When Tom Holland made his debut as Peter Parker in Captain America: Civil War, he became the third Spider-Man to grace the big screen in the space of a decade. Holland’s Spidey blows Andrew Garfield’s incarnation out of the water, but he hasn’t quite reached the greatness of Tobey Maguire’s definitive portrayal of the character from Sam Raimi’s original trilogy.
Holland has been doing a fantastic job with the role of Spidey and likely has a bright future as the character — whether it’s with Marvel or Sony — but Maguire is still the best Spider-Man to swing across the silver screen.
Holland Is Great: He’s Convincingly Awkward
For someone who had enough confidence to star in a West End musical at the age of 12, Tom Holland plays Peter Parker’s awkwardness astoundingly.
Maguire’s Peter was authentically geeky, too, but Holland nails the cringe humor of each situation where Maguire’s Peter was sometimes just cringe-inducing (especially when he fused with the symbiotes). Some of Holland’s Peter’s romantic encounters with Liz and MJ are extremely difficult watch.
Maguire Is The Best: He Nailed The Character’s Origin
President of Marvel Studios Kevin Feige wisely avoided retelling Spider-Man’s origin story with the character’s first MCU solo movie, because it had already been told twice in the span of 15 years and pretty much everybody knows it by now. But the origin is a crucial factor in the makeup of the character, and Sam Raimi’s initial Spider-Man movie nailed the origin.
Not only did Raimi capture the most important moments from his origin story — Uncle Ben’s murder, “With great power comes great responsibility,” Peter discovering his abilities etc. — Maguire also captured Peter’s journey from a meek teenager to a superhuman who has to make difficult sacrifices in the fight for justice.
Holland Is Great: His Frenzied Performance Captures The Hecticness Of Peter’s Double Life
The fun of Spidey’s stories comes from the fact that he has to hide his identity. While Tony Stark can easily leave a board meeting to save some lives as Iron Man, Peter Parker has to hide the fact that he’s Spider-Man from everyone he knows — and the rest of New York — and this double life can get pretty hectic.
Holland’s frenzied performance as Peter perfectly captures the hecticness of being Spider-Man. He partly modeled his performance after Michael J. Fox’s portrayal of Marty McFly, who was always flustered by his “heavy” time-traveling antics.
Maguire Is The Best: His Voiceover Narration Translates The Thought Bubbles From The Comics To The Screen
In the Spider-Man comics, Spidey’s thoughts are constantly expressed in word bubbles, giving the audience a window into how he’s feeling about the events of the story.
These thought bubbles can’t be literally replicated on-screen in live-action (although the team behind Into the Spider-Verse nailed it in animated form), but Sam Raimi came the closest to replicating the way the comics’ thought bubbles connect the reader to Peter with Tobey Maguire’s voiceover narration.
Holland Is Great: He’s Believable As A Teenager
The main problem with the previous Spider-Man castings that Marvel Studios hoped to fix with their own Spidey actor was that Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield were both completely unconvincing as teenagers.
Tom Holland wasn’t actually 15 when he started playing Spider-Man, but he was a lot younger than his predecessors and he actually looked the part. The fact that Holland’s Spidey constantly makes mistakes — like any 15-year-old would — makes him more relatable.
Maguire Is The Best: He Developed Real Friendships With All Of His Villains
Holland’s Peter has shared personal relationships with his villains and related to them in a couple of ways — hailing from the same working-class background as the Vulture, being as smart as Mysterio, etc. — but Maguire’s Peter’s villains were his father figures and best friends.
From his best friend’s dad who took him under his wing to a scientist being funded by Harry who allowed him to pick his brain, Peter always had to fight people he cared about, which gave the fight scenes more emotional oomph.
Holland Is Great: He Shares Terrific Chemistry With Zendaya
One of the weak spots of Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man trilogy is that Mary Jane is poorly written. Kirsten Dunst is a great actor, but she didn’t have much chemistry with Tobey Maguire and the scripts mostly required her to be a nagging girlfriend or a screaming damsel in distress.
By contrast, the love interests in Holland’s Spider-Man movies have been much more compelling — especially MJ, played by Zendaya. Holland and Zendaya share palpable on-screen chemistry and, unlike the love story from the Raimi trilogy, fans are actually excited to see where this one goes.
Maguire Is The Best: Spider-Man 2’s Subway Scene Is The Best Spidey Movie Moment
What makes Spider-Man such a great character is that, ultimately, he’s just a regular kid. He was given his superpowers by chance and, through the sheer will of being a good person, he wants to use those powers for good. But he’s a teenager, so he’s hopelessly unprepared for the task. Still, he does his best and because of that, he’s a symbol of hope in New York.
The movie moment that best encapsulates this is the subway scene in Spider-Man 2. Doc Ock leaves Spidey with a runaway train careening toward an unfinished bridge and he nearly kills himself bringing the train to a halt. The engers carry him back onto the train and see him without his mask and realize “He’s just a kid...no older than my son...”
Holland Is Great: He Has Great Relationships With Other Superheroes
The biggest difference between Maguire and Holland’s Spider-Men is that the former was a standalone and the latter is a part of a larger cinematic universe. Since Raimi’s trilogy arrived pre-Iron Man, it didn’t try to establish a wider world to fill with spin-offs.
And while it kept the story focused on Peter, it’s a shame we didn’t get to see Maguire’s Spidey interacting with other superheroes, because his team-ups in the comics are always a lot of fun. Holland’s Spidey has developed hilarious dynamics with a bunch of fellow heroes: Iron Man, Doctor Strange, the Guardians, Captain Marvel.
Maguire Is The Best: He Has A Relationship With Uncle Ben
With great power comes great responsibility. A huge part of what makes Peter Parker Peter Parker is his relationship with Uncle Ben, both before he died and after, and Maguire’s Peter had a touching father-son bond with Cliff Robertson’s Ben. He lived by the wisdom Ben gave him when he was alive and his character arc was defined by his guilt relating to Ben’s death.
Holland’s Peter, on the other hand, doesn’t have a relationship with Uncle Ben. It’s not even clear if there ever was an Uncle Ben; he’s only been hinted at in a couple of throwaway lines and Easter eggs.
