WARNING: MAJOR SPOILERS FOR SPIDER-MAN: NO WAY HOME
The much-anticipated third film in the MCU's Spider-Man franchise, Spider-Man: No Way Home, hit theatres last week with a bang, smashing box office records and is on track to becoming the highest grossing Spider-Man film of all time. The stakes were astronomically high in this film, as Spider-Man's identity is revealed to the world and a botched spell performed by Doctor Strange brings back some familiar faces from previous iterations of the Spider-Man character in film.
What is perhaps most interesting about this film upon second viewing is not the spectacle of it all, and it definitely is a spectacle. What is the most interesting about this movie is the strong Catholic Christian and anti-nihilistic undertones which make this probably the most implicitly Catholic movie of the Year of Our Lord 2021.
Be warned: major spoilers for Spider-Main: No Way Home are to follow.
Friedrich Goblin Contra the Holy Moral Mission
As shown in the final trailer and on promotional material, Willem Dafoe makes a return to the Spider-Man franchise as the Norman Osborn/Green Goblin, and serves as the de facto main antagonist of the final act. We are first introduced to Osborn as he comes to his senses in a New York ally-way after having been ripped from his universe. We find out later, when Spider-Man (Tom Holland) meets him at a homeless shelter where Aunt May (Marissa Tomei) works, that Norman still suffers from the multiple personality disorder inflicted on him by the Goblin serum in Spider-Man (2002), and that he is now in a different universe with no understanding of how he got there or what is going on.
Here, the film sets up the major moral-conflict of the film. MCU Peter Parker is intent on taking the villains back to the lab and sending them right back to their own universe. Aunt May, however, encourages him to get Norman and the rest of the extra-dimensional visitors (Alfred Molina's Otto Octavius/Dr. Octopus, Jamie Foxx's Electro, Rhys Ifans' Lizard, and Thomas Hayden Church's Sandman) the help that they need in order to overcome their violent and sociopathic tendencies. MCU Peter shrugs this off, until Doctor Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch) reveals that these villains will all be sent back to their universes at the moment of their deaths in the previous Spider-Man films. At this, MCU Spider-Man incapacitates Strange in the mirror-dimension and begins the work of rehabilitating the villains by curing each of them of the afflictions which made them villains.
MCU Peter, assisted by Norman and the rehabilitated Otto Octavius, create cures for the three remaining unreformed villains right as Osborn has a fit and become the Green Goblin again. Before going on a rampage and beating the tar our of MCU Peter, Norman reveals a sinister philosophy that undergirds his psychopathy in this movie and in the 2002 movie: morality is an illusion that is put in place to subdue the strong. He says to MCU Peter "you're trying to have everything you want while the world tries to make you choose, but gods don't have to choose. We just take." He then, after a struggle kills Aunt May to teach MCU Peter a lesson about where morality gets you in the end, saying that May's "holy moral mission" led to this point. As Aunt May dies, she tells MCU Peter that they did the right thing and that "with great power there must also come great responsibility."
There is a lot to unpack here. The first and most obvious thing is that Green Goblin is the ultimate nihilist and Nietzschean, so much so that most of his lines are paraphrases from On the Genealogy of Morals. In this work, Nietzsche describes two codes of morality, a slave morality characterized by rejection of antagonistic forces and of the will to power which is ultimately self-sacrificial, and a master morality that prioritizes the strong over the weak and gives license to people’s desire for power, even if it causes harm to others.
Slave morality and master morality is presented by Nietzsche in terms of the "old" Christian morality and the “new” strong-man morality that he proposes. In terms of Spider-Man, what Nietzsche calls slave morality is seen in Aunt May and MCU Peter while master morality is seen in the Goblin. May and MCU Peter fundamentally are about others, even if it means literally sacrificing themselves in the process. Goblin is about his own strength and will to power.
Aunt May's morality, as we will explain later, is fundamentally Christian at heart. Rather than doing only what seems good for MCU Peter, she desires what is good for Norman and for the villains that have come into the MCU as well. At the core of her philosophy is self-sacrifice and true love and charity for others, even towards those deemed to be lost and beyond help. For her, this is the great responsibility: do what's good, no matter what it costs you. This is why she dies, and has to die for the movie to work: May is the ultimate example for MCU Peter. May is the blueprint going forward.
In this, the movie sets up the main internal conflict throughout the movie as whether or not MCU Peter is going to act as a good moral Christian would or as a good moral Nietzschean would. Here, the movie shows itself to be a Christian film: Nietzschean morality is the morality of the psychopathic, schizophrenic bug-eyed bad guy, whereas Christian morality is the morality of the protagonist's mother figure (and of the protagonist himself if you know thing one about Spider-Man). The main conflict of this movie, ultimately, is a conflict between Christian morality and nihilism, and we are made to root for Christian morality to triumph in the end.
