Spider-Man: Far From Home is the official closing of an era for the Marvel Cinematic Universe. And while the movie did tie up a few loose ends left over from Endgame, it predictably left us with just as many questions as answers. Here are a few that are really niggling now that we’ve seen Far From Home.
[SPOILERS FOR THE FILM BELOW]
How Did The World Accommodate the Blip?
We get a few vague ideas about what happened when half the universe suddenly reentered—Aunt May was taken for a mistress and stranger in her own home, for example—but the actual work that would need to go into rebuilding and reconfiguring a planet that lost and then regained half a population is… unimaginable. How do you handle housing? Entire homes worth of possessions that were left behind? Getting people work? Families torn apart and reunited? Families torn apart that now feature new family members from other relationships? Where do Peter and Aunt May even live now? How do you handle the psychological break between half a population that mourned and moved on, and another half that has to handle being “dead” for five years?
Do All of Peter’s Classmates Know the Truth?
Only one student, one of the un-Blipped kids, sees anything weird about how Peter keeps disappearing whenever boss battles occur. While MJ actually confronts Peter, all the other students just sort of shrug his constant disappearances off. And while, yes, Peter’s teachers are TITANICALLY incompetent, it starts to get actively weird that they just accept all the upgrades in the movie and never question him. Do they know he’s Spider-Man, but are too polite to pry? And if so, how will this knowledge play into/work against J. Jonah Jameson’s doxxing in the end-credits scene?
Are the Skrulls Going to Become Far More Important to the MCU Now?
With the reveal that Nick Fury and Maria Hill were Talos and Soren the whole movie, we now know that Fury is working much more closely with his pals from space. This means that the Skrulls could show up just about anywhere in the MCU’s future. It means that when you look at any given character, that person could be a Skrull in disguise. While it’s not exactly the Secret Invasion plot of the comics, it does leave more room for comedy… as well as a whole lot of potential handwaving if these films write themselves into corners. Oh, it didn’t make sense for a certain character to do what they did? Oh boy, look at that! It was a Skrull the whole time!
How Many Shitty Indie Bands Are Named “The Blip”?
Seriously, how many.
How Does a Superhero Unmasking Work When the Majority of the World’s Heroes Are Public?
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Null Set
The Marvel Cinematic Universe is a fascinating place in that, aside from a few names, most of the superheroes are known. Matt Murdock has to keep it on the down-low because of his job, and Ant-Man and the Wasp are more rumors on the global stage, but the Avengers were very well known as people outside of their armor. So… what’s the scope of this kind of public “outing”? Will Peter be brought up on charges by the state of New York? Will the public rush to defend him? How does EDITH figure into the claims made against the kid? There are so many routes the narrative could take us, including “no one even believes this video, nice try,” but if they do, then Peter Parker has and long and increasingly difficult road ahead of him.
Shouldn’t There Be Some Kind of Superhero Communications Hub?
It just figures: Black Widow had a whole network up and running after the Snap occurred, and kept tabs on literally everyone, helping to dole out missions and keep news flowing between various operatives around the globe. Now she’s gone and there’s no one around to pull the whole thing together. No indication of whether or not anyone is living at the Avengers compound in the interim or how to get in touch with anyone else. Seems like the sort of thing their world desperately needs? The sort of thing that someone might have thought to piece together following the events of Endgame? Everyone is tired, we know, but… seriously?
What’s Gonna Happen With All That Illusion Tech?
You might have been excited if you remembered William Ginter Riva in Far From Home, better known as that guy who had to cower next to a giant arc reactor while Obadiah Stane raved at him about Tony Stark and caves and boxes of scraps!!!! (He was a producer on the original Iron Man, which is why he asked to play the part of Riva and agreed to shave his head for it, and there’s even more to that story, believe it or not.) But Riva gets the last laugh in Far From Home, downloading all of Mysterio’s tech and important video before the whole evil scheme goes to pot. Some of that video gets released, of course, but the tech is ostensibly now out there in the MCU, ready to be used by another supervillain. Or maybe Riva will save it to get his own revenge…
i doubt NY would bring him up on charges. All his alleged crimes happened in other countries.
