MCU: 14 Things You Learn Rewatching Spider-Man: Homecoming

11. It Proves Not Every Hero Has To Stop The End Of The World

It might be hard to remember, but the idea of superheroes fighting huge armies and trying to prevent the end of the world is a rather new convention. It wasn’t really until The Avengers where this became the go-to climax for every comic-book movie, as most flicks before then opted for a smaller, more personal set of stakes.

Not least was the original Spider-Man trilogy (and, to their credit, the two Amazing Spider-Man movies), which presented some of the best hero/villain encounters the genre has ever seen. Sure, the stakes were still high, with usually the fate of NYC hanging in the balance, but the real battle was always between two interconnected, larger-than-life personalities trying to take each other out.

Homecoming thankfully brings the focus back down from end-of-the-world shenanigans to one high schooler fighting back against a weapons dealer. With that tighter focus, the film was able to deliver one of the best MCU villains to date, and proved that superhero flicks can still be full of spectacle and jaw-dropping action even when the Earth isn’t in constant danger of exploding.