Far From Home MCU Spider-Man is very, very inaccurate

[Peter B Parker]

In the comics, Spidey is a street-level hero focused on keeping NYC safe. In the MCU, Spidey is being recruited by Nick Fury for a covert, international mission. In the comics, Spidey is very different from other heroes in the way that he had to make his own suit and web shooters. In the MCU, Tony Stark gives him a "multi- million dollar" super-suit, complete with a parachute, an A.I., over 400 web shooter settings, a surveillance drone, and an instant-kill mode. In the comics, Uncle Ben's death is an INTEGRAL part of what inspires Peter to use his powers for good, even when the consequences outweigh the benefits. In the MCU, one of Peter's biggest motivations for helping people is to impress Tony Stark and earn an Avengers membership. In the comics, Spider-Man is very misunderstood by the public, the majority of which believe he's a menace. In the MCU, Spider-Man is a local celebrity, making appearances at fundraisers and being the subject of school-wide admiration. In the comics, anything that can go wrong for Peter does go wrong, and he often pays the price as Peter Parker for his actions as Spider-Man, even when his actions are well-meaning. In the MCU, Peter gets his suit back, the bodega is rebuilt, no one figures out his secret identity when he shows up at the Washington monument during Peter's apparent absence, and there's no consequence for Ned knowing his identity. In the comics, Flash Thompson is a popular jock that makes fun of Peter's academic interests. In the MCU, Flash has all the same academic interests as Peter, and their classmates seemingly prefer Peter much more than Flash. In the comics, it takes May a while to grieve her longtime husband's untimely death. In the MCU, May has many suiters, and even though her longtime husband only died a few months ago, we see her casually flirting with Tony Stark, a waiter, and seemingly less casually flirting with Happy Hogan. In the comics, Mary Jane "MJ" Watson, a girl who deals with a rough home life and masks it as being a party girl, is the great love of Peter Parker, with their connection further deepening after she learns Peter's secret. In the MCU, Michelle "MJ" Jones has no comic counterpart, as she and Mary Jane Watson have completely different personalities/interests, and the only thing they have in common are their nicknames and their romantic connection to Peter Parker. In the comics, one of the most iconic aspects of Spidey is is non-stop wit, quips, and one-liners he makes when he's nervous. In the MCU, though he does talk a lot when he's nervous, we haven't seen much quipping or one-liners from him yet. In the comics, Ned Leeds is a reporter for the Daily Bugle, whereas Ganke Lee, Miles Morales' best friend, shares the same attributes and appearance as the film version of Ned Leeds. In the MCU, Ganke Lee is just like his comics counterpart except for his name being changed to Ned Leeds and his best friend being changed to Peter Parker. In the comics, Liz Allen and Adrian Toomes are unrelated. In the MCU, Liz Allen is the daughter of Adrian Toomes. In the comics, Peter and May live in a house Forrest Hills. In the MCU, Peter and May live in an apartment building. In the comics, Peter refers to May as "Aunt May". In the MCU, Peter refers to May as "May". In the comics, Jackson Brice is never The Shocker. In the MCU, Jackson Brice is the very first Shocker.

 

[Dark Raven]

This is unreadable as a huge wall of text. Who is going to read that without any paragraphs?

And did it need to be a separate topic of its own, especially when we've discussed this so many times before? It could just be in the general Spider-Man thread.

 

[Peter B Parker]

This is unreadable as a huge wall of text. Who is going to read that without any paragraphs?

And did it need to be a separate topic of its own, especially when we've discussed this so many times before? It could just be in the general Spider-Man thread.

lol today's my first day on this site so I'm still figuring things out. I've never been on a message board before, so I appreciate your tips! Thanks!

 

[Stormborn]

I don't really mind about minor stuff like Liz being related to Toomes or there being two Shockers but I'm definitely with you about how they've mishandled the core elements of Spidey's character.

