One fight inSpider-Man: No Way Homewas teased 18 years before the film’s release.No Way Home’smultiversal premise sees not only five classicSpider-Manmovie villains brought to theMarvel Cinematic Universe, but both of their respective Spider-Man variants as well.No Way Homebrought three generations of cinematic Spider-Man iterations together, but its melding of the Sam Raimi, Marc Webb, and MCUSpider-Manfranchises also led to fascinating interactions between Spider-Man variants and supervillains from other realities. One such conflict has an interesting history in theSam RaimiSpider-Manuniverse.
In the third act ofNo Way Home, all three Spider-Man iterations fight together to defeat and depower Sandman, The Lizard, and Electro. Early on in this sequence, Tobey Maguire’s Spider-Man is shown battlingThe Amazing Spider-Manuniverse’s Lizard, with the web-slinger more than holding his own against the antagonist. Fascinatingly, there were two previous instances of Maguire’s Spider-Man fighting The Lizard in some form, with the first being in a spinoff that is only tied to the first Raimi movie, while the second is set in ancillary material that is connected tothe MCU timelineandNo Way Home.
Spider-Man’s First Lizard Fight Isn’t Quite Canon
2003’sSpider-Man: The New Animated Serieswas originally intended to be the canonical follow-up to 2002’sSpider-Man. The series is set a year after the first Sam Raimi film and directly references it in its 13-episode run. Despite this,the series has many irreconcilable continuity conflicts withSpider-Man 2andSpider-Man 3, making it part of a branching timeline, similar to the MC2 comics which overlap with Marvel’s 616 universe until the end ofThe Clone Saga. One of the many continuity issues withSpider-Man: The New Animated Seriesconcerns Curt Connors and his transformation into The Lizard.
The canonical novelization ofSpider-Man 2establishes that Dr. Curt Connors was a combat medic who lost his arm to a mortar during a battle.
In the show’s third episode – “Law of the Jungle” – Doctor Curt Connors is established to have lost his arm while working for Oscorp Technologies, leading him to experiment with regenerative serums to regrow the limb, resulting in his accidental transformation into The Lizard. As The Lizard, Connors seeks revenge against Oscorp (including Harry Osborn) and his eventual battle with Spider-Man ends with Connors dying. This, of course, means thatThe New Animated Seriesis not part of the same continuity as the rest of the Raimi trilogy.
Spider-Man Fought The Lizard Offscreen In Spider-Man 3
Like the novel adaptations, the RaimiSpider-Mantrilogy’s video game adaptations are canonical parts of the franchise, with the games adapting the films’ respective plots but also adding new characters and storylines to the main Raimi continuity. Thanks to the video games, novelizations, and spinoff comics,the RaimiSpider-Manuniverse has far moreSpider-Manvillains– and other Marvel superheroes – than the movies suggest.TheSpider-Man 3video game specifically has Dr. Curt Connors become The Lizard, battle Spider-Man on multiple occasions, and be curedof his transformation during the events of the movie.
Since the broad strokes of theSpider-Man 3game’s extra storylines do not contradict the movie, they can be accepted as canon, but the unmadeSpider-Man 4could have contradicted the game, perhaps making the Lizard storyline non-canon.Spider-Man 4would have featured several supervillains, including The Vulture, Black Cat, and The Lizard. The movie most likely would have had a different version of Connors’s transformation into the Lizard and conflicts with Spider-Man, and the Spider-Man 3 game’s version of the same events would most likely not have been referenced.
Spider-Man’s Previous Fight With The Lizard Makes No Way Home More Meaningful
Viewers who wished to see The Lizard inSam Raimi’s Spider-Man 4no doubt found Maguire’s battle with theAmazinguniverse’s Lizard to be cathartic, but theSpider-Man 3game makes their fight even more meaningful. The Raimi universe’s Spider-Man is the most experienced of the three Spider-Man variants inNo Way Home, making his relative nonchalance during the battle appropriate. The fact thatMaguire’s Spider-Man has already fought his universe’s version of The Lizard – and cured him – over a decade beforeSpider-Man: No Way Homemakes his composure and the movie fight itself even more meaningful.
Spider-Man: No Way Home
Cast
For the first time in the cinematic history of Spider-Man, our friendly neighborhood hero is unmasked and no longer able to separate his normal life from the trials and tribulations of being a superhero. In Spider-Man: No Way Home, Peter Parker (Tom Holland) asks for help from Doctor Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch) when his identity becomes a problem for the ones he loves. Unfortunately, when the spell goes wrong, Spider-Man will now have to face off with villains such as Doctor Octopus (Alfred Molina) and Electro (Jamie Foxx) as Peter finally comes to terms that he can’t run from being Spider-Man. Supported by his close friends and help from an unexpected place (or multiverse), Spider-Man will go toe-to-toe with some of the most legendary foes in his storied history.
