8 Things Nobody Wants To Admit About MCU Spider-Man

3. The Uncle Ben Conundrum

Up until recently, there were a few constants audiences could expect in comic book movies. Every Batman film would feature Thomas and Martha Wayne being murdered in crime alley, leading to an artistic shot of her pearls cascading across the concrete; every hero would agonise over whether or not they should reveal their identity to a loved one, and, when it came to Spider-Man, Uncle Ben simply had to die.

Now, it's important to put all of this into context. The MCU's Parker had recently followed The Amazing Spider-Man series of films that, save for the chemistry shared between leads Andrew Garfield and Emma Stone, were pretty forgettable. On top of the rush to ape the MCU and create a new "Spider-Verse", the reboot was also criticised for retreading familiar ground, showcasing the death of Uncle Ben as Spidey confronts a villain close to his family, as had been the case in 2002's Spider-Man.

It was with these films in mind that Marvel and Sony opted to ignore Uncle Ben completely, but not without cost. Uncle Ben's death is a pivotal moment in Spider-Man's origin; without his famous words - that with great power, must also come great responsibility - or Peter's selfishness resulting in his death, the character loses something important.

This isn't to say that Marvel HAD to show Uncle Ben's death in their rebooted Spider-Man, but rather that it becomes a problem once you consider Peter's age. It makes no sense to gloss over such a tragic and indeed defining moment in the character's life, even if a similar function is performed by Tony Stark, when he's just 16.

Had Marvel opted to depict an older Spider-Man though, one more in line with the version portrayed in, say, Insomniac's 2018 game, then it would've made more sense to have Uncle Ben as a distant presence. As things currently stand though, Ben's absence is just jarring.