What do you think about the state of Peter Parker?🕸 Do you want adult Spider-Man? Comment below!💥 Thanks again to Monopoly Go! 💰Download Monopoly Go for free: www.inflcr.co/SHJEu
This is why I'm loving Ismomniac's Peter Parker so far. We're following a Spider-man who has been at least 8 years in the business and he has real problems and he handles everything like an adult. An actual adult Spider-man. The way he's mentor to Miles, the way he treats everyone around him, the way he talks to people at FEAST, his final talk with Doc Ock. I love all that. I hope they nail it again with Spider-man 2. Cautiously optimistic lol
Yuri just looks too old nowadays to play a spiderman mask off therefore making motion capture very difficult. That is why they changed it. And the new face actor has done a good job imo, he can really still portray the emotion and it just allows for them to grow this face throughout the next few games (assuming a spiderman 3 will exist hopefully)
Yeah, and even if he does go through tragedy, it’s how he grows from it, and how it develops the character that makes him so good. My only problem with this video was claiming that trauma is inherently negative, and that trauma being linked to the character is a “mistake”, but it isn’t, spider-man’s whole thing is pushing through tragedy, and making the most out of life, I mean, his origin is literally tragic, it’s how he grew from that, how he used that to be a better person, that defined him
@@leafyishereisdumbnameakath4259I remember looking into this and basically, something about the game engine makes the old face look broken when they tried to adapt it, so that’s why the had to recast him. The character writing is very consistent with an older Spider-Man
This is why insomniac is having so much success with their franchise. They understand the character and what story needs to be told because they are actually FANS of the character.
Something I’d love someone to speak on is the Peter from the 90s animated Madam Web crossover who didn’t have the trama of loosing Ben. After Across the Spiderverse I immediately thought of that version and was curious how he’d fit into the conversation on what “needs” to happen
Yeah but miles did give me an idea that not every superhero needs to keep going through trauma, and trauma doesn't always make a hero. Sometimes, it makes villains. Miles isn't a hero because of guilt he did it because he has a good heart. Yes, he did lose his uncle, but he was trying to be spider-man before that. He did it because he made a promise, and sometimes that is what it takes.Just cause he isn't traumatized like the others, it doesn't make you spider-man. That's why I was against miguel being spider-man means putting others first even if it cast you your happiness or life. Not allowing someone to suffer or die doing nothing. That is the first thing when I think of spider-man, and Miles shown that time and time again in both movies without having to lose alot.
@@trevturp6891they need to keep going *in spite* of trauma. Not be complacent and just *allow* horrible things to happen. It's why Hulk is the bar-none strongest character, it's not the ancient magic and energy or cosmic radiation or whatever. He's strongest because he completely personifies "persevering through pain/grief/trauma." And the absolute impossible feats anyone can become capable of doing when they learn how to completely do that. With Hulk they just personified it as a Giant Green Monster who can rip The Celestials in half with his bare hands. It's no different for why Miles's Story in ATSV works so well and why Miguel is an excellent foil for him while also not being the *actual* full-on villain of the story.
I feel like the Insomniac Spider-Man games have done better with this concept of letting Peter grow older. The fact we flat out skip high school and college was very refreshing in the 2018 game.... Interested to see how his story progresses in the new game!
Yea... They did Peter dirty in the second game ngl. They have made it clear as day they wanna phase out Peter and make Miles their #1 MC. They made him weirdly incompetent at being Spider-Man at times when Spider-Man 1 Peter had feats that would make those failures look like light work.
@@blazypoo1723bro, TF you on about? How's Peter incompetent in the game? He's clearly still a very competent Spider-Man but just letting Miles take over some of the stuff because he wants to have more time for his personal life. I actually love what they're doing with Pete. The fact that there's another Spider-Man around let's Peter have a break and put some time into his normal life. The only people close to him are MJ, Miles, and Harry at this point. He doesn't have a lot of friendships outside of that because he dedicated most of his time to being Spider-Man. I doubt he's gonna completely retire, the fact that they're setting up Norman and Octavius as possible villains for a third game would make it very personal for Peter. But if he actually retires after that and let's Miles take over completely, I can 100% see why. You can't be a hero forever man. Part of being a hero is teaching others courage so they can take the mantle after you're gone. Peter's been around for over 50 years. It's time to let others take the mantle too. Let the poor man rest.