• They undermined him as a young hero with huge potential by having him lose every last fight he's in. He loses 4 fights vs Vulture, 1 vs Shocker and even 1 vs henchmen robbing the ATM. He repeatedly needed rescuing, Iron Man saves him twice and even Ned saves him once.
• They undermined him as an everyman science prodigy who builds his own tech on a shoe string budget by giving him a billion dollar Stark suit with an AI that coaches him. Hell, they didn't even let Peter be the one to hack the suit, they had Ned to do it for him.
• They ignored the classic, tragedy driven, 'with great power comes great responsibility' motivation of the character by never even mentioning Uncle Ben and barely having him struggle with hard choices and balancing his dual lives. Instead he spends most of the film obsessing about proving himself to the other heroes and joining the Avengers.
• They messed up the supporting cast. Liz is a crush he barely knows, not a love interest. MJ is a totally new character with Mary Jane's initials. No sign of Gwen or Harry, instead they stole Ganke from Miles Morales' supporting cast and renamed him Ned. Aunt May is barely in the film and what ought to be a huge moment of her finding out Peter is Spider-Man is cut short by the credits and played for laughs.
• In the comics humour is a huge part of the Spidey side of the character, he quips more than any other hero, sometimes as a coping mechanism in extreme danger, sometimes to mess with the villain's head and sometimes just for fun. In the MCU there a bunch of characters that quip non-stop but somehow Spidey isn't one of them.

lol today's my first day on this site so I'm still figuring things out. I've never been on a message board before, so I appreciate your tips! Thanks!

Welcome to the forums then, nice username!

It's not too late to edit your post and put some paragraphs in.

 

[Docker2.0]

This is unreadable as a huge wall of text. Who is going to read that without any paragraphs?

And did it need to be a separate topic of its own, especially when we've discussed this so many times before? It could just be in the general Spider-Man thread.

Agreed. I'm like WTF is this! And I think MCU Spidey is very accurate. But this brings up my first question: The Ultimate Spiderman cartoon had a similary storyline with him working for Fury. So does that mean Marvel has access to these things years down the line?

 

[Leo Zelinsky]

Sucks for people who dislike MCU Spider-Man. It's gonna be the definitive portrayal of the character for millions

 

[2kt09]

The overall approach is more Archie Comics meets Miles Morales.

Agreed. I'm like WTF is this! And I think MCU Spidey is very accurate. But this brings up my first question: The Ultimate Spiderman cartoon had a similary storyline with him working for Fury. So does that mean Marvel has access to these things years down the line?

It is a Disney cartoon.

 

[Micromind]

In the comics, Spidey is a street-level hero focused on keeping NYC safe. In the MCU, Spidey is being recruited by Nick Fury for a covert, international mission. In the comics, Spidey is very different from other heroes in the way that he had to make his own suit and web shooters. In the MCU, Tony Stark gives him a "multi- million dollar" super-suit, complete with a parachute, an A.I., over 400 web shooter settings, a surveillance drone, and an instant-kill mode. In the comics, Uncle Ben's death is an INTEGRAL part of what inspires Peter to use his powers for good, even when the consequences outweigh the benefits. In the MCU, one of Peter's biggest motivations for helping people is to impress Tony Stark and earn an Avengers membership. In the comics, Spider-Man is very misunderstood by the public, the majority of which believe he's a menace. In the MCU, Spider-Man is a local celebrity, making appearances at fundraisers and being the subject of school-wide admiration. In the comics, anything that can go wrong for Peter does go wrong, and he often pays the price as Peter Parker for his actions as Spider-Man, even when his actions are well-meaning. In the MCU, Peter gets his suit back, the bodega is rebuilt, no one figures out his secret identity when he shows up at the Washington monument during Peter's apparent absence, and there's no consequence for Ned knowing his identity. In the comics, Flash Thompson is a popular jock that makes fun of Peter's academic interests. In the MCU, Flash has all the same academic interests as Peter, and their classmates seemingly prefer Peter much more than Flash. In the comics, it takes May a while to grieve her longtime husband's untimely death. In the MCU, May has many suiters, and even though her longtime husband only died a few months ago, we see her casually flirting with Tony Stark, a waiter, and seemingly less casually flirting with Happy Hogan. In the comics, Mary Jane "MJ" Watson, a girl who deals with a rough home life and masks it as being a party girl, is the great love of Peter Parker, with their connection further deepening after she learns Peter's secret. In the MCU, Michelle "MJ" Jones has no comic counterpart, as she and Mary Jane Watson have completely different personalities/interests, and the only thing they have in common are their nicknames and their romantic connection to Peter Parker. In the comics, one of the most iconic aspects of Spidey is is non-stop wit, quips, and one-liners he makes when he's nervous. In the MCU, though he does talk a lot when he's nervous, we haven't seen much quipping or one-liners from him yet. In the comics, Ned Leeds is a reporter for the Daily Bugle, whereas Ganke Lee, Miles Morales' best friend, shares the same attributes and appearance as the film version of Ned Leeds. In the MCU, Ganke Lee is just like his comics counterpart except for his name being changed to Ned Leeds and his best friend being changed to Peter Parker. In the comics, Liz Allen and Adrian Toomes are unrelated. In the MCU, Liz Allen is the daughter of Adrian Toomes. In the comics, Peter and May live in a house Forrest Hills. In the MCU, Peter and May live in an apartment building. In the comics, Peter refers to May as "Aunt May". In the MCU, Peter refers to May as "May". In the comics, Jackson Brice is never The Shocker. In the MCU, Jackson Brice is the very first Shocker.

