How Marvel ruined Spider-Man?

Spider-Man has been one of the most popular characters around decades. It is considered the best of all superheroes. The legendary Stan Lee said that Spider-Man is his favorite of all the superheroes he has known, and created. However over some past years, it has been more of a complex character to make a movie on. The first Spider-Man series also known as Spider-Man trilogy, ended in 2007 after the arrival of Spider-Man 3. Later the Amazing Spider-Man came into picture which ended by The Amazing Spider-Man 2. And then now, we have MCU Spider-Man which first appeared in Captain America: Civil War and is still continuing.

But when I look back since the very beginning, I really feel like time to time Spider-Man movies are becoming less entertaining. And specifically, I am talking about Tom Holland’s version of Spider-Man. I honestly haven’t watched The Amazing Spider-Man and I’ll tell ya why. So, how did Marvel ruin Spider-Man, which is such an iconic character in superhero world? Hi, I’m the Researcher and I’m gonna be tracing Spider-Man movies from past to present.

SPOILERS ALERT!

Before I start, let me be clear. Tom Holland's performance is good. I believe MCU Spider-Man movies are pretty good movies. The problem is they don't show what this character represents. They are entertaining, I can’t deny; but my point is if they were a Spider-Man movie, they would’ve been a lot more entertaining. My personal favorite is Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man.

Currently, Spider-Man Homecoming and Spider-Man Far From Home are the only MCU Spider-Man movies. The third instalment: Spider-Man No Way Home, is still in development and will hit theatres in December. Rumours about Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield’s return are active.

The Meaning of the Character

Peter Parker as per comics, is a teenage geeky outcast studying in high school. He gets bullied quite of times. After getting bitten by a radioactive spider, he gains superpowers. But still, life never seemed easy. He had to struggle in all aspects of his life, like struggling with girls, money problems, etc. The fact that he didn't had enough money is a central feature of Peter Parker in comics.

When he puts on his suit, he becomes a bold and heroic character whose heart beats for responsibility. He looks out for the neighborhood, that causes him in conflict with villains. All the people associated to him in some way or the other, remain in danger. Gwen Stacy's death is a great example. Here's what Stan has to say on the character:

Does the MCU Spider-Man shows the above characteristics? One of the essence of Spider-Man is that he looks and sounds somewhat scary and dramatic; that's what Stan said. But when Holland puts on his suit, he looks kind of innocent. His body is very thin that makes him look like a kid. He doesn't look bold, heroic, scary and dramatic. He is just a youthful teenager with a lot of energy and enthusiasm, that's pretty good for making a fun movie, but not a Spider-Man movie. That's not what Stan wanted him to be.

It’s a shame that many people say that Tom Holland’s Spider-Man is the best because Stan Lee said he envisioned someone like that Spider-Man. But actually Tom Holland is the least comic accurate Spider-Man. How could he be someone Stan envisioned? Actually Stan never said he envisioned someone like Holland's Spidey. Here’s his tweet.

In MCU, things are quite different. Peter is not a geeky outcast that gets bullied and humiliated in school. He just completely blends with the students (probably not an outcast). Also, Peter's life is easy. He gets almost everything with ease (for example MJ). Perhaps, there is no visible growth in Peter. There is no sense of responsibility within his heart.

People often argue that Spider-Man: Far From Home was emotional as it was trying to portray Peter taking up more responsibility after the death of Tony Stark, besides the fact that he didn't want to help. Actually, Peter himself wasn't fully against helping Nick Fury; he was but not too much. If there is something dangerous, he was okay taking it down. Here's what he said:

In my opinion, Peter never actually grew because he’s the same as before. Did he learn something? Of course not. You may talk about people asking questions about Spider-Man taking place of Iron Man, or Nick Fury asking help from Spider-Man, etc., but I don't value it much. People were asking questions because he fought Thanos by Avengers' side, that's it. They had questions which they were resolving. That doesn't mean Peter has lot of responsibility.

His responsibility hasn't increased in Spider-Man: Far From Home. Come on, he's been doing stuff like this before like fighting Vulture and Thanos, he just wanted to take a break, but still he agreed to help. He was pretty much okay with taking down Elementals. 

Taking down all the Elementals is not more of a responsibility for Spider-Man.

All I am saying is that Peter’s responsibility has not increased. Peter’s responsibility isn't central to this movie. The movie didn’t focus much on it. The plot basically is just that Peter goes to Europe on his school trip, Nick Fury offers him E.D.I.T.H. , Peter trusts Mysterio and gives him E.D.I.T.H. but unfortunately gets betrayed by him, which forces Peter to fight and finally defeat at the end. What’s emotional in this? Look, there were scenes that were trying to show that Peter has lot of pressure, and Peter recalling Tony Stark, but they were less and were not a focus, so had nothing to do with the plot. The big focus was on fun, comedy and adventure. Even Peter was enjoying his school trip. There are more funny, comedy and adventurous scenes than about pressure. You see it yourself. Plot is one of the main things for making an emotional movie because it's the focus. So if the plot isn't emotional, the movie won't be emotional.

