Spider-Man is one of the most iconic superheroes of all time. And one of the most iconic moments from his mythology, indeed, we would go so far as to say the most iconic moment from his mythology has nothing to do with Spidey fighting a villain or saving a civilian. It’s the moment when a young Peter Parker stares down at the unmoving body of his Uncle Ben after he’s shot down by a mugger.
The ensuing guilt that he feels over not preventing his uncle’s death has always been his biggest motivation towards becoming a crime fighter. And yet such an important part of Peter’s backstory has been roundly ignored in the MCU. There were only a few, cryptic references to Peter and Aunt May having lost someone dear to them in Spider-Man: Homecoming, without the details being revealed or Ben being directly mentioned.
In Spider-Man: Far From Home, even those cryptic references have been dropped. Instead, Peter’s motivated solely by the loss of his mentor Tony Stark and the desire to live up to his legacy. During a scene where Mysterio is playing mind games with the young hero, he shows him Tony’s grave and taunts him about not having been able to save him.
This is the kind of scene where Ben’s grave would have made an appearance in a standalone Spider-Man film. But it seems that one of the side effects of Spidey joining the MCU, aside from helping make the pool of potential superhero team-ups even bigger, is that the role of his father figure has been definitely handed over to Tony Stark, with Uncle Ben receding into the background.
Of course, that’s far from the only moment in the sequel where Stark replaces Ben and fans of the Spider-Man mythos are sure to have a problem with this development. Unfortunately, at this point, it seems we may never get to hear the MCU’s version of Peter’s uncle’s iconic line: “With great power comes great responsibility.”
