• Xenforo is upgrading us to version 2.3.7 on Thursday Aug 14, 2025 at 01:00 AM BST. This upgrade includes several security fixes among other improvements. Expect a temporary downtime during this process. More info here

Changing Parts Of Spider-Man Homecoming

fan4stic

Sidekick
Joined
Oct 25, 2017
Messages
2,711
Reaction score
658
Points
73
I think that by taking out the science school aspect, it makes it easier for the movie to have more classical Spider-Man characters. Obviously further changes will be here other than the public school stuff, so bare with me. So here's the changes of this pitch:

No "8 Years Later". Just "Present Day". Taking a tip from a video I saw once, that I can't remember, don't have a scene showing the Vulture after the time jump, save that for when he snatches Peter up later.

1. Shamiek Moore as Flash Thompson. To maintain the more diverse concept of this movie, and in part, because it tickled a part of me that Miles Morales' actor could also play Flash Thompson. His arc presents as different now, no longer the character to be mocked in movie, he's presented as a more intimidating figure here for Peter. Taller than him, he doesn't beat him up, but we allude to a time when he was more of a physical intimidator to Peter and we see his arrogance in the movie. He talks a big game.

2. Zendaya is now classical Mary-Jane, red hair, home life issues, fake party girl persona and all. She's mainly a side character in the movie, like Michelle, but in different ways. She's dismissive of the more nerdy individuals and mocks Ned and Peter in the movie. She now goes to Liz's party because that's her scene.

3. Liz Allan, now played preferably by Naomi Scott, is a smart girl still, though more along the lines of a perfect at a lot of things type girl. She thinks Peter's smart, but has little interest in him personally, though that's shifted when they're paired up for a science project and she begins to like him, seeing him as more of someone on her level. He already likes her and Ned makes the claim about how he knows Spider-Man, and she invites them to her party. Though she's disappointed when Spider-Man doesn't show, and is annoyed with Peter when he lies to her, saying that it was made up because he likes her, she finds him charming. But Peter puts so much emphasis on his Spider-Man identity, not wanting to put much time into it.

4. May is less sexualized. We don't have to make her look old or anything, but cut out the the guys attraction to her thing. I think its in character for Tony to do it, but it being done more than once is a bit much to me. We're not going to forget she's Marisa Tomei, movie! You don't have to keep reminding us! Here's the more character difference: May is putting on an act as the cool aunt. She breaks this act when she snaps at Peter after the boat incident. She's, in fact, worried sick about him (his actions, everything), but doesn't want to weigh him down with that stress, after Ben's death.

5. Yes, we mention Ben by name. More, we see a flashback of him. Not the same as in prior versions really.

Ben and May are having a hard time paying the bills, so Peter, fresh off of getting his spider powers, decides to try his hand at making money off of it. Ben is troubled when Peter presents some of the money to him. He tells Peter that it's not his job to do this and tells him that he doesn't want him to get hurt in however he got his money. Peter argues that he's fine, but Ben says that sometimes you have to accept you're place in a situation, to use what you can do responsibly, which can sometimes mean not doing something, as well as doing something. Putting all the responsibility onto yourself isn't the way to accomplish things and you can lose sight of the important things like that. Peter's frustrated at this, not listening. He sneaks out of his room later to go to a talent competition, think small scale "America's Got Talent", maybe even have him show a display of strength in him pinning a wrestler as an easter egg. Peter gets the money and is feeling pretty proud of himself.

This would be a flashback after May talks to Peter, in which she would tell him that he can't carry the weight of the world on his shoulders. This flashback would conclude in the scene where he's crushed by the rubble.

We would do a transition from his reflection in the water, with his mask, to him looking in the mirror of the locker room after the talent show, counting his money. A robber would run past, the security chasing as he says to do something. The robber gets away, and Peter dismisses it as saying "It's not my job." We cut to Peter walking home after that, stopping when he sees police lights at his apartment complex. An ambulance is there. Peter sees May crying in the arms of a neighbor and is face drains of all its color as we transition from his horrified face, back to present day as Peter stares in the reflection of the water. And that's the moment when Peter lifts up the rubble.

Now, because the movie is now not so much presented in science school, there isn't a trip to Washington. This situation is now different.

