Maybe you bring back USM because Peter is a publicly known superhero as of the end of Spider-Men II.

I can see the unmasking story being done with Miles instead. Kamala's pointed out that he's sloppy at keeping his identity secret (unmasking on rooftops, for example) - not that she's any better (both of them have had their parents find out). Miles even took his mask off when visiting the mother of the girl that he accidentally sacrificed to save Kamala's life in the first arc of the Champions relaunch. And he's made a grave error recently in his solo - he talks about being Spider-Man in his diary. He had a close call with that Danika character in Bendis's last volume, and I can see that diary falling into the wrong hands. Then cue a phone call, probably from Bombshell, telling him his face is all over the news - his secret identity is kaput.

[Revolutionary_Jack]

I can see the unmasking story being done with Miles instead. Kamala's pointed out that he's sloppy at keeping his identity secret (unmasking on rooftops, for example) - not that she's any better (both of them have had their parents find out). Miles even took his mask off when visiting the mother of the girl that he accidentally sacrificed to save Kamala's life in the first arc of the Champions relaunch. And he's made a grave error recently in his solo - he talks about being Spider-Man in his diary. He had a close call with that Danika character in Bendis's last volume, and I can see that diary falling into the wrong hands. Then cue a phone call, probably from Bombshell, telling him his face is all over the news - his secret identity is kaput.

Well Bendis isn't writing anymore. Bendis likes having his characters sans masques and making jokes about their identities being obvious and so on. He did this in Ultimate Spider-Man, then again in his run on Daredevil, and of course in his run with Miles that's a theme again. In his run on Daredevil, Matt's identity is outed. In Charles Soule's run, Matt gets his secret hidden again.

Now that Saladin Ahmed is writing Miles, that might not be what he wants to do, especially since his run focuses on Miles' background and microcosm and so on.

A hero with a secret identity is a specific thing, done for a specific reason. You have more options with that under wraps, you can do stories that focus on the superhero side, the civilian side, and blend the two. The minute the identity gets outed, you are exclusively dealing with the superhero side which mans fewer options for the kind of stories you want. There are some characters, like Iron Man, who benefit with Tony Stark being publicly revealed and that being a permanent lasting thing. The reason being that Tony Stark and his private life isn't interesting by itself. Peter's private life on the other hand is interesting and his secret identity facilitates him having one. Miles Morales ditto. Whereas Spider-Gwen works better with her identity revealed to public since the appeal of those stories is seeing a version of Gwen as Spider-Man and not so much in her being a superheroine or Gwen as a private individual, so her being this public celebrity there works and it also distinguishes her.

And again just think how boring it is if every villain snarls Parker or Morales and so on. It gets annoying and repetitive and trite. You don't get them knowing the character as Spider-Man and building a relationship with Spidey. A movie like The Dark Knight would be fatally weakened if either Joker or Two Face knew Bruce was Batman. That's why I am mentally facepalming myself about Kraven in the next movie. Seriously, the one Spidey villain who has zero interest in Spider-Man's secret identity, mostly because he can't process Spider-Man being a person and not a totem, might come in after his identity is outed? I'd argue likewise, that Dr. Octopus is weakened as a character for knowing Peter's secret.

[rward777]

I think the public Id will become secret again. Either doc strange or the shapeshifting skrulls. The unmasmed sl showed is that Peter cannot have a civilian life with a public Id.

[Punisher007]

I'd actually be fine with the ID staying public honestly. I mean pretty much every other MCU hero is "public" already, and it kind of reminds me of Ultimate Spider-Man, where Peter was so bad as keeping his secret ID that pretty much everyone knew by the end there.

[Revolutionary_Jack]

I think the public Id will become secret again. Either doc strange or the shapeshifting skrulls. The unmasmed sl showed is that Peter cannot have a civilian life with a public Id.

In the case of the MCU, the question is what comes after the next Spider-Man movie. Does Sony want to do another trilogy with Tom Holland, or do they want to keep all the marbles with them? How much money would Feige and Disney have to fork over to get an agreement for the Norman Osborn of Thunderbolts and other shared universe stuff?

The "what comes after" will determine the manner in which they resolve the identity issue in the next MCU Spidey movie.

[Frontier]

I'd actually be fine with the ID staying public honestly. I mean pretty much every other MCU hero is "public" already, and it kind of reminds me of Ultimate Spider-Man, where Peter was so bad as keeping his secret ID that pretty much everyone knew by the end there.

Yeah, but the issue is that is makes Peter yet another dime-a-dozen MCU hero by taking away one of his more unique Superhero traits and making it seem superfluous to the character.

[Punisher007]

True and I'm not saying that it should happen, just that it wouldn't really bother me if it did. Plus super-heroes with secret ID's are even more "Dime a dozen" TBF.