Iron Man launched the Marvel Cinematic Universe in 2008, and he ended up as one of the most popular characters in the entire franchise’s run. However, while he was the linchpin of the MCU through its first decade, Marvel had already seen success with other studios. The X-Men had some massive highs at Fox before the MCU ever launched, and Sony enjoyed great box office and critical success with Spider-Man, especially with its first two movie releases. Now that Iron Man has been dead for seven years, the most important hero in the MCU is Spider-Man, who joined the franchise in Captain America: Civil War in 2016.
The MCU is putting a lot of faith in its big two-part Avengers movies coming out in 2026 and 2027, but a different 2026 release has every chance of seeing great success. Spider-Man: Brand New Day should once again prove that the Wall-Crawler is the MCU’s MVP to this day.
Even before Iron Man died, Spider-Man proved that he was Marvel’s most popular hero with his early appearances. In terms of worldwide box office, only the Avengers movies and Deadpool & Wolverine come close to what Spider-Man has done. Spider-Man: No Way Home made $1.9 billion worldwide, and part of that had to do with the return of both Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield, as well as villains from the Sony Spider-Man movies. Spider-Man: Far From Home made $1.1 billion, and that was Spider-Man on his own. Every Spider-Man movie has made over $500 million worldwide, including the panned releases (Amazing Spider-Man 2, Spider-Man 3).
The only MCU movies that made more money than Spider-Man: No Way Home were Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame. Only six other MCU movies made more money than Spider-Man: Far From Home. Iron Man 3 is the only Iron Man movie to break $1 billion, and Captain America: Civil War is the only Cap movie to break that mark, although that is technically an Avengers movie at heart. The only three MCU movies to break $1 billion since Avengers: Endgame are Spider-Man: No Way Home, Spider-Man: Far From Home, and Deadpool & Wolverine.
A big reason is that two of those movies played on nostalgia. Spider-Man: No Way Home brought back beloved heroes and villains from the Sony Spider-Man movies. Deadpool & Wolverine brought back beloved heroes and villains from the Fox X-Men and Fantastic Four movies. Looking at Avengers: Doomsday and Avengers: Secret Wars, it is clear that the MCU is betting on nostalgia once again. However, Spider-Man: Far From Home wasn’t about nostalgia. It was about Spider-Man.
When Stan Lee and Steve Ditko created Spider-Man, it was to do something very different with superhero comics. DC Comics lived and died in the Silver Age based on godlike heroes, many directly influenced by the Greek gods. Early Marvel characters included genius inventors, space explorers, monsters, and war heroes. However, Spider-Man was a teenager who was bullied in high school, who got the powers of a superhero by accident, and had to figure out his way on his own. He wasn’t rich. He didn’t have limitless resources. He was just a kid who wanted to do good, and he learned quickly that it wasn’t as easy as he thought.
This carries over to the movies. While Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield brought their own interpretations of Peter Parker to the movies, Tom Holland really embodies what Peter Parker is like. He is a kid who tries his best to do good, but he keeps getting beaten down by the world. He loses people he loves and blames himself. He is someone who has to make his own costumes and use his own intelligence to figure out how to beat bad guys and survive in a world out to get him. Above any other Marvel hero, Spider-Man is just like anyone in the audience, and that makes him incredibly relatable.
Iron Man was a popular superhero thanks to coming first in the MCU and having a charismatic actor like Robert Downey Jr. playing the role. However, Spider-Man is someone that kids and even adults in the audience can see themselves in. It makes him someone that people want to see succeed, and they prove this by going to Spider-Man movies more than almost any other superhero movie in the MCU or DCU. Spider-Man is Marvel’s most important hero, and that will be proven again this year with Spider-Man: Brand New Day.
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