Spider-Man: No Way Home Repeats Endgame’s Iron Man Tragedy In Reverse

Warning! Spoilers ahead for Spider-Man: No Way Home.

Aunt May’s death in Spider-Man: No Way Home repeats Iron Man’s big tragedy in Avengers: Endgame but in reverse. Peter Parker (Tom Holland) went through his biggest individual mission thus far in the Jon Watts-directed film. But while he was able to resolve both his personal and multiversal woes, Spider-Man also suffered his biggest loss — the death of his Aunt May (Marisa Tomei). 

While Marvel Studios opted to skip the wall-crawler’s origins story in the MCU, Peter’s arc has still been defined by tragedy. The death of Uncle Ben, albeit barely mentioned, remains a factor in his story. In Avengers: Endgame, he was resurrected from Thanos’ (Josh Brolin) snap after five years only to watch his mentor, Tony Stark, die during the Avengers’ battle with the Mad Titan. Subsequently, he lost his anonymity as Spider-Man in Spider-Man: Far From Home when his secret superhero identity was revealed to the public. Finally, by Spider-Man: No Way Home, not only did he lose his whole identity at the end of the film, but he also needed to deal with May’s demise. 

Peter wasn’t the only person who’s deeply impacted by May’s death, however. Happy Hogan (Jon Favreau), who briefly dated but was completely smitten with her, was also clearly devastated by the tragedy. What made it worse was that it hasn’t been that long since they both lost Tony Stark (Robert Downey, Jr.), too. Happy Hogan had been friends with Tony and his right-hand man for a long time. He was with Stark Industries from the start in 2008’s Iron Man as one of the industrialist’s most trusted employees. Later, the flashback in Iron Man 3 established that he had been working for the genius billionaire since at least 1999. Meanwhile, Peter was a fairly new acquaintance for Stark, only meeting the young hero during his Sokovia Accords conflict with Captain America (Chris Evans) in Captain America: Civil War. Sadly, they switched tragic situations in Spider-Man: No Way Home with them mourning May from opposite ends; Happy had only met May fairly recently while Peter had known and loved her his entire life. 

The pair couldn’t even bond over their shared grief over Aunt May’s death, something they were able to do in Avengers: Endgame after Iron Man’s death. In Spider-Man: Far From Home, Peter was really struggling to come to terms with the fact that his mentor was gone. Aside from his personal loss, he also had to navigate the pressure from the public about potentially being the next Iron Man. Despite their rather icy relationship in Spider-Man: Homecoming, talking to Happy about his personal woes was the only thing that lifted Peter’s spirits following Tony’s death, effectively encouraging him to embrace being a hero again. He reassured the young hero that Iron Man wouldn’t have decided to sacrifice his life if he didn’t know that Spider-Man and other heroes would continue keeping Earth safe after he’s gone.

Given Peter’s fate at the end of Spider-Man: No Way Home, it’s curious if there’s a chance that the world, especially the people who were closest to him, will eventually realize what really happened to Spider-Man. If not, then it would feel like Iron Man’s sacrifice in Avengers: Endgame would almost be for nothing; it’s worth remembering that the biggest motivating factor in Stark’s decision to join the time heist was to bring Peter back. If they do walk back on the wall-crawler’s current predicament, don’t expect Marvel Studios to immediately resolve this plotline, however, especially with Spider-Man 4 now in active development. 

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