After the first trailer for Spider-Man: No Way Home dropped I decided to return to specific Spider-Man (SM) comics in order to find out what, if any, storylines Marvel might decide to use. These two storylines, one in Ultimate SM and the other in Symbiote SM had some interesting nuggets that one could argue might be found in the trailers released thus far. Stay with me for the journey...
In the Ultimate SM story, SM goes to see Doctor Strange (DS) and witnesses Wong working some magic on DS. SM thinks Wong is attacking DS and crashes through the circle window (that happens to be its own protection spell, but I'll come back to that). SM is knocked out, has some super weird dreams about past people: Uncle Ben, Gwen Stacy, etc...basically everyone who has died around him or he fears will die around him. The dreams start attacking him and DS pops in and rescues him from Nightmare (who was the one attacking him in his knocked out/dream state).
Come to find out DS had been suffering sort of a PTSD from a previous terrible thing (can't remember now, but I'm sure I'll be reminded) and had been trying to meditate. However, you discover, he hadn't used a protection charm on himself and in his sleep meditation he can be attacked by evil beings from other dimensions (Nightmare, Hobgoblin, Mordo, etc). So, SM had witnessed Wong trying to rescue DS from the possession. When he crashed through the window and got knocked out, Nightmare dipped from DS to SM.
In the Symbiote SM (Alien Reality, to be specific), DS goes to the Arctic, finds the Book of God (not to be confused with the Bible...lol) and takes it back to his place. Then it shows SM fighting Kraven, reality shifts quickly and next thing you know SM and Kraven are buddies. This freaks SM out and he's like "This shit is kooky, I need answers, better go see DS..."
Wong answers, says DS isn't here, but someone else can help you, opens the door. and it's Hobgoblin (not Green Goblin) and Hob is like "Surprise, bitch". SM ends up getting away from him and rescued by a homeless looking DS in an alley. DS explains that he was chillin' back at the Sanctum after finding the GodBook when some guy came to the door, blew some magic at him making him pass out. (Seems sort of weak on his part, but I digress). DS wakes up to find out the dude had stole the GodBook.
DS tells SM, I don't have my magic stuff, but I can teach you a part of what I know and you'll have to go back to fight this guy (sort of a dick move...but...ok....). SM says fine, but while this new reality is happening I'm gonna go see Aunt May while I'm still alive. Goes to her house and discovers Uncle Ben is alive in this new reality as well. So he starts thinking "Should I change reality back...it's not so bad", but Hob shows up, blows the house up and kills May.
SM heads back to DS and decides to help. So they trek to the Arctic again (where they run into Morbius), DS teaches him some tricks, and after a bit of time head back to the Sanctum. SM does some razzle-dazzle and is attacked by Mordo. DS shows up sprays Mordo with mace (which cracks me up for some reason), gets knocked out, but him and SM eventually escape. They decide to go to Nightmare for help because they think Nightmare might be hiding the GodBook for Mordo. DS has SM think of terrifying things (he just really likes to eff with this kid, right?) so they can pop into Nightmare's realm. Nightmare f*cks with them (shocking) because he doesn't have the book and meanwhile, Mordo destroys the book. DS is like "well, we're f*cked", but SM says "humanity created God, so we can recreate the book by thinking of God". Nightmare tries to convince SM that he could create himself as God in the GodBook, but SM doesn't and the GodBook is recreated. DS fights and beats Mordo. Boom. Done.
Soooooo the things I take away from all of this:
DS and SM can be possessed by evil beings (*cough cough* Scarlet Witch)
Nightmare has brought back all of SM foes to fight against him
If the window seal is broken it leaves the current universe under attack from any evil dimension monster (I think Hulk might've broken this same window in IW)
There's a book out there that dicks up reality (I know there's more than one) and seeing as we've been introduced to the DarkHold recently...
Mordo is still out there, so don't rule him out in messing with anything concerning DS
Someone who is wanting reality changed to benefit them (*cough cough* Scarlet Witch) might make deals with other dimensional characters to get what he or she wants
Right now, DS is still one of THE most powerful magical beings, so an annoying child isn't going to screw up a magic spell.
I don't think Wanda created the multiverse, but with Loki/Kang breaking it, the possible weakening of DS and her messing with reality...leads to chaos
I think SW is a big factor, whether she possesses DS or has something else do it, she needs him out of commission to achieve her goal of messing with reality and as we heard DS previously tell Tony Stark "I protect your reality, douchebag", he takes that quite seriously.
I'm sure I'll have more theories after the movie comes out, but "research" takes time...lol
Very interesting theories. When I watched the trailer I saw the symbiote costume and I wonder if this is how Venom will be introduced into the MCU. Also, Morbius comes out about a month later so I wonder if that might add anything to SM (as you say 🙂) and his story.
If the MCU did a Midnight Sons series on D+ I think I'd lose my freaking mind.