Discipling Spider-Man: No Way Home and Youth Ministry
Photo by Clay Banks on Unsplash
Since its release at the box office in December 2021, Spider-Man: No Way Home has climbed the charts faster than its titular superhero can crawl up a wall. As of this writing, No Way Home ranks as the domestic market’s third-highest grossing film of all time. This fact alone invites theological analysis, but an explicitly Christian reference in the film practically demands it. If you hate Spidey, spoilers, or spiritual reflections on superheroes, now’s the time to quit reading. Otherwise, hold tight as this essay swings into action!
Why We Heart This Movie
While theaters are still struggling to recover from moviegoers’ pandemic jitters, why has No Way Home performed so well? I’d suggest a few reasons:
It’s a nostalgic reunion of all the Spidey-related flicks from the past two decades. As the film opens, Spider-Man (played by Tom Holland) has had his secret identity as high schooler Peter Parker exposed to the world. He’s so desperate to regain his privacy that he asks fellow superhero Doctor Strange to cast a spell that will memory-wipe everyone but a select few (like Peter’s best friend and his girlfriend). Instead, a series of magical mishaps summons other Spider-Men and associated supervillains from parallel universes: the original silver-screen Spidey (Tobey Maguire), Green Goblin, Doctor Octopus, and Sandman from the 2002–2007 trilogy, as well as the second cinematic webslinger (Andrew Garfield), Lizard, and Electro from the 2012–2014 duo of Amazing Spider-Man films. There are also nods to 2018’s Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse and the 2018–2021 Venom movies.
Holland’s Peter Parker faces situations we can sympathize with:
loss of privacy ironically paired with a sense of isolation
society polarized over whether he’s a hero or a menace (with conspiracy theories to boot!)
the aggravative effect of toxic media
loss of family as Peter’s Aunt May dies from the Green Goblin’s attack
estrangement from even a best friend and girlfriend when Doctor Strange finally recasts the forgetting spell with no exceptions to its enchantment.
Peter’s troubled world holds a mirror to our own.
All three Spideys have satisfying character arcs. I’ll unpack this point below, but suffice it to say that each of them makes the progress he needs. What’s more, they do so together. Traditionally, Spider-Man has been a lone(ly) superhero, iconic in his isolation. He either hides his heroic identity even from loved ones or else loses them tragically (or both!). When the trio of Spider-Men meets one another, however, they make up a social network of understanding based on shared experience. It’s in the context of this Spider-support group that each one develops as a character. It’s also by working together that they “save” all five supervillains.
In short, No Way Home fosters hope and builds community—both in the film and among the Spider-fans watching it—to counteract the prevailing despondency and alienation. It doesn’t ignore evil but overcomes it with good. And at the crux of its plot stands a figure with a distinctly Christian profile.
The Making of a (Masked) Minister
Soon after Tobey Maguire’s Peter Parker enters the film, another character comments that he looks like a “cool youth pastor.” Casual viewers might take this as a throwaway gag line, maybe even a cheap shot at the church. Actually, it’s a hat tip to the Christian themes threaded throughout Maguire’s trilogy—themes I’ve explored at length in my chapter in the recently-released Theology and Spider-Man. My main point there is that the trilogy shows Spider-Man learning to overcome the three sources of sin in classical Christian teaching: the world, the flesh, and the devil. Now that Maguire’s web-head has won some wisdom, his next developmental task is to pass it on to the younger Spider-Men in No Way Home. Like a good youth pastor, he mentors them. Let’s watch how he does it.
Ministry to the “Lame”
Maguire’s character may be a “cool youth pastor,” but Andrew Garfield’s is a “lame” Spider-Man. That’s what he calls himself in No Way Home, and the label fits on two levels. Garfield’s career as the wallcrawler stalled after only two movies due to the poor performance of The Amazing Spider-Man 2, leaving his character arc and other plot points dangling like torn cobwebs. In addition, when he meets the other Spider-Men, Garfield’s character has been lamed by more loss than they’ve experienced. He feels keenly the childhood loss of his parents in a way that Maguire’s and Holland’s characters don’t. Death also claims his Uncle Ben, his girlfriend’s father, and then—despite his attempt to stop her fatal fall—his first love herself, Gwen Stacy. A sense of guilt over his role in these last three deaths compounds his grief. He continues dutifully fighting crime, but his heart’s not in it. He’s burned out and broken inside.
