Stan Lee’s Spiderman is a comic book hero near the hearts of many Americans. His charismatic dynamics make him surely likable, in fact, according PPcorn’s list of most popular superheroes, Spiderman ranks just behind Batman at number two, so it’s no wonder the live action story has rebooted in theatres three times over since the start of the century (nine if you want to count anything prior to the 1980’s). However, this now raises the question, who is the best Spiderman?
Personally I’m fond of the first of a three part film Columbia Pictures put out starring Tobey MaGuire, which could have to do with the nostalgic feeling of remembering the movie. When Spiderman premiered in 2002, the use of CGI (Computer Generated Imagery) took the audience on a realistic, live action perspective of Peter Parker’s life. Seeing Tobey MaGuire swing and fight at real buildings located in New York helped the audience connect with the movie on a deeper level than previous versions. It was like seeing a real life cartoon.
Nonetheless, some parts of Sam Raimi’s version took on a bit of artistic embellishment, which left a lot of comic book fans upset. So a large portion of people prefer the second 21st century reboot starring Andrew Garfield. This film came out nearly a decade after MaGuire’s debut, but Amazing Spiderman stuck closer to the comic book storyline, namely, taking away Peter Parker’s ability to shoot webs from his wrist, and accenting his intelligence. After all, another part that makes Spiderman appealing is the fact that he’s a super genius. Moreover, the comic storyline has Parker creating gadgets and solutions, like his web shooters for instance to overcome his enemies. But a lot of critics weren’t excited about Garfield’s performance in the sequel.
With the combination of unmemorable performance in Marc Webb’s version and the rise of Avenger hysteria, Marvel decided to get in on the Spiderman action by implementing the hero in Captain America Civil War. This third reboot starred Tom Holland and set him up for his own origin movie, Spiderman Homecoming. Marvel has added some creative tweaks to fit Peter Parker in the current Avenger world, but ultimately they kept his fundamental characteristics as close as possible to the comic book. This Spiderman series is gearing up to put Parker in more of a leadership role of the Avengers, and Robert Downey Jr.’s appearances as Iron Man in Holland’s prologue movie drives this idea home.
Nonetheless, all of these Spiderman movies have done the hero justice. Each of the directors put their special touch on the Peter Parker story to create a memorable movie, and each actor did their best to portray their world as accurately as possible, but who do you think is the best Spiderman?
