Spider-Man: No Way Home did a lot of things, and it’s safe to say that more than 95% of its narrative choices were right. Some would like to settle on a hundred because the movie was that good! That’s why it has made big money so far. But moving on, let’s talk about a couple of imperfections that many found in this brilliant Spider-Verse threequel event. Many have pointed out a certain Electro plot hole in the movie, but there’s a possible fix for that.
Spoiler Alert!
Like a typical Spider-Man story, this one was also based on the fallout of Peter’s good intentions. There are many times where he tries to do good, but things get messy. And as he tries to fix that mess, things get even messier until he has to make a personal sacrifice to make everything right. Because MJ, Ned, Aunt May, and Happy were suffering, Pete wanted the world to forget about the fact that he is Spider-Man.
So, he asked Doctor Strange to conjure a spell, but then he botched it 5 times. He said, “Basically everyone who knew I was Spider-Man before should still know.” So as a result of the botched spell, everyone who knew that Peter was Spider-Man started to get pulled into the MCU from different universes. Strange managed to hold almost everyone, but 8 multiversal people and a parasite slipped through. Now, let’s see what was possibly wrong with that.
The Electro Plot Hole
As we all know by now, the three Spider-Men in this movie went up against 5 Spider-Verse villains. Norman Osborn came and he knew about Spider-Man’s secret identity. The same goes for Dr. Otto Octavius, Curt Connors, and Flint Marko. But many of us were left asking how Max Dillon aka Electro knew Spidey’s secret identity. And if he didn’t know, then how did he slip through the multiversal rift? Well, the conversation between Garfield’s Peter and Electro proved that Dillon never saw Spider-Man’s face (he said that he always assumed Spider-Man to be a person of color). But, there’s still a possibility that he knew Spider-Man’s name.
Quite a lot of things were simply implied when it comes to Electro. When he showed up, he was charging himself with the MCU’s “different” electrical surges. And when MCU’s Peter took that power supply away, he turned into a handsome hunka hunka who wasn’t blue anymore. So, the implication was that Electro could turn into a regular human when the energy is drained from his body. And his hair, teeth, and body change were simply addressed as a makeover that the eels gave him. We could have a similar answer for how he knew that Spider-Man was Peter. Again, it could be a plot hole, but there’s a short fix for this.
(Watch it from 2:44)
Back in TASM 2, Harry Osborn obviously didn’t tell Electro about it because he didn’t find out until Electro died. But when Gwen showed up to the grid in the midst of the Spider-Man vs. Electro battle, she referred to Spidey as Peter. So, this is the moment Electro could have heard Peter’s name, and thus became eligible for entering the MCU. This is the only way the Electro plot hole could be solved.
But How Did Eddie/Venom Know?
Electro wasn’t the only one who raised the Spidey Identity question. Venom: Let There Be Carnage’s post-credits scene also pulled Eddie and Venom into the MCU. And there’s an even simpler fix for how Venom knew about Spider-Man’s secret identity. Make no mistake, Eddie clearly didn’t know that Spider-Man is Peter Parker because a Spider-Man probably doesn’t exist in his Universe yet. But Venom must have known because of one important line he uttered in the post-credits scene.
Venom told Eddie, “80 billion lightyears of hive knowledge, across universes, would explode your tiny little brain.” This means that the knowledge of all the symbiotes across the multiverse gets stored in a hive mind. So, Venom actually knew that Spider-Man is Peter Parker through other Venom variants. Topher Grace’s Venom in Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man 3 fought the Web-Slinger and lost. But Grace’s Eddie and his Venom knew the identity of Tobey Maguire’s Spider-Man. Something similar could have happened on several other universes. All that got recorded into the Symbiote hive mind, which is why Venom recognized Spider-Man as soon as he arrived in the MCU.
That’s all for now. Hopefully, you got the answers that you needed.
Follow us for more entertainment coverage on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Letterboxd.
