Fun
Frisky
Nostalgic
Intense
Adventurous
Choked Up
Curious
Romantic
Weird
In the case of Spider-Man, the third time is definitely the charm. Or, really, I guess it’s the seventh time. Maybe the sixth time was the charm, since that was last summer’s excellent Captain America: Civil War? Okay–what I’m getting at here is that there have been a lot of Spider-Man movies over the past 15 years. Spider-Man: Homecoming, which swings into theaters this weekend, is both the third Spider-Man film and the second attempt at a full-blown reboot in just five years. That’s confusing and definitely excessive, but trust me: we do need another Spider-Man movie.
The casual superhero moviegoer may be unaware of just how massively important Spider-Man is. Yeah, he had a string of popular Saturday morning cartoons from the ’60s to the ’90s, and the original, mostly acclaimed Sam Raimi trilogy starring Tobey Maguire helped set the tone for the superhero movie genre. But Spider-Man the movie star came and went; Iron Man and The Dark Knight changed the game in 2008, making superhero films more expansive and dramatic. When the wall-crawler (now Andrew Garfield) came back in 2012, people groaned. Your time was over, old spider! Comics fans, though, got it: Spider-Man’s one of the big ones. If there must always be a Batman and Superman film franchise, then there should always be a Spider-Man one too.
Spider-Man is, without a doubt, the most important superhero to come out of comics’ Silver age (roughly 1956 to 1970), following the genre’s birth in the Golden Age with Batman, Superman, Captain America, and Wonder Woman. Singling out Spidey as the definitive Silver Age hero is lofty praise when you look at all the other characters that debuted during that time (the Fantastic Four, the X-Men, the Hulk, Thor, Iron Man, Black Widow, Hawkeye, Daredevil–the entire concept of a Marvel Universe). But more so than his super-powered peers, Spider-Man represented a drastic departure from the Golden Age of comics.
Whereas teenagers were relegated to schticky sidekick roles in the ’40s, Spider-Man proved that teens make for captivating protagonists. Spider-Man also wasn’t an all-powerful god like Wonder Woman or Superman, and he wasn’t intimidating like Batman or inspirational like Captain America. Spider-Man was a gangly, geeky kid, one with an unconventional family (he lived with his elderly aunt) and tons of problems. He never had money, his aunt was always sick, and kids teased him mercilessly while they idolized the web-slingin’ Spider-Man. Spider-Man was the ultimate underdog, and he represented everything Marvel Comics stood for when it launched in 1961. That’s why Spider-Man, a character championed by the youth of the ’60s and college kids of the ’70s, became their mascot.
Not Iron Man, Spider-Man.
Spider-Man got a float in Macy’s Thanksgiving Day parade. Spider-Man got a daily newspaper strip (one that still runs today!). Spider-Man hopped onto Marvel’s production company logo in the ’80s. Spider-Man got married in Shea Stadium in 1987. Spider-Man was the hero on Marvel’s stationary and checks! Iron Man only supplanted the wall-crawler in the late ’00s following the success of Robert Downey Jr.’s Iron Man movies. The change came about partly because of Iron Man’s success, but also partly because Marvel didn’t own Spider-Man’s film rights.
This is the other key bit of information: the Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield films exist independently of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Spider-Man: Homecoming is the first Spidey film to exist in a universe with other superheroes in it. So while this is the third Spider-franchise, it is (in a very specific way) the first.
Here’s the deal: Spider-Man does not work on his own. Spider-Man alone cannot carry a feature film franchise, not today when everything has to be a cinematic universe. Spider-Man, more than any other superhero, needs to exist alongside other heroes to really work. With Homecoming, Spider-Man gets to be completely, fully himself.
