“Spiderman: No Way Home” and how the movie redeems two characters after 19 years | SPOILERS

With “Spider-Man: No Way Home“Sweeping lockers to become in the most successful movie of 2021, there is a lot of interest focused on the new adventure of the arachnid hero played by Tom Holland at MCU, which confronts him not only with other heroes such as Doctor Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch), but also villains from previous film sagas such as “Spider-Man” (2002-2007) and “The Amazing Spider-Man” (2012-2014 ).

Precisely the latter is one of its most interesting aspects of the film, as it plays and expands the ‘mythos’ that two decades of Spider-Man have left us in the cinema, including his first appearance on the big screen. This unusual situation also allows some villains whose stories had already concluded to have a second chance at redemption and the arachnid hero to correct his biggest mistakes. Warning, from here on we will discuss spoilers not only for Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man trilogy, but also for “Spider-Man: No Way Home”.

We speak of course between the relationship of Spider-Man played by Tobey Maguire and the villain Green Goblin, masterfully played by Willem Dafoe, who have a new opportunity to meet thanks to the interdimensional magic of “No Way Home”.

The antagonist of “Spider-Man” (2002), Green Goblin is initially presented as a businessman and scientist whom Peter Parker admires and with whom he maintains contact thanks to his friendship with his son, Harry Osborn (James Franco). Norman, for his part, is also fond of Peter for his intelligence, seeing him as another son.

This relationship is distorted when Osborn experiences in himself a super-soldier serum that, in addition to giving him superhuman strength and agility, accidentally creates an alternate identity guided by his more negative impulses, under which he proceeds to exact revenge against his rivals in business and those he perceives to have betrayed him.

The relationship between Norman Osborn and Peter Parker is repeated in their secret identities as well, with Green Goblin initially wanting to convince Spider-Man to leave his role as a superhero to become his ally. The characters are, in a way, mirrors of each other: scientists with shy personalities – to a greater degree in Peter’s case – who have been endowed with superhuman powers by failed experiments. However, while Spider-Man learns from Uncle Ben’s death that “great power comes great responsibility,” the villain simply lets his selfish desires take the most destructive path possible.

Thus, when Spider-Man rejects the alliance, Green Goblin becomes his worst enemy. After discovering the identity of the hero, he begins to attack through loved ones such as Aunt May (Rosemary Harris) and her love interest Mary Jane Watson (Kirsten Dunst).

In the end, after a desperate fight in an abandoned building, Spider-Man finally manages to win the battle and corner the villain, who in a last attempt to kill the hero reveals his identity.

“I have been like a father to you. Be a son to me”He says as he prepares his glider to attack Spider-Man from behind. In the end the arachnid sense of the hero manages to save him, allowing him to dodge the attack that finally ends the life of Green Goblin. “Peter, don’t tell Harry,” he says before perishing.

The consequences of Norman Osborn’s death were enormous in the original “Spider-Man” trilogy. With his son Harry convinced that his father was killed by Spider-Man, he swears revenge against the hero and, after discovering his secret identity in the second film, becomes the new Green Goblin at the conclusion of the saga, dying shortly. after reconciling with his best friend.

This tragedy greatly affected the Spider-Man version of Tobey Maguire, who although he appears as the most balanced version of the hero, thanks to his two decades of experience and the love of Mary Jane Watson, he is not without remorse similar to the ones who weigh down their two younger counterparts, played by Tom Holland and Andrew Garfield.

That’s why when the Spider-Men discuss how ways to heal villains, something he’s worked on for decades even though he doesn’t seem to have pitted other villains that this information could serve him against.

Thus, the most important moment of the version of Spider-Man played with Tobey Maguire does not occur when he finally reconciles with his mentor Otto Octavious (Alfred Molina), but when he manages to stop a vengeful Peter Parker from the MCU from murdering the Green. Goblin with his own glider, preventing him from taking a darker path. And although his initial reward is being stabbed in the back, in the end he achieves his desire to cure Norman Osborn of his insanity and bring him home, finally partially making up for one of his biggest regrets from the start of his career. And while Norman Osborn’s future is uncertain under the film’s flimsy narrative logic, there’s no question that he stands a better chance of redemption without the continual self-destructive whispers of the evil Green Goblin.