Here’s what each Spider-Man actor did better than the others.
If more than one actor plays a comic book role, there will always be a debate on which performance stood out as the best. For Batman, it’s Adam West, Michael Keaton, Christian Bale, or Ben Affleck (we don’t discuss the other two). The Joker had Cesar Romero, Jack Nicholson, and Heath Ledger. Those are only a couple on the DC Comics side of things.
On the Marvel Comics side, there haven’t been quite as many different actors taking on the same roles. Mostly because there haven’t been a lot of reboots. Give it another decade or so and we might get another Tony Stark, Captain America, and Thor. We’ve already had three different Spider-Man portrayals.
Which Spider-Man did it better?
The Spider-Man franchise has had a few reboots. First, there was Tobey Maguire – he got the ball rolling and showed how valuable the character is. Next up was Andrew Garfield. While his movies were met with mixed reviews, the overall opinion was that he did a great job. Lastly, we have Tom Holland – an actor that everyone loves and one who has been killing it as Spider-Man in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Despite all of them being good, the discussion on who’s the best will always come up. Rather than say who’s the greatest in general, let’s look at what they did for the character and what they excelled at when it comes to both Peter Parker and Spider-Man.
Peter Parker
Some people see “Spider-Man movie” and forget that a good portion of Spidey’s story is Peter Parker. The guy behind the mask is a bigger part of Spider-Man than the hero. In the beginning, it’s where he received his morals and his drive to save lives. As his life continued, it became the source of a lot of pain. Peter has said on multiple occasions that his Spider-Man life is easier than his personal one – so much so that it even has a name. He calls it, “Parker luck.”
Tom Holland’s portrayal has made the character seem cool. Peter isn’t necessarily cool. His life is tragic and no one’s portrayal was more tragic than Tobey Maguire’s.
The reason Tobey Maguire worked so well was down to the fact that the first three Spider-Man projects were more Peter Parker movies than anything else. We witnessed how bad things were for Peter. Losing his Uncle Ben, not being able to be with the love of his life until the end of the second movie, and almost failing out of college; these are only a few of the emotionally-draining things that Peter went through. We didn’t get into him barely being able to afford to eat or pay rent.
Tobey Maguire did a masterful job showing how tough Peter Parker’s life really is. Holland and Andrew Garfield were also very good, but in terms of telling Peter’s story, Maguire did it the best.
Becoming Spider-Man
After you get bitten by a radioactive spider and get powers (or the Spider-Totem gives them to you), you now have to become Spider-Man. That means a lot of trial and error. You’re going to fail a lot in the beginning. That’s part of the Spider-Man life. There will be missteps while you learn how to web-swing, create a costume, and then battle your first villain. These are all part of the journey to becoming your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man. Out of the three actors to play the role on the big screen, the best one in this respect was definitely Andrew Garfield.
Tom Holland gets an incomplete here. We got him after he got a fancy Tony Stark designed suit. Yes, he still had his hiccups along the way, but he also had a mentor to help him. Elsewhere, Tobey Maguire’s Spider-Man skipped a lot of the time in-between finding his Uncle’s killer and swinging around the city with ease. That leaves Andrew Garfield. In The Amazing Spider-Man, the creators didn’t skip anything Peter would have gone through, showcasing him as he got used to having powers, using them for selfish reasons, messing up police investigations, and almost failing after he injured his ankle.
Spider-Man missed his first web-swing attempt only to be saved by the New York City workers. A lesson Spider-Man forgets is that he can’t always do it alone – he learns this here. If he attempted to do this himself, he wouldn’t have gotten to the Lizard in time. Just another life-changing experience for the Wall-Crawler – one that Garfield brought to life really well.
Balancing two lives
We talked about which actor was a better Peter Parker, but which one epitomized the attempt of balancing both of the lives he lives? Peter can rarely keep the two even. When he does, it’s only a matter of time before something major happens to disrupt it. Let’s look at Spider-Man right before the Marvel Comics’ Civil War. Peter was working with Tony Stark, Spider-Man was an Avenger, and he lived in a high-rise tower with his wife and aunt. Then, things went downhill. Tony talked Peter into revealing his identity to the world, his aunt almost died, and Mephisto took his marriage away. Whenever something good happens, expect the opposite to happen with profound force.