This is one of many reasons why 2012’s The Amazing Spider-Man and 2014’s The Amazing Spider-Man 2 failed. The original trilogy (2002’s Spider-Man, 2004’s Spider-Man 2, and 2007’s Spider-Man 3) got away with being isolated affairs because, well, we just didn’t know any better. At the time, all superhero movies were created to be separate franchises. Marvel, through other studios, made a ton of movies in the early years of the superhero boom: the Blade trilogy, the X-Men trilogy, Daredevil, Elektra, a Punisher and a Hulk and a Ghost Rider. None of them were connected, and fans didn’t expect them to be connected. Asking for a shared movie-Marvel-verse seemed like asking too much.
And then Iron Man happened.
And then Incredible Hulk, Thor, Captain America: The First Avenger, and Marvel’s the Avengers. We got to see a living, breathing Marvel Universe unfold on the big screen. When The Amazing Spider-Man came out in 2012, fans had spent four years in the MCU. Our expectations were different. We’d experienced a shared cinematic universe, and we didn’t want to go back. The Amazing Spider-Man franchise fizzled out.
Not even Garfield and Emma Stone’s undeniable (and IRL) chemistry could save the Amazing films. In order for Spider-Man to feel like an everyman and an underdog, he needs to have other heroes upstaging and outshining him. That’s why Tobey Maguire’s Peter Parker works even if he’s not as quippy and quick-witted; he’s constantly being one-upped by life and tormented by J. Jonah Jameson. But, when Maguire or Garfield–the only known heroes on their respective Earths–put on their Spider-suits, they are suddenly the most powerful person in the world. That’s not Spider-Man. In the comics, Spidey he has it hard compared to other heroes. He doesn’t have a ton of money like Iron Man and he doesn’t have fancy digs like the Avengers. He doesn’t even have the camaraderie of the X-Men or Fantastic Four, and he points that out every time he has to team up with them. Hell, he tried to join the Fantastic Four in his very first comic back in 1963!
After Amazing Spider-Man 2 stalled out in 2014, Sony was faced with having to churn out nonstop installments of an unsuccessful franchise in order to keep Spider-Man’s rights from reverting to Marvel. Marvel spent seven years building a movie version of the Marvel Universe without Spider-Man, the character that they spent decades slapping on everything from lunch boxes to building-sized balloons. That’s when Marvel and Sony made an unprecedented deal: they will share Spider-Man. Sony paid for Spider-Man: Homecoming and they’ll also keep all the film’s profits. Marvel got to actually make the movie and incorporate the character into their well established brand. And Marvel also reportedly gets all the money from toys and merchandise, so they’re not making nothing.
Tom Holland made his debut as Spider-Man in last year’s Captain America: Civil War and immediately delivered what every single Spider-Man movie has been missing. For the first time on screen, we got to see a Spider-Man exist in contrast with other heroes. Just like in the comics, Holland’s Spidey isn’t the most powerful hero on Earth. He’s equally envious and in awe of every costumed character in that massive tarmac brawl. And Holland infused his performance with an excitable, irreverent (yet still quite reverent) energy that’s been missing from every other Spider-Man film.
We need another Spider-Man film because we’ve never gotten a real Spider-Man film before–not one featuring the comic character fans have known and loved for 55 years. This is a Spider-Man that’s both smart and funny, and he’s also a teenager (remember how big a deal that was in 1962?). And, most importantly, Marvel Studios is finally able to use Spider-Man as their lovable, everyman outsider just like how he’s been used in the comics for decades. Obviously Marvel chose the title Homecoming for a reason.
So while Hollywood definitely produces too many superhero movies and too many reboots, Spider-Man: Homecoming is one that–if we’re gonna get superhero movies and reboots every weekend anyway–fans have been clamoring for for years. This is the superhero reboot that makes sense, that adds something deeply necessary to the character, and enriches two franchises (the Marvel Cinematic Universe and Sony’s Spider-Man series). This movie was birthed from an unprecedented deal, and it’s given us the Spider-Man that the superhero genre needs.
Now, if only Fox and Marvel Studios could make nice, because there’s also no reason why the Fantastic Four aren’t a major deal. Yes, I could also write this entire article about the FF–but that’ll have to wait. Right now, it’s Spider-Man’s turn.
Spider-Man: Homecoming opens in theaters on July 7