This is what happens when Studios want their rebooted franchise to look different from earlier iteration of same character. It is especially frustrating when the new take becomes popular and gets acceptance, thus becoming new established cannon, the problem stems from having several restarts/reboots when the franchise is old, this is what Superman will have to go through if it gets rebooted, they will create something that wasn't there in the original comics.

The problem of deviating from established classic take for Spider-Man is due to reluctance of Studios to make movie on same story as it was done by Sam Raimi and Marc Webb. This is a problem for comic book properties that have many movies and many reboots, properties like Doctor Strange and Captain America don't have same problem.

 

[TheVileOne]

We have a whole set of Spider-Man forums for this.

 

[Batmannerism]

I don't really mind about minor stuff like Liz being related to Toomes or there being two Shockers but I'm definitely with you about how they've mishandled the core elements of Spidey's character.

• They undermined him as a young hero with huge potential by having him lose every last fight he's in. He loses 4 fights vs Vulture, 1 vs Shocker and even 1 vs henchmen robbing the ATM. He repeatedly needed rescuing, Iron Man saves him twice and even Ned saves him once.

Ah, once again we disagree ! This is deja vu.
I think it's good to portray Spidey as exactly what he is: an untrained, inexperienced kid who screws up - a lot. I'm not a fan of "Mary sue" characters and while MCU Spidey struggles I think it makes him a much more engaging character, because he manages to be fallible without being mopey like Maguire. Most of all he's more believable as a teen because of that fallibility.

For me it works, but I know that many long time Spider fans don't like it.

• They undermined him as an everyman science prodigy who builds his own tech on a shoe string budget by giving him a billion dollar Stark suit with an AI that coaches him. Hell, they didn't even let Peter be the one to hack the suit, they had Ned to do it for him.

Something Nolan did successfully was downplay Bruce Wayne as a scientist/detective/ninja/engineer...... because that's just ridiculous, by having Fox be his armourer.

In the same way Peter's homemade suit reflects his lack of resources - he does the best with what he has, but it's more realistic that Stark provided the super high tech suit.

Peter is a genius, and SMH doesn't diminish that - even in CW Stark acknowledges his brilliance in manufacturing his own webbing.

However, by having Stark supply a high tech suit and then having Peter show that he can succeed without it, well IMO that only helps establish his potential for growth.

• They ignored the classic, tragedy driven, 'with great power comes great responsibility' motivation of the character by never even mentioning Uncle Ben and barely having him struggle with hard choices and balancing his dual lives. Instead he spends most of the film obsessing about proving himself to the other heroes and joining the Avengers.

I didn't miss that part of Spider Man - we've seen the Uncle Ben thing twice now, and it's a bit heavy handed IMO. Honestly, that "with great power...." line always struck me as a bit much for Spider Man, given that he's mostly street level superhero. That line would be more appropriate for someone like Thor, Iron Man or one of Marvels powerhouses ( actually it's the code that Superman lives by, bet the DC folks wish they'd thought of it first - great line though, I used it in my administrative law exam and got an A).

He certainly did struggle leading 2 lives as Peter Parker quiz team MVP and Spider Man. He also remained an outsider, despite his powers. IMO the film covered that well.

• They messed up the supporting cast. Liz is a crush he barely knows, not a love interest. MJ is a totally new character with Mary Jane's initials. No sign of Gwen or Harry, instead they stole Ganke from Miles Morales' supporting cast and renamed him Ned. Aunt May is barely in the film and what ought to be a huge moment of her finding out Peter is Spider-Man is cut short by the credits and played for laughs.

Okay, no Gwen no Harry - fair enough, but I feel like they deserve some props for doing something different an interesting with the supporting cast, parricularly Aunt May ( my least favorite part of the Raimi films). Given how soon MCU SpiderMan comes after ASM 2 it's nice to not have the same old stuff.

