There has been tons of discourse over which actor played Peter Parker’s Spider-Man best. The discourse includes Tobey Maguire (2002), Andrew Garfield (2012) and Tom Holland (2017).

I got to thinking, who better to solve this discourse than a college student (with no free time to rewatch the films and do a proper analysis). In came Eli Rainey, our friendly neighborhood Spider-Man “expert,” who was way more qualified to discuss this topic than I. So now we had two college students with no free time, but one of them actually knew a lot about Spider-Man. With him, my credibility skyrocketed and we were ready to solve the world’s biggest discussion. Who is the best Spider-Man actor? 

Let’s start with Maguire, who is the OG live action Peter Parker. I went into this thinking that he was by far the best Spider-Man, but had nostalgia blinded me? Spoiler alert, it absolutely had. Let me be clear, the first Maguire film is still my absolute favorite Spider-Man film. It had all of the aspects that make a superhero movie enjoyable to me; the drama, the action, Kirsten Dunst (MJ, I will always love you.) However, it doesn’t scream Spider-Man to me. Obviously, there is a boy who got bit by a spider and developed powers, so it’s not like it is completely inaccurate, but Maguire played both Parker and Spider-Man like an angsty, emo teen. I know we’ve all seen the emo Spider-Man memes. 

Eli had similar thoughts. 

E: Tobey Maguire embodies early Spider-man comics the most. I say this because his interpretation of Peter Parker is very weak willed compared to his peers. He’s the Spider-man that gets beaten up by life the most. I don’t particularly like Tobey Maguire as Spider-man for this reason. Spider-Man 2 is where I have the most problems with him. He gets bogged down by every single problem that comes, whether it be his romance with MJ or working. Instead of overcoming these problems, however, he just whines and quits being Spider-man. While this is a somewhat faithful adaptation of Spider-man No More (TASM #50-52), it just comes off as weak in the movie. The core of Spider-man is that he always gets back up after getting knocked down. However, Maguire doesn’t seem headstrong enough to be a truly great Spider-man. While the Maguire movies are decent at best, they do not have the best Spider-man by a long shot.

Garfield is too cool to be Peter Parker. His body language was too chill and his voice sounded as if he was constantly stoned. He did have this awkward charisma, which I think really worked for Parker. This may be an unpopular opinion, but I felt that this was not Garfield’s best performance. It really lacked interest to me. Physically, he looked and moved very similarly to other adaptations I have seen of Spider-Man. His agility felt more fluent than Maguire, though this could be due to age of the actor and/or capability of the special effects used. My consensus was that Garfield was a better Spider-Man than Maguire, and physically a better Parker, but neither fit the image of Peter Parker that I had in my head. Also, the CGI was bad; it was so bad I could cry (just a side note.)

Take it away, Eli. 

E: If Tobey Maguire is an adaptation of early Spider-man comics, Andrew Garfield is an adaptation of Ultimate Spider-man (2000). Garfield is much stronger in comparison to Maguire, especially as Peter Parker. He takes everything life throws at him, and throws it right back. His Spider-man isn’t too bad either, he leans a lot more into the goofy sarcastic angle than anyone else, which is a huge part of the character. I enjoy his relationship with Gwen Stacy a lot more than I ever did Maguire with MJ. Garfield and Emma Stone have much more chemistry, which makes Gwen Stacy’s loss all the more heartbreaking. All-in-all, Garfield seems to be more in tune with the heroic side of Spider-man than the rest. He’s the one that will keep going no matter what happens to him.

Eli and I had total opposite views on Garfield, which I actually found incredibly interesting. It started to become so obvious that personal preference really is the leading cause of all of this discourse. 

However, we’ve got one more man, Tom Holland. You know him, most people love him, but do we? 

I do. He is Peter Parker and no one came close. He is age appropriate and nerdy and he has a boyish charm that is so entertaining to watch in action. I really did not remember how good he was until I rewatched his films, but he is in a league of his own. The other two took a very dark and angsty approach, but Holland is light-hearted and the energy he brings is infectious. This character is supposed to be a child and so far, he is the only one that has really captured that. I thought his Spider-Man was lacking that struggle to adjust to the life of a hero and I wish that his old suit would have stuck around longer, but when Tony Stark is your mentor I guess you can’t walk around in such a silly outfit. However, even his Spider-Man had so much personality. His body language was on par with Garfield and his comedic nature was a refreshing change. This version really does seem like a “friendly neighborhood Spider-Man” (as opposed to angsty one and angsty two over there.) 

Eli did not (It’s okay to be wrong sometimes.)

E: Tom Holland’s Spider-man is its own beast. There’s really no comic that can be compared to him (Besides No Way Home being a loose adaptation of One More Day: ASM #544-545, Sensational Spider-man #41, Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man #24). Being part of a larger universe, Holland has interactions with other heavy hitters like Ironman and Captain America. But these interactions form the basis of his character in my opinion. Holland’s Peter Parker is portrayed as a kid still learning the ropes, which is fine. He was given his suit, web shooters and everything else by Tony Stark. It’s hard to root for the character when he benefits from nepotism. He doesn’t truly grow into his own until the very end of No Way Home. Even then, he was supported by Maguire and Garfield. I would love to see what happens with him after the events of No Way Home, because so far, Tom Holland is Spider-man in name only. 

Our final rankings were: 

Hannah – Holland, Maguire, Garfield.

Eli – Garfield, Holland, Maguire.

So what exactly did this prove? Well, it proved that the discourse will never be solved because people will always have differing opinions. Why does this have to be an argument though? Is the discourse really necessary? Let people have their own opinions, regardless of prior knowledge or casual viewership. It is okay to have differing opinions everyone, I promise (but Tom Holland is the best, so everyone else can pack up and go home.)