Peter Parker‘s sacrifice in Spider-Man: No Way Home has a lot of reversed sides to Tony Stark‘s last moments in Avengers: Endgame. The latter film witnesses Tony (Robert Downey Jr.) sacrifice his whole life to rescue the world, indicating the end of an eleven-year circle for the original hero in the MC universe. He dies when manipulating the infinity stones, and with just a snap of his finger he beats Thanos and his army. Tony’s last words reflect his unique declaration from the very first Iron Man movie: “I am Iron Man.”
Although that statement marked the end of the film, it was just an opening point for the MCU. More cherished Marvel superheroes are also continued and brought into the mix after the Iron Man franchise. Nevertheless, because of rights issues, it wasn’t until 2016 when Captain America: Civil War was released, Marvel Studios was eventually able to bring Spider-Man back, with Tony playing a crucial and constructive role in the character’s introduction. After Tony dies, Peter (Tom Holland) has many difficulties figuring out how he can go on his own way in the world without his mentor to tutor him.
As high-school students have a tendency to do, Peter makes some mistakes along the way—a notion Tony was very close to himself. In Spider-Man: No Way Home, Peter must confront the results of his actions when he decides to let the world forget that Peter Parker ever existed to rescue it from the destruction he had done. Because of this, Peter loses all his beloved people, particularly M.J., Ned, and Happy. Though he didn’t die as Tony, in some ways he also sacrifices his whole life to rescue the world—only he’s pushed to confront that loss over and over again while he continues to exist in its wake.
Nevertheless, sacrifices of both Peter and Tony fall to the matter of identity. It’s a crucial theme in most Marvel films, but it is supposed to be extremely vital to these two characters. Tony takes a mission to refurbish himself and his dad’s company after his war prisoner experience at death’s door in Iron Man. He is constantly confronted with both internal and external difficulties that threaten to prevent him from being the man he desires to be. He fails those difficulties many times, as he did when making a supervillain in Avengers: Age of Ultron; however, his story is one of continually trying to become better and fighting his self-esteem to achieve peace.
On the other hand, Peter has just reached the adult stage with the whole Spider-Man trilogy in MC universe being a study in discovering one’s identity, and the factors that create a person who they are in their most constructive years. Growing from an innocent boy to a more grown and thoughtful young man, Peter has gained a lot of experiences after the tough decisions he had to make as he lives as Spider-man. For a time, his maturation was mostly thanks to Tony, but he now eventually got to the point where he is developing beyond Iron Man and Tony Shark.
While Tony’s story concludes with a victory although he has to accept sadly and happily his identity, Spider-Man: No Way Home concludes with the loss of Peter’s. People of the rest of the world think that he will have to start from the beginning to build a new life after giving his old one. However, Peter still keeps all memory of all people, locations and experiences that have formed him over the years. He may go away forever, but he still retains himself. Unlike Tony, Peter can kick off again since it is the beginning of the end; nonetheless, that new beginning will be more significant for all the things he had to give up to reach the current point.