I'm sure those key supporting characters will appear, hopefully in a fresh an interesting way - the same way that MCU Spidey feels fresh rather than a retread of well travelled ground.

• In the comics humour is a huge part of the Spidey side of the character, he quips more than any other hero, sometimes as a coping mechanism in extreme danger, sometimes to mess with the villain's head and sometimes just for fun. In the MCU there a bunch of characters that quip non-stop but somehow Spidey isn't one of them.

??? I feel like we are watching different films, in both Homecoming and Infinity War I remember Spidey being pretty quippy ( particularly when he and Strange team up on Thanos and when he's rescuing everyone after the moon meteor strike)

However, it's tough to stand out with the quips when you have guys like Stark and Quill around.

Welcome to the forums then, nice username!

It's not too late to edit your post and put some paragraphs in.

Unlike our stoush over Vision v Strange this thread concerns a matter of taste. As such, I respect all opinions that MCU Spidey has been mishandled, @Spider-Aziz can you hear me ? If people don't like MCU Spidey, fair enough.

For me, Homecoming is the best Spider Man film because it captures one aspect of the character that the other films don't quite manage - that for the most part Spidey is a somewhat goofy, quirky teenage outsider whose mostly out of his depth but muddling through.

Homecoming was the first Spidey film that made that struggle really engaging - well, to me anyway. Besides that it felt fresh, because it wasn' t just a rehash of the previous films.

However, this is all IMO - your criticisms are still valid, I just see things differently.

The OP is correct that MCU Spidey is inaccurate, in that it makes a lot of changes from previous iterations and some comic book canon ( if there actually is such a thing). However, I submit that the changes are a good thing and give us a fresh take on the character while keeping what is essential about him. This is what Man of Steel tried to do, but didn't quite get right.

Peace out !

 

[Spider-Aziz]

Boy, you have Andrew's Spidey as your avatar. Prepare for some comments that will likely annoy you.

Unlike our stoush over Vision v Strange this thread concerns a matter of taste. As such, I respect all opinions that MCU Spidey has been mishandled, @Spider-Aziz can you hear me ? If people don't like MCU Spidey, fair enough.

Yeah man, I hear you.

 

[Iceman]

In the Raimi films, Spidey became popular with your everyday New Yorker (apart from JJJ lol) too.

 

[Mandon Knight]

MCU Spider-Man has very little 'see through' on his roots to the original source material but for this generation of fans, that doesn't seem to be an issue.

 

[Iceman]

It’s also the 6th Spidey film and onwards. We thankfully got a lot of the faithful stuff in the Raini films so I guess people are more ready for different takes.

 

[Stormborn]

Ah, once again we disagree ! This is deja vu.
I think it's good to portray Spidey as exactly what he is: an untrained, inexperienced kid who screws up - a lot. I'm not a fan of "Mary sue" characters and while MCU Spidey struggles I think it makes him a much more engaging character, because he manages to be fallible without being mopey like Maguire. Most of all he's more believable as a teen because of that fallibility.

Most versions of Peter are fallible but in a way that involves him making tough choices, non-obvious mistakes, not always losing, and displaying impressive skill/power even when he does lose. The MCU version is more of a butt-monkey than any other version I've seen.

Something Nolan did successfully was downplay Bruce Wayne as a scientist/detective/ninja/engineer...... because that's just ridiculous, by having Fox be his armourer.

I'm fine with adaptations making changes and in the Nolan Batman films the changes he made worked well for a streamlined, realistic take on the character. On the other hand, the MCU's changes to Spidey don't work well in my book, they've strayed too far from the core of the character and the things they've added don't make for a better story.

In the same way Peter's homemade suit reflects his lack of resources - he does the best with what he has, but it's more realistic that Stark provided the super high tech suit.

There was no need for him to have a super high tech suit at all though, he's not meant to be an Iron-Man sidekick. He just needs a regular old spandex suit and the web shooters he made himself,he can fight using his powers (including the spider-sense they pretty much wrote out of Homecoming).

I didn't miss that part of Spider Man - we've seen the Uncle Ben thing twice now, and it's a bit heavy handed IMO. Honestly, that "with great power...." line always struck me as a bit much for Spider Man, given that he's mostly street level superhero.