Peter begins looking into potential sales, still by interrogating Aaron Davis, getting info on where the next sale is, and he follows the truck, after the sale, as they go to their next target. This is where the next Vulture confrontation happens, Peter here managing to snag a piece of tech. He's stopped similarly, by Vulture essentially trapping him in the truck.

In this version, Peter's late for school instead because of this.

Peter suits up as Spider-Man, when Shocker #1 and the other guy are looking for the device and he engages them in the school. Shocker lets loose a shock wave and that cracks it, causing energy to essentially cause a fire in the school. Peter then has to disregard Shocker, letting him escape, so he can save a few people and put the fire out. The fire hits the chemical lab and causes a bit of flame, trapping Mary-Jane inside. Flash Thompson sees her... and freezes in fear. Spider-Man breaks down the door and gets her out.

This causes a more direct shift for Flash and Mary-Jane.

This situation shakes Mary-Jane and she sees that she's wasted her life trying to put on act.

Flash realizes he's a coward and sees Spider-Man as a hero, doing something he didn't. This causes a change later on, when Spider-Man takes his car, Flash isn't forced to give it to him, he hands it over willingly, gladly. For MJ, she has a similar end as Michelle, but with a different context. She sits down at lunch with Peter and Ned, and asks how they're doing. They're suspicious of this. But she sasses them and then sincerely tells them that she wants to have real friends.

Shocker #1 is instead now killed after the school scene, not before.

The line is just: TONY: Thank God this place has wifi ...or you would be toast right now.

Thoughts?
 
When Peter Parker is doing the ASM#33 thing of lifting the rubble off him it would be Uncle Ben’s voice in Peter’s head motivating him, not Tony’s. Maybe flashback to the night that Uncle Ben got killed in order to serve as reminder to Peter and audience that that tragedy is why he does what he does and he can’t give up now.
 
I agree they should've given us something closer to the classic supporting cast and acknowledged Uncle Ben (a flashback might've been a bit much) but for me that's the tip of the iceberg. They mishandled MCU Spider-Man on multiple levels.

Here's how I'd rewrite things:

Civil War:
  • Instead of having Spidey suckered into joining team Stark despite the Sokovia Accords not being good for him, set the airport fight in New York and have Spidey see it on the news, skip school and rush to help. He doesn't know about the Sokovia accords, tries to take down Bucky because of what he's heard about the Geneva bombing and then loses to Cap.
  • Spidey recovers in time to catch Rhodey to reduce the impact of his fall. It makes Rhodey surviving more realistic, gives Iron Man an instant connection with Spidey and letting Peter escape the airport even though he hasn't signed the accords fits into Tony's Civil War arc pretty well.
  • Nick Fury shows up in Peter's bedroom as a post-credit scene, gives him a more professional looking SHIELD made suit (no AI or anything crazy but give it the moving eyes) and says he'll try to keep the Sokovia accords off his back as long as he keeps to his own neighbourhood.
Homecoming:
  • Give us a more competent, wise cracking version of Spidey. He's still in his teens and somewhat naive but the film should've showed off his amazing powers (including a spider sense) more, let him win the fights against powerless thugs, survive his first encounter with Vulture by using the webs he invented, have him save bystanders when Shocker's throwing school buses around etc.
  • Peter disappearing all the time should have more consequences for his school/personal life. He and May talk about it and how they're both still mourning Uncle Ben.
  • This version of Spidey gets by without a Stark suit and isn't looking to join the Avengers but Iron Man still shows up to save the day in the Ferry scene. Turns out Tony's been keeping tabs on Spidey since Civil War. They have a conversation about why Peter does what he does, how old he is and why he wears the mask. Tony's impressed Peter invented the webbing.
  • No ridiculous "stealing Flash's car" scene, switch it out for some web swinging through downtown NY (something the actual Homecoming writers weirdly chose not to give us)
  • Instead of a finale preventing Vulture robbing the Avengers (pretty low stakes), Spidey stops Vulture shipping weapons to Hydra/Ten Rings, ends up buried under rubble and needs to lift it off because he's not the only one under the rubble.
  • If this is meant to be a tribute to classic high school movies then how about giving Spidey a Ferris Bueller style race home to prevent May figuring out his secret. He thinks it worked but it's revealed to the audience that she knows and is waiting for him to tell her.
  • Give us a J Jonah Jameson post credit scene.
Infinity War:
  • Instead of Peter being blase with his secret identity Tony and Strange find out Peter's identity on Maw's ship when he's almost blown into space and instinctively takes off his mask to breath. The fact he panics about them knowing he's Peter Parker (therefore telling them his name) because they've seen his face is played for laughs.
Endgame:
  • Tony visits Aunt May and they mourn Peter together. We get a conversation about all the people Peter saved, how many survived the snap and an Ultimate comics style "he was going to be the best of us" line.
  • If Peter's in the final battle then give him a moment or two of heroism and leave it at that. Having him get overwhelmed and need rescued by activating instant kill and then by Captain Marvel was unnecessary.
 
