By Max McAuliff, Opinion Editor
Spider-Man is one of the most iconic superheroes of all time. Created by Jack Kirby and Stan Lee in 1962, the character has been a pop culture icon for decades. So, it only made sense when Sony gave director Sam Raimi the green light to adopt Spider-Man to the big screen. In 2002 the first “Spider-Man” movie starring Tobey Maguire as the web-slinger was released. It was a critical and commercial success, grossing $821 million dollars and arguably kick-starting the modern era of superhero movies.
Maguire went on to play Peter Parker/Spider-Man for two more movies in 2004 and 2007. Due to Sam Raimi pulling out of a planned “Spider-Man 4” due to studio interference, Sony later rebooted the property in 2012 with Andrew Garfield taking over Peter Parker in “The Amazing Spider-Man.” Garfield and Sony would remain together for one more movie, “The Amazing Spider-Man 2” before plans for “The Amazing Spider-Man 3” were called off.
There are a slew of reasons as to why plans for another Garfield Spider-Man movie were called off but that is past the point. Not moving forward with “The Amazing Spider-Man 3” paved the way for Sony (who owns the film rights to Spider-Man) to strike up a deal with Disney (who owns Marvel) to allow Spider-Man to enter the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU).
The MCU is Disney’s crowning achievement the past decade and is a movie universe that consists of numerous Marvel characters such as Iron Man, Captain America, Thor, Hulk, Black Panther and many more.
The new MCU Spider-Man would again be a new take on the character and in 2015 Tom Holland was cast. To this date, Holland has appeared in five movies as Spider-Man. His first appearance came in “Captain America: Civil War” in which he had limited screen time but convinced audiences that he was a great choice to portray the web-head. His other appearances were in “Spider-Man: Homecoming,” “Avengers: Infinity War,” “Avengers: Endgame” and “Spider-Man: Far From Home.” The one thing that is clear after his first five appearances is that Tom Holland is the best iteration of Spider-Man.
To start Tom Holland was cast as Spider-Man when he was 19 years old making him the youngest actor to portray the character. Spider-Man is generally in high school in the comics and casting a young actor to portray a teenager was a better choice than casting 25-year-old Andrew Garfield to portray a high schooler.
Another reason that Tom Holland’s interpretation of the character is so great is that he combines the best elements of Garfield’s and Maguire’s portrayals and combines them into his own. Holland combines the goofiness of Maguire’s portrayal and the seriousness of Garfield’s to create the ideal Peter Parker/Spider-Man.
The last reason that Holland’s Spider-Man is the best is because of the aforementioned deal that Sony and Disney have. There is no question that Spider-Man is better off under Disney and Marvel Studios watch than Sony’s. Because Tom Holland’s Spider-Man exists in the MCU, there are far more story opportunities than if he existed outside of it. Marvel also skipped Spider-Man’s origin story instead of repeating the same trope for what would have been the third time in 15 years.
Tom Holland possesses every aspect that is required to play Spider-Man. Holland is young, energetic, funny, acrobatic and a great actor. He can portray Spider-Man at his best moments and his worst with the skill that Garfield and Maguire just couldn’t emulate. Holland’s portrayal of the web-slinger is not only the best portrayal of the character by far, but one of the best portrayals of a superhero to ever grace the big screen.
mcaulimr18@bonaventure.edu