Spider-Man (2002) had a plot where Uncle Ben dies and Peter vows to avenge his death, becoming the hero he needs to be. He realizes the worth of the words, “With great power, comes great responsibility”.

Spider-Man 2 had a plot where Peter was struggling to balance his life, struggling with MJ, etc. In all of the chaos, he stops being Spider-Man for a pretty good amount of time. Spider-Man 2’s plot showed what it takes to be Spider-Man; it has a plot that encourages growth in Peter. Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man sacrifices his own life to become the hero the city needs.

In fact, Spider-Man 3 was emotional too. It has a plot where Harry was trying to take revenge from Peter, while Peter was trying to bring his relationship with MJ to a next level. Unfortunately, the Venom symbiote takes over Peter and his psyche gets affected, making him evil. This creates a barrier in the relationship of Peter and MJ. After a long journey of black-suited Spider-Man, he realises that what has happened to him, and rips the black suit out of his body. The symbiote later joins to Eddie Brock. After humiliating Eddie Brock when Peter was emo Parker, Brock tries to take revenge with him, teaming up with Sandman. They fight at the end, and Peter forgives Sandman as he killed Uncle Ben by mistake. Sandman too, had an emotional story arc. During their fight, Harry sacrifices himself to save Peter, after learning that Peter never killed Norman. Peter never got chance to apologize and explain why he beat Harry brutally when he was emo Parker. Besides the fact, Harry sacrifices himself. The last scene of the movie shows Peter and MJ take each others’ hand, and start dancing at the end, with tears in their eyes. We don’t know how they’re goanna develop their relationship again after these events.

In Homecoming, when Peter loses his suit, and goes on date with Liz, the movie becomes a bit better. It tries to show that Peter has to leave again in order to stop Vulture. However the movie made it clear that Liz was just his first crush, so it didn’t carry much emotional weight. But perhaps the scene when he leaves Liz in the party is just a bit emotional, better than the rest of the movie.

Another thing that I think makes Spider-Man trilogy badass and great is the fact that it has scary and menacing villains. Just compare these two:

Sam Raimi being a horror director, directed villains in a more horror and threatening way. That's why his villains are more menacing than any other.

The unrealistic story and behavior of people is also one of the reasons why this Spider-Man, in my opinion, isn't good. Whenever you are making a fictional story, you have to ensure that characters must be realistic, something to which we can relate, and they must be interesting too. Aunt May doing hi-five with Peter knowing that Peter is risking his life fighting villains is also unrealistic. Shouldn’t be nervous and caring about Peter? If she would be nervous, the story might go to a more emotional approach. And we don’t really know how Peter and Tony really developed this mentor and student relationship. They should not because they really don’t know each other well, and they’re not a family too. They haven’t spent much time that can make Peter cry at Stark’s death.

MCU shows it’s pretty easy to be Spider-Man. All you need is superhuman strength, webs, spider sense, wall crawling ability and a good heart of course. That’s it. But the truth however is that being Spider-Man is a curse. There’s no time when Peter really suffers. He got MJ with ease.

Here Spider-Man is like a sidekick of Iron Man. Tony Stark is dead but then, Peter will get another mentor: Doctor Strange. Can’t Peter stand up on his own, juggle his responsibility, keeping up the legacy of Tony Stark?

Many people think that if a mentor scolds his student, it’s more interesting. However it is not. If you constantly scold your student, he becomes an idiot. Uncle Ben in Spider-Man trilogy was in some situations kind of annoyed, disappointed, very bit of angry, and caring towards Peter. Many people think he’s not that energetic, but the truth is: he is. See how energetic Ben is after Peter's transformation:

This is called mentoring. And Ben's philosophy was interesting too. On the contrary, in MCU, when Peter asks Tony why he should forget the Vulture guy, he says, “Because I said so.” That’s not a logic. Don’t get me wrong, I am okay with Tony being a mentor. His relationship is really interesting though, but when Spider-Man is made a sidekick of Tony, that’s awful. In my opinion, Tony should do mentoring, but Peter must be shown growing without him too; becoming self-reliant time to time. In Homecoming, Peter was shown growing, but very less. It didn’t carry much emotional weight.

Since Spider-Man has come into Marvel Cinematic Universe, I really feel like Sony did it way better. There were so many good elements in the previous series, but Marvel never learned from them. In my opinion, Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man trilogy is perfect, even the third instalment. This is where Peter actually grows. The only problem is that it got rebooted. Spider-Man 4 could have improved upon the 3rd one and revived the series. I have not watched The Amazing Spider-Man series yet, but I’m planning to see.

Here’s my ranking of every Spider-Man movie except for the Amazing Spider-Man series:

1. Spider-Man 3
2. Spider-Man 2
3. Spider-Man
4. Spider-Man Far From Home
5. Spider-Man Into the Spider-Verse
6. Spider-Man Homecoming