As the last film in the Spider-Man “Homecoming" trilogy, Spider-Man: No Way Home pulled out all the stops to bring an exciting, fun and mature entry to the superhero genre. There are plenty of tropes that are commonplace for movies that fall under the superhero banner, but No Way Home did a masterful job in incorporating quite a few.
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The premise of Peter Parker going on a multiversal adventure against villains from other realities was an intriguing setup for Tom Holland’s latest outing as the titular character. With critical and fan reception very much in favor of the movie, it’s worth looking into how well the movie used common superhero tropes to deliver entertainment value.
The Superhero Landing
One of the most overdone tropes was used magnificently in Spider-Man: No Way Home because it wasn’t just the MCU Peter Parker who did it. The superhero landing incorporated Andrew Garfield’s and Tobey Maguire’s Spider-Men, with all three launching into battle.
The trio then landed for the fight with their respective poses, showing off a great piece of fans service where the superhero landing trope is concerned. It should go on to become one of the most replayed scenes in the MCU overall, as three generations of Spider-Men arrived to fight.
A Definite Big Bad
The Big Bad trope is always part of superhero movies since there has to be a villain to fight the hero. However, Spider-Man: No Way Home could have avoided it because there were multiple antagonists. The movie chose to invoke the trope instead, to great results that tied into the plot.
As it happened, the Big Bad turned out to be Green Goblin, who lured the other villains away from being cured to fight for his cause. Moreover, Green Goblin was the main villain because he dealt the killing blow to Aunt May, this giving MCU’s Spider-Man the motivation to hunt him down.
The Presence Of Sidekicks
Ned and Mj were among the most likable characters in Spider-Man: No Way Home, fulfilling their roles as sidekicks to their full potential. The sidekick trope has generally been downplayed in recent superhero movies in favor of making the main characters competent on their own.
However, No Way Home brought this trope in its highest quality as MJ and Ned were primarily responsible for bringing the other two Spider-Men to join the fray and were the reason why MCU’s Peter was able to retain his morals after Aunt May’s demise. Unlike many other superhero films, the sidekick trope actually made sense and was justified here.
A MacGuffin To Drive The Plot
Another one of the MCU’s most used tropes, with objects like the Infinity Stones and the Ten Rings, among others, being the reason why movie plots are driven. Spider-Man: No Way Home featured the boxed spell as the item that the heroes and villains pursued.
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Still, the box wasn’t the only reason the plot kept running, as Peter’s hopes to reform the villains were a contributing factor. Along with that, the had a valid reason to be there since it was the object that was keeping the other realities from breaking into the MCU while providing a reason for the antagonists to fight Spider-Man for it.
A Cosmic Retcon
The ending of Spider-Man: No Way Home definitely brought tearful scenes when the identity of Peter Parker was forgotten. It represented the cosmic retcon trope, which is a way for superhero movies to reboot their universes in order to tell the stories in a new way.
It was similarly invoked in X-Men: Days of Future Past, which allowed the series to last another decade. Spider-Man: No Way Home’s move was genius to incorporate the trope because it now enables the likes of Harry Osborn, Black Cat, and more traditional comic book characters to appear in the series now that the previously established events don’t apply.
Foreshadowing Plot Points
While certain characters’ personalities could be judged through single quotes in Spider-Man: No Way Home, there were surprises in store. These included things like Matt Murdock showing up, Ned’s mystical powers, and the presence of Venom.
All of these were foreshadowed earlier, with hints to Peter’s lawyer, Ned claiming he had a magical background in his family, and Strange claiming he ruined his spell six times, meaning the five villains and Venom got through. The implementation of the trope is a great way to ensure fans rewatch the movie to catch foreshadowing that they didn’t earlier on.
A Grand Finale
It’s difficult for superhero movies to top the grand finale trope after Avengers: Endgame brought all the heroes in its universe against Thanos in the climax. Still, Spider-Man: No Way Home did the trope justice when the grand finale featured all the Spider-Men against their villains.
The movie did one better by closing out the arcs of each character involved to answer any long-running questions fans would have had about them. MCU’s Peter also had a complete ending to the “Homecoming” trilogy, with Peter Parker all set for the next phase of his life.
A Mentor Who Imparts Advice
Superhero movies tend to bring in an older character to impart advice to the main character in order to motivate them into taking responsibility. The Spider-Man series has always placed importance on this trope, but No Way Home perhaps did it best.
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It brought the famous quote about responsibility through Aunt as part of her final words, which allowed Peter Parker to fully mature into a person who took matters into his own hands. The trope elevated Peter into a hero in his own right, as his mentor Aunt May signed off with words that he remembered to now rely solely on himself.
A Mistake By The Hero That Kickstarts The Story
The MCU favors this quote quite a lot, with every Spider-Man’s story possible because of the heroes’ own doing. The earlier two villains had been ticked off by Tony Stark and got Peter involved, whereas this one saw Peter defy Doctor Strange to try and rehabilitate the villains, giving Green Goblin the opening he needed.
It was worth invoking the trope, though, as Tom Holland delivered arguably the best performance in Spider-Man: No Way Home to portray Peter’s mixed feelings of regret, anger, and resistance as a result of his actions. He ultimately learned to take responsibility for his actions as a result. It brought in the other two Peter Parkers as well, which fans won’t argue against.
An Arc Of Redemption
The trope in question usually applies to antiheroes looking to do good for the actions of their past, but Spider-Man: No Way Home brought a neat twist to it. In the story, Peter attempted to bring redemption to the villains, which was a creative direction that no other Spider-Man movie had taken before.
The film invoked the trope to make viewers see why the villains became the way they did and for all versions of Peter Parker to empathize with their situation. It was a mature way of handling the arc of redemption for the characters that ended up bringing peace to all the villains involved.
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