@1,
Given that you can indeed be charged for violating US laws for acts committed in another country, I’d say NY could do it.
(which laws? Tax evasion for one. Make money overseas and the IRS wants their cut. Swiss banks won’t hide money for you anymore. Pedophilia for another. Go to Thailand and have sex with a minor and its illegal under US law. From there, its not a problem for a court to extend things to say “hey, you destroyed a city block in Paris and since thats illegal in the US we can charge for that”)
Or France could charge him with a crime and the US could consider whether or not to extradite him.
Would I watch a movie that it basically dealing with that? Oh, yes, yes I would.
Honestly, all they have to do is have a Skrull show up somewhere as Spider-Man (or Peter) while Peter is around (as himself or Spider-Man, depending on which identity the Skrull is impersonating), and the doxxing problem is solved then and there.
Uh, the Avengers compound was blown to bits by Thanos. I don’t think its going to be in use anytime soon. I’d say the Avengers are done for at the moment, three founding members are dead and the rest are gone their separate ways.
@5. Cap’s not dead, just old. The comics had him at 92 (or so) once the serum was leeched out and still able to run SHIELD. That’s one thing the MCU movies sidestepped, the SS serum as an anti-aging drug. Cap could’ve lived an entire lifespan in another timeline and still return with the same appearance. This, of course, would’ve been awkward as Peggy got older.
This also works as negotiating tactics with the actor. Chris Evans could return as Cap with a new dose of the serum, pending contract agreements.
Given all the people who showed up for the Stark funeral – notably for our purposes, Ross for USGov, Potts and Hogan for Stark Industries, T’Challa, Shuri and Okoye for Wakanda, as well as Fury, Hill and Danvers – conversations about “WTF do we do next, because there IS going to be a next thing coming!” had to have started there. The Avengers are not going to stop because of what happened at the Battle of the Compound.
Talos and Soren working with/for Fury and watching Parker and Beck is likely the least of what’s resulted.
Parker’s outing thanks to Jameson unveiling Ginter Riva’s doctored video? I can’t see him not getting lawyered up at this point. Hogan and Potts and May will insist on it. Also, we’re all tired of the “framed fugitive” trope, right?
As for the idea of most of the rest of his classmates – except Brad (clearly) and Flash (probably, because he’s a jerk) – having figured it out for themselves and keeping silent until the doxxing attempt? I love the idea.
I like this new Peter![.](//s04.flagcounter.com/mini/Jkzv/bg_FFFFFF/txt_DEDEDE/border_FFFFFF/flags_0/" width="1"/>)
Skrulls are a plot device. They have no culture of their own yet, so outside of mainting a plot they are not important.
There’s not enough script space for the blip. That’s what books are for.
The “blip” is played for laughs but was probably a horror unlike anything outside of the snap.
Thousands would have been on planes when snapped. They would all suddenly literally fall from the sky. Anyone on a ship is suddenly stranded at sea. People appearing in the road getting run over. Babies of pregnant women that were snapped…uhhhhh. This horror happening across the entire universe at the same time. Thanos was at least merciful.
The mid-credits scene left me thinking of how things were in Marvel Comics when I first started reading them along about 1970. JJJ was whipping everybody up against all superheroes, not just Spider-man. People hated and feared Spidey. Angry mobs with signs raged in the street at the base of the Baxter Building, and the FF’s landlord couldn’t stand them and was always trying to evict them. Being a superhero was rough back then. I wonder if they’re about to bring that era back for Peter for a while.
@2,
Those are all Federal statutes. NYC can’t charge anyone for a crime outside of New York City. The feds would actually block them if they tried to charge someone for a crime in a foreign country. That is the sole purview of the Federal government. Same goes for the state of New York.
The Federal government could maybe go after him but they don’t really care about international property damage. More likely they would move to extradite him to France to face charges. Which leads us to the next movie:
Spider-Man – Special Victims Unit! :-)
Obviously the frame up charges aren’t going anywhere. Not when SHIELD is going to want to keep using Spider Man (and they WILL, under any sort of circumstances). They’ll squash the charges legally and politically and go from there.
