This still is wild! (Courtesy of Sony Pictures Entertainment.)
By the way, spoilers.
Who’s Mephisto? According to Marvel Comics, he’s a demon who manipulates reality. He terrorized Wanda during the House of M storyline, and he reversed Peter Parker’s misfortunes. He’s also Satan. Because “Mephisto” is short for “Mephistopheles”, which is one of Satan’s pseudonyms.
I mention this because Mephisto will have been the villain of two sources for MCU projects once this movie premiers. And because he was absent in WandaVision, people are wondering if he’ll debut in Spider-Man: No Way Home. On one hand, it wouldn’t be strange, especially with the direction The MCU has taken. But on the other hand, is he worth having? I don’t think so.
Let’s look at what The MCU did for its previous adaptation of a Mephisto story: in WandaVision, Wanda Maximoff, fresh off the trauma of The Avengers: Endgame, moves to Westview and constructs a sitcom reality. She and Vision move in to their house, become parents to twins and reunite with Pietro. Everything seems hunky-dory, but the cracks keep showing up. It’s eventually revealed that Wanda’s enslaving the citizens of Westview mentally, and she’s even preventing Vision from having agency.
It’d be easy to include Mephisto. He was behind Wanda’s fake reality in the comics! But I applaud The MCU for not doing that, instead having the antagonist be Wanda. It gave her agency, made her sympathetic and helped her learn to grieve. Plus, it gave us one of the best fights in MCU history (outside of the Vision VS Vision battle). Had Mephisto been included, it would’ve felt like a cop-out.
That applies to Spider-Man: No Way Home too. One of the draws of Spider-Man is that-underneath the costume, webbing and snarky quips-he’s a regular guy who was bitten by a radioactive spider and acquired superpowers by accident. Part of that normalcy is that, like every normal person, he isn’t perfect. He’s haughty, he’s naïve, he’s occasionally arrogant and he makes mistakes. Some of those mistakes have big consequences, like when he failed to stop the man who murdered Uncle Ben.
It’d be easy to include Mephisto. He was behind Wanda’s fake reality in the comics! But I applaud The MCU for not doing that, instead having the antagonist be Wanda. It gave her agency, made her sympathetic and helped her learn to grieve. Plus, it gave us one of the best fights in MCU history (outside of the Vision VS Vision battle). Had Mephisto been included, it would’ve felt like a cop-out.
That applies to Spider-Man: No Way Home too. One of the draws of Spider-Man is that-underneath the costume, webbing and snarky quips-he’s a regular guy who was bitten by a radioactive spider and acquired superpowers by accident. Part of that normalcy is that, like every normal person, he isn’t perfect. He’s haughty, he’s naïve, he’s occasionally arrogant and he makes mistakes. Some of those mistakes have big consequences, like when he failed to stop the man who murdered Uncle Ben.
In The MCU’s case, this film’s about Peter accidentally causing a rift in reality while trying to reverse Mysterio’s revelation that he’s Spider-Man. He’s most-likely going to meet alternate versions of himself in an attempt to stop Doctor Octopus and The Green Goblin, and all to take responsibility for this blunder. It’s a cool setup with lots of potential, and it has leeway to include Mephisto. And, once again, I don’t want him there.
I know Mephisto’s popular with comic fans. But not only are most moviegoers unfamiliar with comics, hence this’d be a weird cameo, but The MCU’s ignored accuracy in service of a good story before. They did that with Taskmaster in Black Widow. And with Quicksilver in WandaVision. And even with-actually, considering that The Mandarin’s being retconned for Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, maybe that’s not a great example.
Regardless, The MCU’s unafraid of deviating for the sake of flow. And I admire them for that! Not everything translates well to film, so certain details have to go. Mephisto, who was always iffy, seems like as good a place as any. I know it’ll make some comic fans mad, but it’s true.
I know Mephisto’s popular with comic fans. But not only are most moviegoers unfamiliar with comics, hence this’d be a weird cameo, but The MCU’s ignored accuracy in service of a good story before. They did that with Taskmaster in Black Widow. And with Quicksilver in WandaVision. And even with-actually, considering that The Mandarin’s being retconned for Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, maybe that’s not a great example.
Regardless, The MCU’s unafraid of deviating for the sake of flow. And I admire them for that! Not everything translates well to film, so certain details have to go. Mephisto, who was always iffy, seems like as good a place as any. I know it’ll make some comic fans mad, but it’s true.
Besides, do people want Mephisto in The MCU? As in, do they want his baggage? Because having a character like him robs your protagonist of their agency. He’s not like Mephistopheles from Doctor Faustus, where he kicks off the conflict, he’s a guy who meddles with superheroes. And not even in a good way. Having him here, therefore, would be a bad idea.
What about Doctor Strange? He seems out-of-character in this movie, and he’s the one who kicks off the conflict. Considering that Nick Fury was a Skrull in Spider-Man: Far From Home, why can’t Doctor Strange be Mephisto? I think that question answers itself: if Doctor Strange is behaving unusual, like how Nick Fury was behaving unusual, then chances are he’s also a Skrull; after all, Skrulls are shapeshifters, and it’d explain a lot. It’d also be in-line with how The MCU operates.
I feel like a party pooper, pointing out how Mephisto sucks. But I can’t lie. I don’t think it’s wise to include someone who robs other characters of their agency in a franchise that thrives on good character writing. Perhaps if The MCU figures out how to use him properly for a future story, we can see Mephisto appear. But that’d require tweaking him significantly, and until that happens…well, I think we’ll survive.
What about Doctor Strange? He seems out-of-character in this movie, and he’s the one who kicks off the conflict. Considering that Nick Fury was a Skrull in Spider-Man: Far From Home, why can’t Doctor Strange be Mephisto? I think that question answers itself: if Doctor Strange is behaving unusual, like how Nick Fury was behaving unusual, then chances are he’s also a Skrull; after all, Skrulls are shapeshifters, and it’d explain a lot. It’d also be in-line with how The MCU operates.
I feel like a party pooper, pointing out how Mephisto sucks. But I can’t lie. I don’t think it’s wise to include someone who robs other characters of their agency in a franchise that thrives on good character writing. Perhaps if The MCU figures out how to use him properly for a future story, we can see Mephisto appear. But that’d require tweaking him significantly, and until that happens…well, I think we’ll survive.
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