Spiderman take
This is going to be a quick take on Spiderman. Scroll down to the bottom to skip ahead to the ranking section.
Spiderman was created as an antidote to the perfect superhero. He needs to have personal problems, and relatable struggles as quoted directly by Stan Lee. What makes him great isn't his super strength and powers, but his resilience and his attitude to facing his problems. In live-action, we've seen this version of Spiderman depicted perfectly, many times. What separates them comes down to how well the actors (including animation) portray both sides of Spiderman - The sarcastic superhero, and normal Peter Parker.
The first modern iteration of live-action Spiderman, Tobey Maguire, portrayed a young adult struggling with balancing his life. He was faced with difficult choices to make throughout the trilogy, mostly around the theme of responsibility. He's shown to struggle with doing the right thing versus what he wants for himself. A key moment you can see this in is when Peter throughout Spiderman 2 sacrifices his perfect life at college to be Spiderman. The words of his Uncle Ben "With great power comes great responsibility" shape his development. One thing which was lacking throughout the films was his sarcastic and humorous moments as Spiderman. In the comics, Spiderman uses humour as a defensive mechanism when fighting his enemies. We didn't get to see much of it during this trilogy.
Andrew Garfield's version of Spiderman was quite different in this aspect. His version in The Amazing Spiderman depicted a sarcastic high-school student who was focused on trying to balance being Spiderman, and his relationships with everyone around him. He came across very confident and witty, as opposed to the other versions where he's quite awkward. When we see him in high-school, he rides his skateboard through the halls and appears well-known by peers, which is contrary to Tobey's version being picked on. What made him stand out were the jokes during battle and web swinging. This made watching him much more entertaining. Andrew Garfield showed great emotional depth too. His attempt to save Gwen at the end of the second movie, and his redemption in No Way Home conveyed this. This emotional depth acts as a subtle reminder that Spiderman is human with personal problems, which serves the purpose of the character. I'm a strong believer that the negative takes on Andrew Garfield's portrayal are just failures of the movie plot, rather than the character himself.
Tom Hollands Spiderman combines the best elements of both Tobey and Andrews. He has the nerdiness of Peter Parker, and the sarcasm of Spiderman during battle. Majority of the fans agree that it is the most comic accurate version of Spiderman we have today. Tom's iteration starts off as a young high school student who is immediately recruited by Tony Stark into the Avengers. A lot of people critique this story-line, insinuating that he doesn't have his own story-arc throughout the first trilogy. I have always disagreed on this. While the villains Tom faces are indeed created by the actions of Tony Stark, it is himself who deals with the issues, alluding to his Aunt May's words of power and reponsibility. He also deals with loss and struggle throughout the series. Unlike the previous Spiderman's, Tom is stripped of every support system by the end of No Way Home, forcing him into the lonely hero arc that the audience loves to see him in. Tom portrays Peter growing and maturing to a hero who accepts the burden of responsibility really well. The perfect example of this is his decision at the end of No Way Home. For this reason I believe he's the best live action Spiderman we have to this day.
This isn't a fair comparison due to this spiderman being animated, but Insomniac's version was also very comic accurate. We got a college version of Spiderman which was something the fans definitely needed. The voice acting showed a lot of emotion, particularly in the second game when Peter is infected by the Symbiote. The character design of Peter was adequate, the redesign didn't do them any favours. The large variety of suits we got in this game made it much more enjoyable.
Miles Morales was a great Spiderman too. He has similar struggles throughout the Spiderverse series. He starts off with a lot of self-doubt regarding his new powers. With mentorship from Peter B Parker, and the support system he has around him, he overcomes this. Miles comes with a lot of swagger as Spiderman, which is a great new take. The costume design including his Beats, jacket, and Jordans all show this new modern version. In Across the SpiderVerse, we even see him defeating multiple of the original Spiderman's from different universes. He's still a relatively new character, but he does have the ability to be better than the original in the near future.
Movies
- Spider-Man 2 (2004)
- Spider-Man: No Way Home
- Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse
- Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse
- Spider-Man (2002)
- Spider-Man: Homecoming
- The Amazing Spider-Man
- Spider-Man 3 (2007)
- Spider-Man: Far From Home
- The Amazing Spider-Man 2
Spider-Men
- Tom Holland
- Insomniac Spider-Man
- Tobey Maguire
- Miles Morales (SpiderVerse)
- Andrew Garfield
- Insomniac Miles