47% Of Fans Think This Actor Was The Best Spider-Man...And We Have Some Thoughts
(Welcome to Survey Says, a feature where we conduct a movie-related survey for a random group of people and explain why they're completely right, completely wrong, or somewhere in-between.)Spider-Man has had the special privilege of being rebooted on the big screen not once, but twice in the recent past. Along with each reboot, we've seen a new Peter Parker, giving us three movie versions of Spidey to choose from — Tobey Maguire, Andrew Garfield, and Tom Holland.
Which Spider-Man is the best? Let's head to the internet, where 47.3% of 611 respondents (you do the math, I got a C- in Statistics) pronounced Tobey Maguire to be the best Spider-Man.
A Hat Trick of Peter Parkers, But Only One Can Be Called The Best
The three actors who played movie versions of Spider-Man each bring a certain Spidey sense to the role. With roughly 47% of the vote, Maguire won the plurality but managed to stay just below the threshold. Holland comes in second with 32.6% and Garfield trails the pack at 20.1%.
Survey Says…The People Are Wrong
This result is, in a word, nonsense. Nothing against Maguire or Garfield, but Holland's ability to capture Peter Parker's kid-like energy is hands-down the best.
Let's start with why Holland's MCU version of Spider-Man is the best. Holland's first foray into Marvel's playground was in Captain America: Civil War when Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr.) brought him into the fray. Holland, who was 20 years old when he played Parker for the first time, is the only Spider-Man in spitting distance of playing the high school-aged Parker. He's also the only one who captures Parker's eager quirkiness. In short, Holland captures what the character is in the comics: a smart, geeky kid who got bit by a radioactive spider one day.
Maguire and Garfield were both well past their teenage years — 26 and 29 years old respectively — when they played their Peter Parkers. Despite their age, they had to pretend they were still in high school, and it...didn't work. It was harder to suspend disbelief that they were teenagers than the fact they had spider superpowers.
Maguire's Peter Parker was also a little too mopey, a little too chill to capture the comic book character's quirky energy. In Garfield's case, his Spider-Man was a little too cool and suave, something Garfield simply is — it doesn't matter if you put him in a backpack and give him a skateboard. Holland, however, nails Peter's dorkiness while still making it believable that he has superpowers.
So why did Maguire dominate this poll? We don't know the average age of the respondents, but my guess is they skew older. Folks in their late 30s/early 40s were roughly the same age as Maguire when his Spider-Man films came out. Maybe they saw themselves in him? Whatever the reason, the internet was wrong. And I'll stand by my position, no matter what webslings or arrows come my way.