5 MCU characters Spider-Man needs to team up with next

Now and then, someone tells you about their favorite weird food combo. Maybe it's pickles and peanut butter, to which the normal response is "eww." Or it's potato chips inside a chocolate chip cookie, and suddenly, your brain starts thinking that that combination of two things you never considered together might actually be magical. (It is; I've tried it. Salty, sweet, just great stuff.)

Putting characters together is similar. Some make sense right off the bat — Deadpool and Wolverine, for instance — while other combinations feel less natural — The Punisher once teamed up with Archie and the Riverdale gang, believe it or not.

As the rumor mill begins to churn surrounding the plot of Spider-Man 4, fans have begun to speculate as to which MCU heroes the Wall-Crawler will team up with next. Some are obvious — Daredevil, eventually Deadpool — but we're not here for the obvious. This is a list of five MCU characters Peter Parker should encounter because, like potato chips in cookies, sometimes the best combinations are the least likely. 

5. Justin Hammer

The last time audiences got a glimpse of Justin Hammer, he was serving time at Seagate Penitentiary for his role in ruining the Stark Expo (to put it mildly). Since then, the former CEO of Hammer Industries has been quiet, which is anything but his nature. With Tony Stark gone and Peter now fully in charge of his equipment, is there any chance he’d turn to his mentor’s old nemesis for some tech help? Probably not, but it would be a ton of fun to watch Hammer try to talk his way to freedom while Peter keeps him at the end of a very short web-leash. 

4. Cosmo The Spacedog

In an odd twist of fate, Spider-Man has already met the original Guardians of the Galaxy, but he’s yet to interact with the updated roster, which includes Cosmo. Any human with half a brain would be fascinated by a talking, telekinetic labrador retriever, but Peter Parker would be absolutely tickled by Cosmo’s existence. Given her history, Cosmo’s time on Earth was probably not terribly pleasant before the Soviet Union launched her into space. So, who better to reintroduce The Spacedog to her home planet than a friendly neighborhood hero? 

Picture Peter throwing a frisbee for Cosmo in the park or the pair sitting down for a Lassie-Turner and Hootch-Air Bud triple feature. Toss in a little light crimefighting and a Cosmo/Spider-Man team-up might be the kind of heartwarming combination the MCU needs right now.

3. Jimmy Woo and/or Mobius

This is really just a ploy to get three of the MCU’s most charming and lovable characters together. Can you imagine the banter? Peter and Woo trying to make sense of the Sacred Timeline while Mobius laces his explanation of the TVA with a sales pitch for jet skis. Woo could show Peter how to do close-up magic! These three may not advance the overarching plot of the MCU, but sometimes, a breath of fresh air is needed, and this combination would be just that. 

2. Bucky Barnes

Vinegar and oil don’t mix unless you put them together and shake them up really fast. That’s how I imagine a Bucky/Peter combination would play out. Bucky is generally serious and chooses his words carefully. Peter likes to have fun and chooses his words based entirely on what hits his tongue first. Of course, these two have already gone toe-to-toe, with Spider-Man catching a punch from Bucky’s mechanical arm like he was going in for a high five. The encounter ended with Bucky and Sam Wilson webbed to the floor of an airline terminal wondering who, or what, a Spider-Man was. 

Now that Bucky has fully thawed, a team-up would be a great way for these one-time adversaries to become friends. Would Peter get on Bucky’s nerves? Absolutely. Would it be entertaining? Without a doubt. 

1. Yelena Belova

At the moment, Peter’s love life is in flux since M.J. doesn’t remember him. Who better to fill that hole in Spider-Man’s heart than a world-class assassin? For the record, I don’t think this pair as a romantic duo would work, but it would be fun to see Peter develop a school-boy crush on a Black Widow who charms and frightens him in equal measures. 

Despite his immense level of power, Peter has always fan-boyed over other superheroes. While Yelena is super capable, she doesn’t possess the powers of Thor or Hulk, which would make Peter’s admiration for her all the more adorable. For as heroic as he is, Spider-Man is still a kid trying to figure it all out. Yelena is a few years older, sure, but she’s already walking away from explosions without flinching, and you know Spider-Man would fall all over himself to achieve that level of cool.