In the MCU, Peter Parker, aka Spider-Man, has been through a lot. He fought in the Civil War, took on Mysterio and the flying Vulture, went into space, died and was resurrected, and faced two Spider-Men from different universes as well as a myriad of villains. Despite the richness of his storylines in the MCU, the Spider-Man comic books offered a lot more colorful stories since Spider-Man’s first comic book appearance in 1962.
No matter how enjoyable some of those stories are, one thing is for certain – the MCU will never adapt them, either because the timing for them had passed or because they work with characters that aren’t a part of the MCU at the moment.
5 The Romance Between Peter & Betty Brant
While the MCU gave Peter two love interests – Liz Allen and Michelle Jones – it forsake the idea of pairing Peter with another established MCU character whom he dated in the comics. It’s none other than his classmate Betty Brant. Instead of getting together with Peter, Betty dated his best friend Ned Leeds but only for the duration of their European trip in Spider-Man: Far From Home (2019).
Once the class returned to the USA, Ned and Betty announced to Peter that they had broken up and decided they work better as friends instead. While it’s theoretically possible that Peter and Betty could reunite in the future and work for the Daily Bugle, their comic book romance happened while they were both still in high school and this period of Peter’s life is already over in the MCU.
4 His Relationship With Carol Danvers
For somebody who’s primarily connected to one female character – Mary Jane Watson – Spider-Man dated a lot of other women in the comics. Most of them were civilians, but he also took a shot at dating his fellow superheroes. One such romance was with Carol Danvers. While they were both members of the team New Avengers, they flirted and decided to go on a date.
They went on a few dates, but their relationship didn’t lead anywhere, and they remained on friendly terms. Considering the age difference between Peter Parker and Carol Danvers in the MCU as well as the fact that they only ever interacted with each other in one brief scene in Avengers: Endgame (2019), this is one pairing that’s guaranteed not to happen.
3 The Origins Of The Venom Symbiote
Until recently, the MCU and the Sony movies about Venom stood separately. And even though the latest post-credit scenes made it obvious that Eddie Brock is now a part of the MCU, it’s unlikely that the fans get to see Venom’s origin story as it was presented in the Spider-Man comics. The main reason for this is that Venom (2018) had already done its own version of the origin story, sans Spider-Man, and there’s no reason why the MCU should repeat what’s been done before.
In the comics, Spider-Man gets his hand on the Venom symbiote during a trip to space. Originally, he believes it to be only a super costume with some useful traits, but he eventually discovers the truth. In the Ultimate Spider-Man series, the Venom symbiote is the result of a cooperation between Peter’s father and Eddie Brock’s father (they’re much closer in age than Holland’s Spider-Man and Tom Hardy’s Venom). Either of these stories likely won’t appear in the MCU.
2 The Team-Up With Superman
While the fans of both Marvel and DC can get their fair share of superhero team-ups in the comics, they will never see Spider-Man fight alongside Superman in the MCU…unless a miracle happens. The reason is simple: Spider-Man and Superman belong in separate comic book and movie universes, so in order for the Marvel/DC crossover to happen, the right owners would have to come to an agreement.
What would make the movie crossover even more difficult to create is that the comic book versions called Superman vs. The Amazing Spider-Man and Superman and Spider-Man don’t explain how is it possible that Superman and Spider-Man live in the same world – they just do! And it’s not a stretch to realize that the "they just do" explanation wouldn’t work in the well-thought-out story of the MCU.
1 The Body Swapping Business
Over sixty years of his existence, Spider-Man has been through a lot in the comics. He fought hundreds of enemies and met all sorts of creatures. Even so, the body-swapping stories remain one of the weirdest. In one of them, Spider-Man switches his body with Venom against his will, and then they end up in animal bodies, with Spider-Man becoming a squirrel and Venom becoming a cat. Another body swap happened with Wolverine.
And let’s not all forget the time Doctor Octopus took over Peter’s body and became the Superior Spider-Man. While all of these scenarios would give Tom Holland the chance to show even more of his acting chops, they’re just either too bizarre for the MCU (the squirrel scenario) or work with characters that have yet to play a part in the fictional universe (the Wolverine body-swap).