I’ve been reading the spider girl comics, and I gotta say, they’re definitely some of the best spidey stories ever written. Not only is mayday awesome on her own, it also lets Peter (and MJ) change. Pete is a self acknowledged hypocrite about letting May fight crime. He knows he’s a hypocrite about it, but now he knows what it feels like to be the person waiting for a super hero to come home at night. The best thing about it is how it evolved the themes. Peter passes down the idea of responsibility to May. Peter became Spider-Man in response to tragedy. May becomes a hero to stop one. She doesn’t need to fail to stop someone dying in order to be urged into heroism Her dad already taught her that lesson
Well said! Love the MC2, though I do wish they would've done more with other characters. Like letting members of the Avengers have kids, instead of just killing them off.
I've been saying for a very long time that Marvel comics seriously needs to let Peter Parker Spider-Man grow up and move forward as a character, and letting him be married and have his daughter Mayday Parker Spider-girl alive and kicking in the mainstream marvel universe is the perfect way for his character move forward, that way we can have Peter parker finally move forward as a character and Miles Morales could be the new spider-man for this generation and boom problem solved everybody wins at least in my opinion.
@@shreypaliwal9170 indeed not only that but also Spider-Man across the Spider-verse and Spider-girl mayday parker is everything ASM is doing wrong but like you said done right which I approved.
@@TevyaSmolka I mean in a way that in Spider-Man Life Story Peter graduate from University and also got PhD, then work for Reed Richards as a scientist and after that he build Parker Industries and run that company with his moral values and maturely not like ASM where doc ock took over Peter's body then doc ock got the PhD degree and Parker Industries only for ASM(616) to get his body back and destroy the company
Yuri Watanabe: “The doctor said you have 14 broken bones” Peter: “Which means I have 192 non-broken ones” *guys I had 206 likes but I lost 14 of them I now have 192… ;-;*
Funny that you didn't mention Insomniac's Peter Parker. I think this is the best recent adaptation of the character that allows Peter to mature and grow up, we started with a Peter that has been spider-man for 8 years already, have fought countless super villains besides his main 3 arch nemesis, and in the second game he will be Spider-man for 10 years, mentoring Miles for 2 years as a new Spder-MAN, not spider-boy, he's not Peter's sidekick, and by the end of the game Peter will pretty much be the same age he was when One More Day happened in the comics, but at least we know Insomniac will move on beyond that.
The main issue with the regression of Peter Parker, is that Marvel could have and should have committed to an older Peter Parker. It’s not like they couldn’t have released a new series filled with teenage Spidey stories. They created series like Untold Stories of Spider-Man and Ultimate Spider-Man, etc. Spider-Man is a timeless character because you can always make new versions that strikes the chord of a teenage Spidey. Heck, both PlayStation Peter and Spider Verse has shown people WANT a grown up Peter. Heck, isn’t that the whole point of bringing Miles into Earth 616 after Secret Wars happened, to allow Miles to be the younger Spider-Man? Marvel needs to learn that we all want to see adult Peter because we all loved adult Peter… and besides, through the use of alternate universes and/or Miles Morales, there will always be a younger Spider-Man to keep fanning the flames for younger fans.
Not only do they have Miles to give people teenage superhero stories, they're also rebooting/relaunching the Ultimate Universe so we'll probably get a teenage Peter from that. At this point it feels like a missed opportunity to not let him age up.
@@WikiThisActually Hickman said that his Peter would be “Ultimate Peter B. Parker.” In a midlife crisis. So we’re getting an older Peter who going through hardship.
Yeah. They did all that for awhile w the comics but then they decided to completely undo it in a way everyone hated, ruined the comics for years, and they've sort of bounced back and forth between letting him grow and then taking it all away again. They do the same thing with the movies. Spider-Man grows from a teenager to a young man but then they end the progress and reboot it all again with a new teenage Peter Parker.
