Spider-Man: No Way Home is set to bring web-slinging Marvel Cinematic Universe action back to US theaters on Friday, with Tom Holland ‘s …
Spider-Man: No Way Home is set to bring web-slinging Marvel Cinematic Universe action back to US theaters on Friday, with Tom Holland ‘s hero gearing up to battle a group of classic villains. We previously saw these baddies in the movies where Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield played Spidey, hinting at No Way Home’s multiversal storyline. The villains’ fates in their previous battles with Peter Parker’s heroic alter-ego might inform their actions in No Way Home, so let’s look at where all of the previous Spidey movies’ rogues ended up. Only a few have appeared in trailers, but the door is open for more to show up. This piece includes SPOILERS for all the previous live-action Spidey movies and one recently released non-Spidey film, but we’ll include a warning before diving into that. In 2002’s Spider-Man, the first film in the trilogy with Tobey Maguire in the lead role, stressed-out scientist Norman Osborn (Willem Dafoe) tests an experimental performance-enhancing chemical on himself. This gives him superhuman strength and a homicidal secondary personality — the Green Goblin. He dons a shiny, armored flight suit and hops on a glider to terrorize New York City. Osborn kills anyone in his way and tries to convince Spidey to join him, but takes the hero’s rejection of the alliance personally. He figures out Spidey’s identity (the worst-kept secret in superhero movies), then attacks his Aunt May and kidnaps his girlfriend, Mary Jane Watson, threatening to murder her. After being overpowered by our hero, Norman pretends to beg for Peter’s help in overcoming the Goblin personality while sneakily preparing to skewer him with his glider. Peter dodges at the last second and the Goblin ends up impaled through the crotch. Sometimes, karma can be painful. Status: Dead, and an irredeemable jerk. Evil cackle. After a fusion power project goes wrong in 2004’s Spider-Man 2, nuclear scientist Otto Octavius (Alfred Molina) ends up with a set of artificially intelligent robotic tentacles fused to his spine and earns the tabloid moniker “Doctor Octopus.” Not only does the tentacles’ stupidly delicate inhibitor chip get smashed, but Doc Ock’s wife also dies in the fusion accident. He’s left with four extra metal limbs, a maniacal attitude and an intense determination to restart his experiment. Despite forming an emotional bond with Peter, Doc Ock kidnaps Mary Jane (again) and tells him to find Spider-Man. During his extremely supervillain (and Manhattan-threatening) attempt to re-create the sun at a waterfront lab, Doc Ock learns that Peter and Spidey are in fact the same guy (wowsers) and is persuaded to act for the greater good. Overcoming the tentacles’ influence, he sacrifices himself by forcing the experiment to sink into the river, saving the city. Status: Dead, and redeemed. Those mean tentacles are still stuck to his spine though. One of three villains in 2007’s Spider-Man 3, Flint Marko (Thomas Haden Church) turned to a life of crime to pay for his sick daughter’s medical treatment. Falling into an experimental particle accelerator while escaping prison, he gains sand-based shapeshifting powers and returns to robbin’ as Sandman. Peter learns that Marko was the guy who killed his beloved Uncle Ben (a controversial change to Spidey’s comic book origin) and uses his new alien suit-enhanced powers to absolutely batter the villain. During their final battle, Marko absorbs loads of sand from a construction site to get super big and rails on poor Peter. However, he learns the hero’s true identity (as every villain must) during the course of the fight and he chills out. He explains that Ben’s death was an accident and earns Peter’s forgiveness, then turns into sand and drifts away in the wind. Status: Alive, and redeemed. He still has an ill child to help out, though. The second of Spider-Man 3’s villainous trio is Peter’s greasy rival photographer Eddie Brock (Topher Grace), who fakes an incriminating shot of Spidey like a big jerk. Peter, who’s under the malign influence of the alien symbiote that turned his costume a moody black, exposes Brock and gets him fired. Some might say that’s vindictive, but he totally deserved it.
