Everything you need to know before seeing the new 'Spider-Man' movie

It's kind of hard to believe, but Jon Watts' Spider-Man: Homecoming marks the 16th feature film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. The major comic book franchise has come a long way since Tony Stark built an arc reactor in a cave with a bunch of scraps, and while there are plenty of hardcore fans who hang on every detail, there are many who find themselves lost in the constantly expanding continuity. It's those latter individuals who we hope to help with this feature.

Below and on the next few pages we've put together this guide explaining absolutely everything you need to know about the Marvel Cinematic Universe before buying your ticket for Spider-Man: Homecoming. It's completely SPOILER-FREE, so don't worry on that front, and prepare for an in-depth analysis of some of the most important people and events to learn about prior to seeing the latest Marvel blockbuster.

We haven't seen the specific origin of Tom Holland's Spider-Man play out in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, but his small part in Captain America: Civil War did clue us in to what he's all about. Like most Peter Parkers before him, this one lives in Queens, New York with his Aunt May (Marisa Tomei), and uses both powers courtesy of a radioactive spider bite and his own creative ingenuity to stop street level crime in the city. He's also by far the youngest superhero in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, as he's only a sophomore in high school.

Peter started suiting up in a homemade costume and practicing "with great power comes great responsibility" shortly after the death of his Uncle Ben, but his hero game gets taken up a few notches when Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) takes him in as part of the Stark Internship Program (which winds up suiting as a nice cover story for Peter to tell Aunt May and his friends in Spider-Man: Homecoming). Thanks to his participation in the Leipzig-Halle Airport battle against Captain America, he has a fancy Stark-designed Spider-Man suit to work with -- and as you'll see in the new solo film, it provides him with an impressive number of cool tricks kept up his sleeve.

The Age of Heroes was arguably ushered in with the arrival of Tony Stark's Iron Man in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, but it wasn't really until a few years later that the world would truly change forever. Following the instructions of the galactic overlord Thanos, the Asgardian prince Loki (Tom Hiddleston) led an alien invasion of Chitauri to not only invade the streets of New York, but take over planet Earth. What they did not count on, however, was the unification of The Avengers: Iron Man, Captain America, Thor, Hulk, Hawkeye, and Black Widow.

Thanks to the strength of the superhero team, the Chitauri invasion was contained to New York -- but boy did they make one hell of a mess. Air assault vehicles and massive Leviathans not only completely destroyed buildings and sections of Manhattan, but even when everything died as a result of the mothership exploding there was still a whole lot of clean-up required. This was terrible for many, but it turns out one man who wound up trying to benefit from the disaster was none other than Adrian Toomes (Michael Keaton). As audiences will learn in Spider-Man: Homecoming, however, this plan doesn't wind up going quite how he wants.

Tony Stark has gone through quite a lot in the last nine years. At first he was an arrogant billionaire who sold weapons without caring about consequences. Then he was reformed and became an independent superhero... but that was followed by a bout of intense paranoia regarding the end of the world, leading to him nearly destroying it himself with the creation of Ultron. Most recently -- which is to say in Captain America: Civil War -- he has become far more conservative, and a staunch supporter of control over superhero activities. This goes a long way in defining the particular relationship he has with Peter Parker throughout Spider-Man: Homecoming.

While Tony did give Peter a special Spider-Man suit so that he could be of assistance in the aforementioned Leipzig-Halle Airport battle, he by no means wants the young Queens teenager to go out and start trying to save the world. He's seen far too much collateral damage for one decade, and doesn't want to see a kid putting people in harm's way while trying to play "hero." A perfect example of this is the fact that he keeps metaphorical training wheels on the capabilities of Peter's suit -- though he doesn't count on Peter's intelligence allowing him to find a way to get around those protocols.