Anna Daniels
Spider-Man: Far From Home ended on a major cliffhanger: Spider-Man’s secret identity is no longer secret. Spider-Man won the battle with Mysterio, but Mysterio had the last laugh, leaking video to make it look like Spider-Man killed him and revealing his name was Peter Parker. Peter (and the audience) were stunned.
So when you’re faced with a crisis, what do you do? In dire situations, you turn to family. That doesn’t mean Aunt May, though she would no doubt be supportive. It means Spider-Man’s sister.
Wait, Spider-Man has a sister?
You’d be forgiven if you never realized Spidey had a sibling. He’s always been something of a loner, with Aunt May being his only family. It’s why his relationships with Gwen Stacy and Mary were particularly crucial to him – they gave him the promise of a family he rarely, if ever, had.
Screen Rant explains that Spider-Man’s sister is a recent invention, with Teresa Parker first appearing in 2012. She was orphaned along with Peter, but for reasons unknown was separated from her family. Like her brother, Teresa underwent a drastic change that led to an unorthodox job saving the world. Only, Teresa’s job is more down to earth: She’s a CIA agent, mentored by none other than Nick Fury.
Screen Rant argues that the way the Tom Holland movies have played out, they’re ideally suited to introduce Teresa. The Holland MCU movies wisely didn’t delve much into Peter’s backstory, since prior Spidey movies showed us his origin twice already. This mostly blank slate approach would make the introduction of a sister more believable.
What’s Spider-Man’s family history?
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Even the most casual Spider-Man fans know his story well. Peter Parker gets bitten by the radioactive spider, declines to stop a robber that later kills Uncle Ben. Until recently, the comics didn’t do much to detail his history before his years with Ben and May.
The Amazing Spider-Man movies with Andrew Garfield explored that history more, giving his father a mysterious background. In The Amazing Spider-Man 2, we learn that Peter’s father Richard (played by Campbell Scott) was a scientist for Oscorp, the company that later gave rise to the Green Goblin. Peter’s parents die in a plane crash after Peter’s father tries to thwart assassins on his tail.
The Amazing Spider-Man 2 was not well-received, however, and this version of the story did not continue. When the MCU came along, they changed things up, even giving Aunt May a makeover. She had typically been visualized as an elderly woman. Marisa Tomei is not that. She was even a love interest for Happy Hogan (Jon Favreau).
How does the multiverse figure in all this?
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With Spider-Man having a sister and a young, attractive aunt, some fans may naturally wonder if the multiverse is coming into play. The animated Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse introduced this concept to the movies, with there being several different versions of Spider-Man – one of whom was Spider-Gwen, as in Gwen Stacy.
However, that movie is not part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. The MCU did play with the idea of the multiverse, although in Far From Home it was a ruse by Mysterio. Now it seems like the MCU will dive into the multiverse for real with the 2021 movie Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, which will be set up by Marvel’s Disney+ TV shows Loki and WandaVision.
It’s possible that Spider-Man’s sister may not be a long-lost relative but a figure from one of the alternate Spider-Man stories. Moreover, the MCU’s third solo Spider-Man movie will follow Multiverse of Madness, and that makes it even more likely that we’ll really see the multiverse in live action.
Written by: Cheat
