Opinion

Why ‘Spider-Man: No Way Home’ Succeeded Where Other Recent Marvel Releases Failed

DailyWire.com

Before last weekend, there was little doubt that the post-Avengers phase of the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) was struggling.

On the domestic front, films released in the last two years like “Black Widow” and “Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings” made headlines for topping the box office or breaking records, but such reports came with an asterisk. They were breaking pandemic records.  Meaning they topped the box office as measured against the last two years’ worth of films. Hardly worth crowing about. Stacked up against all-time records, these films barely registered a blip (pun intended) on the earnings radar.

Then October brought “Eternals,” widely promoted as the future of the MCU’s Phase Four (that is, the stage of the franchise following the original Avengers lineup). Stars of that film like Salma Hayek and Gemma Chan made interview rounds praising it for having the most “inclusive,” “diverse” cast ever.

The movie also offered the increased LGBT representation that Marvel head Kevin Feige had long been promising with the franchise’s first gay superhero, Phastos, who shared a lengthy kiss with a same-sex partner.

Overtly marketed as evidence of the MCU’s progressive evolution, Feige told Variety that it was “past time” for Marvel to feature more LGBT characters and Phastos was “just the start.” The result: “Eternals” was one of only two bona fide flops in the studio’s history (the other being Ed Norton’s 2008 version of “The Hulk”).

Fans had even started to sour on the Disney+ streaming series. As Feige led the charge in championing Loki’s supposed genderfluidity and Falcon’s retconned feelings of BLM-style hostility toward the country he once served, audiences began tuning out. The latest release, Hawkeye, attained the dubious honor of lowest-ranking MCU to debut on the platform.

As studios are wont to do, Marvel and its parent company, Disney, blamed fans’ cooling interest on anything and everything but their decision to push woke agendas in their products. It was the result of new releasing models, they claimed, or bad timing or superhero exhaustion. But mostly they and the media insisted it was simply the new reality of Covid. No movie could expect to put up pre-pandemic numbers.

Then came “Spider-Man: No Way Home.”

In its opening weekend, the film didn’t just break pre-pandemic records, it decimated them, scoring the second-highest domestic opening of all-time, just behind 2019’s “Avengers: End Game.” In just three days, it brought in more money than any other Covid-era film has in its entire theatrical run.

Globally, “No Way Home’s” performance has been arguably even more impressive, with the third highest debut in history, behind the last two Avengers movies. And it did it without China, the world’s largest film market. Both the Avengers releases had the advantage of a huge number of Chinese dollars in their totals.

So clearly, the idea that post-Covid Marvel can’t compete due to virus-averse audiences is a myth. The question is, why has Spidey succeeded where all the other recent cinematic superheroes have failed? No doubt, the movie boasts a number of streams of appeal, including the social media popularity of stars Tom Holland and Zendaya, as well as a genuinely inventive, fan-servicing plot line. But there’s one factor you can’t overlook yet probably won’t hear much about in mainstream box office analysis: That is, if you don’t go woke, you not only don’t go broke, you stand to rake in piles and piles of cash.

Here are all the ways “No Way Home” bucked the woke MCU trend.

It Doesn’t Try to Fundamentally Alter Spidey

Read their chat boards and you’ll learn just how weary faithful Marvel fans have grown in the last few years of race-, gender-, and sexuality-swapping with major characters for no better reason than so Marvel and Disney executives can brag that they’ve done it.

When significant changes are made with an integral backstory to explain them, as in the case of Miles Morales’ version of Spider-Man and Sam Wilson’s turn as Captain America, audiences seem to have no problem with it. But do it purely for the virtue signaling, as in the case of the female Ajak in “Eternals” and the “queer” Loki, and it grates.

“No Way Home” avoids this problem on every front. If you grew up as a Spider-Man fan, it takes great care to protect and celebrate the hero you knew as a child. He doesn’t suddenly develop confusing feelings for his friend Ned or discover some new commitment to battling climate change. He’s the same Peter Parker we’ve always loved in a new story.

“I wouldn’t mind if, Peter Parker had originally been black, a Latino, an Indian or anything else, that he stay that way,” Stan Lee said of his creation in 2015, “But we originally made him white. I don’t see any reason to change that. It has nothing to do with being anti-gay, or anti-black, or anti-Latino, or anything like that. Latino characters should stay Latino. The Black Panther should certainly not be Swiss.”

Moviegoers, with exceptions granted for creative storytelling, seem to agree with him.

It’s Diverse Without Making a Big Deal Out of It

That said, “No Way Home” does in fact have a significantly diverse cast. Love interest MJ (Zendaya) is half-black. Peter’s best friend (Jacob Batalon) is Filipino. His high school rival is Guatemalan. All of which makes perfect sense, given that Peter lives in Queens. The adult cast displays a similarly varied background for similarly sensible reasons.

Yet the film never makes an issue of this fact. Neither did any of the principal actors or filmmakers on the promotion circuit. No one ever suggested, a la “Eternals,” that it would be a “huge leap forward” for fans to accept MJ and Peter as an interracial couple. They trusted the audience would only care about the charisma and chemistry between the characters. And so they did.

It’s Anti-Cancel Culture and Pro-America

The fact that Spidey isn’t suddenly a social justice warrior doesn’t mean his latest outing doesn’t contain engaging socio-political themes. The best Marvel movies have always incorporated real philosophical questions about the way nations and powers conduct themselves. Think “Guardians of the Galaxy’s” exploration of how a tolerant, pluralistic society combats religious fanaticism or “Captain America: Civil War’s” question of the necessity of government oversight.

The problem is when the MCU starts abandoning complex issues for cheap left-wing counterfeits like “Captain Marvel’s” girl power and “Eternals” representation.

“No Way Home” goes back to deep, intelligent issues, namely what kind of nation we are if no longer allow individuals the possibility of redemption. As young viewers watch opportunities dry up for this beloved character and his high school pals as a result of media assassination and the insane fury of mobs who don’t know them, they get an inkling of just how evil cancel culture is.

As part of his effort to combat this illiberal and destructive ideology, Spidey finds himself in a showdown on top of an iconic American symbol. The message from screenwriters Chris McKenna and Erik Sommers (who, incidentally got their start writing for the equally politically incorrect sitcom “Community”) is that the principles the United States was founded on are good and worth fighting for. And they’re intended to protect the happiness of the next generation.

These days, it doesn’t get more unwoke than that.

The views expressed in this opinion piece are the author’s own and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.

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