8. Peter’s mission served no purpose in Spider-Man: No Way Home
Spider-Man: No Way Home was an incredible superhero film. Few things can compare to watching all three live-action versions of Spider-Man share the screen at the same time. It can even be argued that Jon Watt’s third Spider-Man movie has been the only successful multiversal adventure that the MCU has given us so far.
With that being said, the movie wasn’t perfect by any means. One of its most significant weaknesses was its plot and the amount of unfortunate holes it had. The perfect example is Peter’s overall mission to save the bad guys who invaded his world.
After Doctor Strange mistakenly pulls many Spider-Man villains from other dimensions into the MCU, it becomes Peter’s objective to send them back to where they came from. But there’s one big problem: most villains were pulled from their universe right before they were about to die. So if Tom Holland’s Peter Parker just sends them back without changing anything at all, they would still die anyway.
We all know Spider-Man is a hero and he shouldn’t kill, so a plan was created to save the intruders while still returning them to the place where they came from. What if there was a way to “cure” the bad guys and turn them into good people before sending them home? That would surely change things and prevent their death… right? Right?
Well, unfortunately, it doesn’t work like that.
Five different villains were pulled into the MCU from another dimension: The Green Goblin, Doctor Octopus, Sandman, Lizard, and Electro. Nevertheless, neither Sandman nor the Lizard died in their respective universes, so their lives were never at risk to begin with. But what about the others? Well, Otto Octavius did perish in his original universe but he wasn’t a “villain” when that happened. In fact, he sacrificed himself for the greater good. If Tom Holland’s Peter sent a “cured” version of Doctor Octopus back to his world, he would’ve probably done the same thing to stop his creation from destroying New York.
As for the Green Goblin, he originally died by stabbing himself with his glider. If Norman Osborn was truly pulled from his universe a moment before his death, then nothing would’ve prevented his glider from killing him (not even turning him into a good guy). Instead, if he was pulled before the glider was activated, then no villain in Spider-Man: No Way Home would’ve been at risk of dying before returning home aside from Electro. Either way, Peter’s plan doesn’t make sense at all.
The only villain that could’ve been saved by removing his powers was Max Dillon, so I guess one out of five isn’t the worst-case scenario. Still, it doesn’t take away from the fact that Spidey’s plan to save the villains was extremely confusing in Spider-Man: No Way Home.