Last edited:
They havent havent mishandled anything. Marvel saved spidey and gave him a shot in the arm. They brought him back to prominence.

And lol at showing uncle ben. Its called subtlety. Just because something doesnt beat you over the head with something, it doesnt mean it doesnt exist.

I expect a full post on how raimis spider-man cputld be better detailing all the changes in the source material you so gracefully pointed out. Otherwise you will appear quite biased....
 
They havent havent mishandled anything. Marvel saved spidey and gave him a shot in the arm. They brought him back to prominence.

IMO, they messed up several core elements of the character, especially in Homecoming.
  • They undermined him as a young hero with huge potential by having him lose every last fight he's in. He loses 4 fights vs Vulture, 1 vs Shocker and even 1 vs henchmen robbing the ATM. He repeatedly needed rescuing, Iron Man saves him twice and even Ned saves him once. Then they did it again in Endgame when he's overwhelmed by Outriders and Captain Marvel has to save him.
  • They undermined him as an everyman science prodigy who builds his own tech on a shoe string budget by giving him a billion dollar Stark suit with an AI that coaches him. Hell, they didn't even let Peter be the one to hack the suit, they had Ned to do it for him.
  • They ignored the classic, tragedy driven, 'with great power comes great responsibility' motivation of the character by never even mentioning Uncle Ben and barely having him struggle with hard choices and balancing his dual lives. Instead he never faces any consequences for running off to be Spidey and he spends most of Civil War/Homecoming obsessing about proving himself to the other heroes and joining the Avengers.
  • They messed up the supporting cast. Liz is a crush he barely knows, not a love interest. MJ is a totally new character with Mary Jane's initials. No sign of Gwen or Harry, instead they stole Ganke from Miles Morales' supporting cast and renamed him Ned. Aunt May is barely in the films but the appearances we do get revolve around a weird running gag of Tony Stark/Happy Hogan finding her attractive and what ought to be a huge moment of her finding out Peter is Spider-Man is cut short by the credits and played for laughs.
  • In the comics humour is a huge part of the Spidey side of the character, he quips more than any other hero, sometimes as a coping mechanism in extreme danger, sometimes to mess with the villain's head and sometimes just for fun. In the MCU there a bunch of characters that spout great quips mid fight (Iron Man, Star Lord) but Spidey isn't on their level and only gives us the occasional joke.
And lol at showing uncle ben. Its called subtlety. Just because something doesnt beat you over the head with something, it doesnt mean it doesnt exist.

They don't need to beat us over the head with flashbacks but some acknowledgement that Ben existed and was a big part of Peter's life isn't much to ask. Every other Spidey adaptation I can think of has managed it, including the ones that skipped the origin story.

I expect a full post on how raimis spider-man cputld be better detailing all the changes in the source material you so gracefully pointed out. Otherwise you will appear quite biased....
The Raimi films weren't perfect either (Toby was too old for the part, the writing got a bit corny at times, Dunst wasn't a great MJ, Spider-Man 3 was a disaster) but they understood the heart of the character ten times better than the MCU writers seem to and gave us some iconic action.

For me, the Ultimate comics, Into the Spider Verse, Spectacular Spider-Man animated series and Spider-Man PS4 are the best versions of the character. None of the live action films have totally nailed it yet.
 
Last edited:

Users who are viewing this thread

Back
Top
monitoring_string = "afb8e5d7348ab9e99f73cba908f10802"