I'm fine with not seeing his origin story for the umpteenth time, some of my favourite adaptations of the character skipped it too (the Spectacular animated series, the Insomniac game) but those versions still referenced it and used it as one of the cornerstones of Peter's motivations. In Homecoming it's never even mentioned and the core ethos of the character gets swept under the rug. Using his gifts responsibly to help people doesn't seem to be MCU Peter's guiding motivation, instead he obsesses over proving himself in Civil War/Homecoming and he joins Team Stark without even questioning what the Civil War is over.

In my book being a genius with superhuman strength + speed + agility + wall crawling + precognition is more than enough to qualify as great power but the line isn't actually saying that only the most powerful have to take responsibility, it's saying that everyone has to take responsibility for doing the best they can with the power they have.

He certainly did struggle leading 2 lives as Peter Parker quiz team MVP and Spider Man. He also remained an outsider, despite his powers. IMO the film covered that well.

Not really, other versions of Spider-Man face tougher consequences than whether to bail on the high school quiz team and their one date crush switching schools.

Spider-Man PS4's a great example. In just one story

Spoiler

• He prioritises heroics over his civilian life, misses rent and gets evicted.
• He tries to keep MJ from following him into dangerous situations, and she breaks up with him for disrespecting her.
• He's late for work because he's busy saving people, this leads to a lab accident he could've prevented and the government withdrawing their funding so he loses his job.
• He helps engineer revolutionary prosthetic technology but he doesn't spend enough time at the lab to perfect it and a rushed human trial messes with Dr Octavius's brain chemistry creating Doc Ock.
• He manages to recover the cure to the bioweapon ravaging the city, but rather than using it to save Aunt May he chooses the greater good of using it as a base sample to manufacture a cure that'll save thousands.

Okay, no Gwen no Harry - fair enough, but I feel like they deserve some props for doing something different an interesting with the supporting cast, particularly Aunt May ( my least favorite part of the Raimi films). Given how soon MCU SpiderMan comes after ASM 2 it's nice to not have the same old stuff.

I'm sure those key supporting characters will appear, hopefully in a fresh an interesting way - the same way that MCU Spidey feels fresh rather than a retread of well travelled ground.

I think we've spoke before about me disliking the MCU handling of Aunt May, mostly the way they used her finding out Peter's Spidey as a throwaway "what the f***" roll credits joke rather than a big dramatic moment.

As for Gwen and Harry being absent, yeah I can deal with that, and you're right that they can always add them in for a sequel. I do find it weird that they took Miles Morales' best friend Ganke, renamed him and made him Peter's best friend though, it makes MCU Spidey feel like a hybrid of Peter and Miles.

??? I feel like we are watching different films, in both Homecoming and Infinity War I remember Spidey being pretty quippy ( particularly when he and Strange team up on Thanos and when he's rescuing everyone after the moon meteor strike)

However, it's tough to stand out with the quips when you have guys like Stark and Quill around.

MCU Spidey isn't humourless but he's far from the confident, wise cracking hero of the comics, the animated adaptations and even the Garfield films. Like you say, Stark and Quill have way better quips and that must have been a conscious decision by the writers.

For me, Homecoming is the best Spider Man film because it captures one aspect of the character that the other films don't quite manage - that for the most part Spidey is a somewhat goofy, quirky teenage outsider whose mostly out of his depth but muddling through.

I'm curious, have you seen Into the Spider-Verse? Easily the best Spider-Man film IMO (although the Ultimate Spider-Man comics are my overall favourite version of the character and probably always will be).

Obviously Miles Morales is the main character in Spider-Verse but it still had two great takes on Peter Parker.

 

[Detective Conan]

Since you're new to the site. I'll try to be nice and address a few of your points as civilly as I can.

In the comics, Spidey is a street-level hero focused on keeping NYC safe.

So is MCU Spider-Man. Even after he meets Stark he's advised to contain his efforts to only more street-level crime since Tony doesn't believe Peter is on the level to deal with serious large-scale threats that the Avengers regularly deal with yet. Spider-Man fights regular thugs and crooks like always has done in the comics. Heck Tony's able to infer from Peter's words explaining his motive for doing what he does is to help people who are in need.

In the MCU, Spidey is being recruited by Nick Fury for a covert, international mission. In the comics, Spidey is very different from other heroes in the way that he had to make his own suit and web shooters. In the MCU, Tony Stark gives him a "multi- million dollar" super-suit, complete with a parachute, an A.I., over 400 web shooter settings, a surveillance drone, and an instant-kill mode.

