Why Peter Parker Can't Use His Powers In Spider-Man 2

In "Spider-Man: No Way Home," fans saw Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield return as their versions of Peter Parker alongside Tom Holland. All three Spider-Men worked together to try to cure the Green Goblin (Willem Dafoe), Sandman (Thomas Haden Church), Electro (Jamie Foxx), the Lizard (Rhys Ifans), and Doc Ock (Alfred Molina). Tobey Maguire's appearance in particular had many callbacks to the original Sam Raimi trilogy from the early 2000s.

One scene in the film hilariously featured the three Spider-Men having a conversation about webbing as they waited for the villains to converge on their location. Garfield's and Holland's Peter both ask questions about the organic webbing of Maguire's Peter as opposed to their own web-shooters they had to make themselves. Maguire's Peter thinks he's being made fun of at first, to which Garfield's and Holland's Peter note their innocent curiosity. Maguire's Peter gives a general explanation that it occurred naturally from the bite and simply comes out of his wrists and nowhere else. Garfield's Peter continues to recall a time when he ran out of webbing and fell from the skies of NYC, and Maguire's Peter proceeds to make another callback to the Raimi films.

He says that he ran out of webbing once too, and when asked about how that could happen by Garfield's Peter, Maguire's Peter simply notes "existential crisis," seemingly referring to events in "Spider-Man 2" where Maguire's Peter actually does lose his webbing and powers for a short period. Was the cause of this truly an existential crisis as Maguire's Peter states?

Based on the events of "Spider-Man 2," existential crisis likely isn't far off from the truth. In fact, a more appropriate term for what Peter went through in "Spider-Man 2" could be "psychosomatic." In the real world, many people suffer from what's called psychosomatic disorder, which is when a psychological condition, such as immense stress, contributes to physical symptoms (via Cleveland Clinic). During "Spider-Man 2," Peter's stress levels were likely incredibly high.

It was getting hard for Peter to balance being Spider-Man and Peter Parker with his loved ones. Mary Jane (Kirsten Dunst) was ready to be with Peter but felt that he didn't have time for her due to him always being late and missing her show due to being Spider-Man (although she didn't know this yet). Harry (James Franco) was angry at Peter for continuing to take pictures of Spider-Man, Aunt May (Rosemary Harris) was going through financial struggles after Uncle Ben (Cliff Robertson) died, and to top it all off, Peter had financial struggles of his own.

Not to mention, immediately before Peter loses his powers, everything happens at once. At an event Peter attends, Mary Jane notes her disappointment in him in a brutal fashion, Harry confronts him and proceeds to slap him in front of a room full of people, and finally, John (Daniel Gillies) proposes to Mary Jane and she says yes.

That would be quite the emotionally traumatic set of events for any person to endure, making Peter's immediate loss of powers almost certainly attributed to a brief psychosomatic condition, or as Peter referred to it, existential crisis.