WHY HE'S AWESOME: Spider-Man In The Marvel Cinematic Universe
Spider-Man has always been popular. Our favorite Web slinger has spawned numerous comic book series, 3 movie iterations making billions of dollars, an Oscar winning animated movie and some live action and animated series. Yet, it seems that there is something special about the latest incarnation. We are talking about Tom Holland's version in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
In Avengers: Endgame, there seems to be a lot of excitement of the appearance of Spider-Man, more so than the other heroes who arrive. Last week, the cast surprisingly made an appearance at Disney California Adventure at the Disneyland Resort which made the Internet lose its collective mind.
And, the cast even made an appearance on Jimmy Kimmel Live which was met with thunderous applause.
So, I thought, in this week's WHY HE'S AWESOME, we'd explore Peter Parker/Spider-Man in the Marvel Cinematic Universe and look at why this version is so popular.
To answer this question, we have to go back to 1962 when Stan Lee and Steve Ditko first created the character. The thing that made Peter Parker so popular was that he was your average teenager trying to balance his high school life with his life being a superhero. People really responded to it and helped secure the popularity of the Marvel Universe moving forward.
When the movie iterations featuring Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield were made, Peter was always older, graduating high school right away. We didn't really get the sense of them being in high school as enjoyable as those movies might have been.
With Spider-Man in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, they went back to the source material that made Spider-Man so great. We get that Peter Parker in high school. He is that nerdy kid just trying to find the courage to ask out the girl of his dreams. In fact, back when Spider-Man: Homecoming was created, director John Watts promised a John Hughes film with super powers. And, he succeeded. The new movie seems to promise to continue this successful formula.
At the same time, while Spider-Man can be humorous and fun, we also see some of the more intense moments for the web crawler. In Spider-Man: Homecoming, we really felt for Peter when he was trapped under so much rubble. And, in Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame, we really went on Peter's emotional journey. I think, again going back to him being a teenager, this brings even more weight to these scenes because we don't want a kid to lose.The stakes then become higher.
But, honestly, a huge part of the secret sauce has been Tom Holland himself. While he's in his 20s, he looks like he's a teenager. The man has such a wonderful demeanor to him and is able to bring this awkward charm to the character. It makes Spider-Man's humorous banter and quipping all the more realistic.
He also is able to do many of his own stunts, back flips and other major poses. It just makes him feel more like Spider-Man.
And, honestly, Holland's charm has made him the crush of many a tweenager and teenager (or more) out there!
I might be wrong, but the excitement for Spider-Man: Far From Home seems hotter. The latest trailer boasted 135.2 million views within the first hour, shattering the record for any Sony movie (which still distributes the movie, despite Marvel Studios's production duty). I think it was a smart idea to add the new trailer to the end of Avengers: Endgame, especially since it contains spoilers to the movie. It further adds to the excitement of the film and continued success for Spider-Man in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
Whatever the cast might be, it is undeniable that Spider-Man in the MCU is on top of the world. I, for one, cannot wait for Spider-Man: Far From Home to come out!