Tom Holland’s Spider-Man has been this in a nutshell. Peter gets an invite to help Tony Stark and he has to fight Captain America (Captain America: Civil War). He finds a girl he likes and she’s the daughter of a supervillain (Spider-Man: Homecoming). And in Spider-Man: Far From Home, Peter comes to terms with his mentor being dead, becomes his own hero, him and M.J. get together, and then Mysterio tells the world that Peter Parker is Spider-Man. Oh, and makes him look like a murderer to boot.
Sure, bad things happened to the other two portrayals of Spidey, but not like this. Tom Holland can make Peter’s life look terrific and then awful within seconds of each other. His facial expressions whenever something bad happens are classic. It’s been said before, but it’s like he was born to play this role. He knows exactly how to look and act during the happy, inspirational, and terrible moments, being a Spider-Man for all seasons that captures Peter’s struggles to perfection.
The quips
Right off the top, Tobey Maguire is taken off the list when it comes to Spidey’s quips. He had a few good jokes, but not nearly enough. Yes, they were funny. Unfortunately, they were too far and few in between. Andrew Garfield, however, was a major step up from his predecessor in that department. He had the jokes and the mannerisms down. The scene in which he stopped the car thief (The Amazing Spider-Man) was one of the funniest Spider-Man scenes we’ve seen in the movies. It was like something right out of the comic books.
Then there was Tom Holland. His jokes were out of this world funny. Get it? Because he made them on different planets! I’ll show myself out.
It’s difficult to choose which of the two most recent Spideys is the funniest. They had their own brand of comedy and were in two completely different franchises. Tom Holland’s Peter is a high school kid who worked with the Avengers, Andrew Garfield’s Peter graduated high school and was starting the next phase of his adult life.
What is worth remembering is that Holland has been in as many movies as Andrew Garfield and Tobey Maguire combined – this gave him more opportunities to nail the character’s quips. The fact that Andrew Garfield’s jokes still hold up against Tom Holland’s says a lot.
Overall, it’s a tossup on which one was better.
Actually being Spider-Man
So, who is the best Spider-Man?
This is going to sound like a cop-out, but it’s even. All three of these actors had different circumstances to deal with. Tom Holland’s version had intergalactic problems as he literally left his own galaxy to help save the universe. Meanwhile, Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield stayed local. This certainly isn’t a bad thing – you have to remember that Marvel Studios is creating a huge universe and wants to ensure that Spider-Man a major part of it. Maguire and Garfield were local heroes who impacted more lives directly. Hence the name Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man.
One scene that wasn’t talked about was in Spider-Man 2. Spider-Man saved dozens of people on a runaway train after a grueling fight with Dr. Octopus. After saving everyone, the passengers were willing to put their lives on the line to protect Spider-Man. Similarly, Andrew Garfield’s Spidey had that touching moment with the young boy, Jack, in the back of the car on the bridge – a moment that spurred Jack’s father on to help him with the cranes later in the movie.
These moments are definitive Spider-Man moments. Tom Holland hasn’t had one like that yet. The damage to the boat in Spider-Man: Homecoming was caused by him. It was a heroic moment, yes, but can we count it since it was his irresponsibility that caused it?. While Tom Holland’s version saved more people with the Avengers in Avengers: Endgame, he hasn’t been allowed to have the same personal touch as the others.
In conclusion…
Say what you will about each of the Spider-Man projects, but they were all good in their own way. Well, except Spider-Man 3 – we don’t discuss that movie! All of them gave us a different kind of Spidey. Tobey Maguire’s was about Peter Parker struggling to exist in Spidey’s world of power and responsibility – a mission that leads to a lot of heartache for Peter. Andrew Garfield’s was more like the comic book and could have produced one of the best comic book movies ever if he had stronger villains to work with. And Tom Holland has been flawless from start to finish.
Each of these actors gave us different versions of Spider-Man. We’ll continue to debate who was better even after there’s a new live-action Peter Parker. We’ll argue about it even more when Miles Morales makes his eventual debut in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. All that said, each of them were amazing for different reasons. One was funnier than the others, another had better fight scenes and villains, and the other nailed the characterization so much more. With that in mind, there’s one thing we should do: Let’s appreciate the joy each of them they gave us – and also hope that we see them all together in a future Spider-Verse project.
What do you think? Which Spider-Man was your favorite? Let us know in the comments below!