1. Spider-Man in the comics has a history of being recruited by people to do missions, especially if that mission has world-ending stakes. In the Ultimates Fury recruited Spider-Man a few times for some Shield related missions. And the Civil War comics like in the movie version Stark recruits Peter in that as well.

2. MCU Peter Parker still made his own suit and created his own webshooters. This was shown in Civil War. He just got an upgrade. Remember Ultimate Peter Parker didn't create his final costume either. He just got an upgrade from the wrestling promoter so there is precedent in the source material that Peter didn't create his classic costume.

3. Peter Parker has gotten costume upgrades from other heroes before, including Stark. In fact, Stark gives Peter the Iron Spider suit upgrade in the Civil War comic book storyline. So the idea of Peter getting an upgrade for his classic homemade costume from Iron Man also has a comic book precedent.

In the comics, Uncle Ben's death is an INTEGRAL part of what inspires Peter to use his powers for good, even when the consequences outweigh the benefits. In the MCU, one of Peter's biggest motivations for helping people is to impress Tony Stark and earn an Avengers membership.

Peter's motivation is still intact. He alludes to Uncle Ben in his answer to Tony's question about his motivation for doing what he does. And remember Peter was doing the superhero thing before he even met Stark. MCU Peter would still be fighting crime even if he never knew who Iron Man was--albeit in a crappy homemade suit and poorer quality webshooters.

Though its interesting to note that 616 Peter didn't immediately get inspired to embark in a selfless crusade of heroism, since even after the Uncle Ben tragedy he did briefly entertain the idea of using his powers to rob a bank as well as attempt to get back into his wrestling gig(he couldn't because of the smear campaign against him by JJ).

In the comics, Spider-Man is very misunderstood by the public, the majority of which believe he's a menace. In the MCU, Spider-Man is a local celebrity, making appearances at fundraisers and being the subject of school-wide admiration. In the comics, anything that can go wrong for Peter does go wrong, and he often pays the price as Peter Parker for his actions as Spider-Man, even when his actions are well-meaning. In the MCU, Peter gets his suit back, the bodega is rebuilt, no one figures out his secret identity when he shows up at the Washington monument during Peter's apparent absence, and there's no consequence for Ned knowing his identity.

1. New York has a love-hate relationship with Spider-Man. There are times where's he's reviled and there are times when he's revered. Overall, I'd say Spider-Man is generally well-liked in New York and is kind of a local celebrity and much like in our universe there are tons of Spider-Man related shirts and balloons. New Yorkers can hate him but mostly due to the propaganda from news outlets like the Daily Bugle who often times defames him. Peter's school peers(including ironically enough Flash) seem to fancy Peter's alter-ego quite a bit in various comics, especially in the Ultimate comics where they have Peter in high school a lot longer than 616 ever did(he was only in high school for about 28 issues before going to college).

2. In the Ultimate Universe Peter Parker was pretty sloppy at keeping his identity a secret to the point where almost every hero from the X-Men to the Ultimate's found out eventually. And just because someone found out about it doesn't always mean it meant serious ramifications especially when the heroes found out.

Most of the rest of your points are kind of nit-picky and and I kind of feel you copy and pasted a CBR article detailing the differences between the comics & movies onto your thread.

 

[Dark Raven]

Tom Holland is not naturally quippy or quick witted like RDJ or Pratt. That was one of the issues I had with casting him in the first place. Asa Butterfield was even worse though and sounded really monotonous and dull.

Holland is like the equivalent of the boy they cast for Billy Batson in Shazam compared to the boy they cast as Freddie. Zachary Levi is naturally more humorous and quippy, which is why Asher Angel doesn't seem like he'd grow up into Levi whereas Freddie does.

 

[Detective Conan]

Peter Parker in a lot of comics isn't really that quippy though, especially in the Lee/Ditko run. Even as Spider-Man he isn't funny like a great comedian, his wisecracks are kind of corny and amateurish and is usually done to aggravate his enemies enough to throw them off their game to alleviate his nervousness when he's fighting them. When Peter is mocking his opponents its a bit like trash talking wrestlers do to their opponents before a match or something. If Peter had chosen to be a comedian instead of a photographer he would be a failed comedian since he isn't naturally funny. When casting Peter Parker you need the kind of actor who can convey that relatable every-man, down-on-his-luck quality which is exactly why you shouldn't cast a naturally quippy and good-looking actor like Ryan Reynolds who I can't buy for a second that anyone would pick on him. This is what made McGuire good casting since he's not movie-star handsome like a Brad Pitt and he was able convey those qualities quite well despite him lacking in energy when delivering his quips.cAdmittedly some have griped about the way Tobey delivers the wisecracks but I think he did them fine for what they were.Spider-Man is supposed to be awkward and a bit nervous(especially in his early years a crime-fighter) so I don't need him to be as funny as MCU Stark. There's obviously more to the character than funny quips.