Turn the Other Web
After the death of Aunt May, MCU Peter's best friend, Ned Leeds (Jacob Batalon), and girlfriend, MJ (Zendaya), run into the Spider-Men of the Sam Raimi trilogy (Toby Maguire) and Marc Webb duology (Andrew Garfield), who want to find and talk to MCU Peter. The two find MCU Peter, who in his anger and anguish has resolved to send the unreformed alternate dimension villains home to die. Through relating their experiences of losing Uncle Ben and Gwen Stacy, the Raimi and Webb Peters convince MCU Peter that vengeance and letting anger give way to justice will only lead to more misery and sadness for him, revealing that "with great power comes great responsibility" is the web (pun intended) that unites the three Spider-Men.
The three Peters then go the high school lab to recreate the cures for the remaining villains and draw them to the Statue of Liberty for the final conflict. The three Spideys battle Electro, Sandman, and the Lizard, and through their combined efforts they are able to cure them all, just as the Green Goblin returns and destroys the container in which Doctor Strange contained the botched spell, which begins to tear apart the universe and bring everyone in the multiverse who knows Spider-Man's identity into the MCU.
MCU Peter and Goblin have one final match on Liberty Island, in which MCU Peter utterly decimates the Goblin, fueled by pure hatred. MCU Peter prepares to kill the Goblin using the blades of the Goblin's glider before Raimi Peter stops MCU Peter by holding back the glider. At this, MCU Peter relents, and cures Norman Osborn by injecting him with an antidote to the Goblin serum, and finally curing all the alternate universe villains.
Continuing the theme of Nietzschean versus Christian morality, MCU Peter finds himself on the brink of giving in before the other Peters give him an important warning: giving in won't make anything better, but instead will make MCU Peter more miserable. It is only through moving on and embracing the responsibility of being Spider-Man that this inner conflict will be resolved. MCU Peter here is given a choice to embrace the morality of Aunt May and to do good despite the toll it may take of him, or to give in to his baser urges and use his power to get the revenge that he wants in that moment. This is fundamental: if MCU Peter pushes the button, then the Goblin wins and his morality lives on in the end through MCU Spider-Man. If MCU Peter continues on and cures all of the villains, including the Goblin, then Aunt May's morality lives on and Spider-Man wins.
This is the practice of the fundamental Christian virtue of charity. Charity, or love, in Christianity is not a feeling, but an act of will. Specifically, it is willing the good of the other person, as Pope St. John Paul II often said. MCU Peter is being called to do exactly this, but not just for innocent civilians. He is called to show charity and mercy to the unjust. More than this, he is called to show charity and mercy to his enemies. Even further, MCU Peter is called to not only help his enemies, but to help the person who killed his aunt, his guardian and mother figure. Ultimately, MCU Peter is being called to not seek vengeance, but to turn the other cheek. We might think back to the Sermon on the Mount where our Lord says to "love your enemies: do good to them that hate you: and pray for them that persecute and calumniate you" (St. Matthew 5:44).
This culminates in the final battle between MCU Peter and the Goblin. In this moment, MCU Peter must confront his true enemy, the person who has taken more from him than anyone else in this movie, must put aside his anger, allow the Goblin to live, and to help the Goblin become Norman Osborn again. In this moment, MCU Peter almost foregoes this and gives in to Nietzschean morality. In being stopped by Raimi Peter, MCU Peter's journey is brought to completion: Christian morality wins, Norman Osborn is cured, and MCU Peter keeps his soul and celebrates with his alternate universe counterparts.
With Great Responsibility Comes Great Sacrifice
Once the final battle has been won and, contrary to most Spider-Man movies prior to this one, all of the villains have been bested without shedding blood, the universe begins to unravel as an infinite number of people threaten to pour into the MCU. MCU Peter goes to Doctor Strange and asks him, in order to fix this problem and save the multiverse, to erase the memory of Peter Parker from everyone in the MCU. MCU Peter then bids a tearful farewell to his Raimi and Webb counterparts and then to Ned and MJ. The spell is then cast and the whole MCU forgets that Peter Parker ever existed as the tears in the universe are closed and the different Spider-Man characters are sent back to their universes. Spurred on by Aunt May’s example, MCU Peter moves on and continues his antics as Spider-Man, alone in a universe that doesn’t know his civilian persona does or ever has existed.
This is perhaps the most Catholic aspect of the movie, and one that I hated until I thought more deeply about it. This is where the consequences of Catholic morality and strong-man morality are shown in their fullness. Goblin‘s morality promises the maximal amount of self satisfaction and pleasure at the expense of others, and it almost leads to the collapse of the multiverse. Spider-Man’s morality saves the multiverse but at great personal cost and sacrifice to himself. Now, where in Catholicism do we see salvation being brought about through great personal Sacrifice?
The Christological archetype aside, let’s first talk with great power comes great responsibility. Doctor Strange begins the movie by telling MCU Peter that everything he’s going through is a result of him trying to lead a double life and not wanting to deal with its consequences. In other words, he is refusing to take responsibility for his actions. This is rectified in the admonition of Aunt May that MCU Peter must take responsibility and see his mission through to the end. The whole of Spider-Man’s arc, in all media, is his need to take responsibility for himself and for his actions.