The damage to Peter’s personal life is different; SHIELD doesn’t care. In fact, the chaos just makes it easier for them as it’d drive poor Mr. Parker into their arms.
As to all that illusion tech…it’s coming back. SHIELD is gonna try to find it and stamp it out, but Talos is no Nick Fury. And that leaves the door open for a League of Mysterios. And I hear Jake wants his sister a part in the MCU….
@11: I firmly believe that the unSnap would work well enough to not bring people back in a deadly position.
I think we have to assume that everyone in the world is mentally ill to some extent after the shocks of the Blip, and may react in unexpectedly strange ways. Thus, the science teacher at a science-magnet school talking about witchcraft, etc., etc.
“Cap’s not dead, just old.”
While it could be put down to Old Cap not being publically known about, it seems indicative that he’s in the tribute video at the beginning with three dead characters.
@16. James: there’s still wiggle room. Most comic characters who “die” then get better.
It always weirds me out when people who are ostensibly comic book fans, and fans of comic book movies, try to rationalize how things would’ve worked in the real world. Even weirder than that is when these people demand that such things make their way into a movie. These are popcorn flicks for people of all ages, they’re not going to have a heavy dissertation on how horrific the Snap would have been if it were real. Yeah, people who got Snapped while on a plane likely came back up in the sky and fell to their deaths. Sure, families got torn apart and then chaos ensued when people came back. What on Earth makes you think that addressing that in a movie would be entertaining for a 10-year-old? The small amount of that kind of thing that we got in Endgame was enough.
“How did the world accommodate ‘The Blip’?” is not a question that needs to be answered in these types of movies any more than it needs to be answered in the pages of a comic book. It happens and then you move on to the next thing.
Ant-Man, or at least Giant-Man, is not a rumor, having been seen in public by many people, and presumably videod and uploaded to the web.
@6 – Sunspear: The Russos have already said he’s living in a parallel universe. Not that he couldn’t return, of course.
@19. magnus: and I agree with the directors. The writers of the script seem to disagree. Krad did a whole article about it.
But the operative word here would be “lived’ in a parallel universe. He’s back now as Old Man Steve. If we take the “In Memoriam” segment in Far From Home at face value, Steve died after Endgame.
What I have in mind is him being de-aged again after a new infusion of serum, similar to what happened in the comics.
@18 If the writers were going to stuff the Blip under the carpet in the next movie and completely fail to explore any of the ramifications, why do it in the first place? Just handwave around the unsnapping of Tony’s daughter instead of everyone else. There’s no need to copy comic books’ bad habits just because of the source material.
@@@@@ 18
Yeah, people who got Snapped while on a plane likely came back up in the sky and fell to their deaths
The Inifnity Stones already have enough intelligence to realize that people don’t have to go back to exactly the same place they were. If those 5 years aren’t exact to the milisecond, then Earth’s position around the sun isn’t the same. Say, if the snap happened in April 23rd 2018 (release date of the first movie) and the unsnap happened in April 22nd 2023 then that alone means Earth is not in the same position relative to the sun. To return everyone to the exact same place would mean putting people in space. Also, the sun is revolving around the galactic center and the universe is expanding, so we’re almost never in the same place depending on your frame of reference.
If the Stones are smart enough to take that into consideration and put people back relatively close to where they were in human terms, they could do much more. Like not do that if it’d result in immediate death, like falling. Or returning people that died indirectly, like in an aicraft without a pilot.
I don’t know why people stick so much to inertia when we’re talking about magical stones that grant wishes and when space and speed are relative and “returning people to the same spot” as we saw in the Spiderman movie needed some kind of intelligence behind it. Now, if the Stones were evil wish-granters, like a Monkey Paw, then I’d agree, but they seem pretty neutral (it’s a plot point later in the comics that are both evil and good parts of the power of the stones).
@22. Ryamano: “If the Stones are smart enough to take that into consideration and put people back relatively close to where they were in human terms, they could do much more.”
Agreed.
It seems odd that some people who acknowledge that the stones accounted for the Earth’s position in space also insist that the last few feet must be the exact relative position to earth where people were snapped, plus maintain the inertia. It’s highly illogical and over-literal.
The HISHE video basically went into this with the blip-horror. :)