Ranking the Spider-Men

Image via Sony

Spider-Man films he starred in: The Amazing Spider-Man (2012), The Amazing Spider-Man (2014)

Saddled with trying to stand up a whole Spider-Man Extended Universe (the most egregious display of which falls in The Amazing Spider-Man 2), silly mystery box storytelling, and ill-convinced villains, the only reason the Amazing Spider-Man series even remotely works is off the strength of Andrew Garfield’s performance as the lead character. Garfield’s Peter is an outcast, with a chip on his shoulder (due to his parents’ death), and arguably too cool for Spider-Man’s nerdy origins. However, the rebellious streak Garfield has makes it easy to comprehend why he’d buck authority and become a masked hero.

The overall self-assuredness works extraordinarily well for his in-costume persona; the Spider-Man of Amazing Spider-Man has a certain dick-ish, trolling energy that provides a stark contrast to the version audiences saw in the Sam Raimi movies. While the sequel softens the approach, he still comes across as a bit of a bully, which feels like a slight betrayal of the character’s origins. Much of the Amazing Spider-Man series doesn’t work, but those issues certainly don’t fall on the shoulders of Garfield, who makes the absolute most of the ill-convinced and poorly-executed duo of films.

Spider-Man films he starred in: Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017), Spider-Man: Far From Home (2019)

It’s somehow fitting for the MCU’s version—given its interconnected and interlocking pieces—of Spider-Man to debut in a movie that’s not his own. Appearing first in Captain America: Civil War, Tom Holland’s Peter Parker makes an immediate impression in just about four minutes of screentime, as a conversation between Peter and Tony Stark re-establishes everything we need to know about the character without needing to re-do an origin story. During this chat, audiences see a decidedly teenage take on the character, with Holland’s overwhelming earnestness, eagerness, and charm on display.

Holland’s Spider-Man persona doesn’t feel at odds with his portrayal of Peter either; instead, he’s doing sort of a more comedic version of who he already is behind the mask. Perhaps the reason Holland’s Peter stands out so much is that he’s often an audience surrogate, fashioned as a fan who has a gee-wiz attitude about being a more significant part of this world. Further standalone installments—whether in his own set of solo films or the devastating yet effective one-two-punch of Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame—continued to refine the character, introducing more of that patented “Parker Luck’’ and providing him with some inspired foes to battle. So sure, while Holland’s Peter Parker had to share the screen with the Avengers before he got to web up his own movie, Holland has spun up quite the take on Spider-Man—and one that’s bound to stick with audiences for a long, long time.

Spider-Man films he starred in: Spider-Man (2002), Spider-Man 2 (2004), Spider-Man 3 (2007)

Every Spider-Man since Tobey Maguire is an attempt at replicating his unparalleled performance. Maguire’s take on the character, bolstered by Sam Raimi’s incredible direction, is the original template upon which all others must follow. Maguire’s Peter is comparable to Christopher Reeve’s Clark Kent/Superman, not only in terms of nerdy men imbued with tremendous power but in how they infuse their acting with an overwhelming sense of sincerity and heroism.

Maguire’s superpower lies within the way he conveys depths of emotions with just a look or glance; it’s transcendent, getting to the core of the character’s comic book origins in a way the other actors don’t. Maguire’s Peter is resilient and optimistic, despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary. When life knocks him down, he finds a way to put on the mask and keep going, keep fighting, and to keep making a difference—understanding the tremendous sense of responsibility and what it means to have these powers. Maguire captures the character’s universal appeal and can distill those elements into a performance that continues to be resonantly powerful all these years later.

Call it old-fashioned or out of style, or too sincere, but we’ll call it this: it’s unequivocally the best Spider-Man performance of all time.