From here, we can see the relationship to Catholicism. Our Lord never says “with great power comes great responsibility,” but He says something similar which has more significance: “unto whomsoever much is given, of him much shall be required: and to whom they have committed much, of him they will demand the more” (St Luke 12:48). MCU Peter has been given a great charge. Not only is he a superhero, but he is a protector of lives. He is being charged with keeping the people of New York City safe. In return, much is expected. But what exactly is expected?
We might imagine an addendum to the old saying. With great power comes great responsibility, and with great responsibility comes great sacrifice. Going back to Christ, to Him is given all power. He was, is, and ever shall be God. To Him was given the mission of saving humanity. Much is expected of Him, and that expectation was and is the Passion. His expectation, His responsibility, was sacrifice, and this sacrifice is worth it because of the great good it is in service of: the Final Good, which is God Himself. Through this, Christ brings about our salvation and is glorified.
Now go back to Spider-Man. Aunt May has knowledge of true morality, and for that she pays the ultimate toll with her life. MCU Peter is given a great charge, but he screws this up by refusing the responsibility expected of him. He then learns to embrace this responsibility and then sacrifices his very identity: now, he no longer lives a double life because his identity as Peter Parker is sacrificed. Now his only identity is Spider-Man, and the only thing he has left is doing good for others. MCU Peter sacrifices his very identity in order to serve the highest good. Now, MCU Peter has no identity, no overarching and driving force in life, other than doing good. In Catholic terms, he has abandoned all attachments except to the one and only Good.
In this we see why Christian morality is vastly superior to Nietzschean ethics, but also why Nietzschean ethics are more tempting than Christian morality. Nietzschean ethical theory and morality would have allowed MCU Peter to continue on with his friends and retain his identity. He wouldn't have to worry about the alternate Spider-Men or villains, and his life would have returned to where it was before the spell was cast. However, in doing so he would lose a bit of himself. As Raimi Peter and Webb Peter told him on the rooftop, doing that wouldn't make the hurt go away, but would cause him to lose a sense of himself and become a different, worse person. The temptation in Nietzschean ethics is the immediate gratification of our base desires, but the sacrifice of the Good makes it so that you lose yourself in the process.
Christian morality, on the other hand, requires great sacrifice of you, but it allows you to keep yourself. More than that, it transforms you into a better person. MCU Peter gave up everything for the greater good, but in doing so made reparation for his previous mistakes and learns to be a better person. He loses his identity as Peter Parker, but he does not lose his drive to serve and protect others and finds higher meaning in this new existence he has, ultimately finding a deeper identity as Spider-Man.
Implicitly Christian, explicitly Spider-Man
I could go on about the direct Christian parallels in this movie. Aunt May and MCU Peter's conversation at the homeless shelter could not be a more direct parallel between the Blessed Virgin and Christ at Cana unless MCU Peter had said "woman what has that to do with me and thee?" I could talk about how MCU Peter's final swing in the end is almost a pseudo-resurrection scene. I could mention the subtle Trinitarianism of having three Spider-Men. I could talk about how MCU Peter forgives Norman Osborn for killing Aunt May because he literally knew not what he did. I could go on, but that would miss the point.
This movie is fundamentally Catholic at its core, but only implicitly so, and this is the best thing about the film. Movies like God's Not Dead, War Room, Left Behind, and so on are explicitly Christian films, but these films are hot garbage. They are extraordinarily bad, and they are bad because they are preachy and let the moral get ahead of the story telling. In this, they are counterproductive to the goal that they are trying to attain. Movies that, at their core, are Christian, but don't preach at you and instead get you involved in a good, moral story are not only better films, but they are what Christians need to produce because they plant seeds and inculcate people into Christian ideas without explicitly declaring it.
The reason secularist and liberal ideologies pervade the society is because liberals learned a long time ago that stories are better than propaganda. Forty and thirty years ago, nobody would watch a movie called "Casual Sex is Good," but people did and still do watch sitcoms where characters would frequently engage in casual fornication and just talked about it like it's normal. That subliminal conditioning is, at least in part, why we are where we're at right now. The way to combat that is not to hit people over the head with the Bible, or with Bible movies. The way to combat that is to make good stories which support Christian ideas, and condition people towards lives of virtue. This movie does that.
The best thing about this is that the writers almost certainly did not intend to make a Christian-themed movie. It just is, and the reason it is is because it is good. The Psalmist tells us that "The heavens shew forth the glory of God" (Psalm 19:1). Our Lord says "that if these shall hold their peace, the stones will cry out" His praise (St. Luke 19:40). Nature and reality itself is Catholic. Truth and beauty are Catholic. Anything which is good and in accordance with what is true and beautiful will be implicitly Catholic because of this, in some way or another. We shouldn't be surprised, therefore, that one of the best popular movies of the year is also the most Catholic movie of the year.
Spider-Man: No Way Home is an excellent movie, both in its message and in its production, and is playing in a movie theatre near you. The Filthy Papist Blog recommends it highly.
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