Before Avengers: Doomsday, Spider-Man: No Way Home proved the best Marvel event movies put character first

Avengers: Doomsday is positioned as Marvel's biggest movie ever. A major event in MCU history that will surpass even Endgame, with characters from multiple worlds coming together for an epic showdown with a returning Robert Downey Jr. as Doctor Doom. Everyone from the Fox-era X-Men to the Fantastic Four will be there, proving the crossover invitations reached every corner of the multiverse.

But before there was Doomsday, there was Spider-Man: No Way Home. That film brought together different eras of Marvel just like Doomsday, except it focused strictly on Peter Parker – even as it unleashed the multiversal mayhem that has come to define this phase of the MCU.

No Way Home was Marvel's first blowout success post-Endgame, grossing almost $2 billion amid the COVID pandemic (Far From Home, the first Marvel movie released after Endgame, grossed $1.1 billion, in comparison). Obviously, Spider-Man himself is a huge draw. Just look at the mega-success of this year's Spider-Man: Brand New Day for all the evidence you need. But it wasn't only the promise of three cross-timeline Spideys uniting that made No Way Home a success – it was its focused, character-driven storyline.

Ready Peter 1

While the film brings together three different Peter Parkers from three different film franchises, its focus remains squarely on Tom Holland's Peter. No Way Home picks up in the aftermath of Quentin Beck exposing Peter's identity at the end of Far From Home. The MCU is often sorely lacking in consequences, but this is one plot wrinkle that actually stuck: Peter's life – and by extension, the lives of his friends and family – is suffering from the world believing him to be a murderer.

It's not the fate of the world but something as seemingly mundane as rejected college applications that kickstarts the whole plot, too. Peter seeks Doctor Strange's help after he, Ned Leeds, and MJ are rejected from MIT, then inadvertently corrupts the sorcerer's spell out of concern his loved ones might forget him (in some bleak foreshadowing). It's this corrupted spell that opens the multiversal door to a rogues' gallery of iconic Spider-Man villains, beginning with Alfred Molina's Doctor Octopus.

Even then, though, the film doesn't merely pit Holland's Peter against a bunch of villains he's never met. Instead, the focus shifts to Peter's attempts to redeem each baddie, so that, when they return to their rightful universes, they might not end up dead. Things seem to be going well, until Willem Dafoe's Green Goblin throws the plan into chaos by rallying his fellow villains, escaping, and, in the process, mortally wounding Aunt May. Before she dies, she imparts those famous words to Peter: "With great power, there must also come great responsibility." This sends Peter down a dark, grief-fuelled spiral (and who could blame him?), and it's at this point in the film that the other Peters arrive – long after this emotional, character-driven story has been firmly established.

Multiverse of madness

It's undeniably fun to see Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield back as Peter Parker. No Way Home does revel in it, too, yet the first meeting between the three Peters is a sombre one. Peter 2 (Maguire) and Peter 3 (Garfield) share their own losses with Peter 1, helping him to come to terms with the death of Aunt May. It's genuinely heart-warming to watch the trio bond in this way and become true friends, rather than arbitrarily pitting them against each other as seems to be happening in the Avengers vs. X-Men showdown glimpsed in the Doomsday trailer.

Even the final battle – traditionally the weakest part of a Marvel movie – is grounded in emotion over spectacle. Both Maguire and Garfield's versions of Peter Parker get to have a moment with their own villains: Maguire with Doctor Octopus and Garfield with Jamie Foxx's Electro. And who could forget the moving moment when Garfield's Peter catches MJ and saves her, after what happened to Gwen Stacy in The Amazing Spider-Man 2?

Then, the trio comes together to stop Green Goblin, with Maguire and Garfield's Spideys stopping Holland's from killing him in his blind rage. All that multiversal chaos comes down to a fistfight, and it's so much better than a massive battle.

The film culminates with its most emotional moment yet, when Peter 1 and Strange are forced to erase all memory of Holland's Peter Parker from his loved ones. It's a gut-punch when Holland's Peter walks away from Ned and MJ and chooses an isolated life in a tiny apartment, which rolls into Brand New Day. Without No Way Home's story, which put Holland's Peter at its heart at every turn, making us care deeply for this incarnation of the wall-crawler and his troubles, it's unlikely Brand New Day – a very grounded, street-level story focusing even more heavily on Peter's state of mind – would have soared to its record-breaking heights at the box office.

Doomsday approaches

Hopefully, Avengers: Doomsday can learn from its multiversal predecessor. The multiverse gives huge opportunities, but it's a character-focused storyline, rather than a crossover that's busy smashing action figures together, that will make the film great.

The Marvel Phase 6 film is bringing together a fascinating mix of characters, and it would be a massive waste if this cast didn't get to have any real, emotional moments with each other when there is so much potential in Downey Jr.'s return following Iron Man's sacrifice, or the comeback of Steve Rogers after his bittersweet goodbye.

So, while No Way Home surely appears on the Doomsday watchlist for its multiversal aspect, it's the character-driven story that Doomsday should be emulating.

Spider-Man: No Way Home is available to stream now on Disney Plus, ahead of the release of Avengers: Doomsday on December 18.

Look ahead with our list of upcoming Marvel movies and check out how to watch the Marvel movies in order ahead of your next rewatch. See you next week as we revisit Black Panther: Wakanda Forever.