As Spider-Man: No Way Home continues to make lots of money, people like to look back at how we got here.
Yes, it is the Films.
Yes, it is the more recent Shows.
It is also the older Shows too though, specifically the 1994 Series that I grew up on...
* Mary Jane was kidnapped, replaced by a clone, said clone turned into water and vanished.
* Spider-Man fought strange threats like Dormammu and ran afoul of The Beyonder (whom the MCU hasn't touched...yet).
* He was dragged into an adaptation of the original Secret Wars (with weird exemptions like no Hulk, etc) by The Beyonder and Madame Web (a mystic lady- see below).
He's sent 'home,' only it is actually an alternate Dimension where he's gone evil due to *sigh* The Clone Saga and his enemies- like Hobgoblin and Green Goblin- work together.
It's all a big mess that he can't handle alone.
Well, he doesn't have to!
Beyonder and Web bring in a bunch of other Spider-Man/Men/People to help out.
Amongst them, there is The Scarlet Spider, an Armored Spider-Man (based on Web of Spider-Man #100), Spider-Man with Doc Ock arms, a still-mutated Spider-Man with 4 arms and a mysterious one without powers.
The villain behind it all is, as mentioned, Peter Parker.
In a big exposition dump, we learn that he went crazy when he found out he was the clone (which was introduced and then retconned in the Comics), tried to experiment with dimensions and got taken over by the Carnage Symbiote.
He's building a bomb with said Portal that will blow up all reality because Comic Book Science.
After lots of fighting, a mini-Character Arc for Armored Spider-Man and some Dimension hopping, 616 Spider-Man realizes that Uncle Ben survived in this Dimension and uses him talk down evil Parker...who straight up kills himself in the End.
You dark, '90s Cartoons!
To web things up, Spider-Man learns that the powerless version is an Actor playing him in a Movie (which would be Edward Furlong at this point) and gets to meet his 'creator'- Stan Lee.
Yes, I know that he's the Co-Creator. Does Entertainment Weekly?!?
Anyhow, they meet up and Spider-Man leaves to...do nothing, since the Show didn't get a Season 6.
Without Doctor Strange, MJ or Ned, this still kind of works. Granted- you need to pick up ALOT of continuity. It is, however, the Finale of Season 5, so that's kind of understandable.
This one gives us multiple versions of Spider-Man and does have *some* fun with it. They accidentally predict the (briefly) rich version of Spider-Man to come out of the Superior Spider-Man Arc and reference the Spider-Man Robot from the '70s Japanese Version. That said, they fill all of this into like 36 minutes (since I'm not counting the Stan Lee stuff), so it is very rushed. Don't expect rich, nuanced portrayals of these guys. If you want that, see the Ultimate Spider-Man, which did the whole Spider-Verse stuff over multiple Episodes and Seasons.
That said, the spectacle of all of this supersedes that kind of critique. It's a fun, busy 2-Episode Finale that feels like a Series Finale (which it ended up being). All talk is that it wasn't *meant* to be, so kudos for doing it all the same. It also includes an adorable little Easter Egg. In the last bit, Stan Lee sees Madame Web and, well, has the hots for her. The Voice Actress- Stan's Wife Joan. Aw...
As a childhood fan, this Arc is definitely messy and busy. That said, it's a real fun time and mostly holds up to scrutiny.
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