The “youth pastor” steps in and encourages this “lame” Spider-Man to recognize his own value and open himself up to the possibility of a life after Gwen. The encouragement pays off when the girlfriend of Holland’s Peter falls from a height. Garfield’s Spidey saves her, succeeding where he previously failed with Gwen. The “lame” has found healing.
Ministry to the Juvenile
If Maguire’s character plays the role of “youth pastor,” Holland’s is definitely the youth. Throughout the films in which he’s appeared, he often acts less as a Spider-Man than a Spider-Fanboy—whether of sci-fi movies, other superheroes, or even himself. His immaturity stands out at the start of No Way Home, when he looks for a literal “magic cure” that will make his problems go away. His journey toward adulting moves through stages that both compare and contrast with the supervillains he confronts:
Electro and Sandman, the two baddies from working-class backgrounds, are just trying to catch a break from being hassled by the system. That’s the same reason Peter appeals to Doctor Strange to erase the world’s memory of his secret identity. Once Strange’s miscast spell conjures up villains, however, Peter is shocked by the good Doctor’s plan to send them back even though some face certain death on the other end. Aunt May teaches Peter a better ethic: he’s responsible to use his powers to help people. May’s morals launch Peter toward his next stage of maturation.
Like Peter at his second stage, Doctor Octopus and the Lizard are idealists. Both are scientists intent on helping humankind through their inventions: Doc Ock by developing clean, renewable energy; the Lizard by genetic engineering. But both use their altruistic ends to justify criminal means. Peter’s temptation differs from theirs. A science nerd himself, he and the other two Peters quickly formulate antidotes for all five villains’ afflictions so they can be rehabilitated. But once his efforts to help them get his aunt killed, he wants to toss responsibility and take revenge. Here’s where the “youth pastor” intervenes. Based his own experience with his Uncle Ben’s murderer, he warns Holland’s Peter that vengeance isn’t worth it. He must stay true to the family moral code: great power means great responsibility.
The final stage of Peter’s development brings him into climactic battle with his archenemy, the Green Goblin. Earlier in the film, the Goblin had noted their similarities: both he and Peter are science-minded and superior in power to the rest of humanity. But the Goblin’s alter ego is wealthy CEO Norman Osborn, who’s accustomed to preeminence and control. As the Goblin, he’s crazed by a megalomaniacal will to power, craving to dominate the world for his own gain. His murder of Aunt May springs from sheer spite toward Spider-Man. Even after saving the other villains, Holland’s Spidey nearly yields to hate and stands poised to kill the Goblin. Again the “youth pastor” intervenes, stepping between them and calling for mercy—before being literally stabbed in the back by the Goblin. But the intercession is successful. Holland’s Spider-Man cures Osborn rather than killing him. And laying down his right to revenge sets up Holland’s character for his ultimate act of self-abnegation: faced with the widening disruption of the multiverse, he has Doctor Strange cast a universally effective amnesia spell no matter the cost to Peter’s relationships. Where the Goblin sought to gain the world to feed his ego, Peter makes himself nothing to save the world. It’s an adult decision. It’s a fundamentally Christlike self-sacrifice (see Philippians 2:5–8). And it's made through the influence of a “youth pastor.”
Great Parable, Great Responsibility
Spider-Man: No Way Home is a mostly secular story. But it’s also a parable pointing beyond itself. The gospel offers real-life hope, hope grounded in the true story of a Savior above all superheroes who gave up his life for a world of villains. The church at its best offers genuine community where that gospel is celebrated, brokenness is healed, and childish things are put away for moral and spiritual maturity. Youth pastors mediate this real hope and real community (and suffer real wounds, too). Sorry, Spidey, but that’s a much greater power and greater responsibility.
Jerome Van Kuiken is Dean of Ministry and Christian Thought and Professor of Ministry and Christian Thought at Oklahoma Wesleyan University.