Without a doubt, Marvel's success has had a large part to do with their most beloved and money generating superhero: your friendly neighborhood Spider-Man. After reaching levels of success within the comic book community, Spider-Man was already a big name and was, in fact, the face of Marvel comics; he was the first hero that would come to your mind when you saw New York City.
Marvel made Spider-Man not just a popular hero but also a symbol after their widely successful movie "Spider-Man" in 2002, with Toby Maguire taking the role of Peter Parker and Spidey. Toby Maguire went on to making three films as New York City's web crawler, all three of which (especially the first two) reached what comic book lovers loved about Peter Parker: a nerdy kid who was chasing the girl he loved. Although Maguire's act of Peter Parker perfected the comic-book persona, his Spider-Man act didn't necessarily live up to the lively, witty, ruthless, and hilarious features that came along with being Spider-Man.
Marvel in 2012 decided to revisit the NYC's favorite Super-Hero with their new series "The Amazing Spider-Man," which was portrayed by Andrew Garfield. Garfield's Peter Parker disappointed people; rather than being the nerdy kid who would run after his school bus for blocks, Garfield was a much more attractive, less clumsy, and very much less nerdy version of Peter Parker who easily got the girl of his dreams. But what Garfield perfected was his role as Spider-Man. Garfield was pretty much what most comic-book readers envisioned Spider-Man to be – that very lively, ruthless and hilarious characteristics that Maguire's Spider-Man lacked. "The Amazing Spider-Man" series became a comedy for most fans, and Garfield's crime-stopping attitude was perfect while his representation of Peter Parker was the absolute opposite of what Maguire had perfected.
Although Maguire and Garfield didn't necessarily perfect the Parker/Spider-Man attitudes all in one, 2017's "Spider-Man: Homecoming" did just that. Tom Holland as the young high-schooler who always fantasized about being the superhero that he would spend countless of hours reading about and was still the nerdy kid who had to fight to win the girl he loved. Holland's Peter Parker wasn't all that strong or that impressive; however, once he became Spider-Man, rather than becoming a completely different person, his teenage experience was still causing him to make plenty of mistakes just like any teenage boy would. This is really what this movie tried to emphasize – rather than being that college student who already had experienced a part of his life, Holland was just an ordinary kid and mistakes were bound to happen even you are Spider-Man. Just like any kid, he needed a teacher and someone to guide him into his place, which becomes the perfect representation of what Tony Stark (Robert Downy Jr) does in the movie. No kid can do it all by themselves, so with the help of a mentor, it makes Holland's kiddish clumsiness an amusing and perfect part of what it should be to be such a young Peter Parker. Holland had to focus on doing what kids do – go to school and try to impress the girl he liked, which is exactly what Holland did as Peter Parker.
Despite his clumsy mistakes as Spider-Man, Holland portrayed the witty and active character portrayed by Garfield while being the same but much younger version of Peter Parker that was portrayed by Toby Maguire. He took what each actor had perfected and put it all together, giving 2017's "Spider-Man" a refresh and a much-needed representation of what it meant to be the NYC's favorite superhero. For that reason, Holland's Spider-Man might just be the closest and best representation, and for that reason, this movie will always be an all-time favorite of the series.