 

[Mandon Knight]

In all honesty, in my humble opinion, the recent Spiderman game on PS4, for me, was the best take we've ever got, outside of source and Raimi, blows MCU iteration away frankly for heart, soul and understanding of material.

The introduction sequence to the game encapsulated everything that Spidey and Peter stand for and the sheer joy of feeling that and the game as a whole brings you to tears because how 'right' it gets it, the MCU version cannot hold a candle frankly to that feeling.

 

[Darkprime]

I think part of the issue was that Feige and Marvel Studios were pressed for time. They didn't have time to work out the script and fine tune the dialog they basically signed the deal and had to get a movie out by summer 2017. And introduce him in Civil War. If they owned the rights in full they would have most certainly taken their time and not forced him into Civil War at the expense of the character. However given the situation what we got was pretty damn good considering how short notice the deal was.

 

[Detective Conan]

I think part of the issue was that Feige and Marvel Studios were pressed for time. They didn't have time to work out the script and fine tune the dialog they basically signed the deal and had to get a movie out by summer 2017. And introduce him in Civil War. If they owned the rights in full they would have most certainly taken their time and not forced him into Civil War at the expense of the character. However given the situation what we got was pretty damn good considering how short notice the deal was.

Actually I think they still would've put him in Civil War even if they had the full rights since Marvel(specifically the Russos) wanted Spider-Man in Civil War since his character would've have balanced the tone of the film by bringing some lightness or brevity to an overall very serious main story of the two heroes having a falling out over ideological and personal reasons. Of course, back then, when Civil War was in the script stages the prospect of Sony being willing to cooperate with Marvel was a long-shot since its rather unorthodox for two competing studios to agree to share the rights of a enormously valuable IP such as Spider-Man but luckily Feige was good friends with Pascal who had been demoted from her previous position thanks to the Sony hack scandal. Combine that with the under-performance of AMS2 & a lack of the ever so profitable merchandising rights to cushion the blow Sony was left with very few options other than to team-up with Marvel in order to bring Spider-Man into the MCU.

 

[Stormborn]

In all honesty, in my humble opinion, the recent Spiderman game on PS4, for me, was the best take we've ever got, outside of source and Raimi, blows MCU iteration away frankly for heart, soul and understanding of material.

The introduction sequence to the game encapsulated everything that Spidey and Peter stand for and the sheer joy of feeling that and the game as a whole brings you to tears because how 'right' it gets it, the MCU version cannot hold a candle frankly to that feeling.

Yeah man, Insomniac knocked it out of the park. Even in just that first cut scene you can tell from all the detail just how well they understand the character:



and it just keeps getting better from there.



On the off chance you haven't seen it though, I'd say Into the Spider Verse is definitely a challenger for best version of Spider-Man outside the comics:

 

[LightDaggers]

In all honesty, in my humble opinion, the recent Spiderman game on PS4, for me, was the best take we've ever got, outside of source and Raimi, blows MCU iteration away frankly for heart, soul and understanding of material.

The introduction sequence to the game encapsulated everything that Spidey and Peter stand for and the sheer joy of feeling that and the game as a whole brings you to tears because how 'right' it gets it, the MCU version cannot hold a candle frankly to that feeling.

THIS SO MUCH!!!! Spider-Man ps4 was a PERFECT representation of Peter and Spider-Man. The game in general was so perfect. I felt like he's coming straight from the comic books.

I still love the Raimi movies alot, those movies are honestly the best Spider-Man and Peter on the movie screen. And they are in general, some of the best comic book movies ever made.

