But Stark’s seeming neglect of him means that when Toomes’ weaponry turns up in Spider-Man’s neighborhood, Peter has to deal with the problem on its own. But he’s on the phone every day, leaving voicemail status reports for Stark’s assistant Happy Hogan (Jon Favreau), and pleading for a chance to be in on the next big Avengers mission. Peter dutifully runs out every day after school to stop bike thieves and give street directions to people who get lost in Queens. As Toomes is taking his protracted revenge for Stark’s dismissal, Peter Parker fights his own frustration with Tony Stark, who’s stonewalling him about further Avengers missions, and refusing to let Spider-Man return to a global stage. But the small scale defines Homecoming’s ambitions. Homecoming makes a bit of a straight-faced joke out of the small scale of Toomes’ operations: eight years after the events of The Avengers, his men are still peddling their supervillain gear out of the backs of trucks, including to a consternated wannabe hood named Aaron (Donald Glover) who was just looking for a simple handgun. With the help of Phineas Mason (The Tinkerer, played by Michael Chernus), two different Shockers (Logan Marshall-Green and Bokeem Woodbine), and his old wrecking crew (though not yet Marvel Comics’ actual Wrecking Crew), Toomes sets himself up as a small-scale weapons manufacturer, stealing recovered Chitauri technology and turning it into handheld gear for the aspiring street criminal. Facing bankruptcy, and furious at the dismissive, preemptory attitudes of Stark’s functionaries, Toomes decides to keep the tech he’s already salvaged, and go into business for himself. Then Tony Stark (aka Iron Man, aka Robert Downey Jr.) swept in and took over the cleanup effort. The Avengers’ fight against the alien force left New York City buried under wrecked Leviathan armor and Chitauri weaponry, and Toomes invested heavily in trucks, men, and gear to fulfill his contract. Michael Keaton), a New York City salvage contractor initially hired to help clean up the mess made by the Chitauri invasion back in 2012’s The Avengers. They’re also personal for Vulture, aka Adrian Toomes (a.k.a. Instead, it feels like a joyous celebration, not just of the MCU’s usual crowd-winning balance of humor and action, but of a little guy’s ability to make a difference, even when, for once, the fate of the world isn’t on the line. The refocusing - part of Sony’s effort to bring its Spider-Man stories in line with the MCU while creating a separate, smaller cinematic universe - should seem like a comedown after Civil War. Even though Spider-Man went toe-to-toe with Captain America and the MCU’s other biggest heroic power players in Civil War, Homecoming is a constant reminder that he’s a newbie hero and a 15-year-old kid, dealing with Spanish tests and chemistry classes as much as he’s dealing with criminal throwdowns. But Peter’s sophomore homecoming dance also plays a significant part in the story, as he sweats over whether to confess his crush on his senior classmate Liz (Laura Harrier), the head of his school’s Academic Decathlon team. The film is a literal homecoming, as Peter Parker, aka Spider-Man (aka Tom Holland), returns to Queens after the epic Berlin battle in his last Marvel Cinematic Universe outing in Captain America: Civil War. The “homecoming” in the title of Spider-Man: Homecoming has two meanings, and they both speak directly to the movie’s small focus.
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