Tom Holland’s Spider-Man is the current star of the MCU, especially after the release of Spider-Man: No Way Home in 2021. Holland's Peter Parker is personable, funny, and good to the core, as all superheros should be. He has a very iconic Spider-Man suit in every MCU film, from the homemade suit in Homecoming to the black and red number in Far From Home. In No Way Home, the classic Spider-Man aesthetic was turned on its head, and we got many new suits for both the wall-crawling hero and his villainous counterparts.
Spider-Man's black suit, in particular, was a standout suit in No Way Home. When it first appeared in the film's promotional materials, fans speculated the meaning of the black suit, especially since the last time we saw a Spider-Man wear one, it was in Tobey Maguire's Spider-Man 3 and fused with Venom's symbiote. Naturally, some theories suggested Venom's possible appearance in No Way Home, while others supported the idea that it was a magical suit created by Doctor Strange. These theories, of course, all turned out to be wrong. Here's what Tom Holland's black Spider-Man suit in No Way Home really means.
Why Did Spider-Man Have a Black Suit in No Way Home?
Over the course of No Way Home, Spider-Man wore a variety of suits for different reasons. At the beginning of the film, Spider-Man is in his classic red suit, as seen in Far From Home. This becomes a problem when the public adopts a twisted perception of the hero, as a result of Mysterio's leaked video of his alleged murder by Spider-Man. As a result, Spider-Man switches to the Iron Spider Suit. This, in turn, poses its own problem when he faces Doc Ock for the first time, as the villain's mechanical arms absorb the nanotechnology that makes the Iron Spider Suit so special.
Despite the rampant theories fans came up with before the release of the movie, the real reason why Tom Holland’s Spider-Man suit is black in No Way Home is incredibly simple. After the bombshell ending of the previous film in the trilogy, in which Mysterio revealed Spider-Man’s identity, the public didn’t trust the friendly neighborhood Spider-Man anymore. As a result, the very visible red suit made Peter Parker’s life as the superhero very difficult. So, for a quick fix, he turned the suit inside out, resulting in the appearance of a black Spider-Man suit. Peter uses this suit to capture Electro and Sandman as he otherwise had no other viable suit to wear.
The black suit was quickly changed out for a different suit, and later in the movie he has a brand-new suit with gold accents. Amongst a plethora of iconic suits, Spider-Man's black suit is one of the shortest lived, but is regardless one of the most memorable looks from No Way Home. It’s a complete reversal of the bright color scheme of the first two movies in the trilogy and represents a darker time in our protagonist’s life. The black suit is the perfect metaphor for the darkness of No Way Home, and we love it.