(Warning: This post contains spoilers)
Much of that subtext is expressed through the character of Adrian Toomes—the man behind the metallic mask of Spidey’s nemesis Vulture. No one utters the unholy name of Donald Trump in Homecoming, but Toomes clearly embodies the “white working-class voter” the media has obsessed over ever since the 2016 election—the alienated blue-collar middle-aged white guy we’re told voted for Trump due to economic anxiety, racism, sexism, xenophobia, or some combination of all those attributes.
When we next see Toomes, it’s eight years after he steals the alien technology, and the movie implies he’s already made a healthy living as the Vulture: a thief and black-market arms dealer who’s not afraid to threaten those who stand in his way. His criminality, however, plays out on a much smaller scale than we’re used to seeing in comic book flicks. He’s not interested in committing violent acts (much less world domination) just using his ill-gotten gains to secure the kind of comfortable life that society promised him if he worked hard enough: A happy marriage, a big house in the suburbs, his kid in a good school.
