Spider-Man: Far From Home and Marvel's villainous renaissance

Spider-Man: Far From Home (FFH) is a good end to the MCU's 3rd phase, tying up loose ends and giving Tom Holland a chance to sling Peter Parker's excruciating awkwardness to another level. That's as much of a Film review as this post is going to give, as FFH follow's Marvel's billion dollar recipe of humour, action and eye-straining effects to the letter. Instead, FFH gives us an opportunity to look back over the MCU and see how, while it has played it safe for the most part, there is a crucial part of every comic book that Marvel films have only recently begun to figure out; the villain.

SPOILERS BELOW.

An iconic enemy of the web-slinger, the illusion master Mysterio has been long awaited ever since being rumoured as the big bad of Raimi's abandoned Spiderman 4. And scooping the cape and fishbowl off the cutting room floor, Jake Gyllenhaal proves again that he is one of the industry's best, for his seamless transition from trustworthy, heroic, uncle Ben figure to unhinged, deceptive, murderous zealot within a single bar scene. And here we see, that despite his Endgame sacrifice saving the entire universe, Tony Stark is blamed as the reason for the creation of yet another villain. Whether or not his heroic action was made known to the rest of the world, it felt as if FFH came on a little heavy with the challenging of Iron Man's perfect hero status. There are seven MCU films now featuring a baddie born of Stark's hubris, and with his passing it is essential that Marvel begin to establish new, more imaginative reasons for Spider-Man's, and other earthbound avenger's, villains.

To their praise, the Russo brothers managed this with Thanos. Elevating the intergalactic mad titan to a pseudo- protagonist role in Infinity War, they created a villain whose powers dwarfed the heroes', whose motivations were perfectly explained and in his own eyes justifiable, and who died knowing that he had won. In true Marvel 'if it ain't broke, don't fix it' fashion, these traits are carried straight over to Mysterio, his illusions insurmountable, his ideas backed up by his similarly minded squad, and who shortly after his death is praised as 'the world's greatest hero'. However, despite directly copying aspects of Thanos, I feel Marvel may be making a turn in the right direction towards villains that can stand up to their comic origins.

It has been a slow start in villainous variety for marvel. Take a look at Nando Vs Movies' video 'Big Gray Villains' for an idea of what I mean. Of the last six MCU films, there is a 50/50 split between annihilating cosmic threats, and everyday humans with a slight technological edge. However, what sets Killmonger and Ghost apart from the bland Whiplash and Iron Monger, and differentiates Thanos and Hela from the grey Malekith and Ronan, seems to show Marvel getting to grips with villainous motivations. These films have begun to invest proportional screen time in developing their antagonist's angles, meaning we as viewers are no longer simply rooting for their demise at the fist of our heroes, but thinking, if only for a second, whether the heroes are right to be subduing them at all. We leave the cinema more invested in the storylines, and the characters gain critical depth, something that arguably shallow Marvel films cannot afford to turn their noses up at.

While the MCU took its sweet time to move away from bad guys wanting bad things for bad things' sake, the future looks bright. With several years of wiggle room before we should expect to see the buildup to the next big bad, one can hope to see an exciting range of villains, from average joes with nothing to lose, to godlike beings who force our champions to go all out. With the decades of villains available, the post-Thanos MCU now has a very exciting blank slate to fill.