This is why I love your essays bro. The second you said, "trauma porn" I was literally yelled " yessssssss". I feel Peter's arrested development has been going on so long people think it's a personality trait for the character. Everyone complained that Tom Spidey wasn't really spider man but for the wrong reasons. The trauma is not was makes him good. Its not what makes him interesting. It was a by product of business decisions. You nailed it bro. 10/10.
@@marktheshark7588 i don't think so at all. Tom Spidey elevated the MCU when they managed to share the rights with Sony. The problem is that you can't do classic spidey in the MCU. Not without rebooting the whole thing. Spider Man is a cornerstone character in comics and in the MCU he was literally a nobody and encountered like ONE of his classic rogues gallery. They couldn't make him a cornerstone. They didn't have full control of Spider-Man to do so and still don't.
I don't think Tom Spidey is terrible, I just don't think he's a traditional Spider-Man. He feels more like an alternate dimension version of the character rather than the real character. That isn't a bad thing, but it is a different take. That being said, if we were given the option to see, say, Insomniac's version of the character in the MCU, I would take that in an instant.
Two things... 1.) I agree with your take on MCU Peter. My hope is that, now that he essentially hit the reset button yet is still aware of his past, he'll be able to move forward in ways that build upon his mistakes. He has an apartment, he has a police radio, and he has his Spider-Suit-a perfect jumping-off point for what could be massive character growth. Fingers so, SO crossed. 2.) Read Spider-Man: Life Story if you haven't already. It's written as if Peter ages decade by decade, starting in the 60s and going all the way up to the modern day. Brilliant stuff.
I don't understand. The whole theme of MCU spiderman is about growing up. And he DOES grow up. I'd say he is the film adaptation of spiderman that has had the most noticeable growth. Precisely because of the contrast of how young he starts. But somehow he... didn't grow up? He is still trapped in adolescence? Did we watch the same movies? Each iteration of spiderman is basically a different character in of itself. Why are we treating Peter Parker like this cosmic entity that embodies each iteration and is somehow going through the same loops of development every single time. That's the whole point of rebooting something. To have a NEW take, not to carry the same story and expectations you had with the character from 20 years ago. You want to let Peter Parker grow? You also have to let an iteration of him DIE and accept that new iterations are different, and have different progressions.
Yea i dont really agree with his thought process about the MCU spiderman. Its the biggest difference of the the previous. In the previous Peter grew up fast in 10 intervals. MCU occured withjn a cpl of years. It was put on fast forward. In the MCU. Hes only been spiderman for barely 4 years in his timeline. Hes an infant superhero because hes an infant superhero. The other spiderman had life and time to grow up and mature. MCU is going indepth of how it is actually developing him as Peter is becoming independent and growing up and how it shapes him as spiderman. You want an adult spiderman theres plenty of that. Into the spiderverse and MCU is that they are growing up. Personally im glad that we got to see more of the MCUs of how it actually shows how Peter is trying to go up and processes tehe things that happen. We already got Peter in across the spiderverse get married and have kids. Its just not in live action. So personally i dont really understand the complaint hes pointing out. It feels contradictory.
"You also have to let an iteration of him DIE and accept that new iterations are different, and have different progressions." News flash, not everyone has to be on board with changes just because they’re a "different take". If a story gets adapted into a new format, the adaptation has a responsibility to be a good representation and honor its source material and if not that at least make something that's actually fresh and interesting with it, not dumb it down and make it worse, otherwise you run the risk of alienating previous fans and misinforming new ones. In my opinion, Tom Holland's MCU Peter Parker / Spider-Man, up until by the end of "Spider-Man: No Way Home", has just been the latter for me and he has just been a shallow base level of the character with almost all the interesting layers underneath stripped out. Tony Stark literally making Peter Parker a Spider-Man suit that's equipped with a billion dollar AI, Peter Parker being bequeathed with E.D.I.T.H. and an entire army of drones from Tony Stark after his death, and Peter Parker having a private jet at his disposal... basically Peter Parker having Stark Industries behind him takes a lot away from the working class "Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man" that I love and what Stan Lee and Steve Ditko originally wrote. Hell, even in "Spider-Man: No Way Home", Peter Parker goes to stay at Happy's high tech apartment. Peter Parker is suppose to be a working class superhero yet he has the privileges and backing of a billionaire in "Spider-Man: Homecoming" and "Spider-Man: Far From Home" and in a lot of "Spider-Man: No Way Home" which just isn't relatable or down-to-earth at all which are two things that are *always* suppose to be the core aspects of Spider-Man as a character. I mean, Tom Holland's MCU Peter Parker / Spider-Man couldn't even simply just acknowledge Uncle Ben's existence lol...
