In the worlds of superhero comic books, one regular fixture in their narratives is the open possibility of retroactive continuity or retcon. This means a plot point in a story could be revised when that storyline is revisited in a future issue. Was the treatment given to Steve Rogers to make him Captain America in the old comics injected to him, drunk or irradiated? The 2011 film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe with Chris Evans combined injection and radiation. That’s a ret-con.
Now a more recent example has popped up regarding “Spider-Man: Homecoming” that posits Peter Parker (Tom Holland) having appeared as a child in “Iron Man 2” back in 2010.
After bouncing the idea with Marvel Studios chief Kevin Feige, a child extra from that same film has been touted as the boy Spider-Man.
Cute shout-out
“Iron Man 2” was the third film to come out of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, still nascent as of 2010. One scene in the final stretch of the movie shows a stampede at the Stark Expo in Queens, New York. A hacked humanoid Hammer drone, programmed to destroy Iron Man, chances upon a boy of about age 9-10 wearing an Iron Man Mask and light-up repulsor prop glove. The kid aims at the drone, causing it to aim back at the boy, and is then destroyed by Tony Stark who tells the plucky lad “Nice Work, kid.”
It should be noted that at the time, Sony-Columbia had the film rights to Spider-Man.
As of 2010 they were vacillating between making a fourth film with Tobey Maguire or to reboot the franchise. They would do the latter two years later, with Andrew Garfield replacing Maguire. Now that the rights to Spidey are shared between Sony and Marvel again, current Spider-Man actor Tom Holland has decided to espouse the long-running fan theory that the boy in the expo at “Iron Man 2” was a shout-out of Peter Parker as a boy when Marvel itself can’t use him in the film.
Fan-fiction comes true
If the span between Marvel Cinematic films is the same as the passing of in-universe time, then Peter Parker (Tom Holland), who was 15 in his first appearance in “Captain America: Civil War” last 2016, would be nine during the events of “Iron Man 2.” Holland actually brought up the issue with Marvel Studios head Kevin Feige and made a statement Monday, June 26.
"I literally had a conversation with...Feige only 20 minutes ago,” he said. “I like the idea that Peter Parker has been in the universe since the beginning."
“Spider: Man Homecoming” starring Holland and directed by Jon Watts will premiere on July 7. Watts himself is a proponent of the idea that the “Iron Man 2” kid was a boy Peter Parker. Said kid extra was portrayed by “Iron Man 2” director Jon Favreau’s son.
