No Way Home Shows Maguire's Spider-Man's View On Revenge Evolved
Tobey Maguire returned as his incarnation of Peter Parker in Spider-Man: No Way Home, with the movie showing the original big-screen Spider-Man has evolved in his views on vengeance. The Multiverse adventure of No Way Home brought villains from past Spider-Man movies into the MCU, but they weren't alone. No Way Home also brought over both Maguire's original Spider-Man along with Andrew Garfield's, both returning to the delight of audiences around the world.
The arrival of the two Spider-Men and their villains into the MCU happened through Tom Holland's Peter Parker trying to re-establish his secret identity after Spider-Man: Far From Home. The spell of Doctor Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch) to accomplish this ends up being botched by some last minute requests by Peter, resulting in the arrival of the villains. With the help of Maguire's "Peter #2" and Garfield's "Peter #3", Holland's Spider-Man sets about sending the villains home, and learns some important lessons along the way.
After Aunt May (Marisa Tomei) is killed by the Green Goblin-dominated Norman Osborn (Willem Dafoe), Holland's Peter is determined to get his revenge. Maguire's Peter imparts his own past tragedy with the killing of Uncle Ben (Cliff Robertson), which was the catalyst to his becoming Spider-Man. Ben's mantra of "With great power comes great responsibility" led Peter to his Web-Slinging life after he'd failed to stop Ben's killer at an earlier opportunity. Going from the original Spider-Man to No Way Home, how Maguire's Peter passes this on to Holland's shows he also has come to view the event that led to Spider-Man differently.
In Sam Raimi's Spider-Man, Peter tracks down Ben's killer Dennis Carradine (Michael Papajohn), who ends up falling out of a window to his death. Peter didn't technically kill Carradine, having just broken his wrist when Carradine pulled a gun on him, with Carradine then tripping out the window. In Spider-Man 3, after learning that Flint Marko a.k.a. The Sandman (Thomas Haden Church) was Ben's actual killer, Peter maintains that he wasn't responsible for Carradine's demise to Mary Jane (Kirsten Dunst). Nevertheless, the way in which Maguire's Peter recounts Ben's death shows that he's come to view it differently in the intervening years.
At the end of Spider-Man 3, Peter learns that Flint was desperate for money to save his dying daughter. While trying to hijack Ben's car during the robbery of the first Spider-Man, Carradine startled Flint into accidentally shooting Ben. Peter tearfully forgives Flint, but No Way Home makes clear that he's had years to reflect on how he felt at the time. Peter learning of the dire situation Flint was in with his daughter's health changed how he viewed his uncle's killer, but he'd also come to realize that he'd tracked down the wrong man originally with Carradine. In meeting Flint again in No Way Home, Maguire's Peter sees his old emotions in the eyes of Holland's Peter.
Peter #2 tells Peter #1 "I got what I wanted" in the death of Carradine, but that it didn't heal his pain. With his personal connection to Norman, Peter #2 also recognizes that he needs to be saved from the Goblin persona himself. Maguire's Spider-Man knows as well as anyone the pain of a loved one being killed, but also knows that Holland's Peter is driven by grief and stops him from killing Norman. With his maturity as a superhero and new perspective on revenge, Maguire's Spidey is a wise guide to Holland's Wall-Crawler in Spider-Man: No Way Home in the movie's team-up of the three Peter Parkers.