What the MCU should learn from the success of Ultimate Spider-Man and the failures of Amazing Spider-Man

Spider-Man's trilogy in the Marvel Cinematic Universe can be seen as the character's origin story. Now, Peter Parker is in a place where he can resemble his comic-book counterpart and stand on his own without the need for any mentors or external heroes to save the day. The ending of Spider-Man: No Way Home has been perhaps one of the most satisfying conclusions to any Spidey live-action Spidey movie, so the question in everyone's mind is: Where do you go after that? How do you follow up on such a perfect setup?

The source material is the ideal place to look for answers, so let's start there. The wall-crawler has had no shortage of comic books across the years, but two series are currently at the center of many conversations albeit for two opposite reasons. Zeb Well's The Amazing Spider-Man and Jonathan Hickman's Ultimate Spider-Man have taken the friendly neighborhood hero in two very different directions, with the latter winning over fans' hearts with extreme levels of success while the latter... introduced us to Paul. If you aren't caught up on The Amazing Spider-Man, it's a very light way of saying the series has been an absolute failure, treating fans to many disappointing storylines that have the single purpose of making Peter suffer for the sake of it.

Moving forward, the MCU should learn from the hits and misses of these two comic series to avoid repeating the mistakes of ASM while capitalizing on the numerous things USM does extremely well.

The MCU should let Peter grow up, settle, and win from time to time

Jonathan Hickman's Ultimate Spider-Man takes place in a reality where Peter was never bitten by a radioactive spider during his teenage years. Instead, he grew up, married Mary Jane, had two kids, and worked in the Daily Bugle next to Uncle Ben (who never died because Spider-Man was never created in the first place). Eventually, fate - or rather Tony Stark - intervened and the friendly neighborhood hero was born. But in an atypicall turn of events, his family is extremely supportive of him. Mary Jane even comes up with Peter's superhero name (in what might be my personal favorite issue of the series so far), and May Parker chooses the colors of his dad's superhero costume.

On the other hand, Zeb Wells' The Amazing Spider-Man had the hero lose his wife to another man (damn you, Paul), grow apart from friends and family, get close to Black Cat only for them to go nowhere, inherit the Green Goblin's sins, and become literally evil in the process. As if it wasn't enough, all those storylines paved the way for the wall-crawler to die eight times in the upcoming The Amazing Spider-Man #61. While it's true that Spider-Man is known for being a tortured hero, he never caught a break, and I think that's where one of the biggest problems in the series kicks in.

Back in the original Stan Lee's Amazing Spider-Man run, many issues had a grim ending meant to represent the infamous Parker Luck. However, it wasn't that way all the time. Issue #7 concluded with him sitting next to his past love interest, Betty Brant, as the two shared a romantic moment. Even Stan Lee added a note saying: "We admit it! This isn't a typical ending for a typical super-hero tale! But we've never claimed that Spider-Man was a typical super-hero".

Peter needs to have a victory from time to time to make the journey worth it for him and everyone following his tales. Did he lose Aunt May in Marvel's Spider-Man for PS4? Yes, but he fixed his relationship with the woman he loves and moved in with her. Was he brutally beaten by the Kingpin in Ultimate Spider-Man (2024) #6? Yes, but he returned home to find a very supportive family finally giving him the "Spider-Man" title. Did Peter lose M.J. to another man in Sam Raimi's Spider-Man 2? Yes, but the movie concluded with the two of them getting back together.

Speaking of Sam Raimi's Spider-Man, a personal problem I have with the third entry in the franchise is it didn't allow Peter to finally have a stable relationship and get married. Instead, the movie went for the same trope we'd seen two times before, as Peter and M.J. endured many problems only to end in the same place they began. Fans will only see so many of the same tragedies before it starts getting boring and even annoying. There needs to be an overarching arc that pushes the character forward, even if it presents a lot of complications along the way.

Should Spider-Man have an easy time? Of course not. But there's no point in following his story if he'll always be stripped away from everything and everyone only to always end in the same place he began. If you've played any Soulslike games, you know they're extremely difficult titles that purposefully make the experience as complicated as it can be. However, players find joy in finally beating that one boss that presented a big hurdle and making progress along the way. There would be no point in playing those games if there wasn't any way to win. If you knew beforehand that every single attempt at beating a boss would end in a loss, then no one would sign up for that (fortunately isn't that way). The point is that victories, for as scarce as they may be, make the journey worth it.

Much like in Ultimate Spider-Man (2024), Tom Holland's Peter Parker should evolve. He should grow, go to college, and eventually settle down. We already saw him lose Tony Stark, Liz Allan, M.J., Aunt May, Ned Leeds, and basically everyone else in his life. Audiences should now get to see him win, get married, raise a kid, and perhaps even one day pass the Spidey mantle to her daughter (even if he goes through a few problems along the way, of course). Now that his origin story has been completed, it's time to see him grow past that in a fulfilling way, unlike in The Amazing Spider-Man (2022) comic book series.