Electro's Big Upgrade In Spider-Man: No Way Home Explained
Contains spoilers for "Spider-Man: No Way Home"
Within all of the marketing materials for "No Way Home," the return of villains from previous "Spider-Man" installments has been the main draw. It's nice to see Tom Holland back in Spidey's mask as well as returning favorites like M.J. (Zendaya), Ned (Jacob Batalon), and Doctor Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch), but the inclusion of the multiverse and having villains from Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield's tenures as Spider-Man is just too exciting to ignore.
But while the villains are back, there are some noteworthy upgrades to them, as teased in the trailers. The most notable example of this is Jamie Foxx's Electro. In "The Amazing Spider-Man 2," he's a dorky guy who gets electrocuted by eels. This time around, he's cool, calm, and suave. Not only that, but his powers definitely seem to be supercharged for his latest outing against Spidey. The movie actually provides an explanation for this phenomenon, but you might have missed it between all of the high-flying action sequences.
A new universe and a powerful energy source lead to a supercharged Electro
Electro offers several explanations for his newfound powers. For starters, he makes a vague allusion about how the energy in Tom Holland's universe is different from Andrew Garfield's. It's unclear what precisely this means, but for all intents and purposes of the film, it grants Electro greater access to his powers, meaning he's deadlier than he was in "The Amazing Spider-Man 2."
As if that wasn't bad enough, he gets another upgrade about two-thirds of the way through the film. Peter proves his hypothesis is correct, and he can, indeed, cure the villains of their various ailments. They don't have to be supervillains anymore, which means they can all avoid fates where they perish at the hands of Spider-Man. Unfortunately, Peter decides to conduct these experiments at Happy Hogan's (Jon Favreau) condo, where he also has a spare arc reactor lying around, like the one that was in Tony Stark's (Robert Downey Jr.) chest. He should've kept it in at Fort Knox because Electro gets his hands on it, allowing him to draw even more electrical power.
These two factors combined lead to a powerful foe. Of course, all of that electricity isn't too much of a match when going up against three different Spider-Men.