 

[Detective Conan]

The main problem with MCU Peter is that he doesn't seem to have that angst and struggle that most of the comics versions tend to have and part of the reason for that is I think the MCU Spider-Man films are more lighthearted than the Riami/Webb films and those previous versions already covered that aspect of Spider-Man pretty well(for the most part) so the filmmakers feel they need to go in a fresh and new direction. The Riami movies may be remembered as cheesy and campy but actually they were quite serious films underneath the goofiness. It just the comic booky humor is effective enough to relieve the darkness of certain scenes. I mean these movies have a scene has haunting and horrifying as this:



I want MCU Peter to go through some more deeper internal struggle in the newer movies which is part of why I hope Tony dies. I think the loss of another mentor figure can provide the building blocks and an interesting arc for Far From Home which is to figure out a way to cope with Tony's death. Of course there are other ways to give Peter an arc that is emotionally compelling but I think it would make the most sense for me.

 

[Batmannerism]

Most versions of Peter are fallible but in a way that involves him making tough choices, non-obvious mistakes, not always losing, and displaying impressive skill/power even when he does lose. The MCU version is more of a butt-monkey than any other version I've seen.


I'm fine with adaptations making changes and in the Nolan Batman films the changes he made worked well for a streamlined, realistic take on the character. On the other hand, the MCU's changes to Spidey don't work well in my book, they've strayed too far from the core of the character and the things they've added don't make for a better story.


There was no need for him to have a super high tech suit at all though, he's not meant to be an Iron-Man sidekick. He just needs a regular old spandex suit and the web shooters he made himself,he can fight using his powers (including the spider-sense they pretty much wrote out of Homecoming).



I'm fine with not seeing his origin story for the umpteenth time, some of my favourite adaptations of the character skipped it too (the Spectacular animated series, the Insomniac game) but those versions still referenced it and used it as one of the cornerstones of Peter's motivations. In Homecoming it's never even mentioned and the core ethos of the character gets swept under the rug. Using his gifts responsibly to help people doesn't seem to be MCU Peter's guiding motivation, instead he obsesses over proving himself in Civil War/Homecoming and he joins Team Stark without even questioning what the Civil War is over.

In my book being a genius with superhuman strength + speed + agility + wall crawling + precognition is more than enough to qualify as great power but the line isn't actually saying that only the most powerful have to take responsibility, it's saying that everyone has to take responsibility for doing the best they can with the power they have.



Not really, other versions of Spider-Man face tougher consequences than whether to bail on the high school quiz team and their one date crush switching schools.

Spider-Man PS4's a great example. In just one story

Spoiler

• He prioritises heroics over his civilian life, misses rent and gets evicted.
• He tries to keep MJ from following him into dangerous situations, and she breaks up with him for disrespecting her.
• He's late for work because he's busy saving people, this leads to a lab accident he could've prevented and the government withdrawing their funding so he loses his job.
• He helps engineer revolutionary prosthetic technology but he doesn't spend enough time at the lab to perfect it and a rushed human trial messes with Dr Octavius's brain chemistry creating Doc Ock.
• He manages to recover the cure to the bioweapon ravaging the city, but rather than using it to save Aunt May he chooses the greater good of using it as a base sample to manufacture a cure that'll save thousands.

I think we've spoke before about me disliking the MCU handling of Aunt May, mostly the way they used her finding out Peter's Spidey as a throwaway "what the f***" roll credits joke rather than a big dramatic moment.

As for Gwen and Harry being absent, yeah I can deal with that, and you're right that they can always add them in for a sequel. I do find it weird that they took Miles Morales' best friend Ganke, renamed him and made him Peter's best friend though, it makes MCU Spidey feel like a hybrid of Peter and Miles.



MCU Spidey isn't humourless but he's far from the confident, wise cracking hero of the comics, the animated adaptations and even the Garfield films. Like you say, Stark and Quill have way better quips and that must have been a conscious decision by the writers.



I'm curious, have you seen Into the Spider-Verse? Easily the best Spider-Man film IMO (although the Ultimate Spider-Man comics are my overall favourite version of the character and probably always will be).

Obviously Miles Morales is the main character in Spider-Verse but it still had two great takes on Peter Parker.

I've never been a big fan of Spider Man...since he stopped being on Electric Company back in 1977. He's okay, but not my favourite Marvel character - although there have been some great Spidey stories over the years and I proudly own a collected edition of the Birth of Venom comic - kind of taking the idea of someone being their own worst enemy to the extreme, if the MCU waits a few more years they can redo that story, and if they do it right it'll be great.

My favorite animated version of the character was from the 1960s show - best theme song ever.

I'll get around to the Spider Verse one day, but I'm in no rush.