Who Is The Best Spider-Man?

Spider-Man: No Way Home is practically brimming with Marvel references and cameos. There are a number of characters from Sony’s non-MCU Spider-Man films in the new film, including Alfred Molina’s Doc Ock, Willem Dafoe’s Norman Osborn, Jamie Foxx’s Electro, and Rhys Ifans’ The Lizard, among others.

No Way Home serves as a culmination of both Tom Holland’s (first) Spider-Man trilogy and a look back at the superhero’s big-screen legacy as a whole. The film’s resemblance to old Spider-Man titles even proves, once and for all, why we should have appreciated one previous actor’s performance more than we did at the time. So it’s time to break down Who Is The Best Spider-Man?

Who Is The Best Spider-Man

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Although they denied their involvement in the film for months, Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield are in Spider-Man: No Way Home after all. Both actors portray the same version of Spider-Man as they did in their respective, Sony-led Spider-Man films, and they come into play near the end of No Way Home’s second act just in time to not only inject some new energy into the film but also to help motivate Tom Holland’s Peter to complete his mission.

In addition to being delightful to watch the three Spider-Men interact together – especially when they playfully reference the various differences between them – it can also get emotional, and we mean that in a positive way. There’s something so powerful about listening to them talk about the losses they’ve both experienced that it almost makes you think that it was always Sony’s intention to bring them together on screen.

Who Is The Best Spider-Man

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In No Way Home, as good as both Maguire and Holland are during their scenes together, it is without a doubt Andrew Garfield who steals the show as the film’s third act begins.

Andrew Garfield is a charming and charismatic actor from the moment he walks into Ned Leeds’s (Jacob Batalon) living room in Spider-Man: No Way Home until the end of the film. One of the funniest scenes in the film is Peter Parker’s first interaction with MJ (Zendaya), in which she demands that he crawl on the ceiling in order to prove that he is Peter Parker from another universe. In a similar fashion, his joke about Maguire looking like a “youth pastor” might be the single best quip we’ve heard in any of the Spider-Man films in the MCU.

Who Is The Best Spider-Man

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I think it’s safe to say that Garfield, who has proven himself to be one of Hollywood’s most talented actors since his Spider-Man run ended, has outdone both Holland and Maguire in every scene they share together. There’s no doubt that Garfield is funny and smart in all the ways that Peter Parker should be, and the sadness and remorse his character feels over the death of Gwen Stacy (Emma Stone) is beautifully depicted by him.

One of the most important lines in No Way Home that hangs heavily in no one’s mind is when Garfield says, with a sense of regret in his voice, that he just “stopped pulling [his] punches” at some point after Gwen’s death.

The portrayal of Peter Parker by Garfield in No Way Home is so good, in fact, that it’s difficult not to hope that he will return as the character again in the future. Regardless, I think it’s safe to say that Garfield has always been this good at playing Spider-Man, and he has always been able to portray the various layers of the character with the same vulnerability that he exhibits in No Way Home.

Who Is The Best Spider-Man

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The inversion analysis – it’s not hard to decide why Andrew Garfield’s pitch-perfect portrayal of Spider-Man in No Way Home manages to be as stunning and (somewhat) surprising to watch as it is.

Despite the fact that he has been appearing in the Amazing Spider-Man series for quite some time, this is the first time we have actually been able to see him play the character in a film that is devoid of the many other flaws that plague Sony’s short-lived Amazing Spider-Man franchise. In fact, to watch the actor’s heart-wrenching reaction to saving Zendaya’s MJ from a fall that nearly killed her, is a further testament to how much emotion he was able to inject into the performance – despite the studio interference that ultimately sank his solo film.

Who Is The Best Spider-Man

No Way Home is a testament to just how good Andrew Garfield is at playing Spider-Man, and what a tragedy it is that he wasn’t able to do so in a franchise actually worthy of his abilities, and, as a result, do not get to play him in the future.

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