I’ve been consuming Spider-Man media my entire life. Some of my earliest memories include Spider-Man & Venom: Maximum Carnage on Sega Genesis, along with the comic book arc of the same name.
It continued on with The Animated Series in the 90s, and then the Tobey Maguire/Sam Raimi trilogy, the Broadway musical Spider-Man: Turn off the Dark, Andrew Garfield’s Amazing movies, the Insomniac video games, and everything else in between.
But now, more than ever, I can say from the bottom of my whole heart that Tom Holland is the definitive Spider-Man. And he is also the definitive Peter Parker.
Power. Spider-Man. Responsibility. Peter Parker. Balance. Holland encapsulates it all, and never better than in the latest film, Spider-Man: Brand New Day. I was utterly enthralled by the two-and-a-half-hour film during an early showing last night, caught somewhere between suspense and unadulterated geeky joy with a dumb smile on my face. I enjoy most Spider-Man things, but I have come to expect greatness from this character and those who handle him. Holland and his co-stars, along with director Destin Daniel Cretton, did not disappoint one bit.
Brand New Day is Holland’s fourth solo Spider-Man movie, and he’s been playing the character for 10 years now since debuting in Captain America: Civil War way back in 2016, so he has had the advantage of actually growing up alongside the character. That’s undoubtedly helped endear him to fans, but his progression as both an actor and as Spider-Man/Peter has been undebatable.
Holland has fully come into his own as the character over the years, especially in this film. Thankfully, mercifully, he is now fully freed from the shackles of his “Iron Boy” moniker, as he was ushered into the MCU as Tony Stark’s protégé, and even his successor. Although the stakes are high, Brand New Day is street-level Spider-Man through and through. And thank goodness.
This latest movie is all about the hero’s dual identities and the city he protects, but he’s full-time Spidey after the events of No Way Home, and he’s never been better. His Queens accent is perfected in this one, and the team utilized everything as inspiration to help make the hero shine, including finishing moves and combat style from Insomniac’s Spider-Man games. That level of attention to detail is wholly appreciated by someone like me whose office is adorned with webhead paraphernalia at every turn. And for Peter, Holland’s performance as the lonely, lost soul may be his best acting we’ve seen.
While I absolutely enjoyed Jon Watts’ trilogy, Cretton really grasps what makes Spider-Man great, and working in concert with Holland just gave us what you could easily argue is the best on-screen adaptation yet (critics and fans agree: the movie is 91 percent fresh on RottenTomatoes with a 98 percent fan score, the highest in the MCU).
It obviously helps to be surrounded by incredible castmates like Zendaya, Jacob Batalon, Jon Bernthal, Mark Ruffalo, and the scene-stealing newcomer Sadie Sink, but Homecoming, Far From Home, and No Way Home basically amounted to an origin story for the hero in retrospect. This is Spider-Man now. He’s here. And I hope he stays, because Holland is the tops.
Every actor who’s portrayed Spider-Man/Peter Parker has brought something different to the role. Maguire somehow pulled off the sheepish young geek as a 27-year-old, Garfield’s Spidey action and quips were excellent, and a myriad of voice actors have done the role justice throughout the years, too. Holland has channeled all of it to become the quintessential version of the character.
Spider-Man’s power and Peter Parker’s responsibility. Nobody has struck that balance like Holland, and it will be a nigh-impossible task to duplicate or surpass for whoever wears the mask next. And, according to Holland in a new interview, that next maskbearer may finally be a new young actor eventually taking up the role of Miles Morales. I wish them the best.
I’ve had the pleasure of consuming all sorts of versions of my favorite fictional character over the past three-plus decades. Spider-Man means a lot to me for a variety of reasons, and the hope he brings me (and millions around the world) can’t be quantified. But his mantra of always attempting to do the right thing no matter how much it hurts, no matter how much he suffers and struggles, makes him the greatest superhero there is, and something I aspire to as much as I can.
Tom Holland fully gets Spider-Man and Peter Parker more than most people. You can see it beyond the screen when he’s happily greeting children (or 37-year-old men) in the costume, or absolutely nailing press tours. And because of that, he’s given us the best of both. He is both.
