Sony and Marvel have given viewers four cinematic iterations of Spider-Man, yet Tobey Maguire’s version has one story that his three successors have yet to beat. While 1978’s Superman was a major success, Superman was already a cultural icon and the natural first choice for a major motion picture based on superhero comics. 1989’s Batman could be considered the first modern superhero blockbuster, yet it was still missing some key elements of comic book accuracy. Marvel found success in 1998’s Blade and 2000’s X-Men, but it was 2002’s Spider-Man that finally laid the groundwork for modern superhero blockbusters, combining excellent filmmaking with a truly comic-accurate story.
By today’s standards, 2002’s Spider-Man is fairly quaint, with a straightforward adaptation of Peter Parker’s origin story, Peter and Mary Jane Watson’s romance, and Spider-Man’s conflicts with the Green Goblin forming the film’s narrative. What made Spider-Man stand out in 2002 was not only its emotional earnestness but also its faithfulness to specific eras of the Spider-Man comic source material, including that of Stan Lee and Steve Ditko. 2002’s Spider-Man distills the then 4-decade history of the Spider-Man mythos into its most essential elements, prioritizing Spider-Man’s greatest enemy (Green Goblin), his most important ing characters (Mary Jane and Harry), and his most crucial story: his origin.
Maguire's Spider-Man Adapted The Classic Marvel Origin Story
A significant portion of Spider-Man’s runtime is spent on adapting issue 15 of Amazing Fantasy by Stan Lee and Steve Ditko. Peter Parker is a highly intelligent but otherwise ordinary high school student who receives superpowers by accident. After testing out his newfound abilities, Peter soon endeavors to profit from them and, in a selfish decision, allows a fleeing criminal to escape justice. The criminal murders Peter Parker’s father figure, Ben Parker, teaching Peter, through tragedy, that with great power must also come great responsibility. 2002’s Spider-Man, notably, makes some changes to the Amazing Fantasy version, but the core elements of the origin story remain the same.
Spider-Man’s webs come from organic spinnerets on Peter Parker’s wrists instead of a pair of devices. Peter also makes his Spider-Man debut as an amateur wrestler to win money for a new car rather than another test of his powers, and Spider-Man’s television appearances are omitted. 2007’s Spider-Man 3 notably retcons part of the origin, having Flint Marko (the future Sandman) kill Uncle Ben instead of Dennis Carradine, yet by the end, it is revealed that an escaping Carradine caused Marko’s gun to go off unexpectedly, maintaining the key fact that it was Peter’s inaction that caused Uncle Ben’s death.
Holland And Garfield's Spider-Man Origins Innovated Without Improving
The Spider-Man film franchise was rebooted in 2012 with The Amazing Spider-Man starring Andrew Garfield. The new films needed to distinguish themselves from the Raimi trilogy, leading them to take inspiration from different eras of the comics, with the alternate-universe Ultimate Spider-Man series and the Gerry Conway and John Romita Sr. era of the mainstream universe being especially prominent. Garfield’s origin is also changed, though Peter Parker still lets a criminal go, inadvertently allowing him to murder Uncle Ben. Spider-Man initially does not act as a hero, only seeking revenge on Ben’s murderer until his first battle with The Lizard shows him the merit of helping people with his powers.
The Spider-Man films were rebooted yet again in 2016, with Tom Holland’s Peter Parker now part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Spider-Man had two live-action origin stories in less than 15 years, so the MCU’s choice to skip his origin and start with an established (albeit inexperienced) Spider-Man was understandable, yet it caused a problem with the new version of Spider-Man. While Peter Parker’s Amazing Fantasy 15 origin story is familiar ground for viewers by now, it remains the single most important story to the Spider-Man mythos.
Why Spider-Man's Classic Origin Story Is So Important
With Spider-Man’s multi-decade comic mythos, a plethora of ing characters, and one of the most iconic rogues galleries in the superhero genre, one may forget that his first was initially meant to be his only appearance. Stan Lee and Steve Ditko created Spider-Man for a standalone story in the final issue of the Amazing Fantasy magazine and thus were free to ignore the common tropes of superheroes and tell a single, tragic, dramatic tale. The story of Spider-Man was meant to end with him realizing that his selfishness got his adopted father killed, with the thesis of his character being “with great power there must also come great responsibility.”
2002’s Spider-Man remains the most faithful adaptation of Amazing Fantasy 15, and while the succeeding iterations of Spider-Man all have their own merits, none truly captured the spirit of this story more than Maguire’s version. Yet each of their respective reasons for this is understandable. Andrew Garfield’s version needed to differentiate itself from Maguire’s and Tom Holland’s avoided treading overly familiar ground entirely. Shameik Moore’s Spider-Man is Miles Morales, and since he is a different character from Peter Parker with different comic source material, there was no need to adapt Amazing Fantasy 15. 2002’s Spider-Man has a foundation of authenticity, thanks to its direct adaptation of Spider-Man’s most important story.
