Nearly Two Decades of Web Swinging on the Big Screen

With the release of Spider-Man: No Way Home on the horizon, interest has been renewed in the Spider-Man franchise. The new movies may be flashy and well made, but we can’t forget where it all started.

Tobey Maguire was the first actor to portray Spider-Man on the big screen, therefore, laying down the building blocks for the future of the franchise. His Spider-Man was considerably more fun and loving than his successors. Maguire also differs from them by the fact that his webs were organic and actually shot from his wrists, instead of a web shooter mechanism.

Andrew Garfield took over as Spider-Man in 2012 with the release of The Amazing Spider-Man. Garfield’s Spider-Man was darker in tone and gave greater emphasis to the villains. Overall, he is considered the least popular of the three Spider-Man actors. This could possibly be due to the Amazing Spider-Man series being discontinued after only two movies. This could also be due to the middling reviews of the movies given by critics.

After Garfield’s two films and the success of the MCU, a deal was struck between Marvel and Sony to add Spider-Man to the MCU. The deal led to Tom Holland taking up the web as the newest Spider-Man. Holland’s movies include Captain America: Civil War; Avengers: Infinity War; and Avengers: Endgame, and they’ve shown this new Spider-Man grow from being childish to mature as the movies have gone on.

Since the newest movie is approaching release date, 105 BHS students were asked who their favorite Spider-Man was. The least favorite spider was Andrew Garfield who received only 15.2 percent of student votes. Additionally, Tobey Maguire was no match for Tom Holland, with Holland receiving 57.1 percent of student votes. Tobey Maguire fell behind with half of Holland’s votes, yet almost double Garfield’s.

Tom Holland, the favorite Spider-Man of BHS, is starring in Spider-Man: No Way Home, the newest release in the MCU trilogy of Spider-Man films. This film sees the return of many old villains from previous movies, such as Doc Ock, Green Goblin and Electro. The movie will be released December 17 of this year.