@@whattheworldneedsiscreativ6421 did you not read what he just said. his point was that the MCU peter parker is a different entity, and does honor its source material to an extent. it's not word for word to the comics like you want it to be, and that's okay, since nobody wants to see the same story told again. besides, how would comic book spider-man even work in the MCU? take the how to train your dragon trilogy for example. you may know there's a book series that it's based off of, and you may also know that in said book series, toothless is an asshole, not a lovable dragon. the movies, by your definition, would be absolute garbage because they're not faithful to the source material written by Cressida Cowell. yet, the films are beloved by many, even though they changed almost everything. your point about homecoming or far from home not being relatable is completely falsified, as the core themes of both films is growing up, similar to no way home where he suffers loss. the only thing you're upset about is the fact that these themes are embodied by situations or storylines that don't exactly happen on the street level you're used to. let tom holland's character grow into something you don't know, and stop trying to make it the same story you had growing up. he is a different person than in the comics, so let him be just that.
I guess I always just assumed that by the end of No Way Home, they had created an entire trilogy out of the build up to him becoming Spider-Man that usually occupies the first 20-30 minutes of other Spider-Man origin movies. By the end of No Way Home, he’s experienced his form of “get your shit together” moments/tropes, and ultimately took responsibility for himself and sacrificed his entire existence up to that point for the greater good of others; Ushering him into a less child-like Spiderman going forward. Now if they continue with the child-like spiderman in the next couple films, your theory of keeping him locked in development will be true. But until that happens, they definitely seem to be setting up a new phase for him and completing his initial journey into becoming Spiderman, and not just getting the Powers/suits. The next set of movies need to be centered around him BEING Spiderman, since they basically built a trilogy out of him BECOMING Spiderman.
100% The complaint about MCU Peter in this video was so out of place when put next to all of the legitimate criticism. Homecoming was in 2017, No Way Home was 2021. We had Peter in high school for 4 years in the MCU, exactly as we should.
this was what i was about to comment but you put it way better than i would've. let's just wait and see. if in spiderman 4 the growth to adulthood doesn;t show , which im pretty sure it will cuz marvel know what their doing in my opinion, then this video is 100% true.
I agree with a lot of your points, but at the same time I think in some ways the MCU Spider-Man’s continual vibe of being young and inexperienced through his movies feels kind of authentic for the current time period. The portrayal of Spider-Man has often had him be a teenager while having his superhero identity be justification for him to be treated in the narrative and BY the narrative as if he’s a fully grown adult. His stories often don’t let us think too deeply about the ethics of a teenage superhero getting beat up by adults because they’re too busy dazzling us with cool action. “It’s not messed up for a kid to fight adult supervillains, he has powers!” I definitely agree that Peter deserves to age and experience really solid character growth, but you have to let him be a kid, and VISIBLY, for the growth to really show. We’re more aware these days that our brains are still developing past 18, and so there’s still a lot of growing up to do even when he’s in college. I definitely agree that he needs to experience some of those changes without tragedy, but I think removing every single bad thing would be doing him a disservice. A lot of the time, people learn important lessons as a result of tragedy, and that’s not to say that tragedy is a necessary part of becoming a better person but it’s honestly a realistic one, and that kind of realistic characterisation is what makes Spider-Man my favourite superhero. Awesome video dude, I learned a lot
Yeah, I hope they continue letting the Tom Holland spiderman grow up. I want to see more of his villians and personal issues as he learns to become an adult without his mentors.
Agreed, plus even then he still did grow a lot in nwh . Even if they didn’t show him graduate, it shows him looking at colleges and eventually and moving out on his own (which is a huge ass moment )
I feel like the way they made the 3 movies about him still learning the ropes and figuring stuff out was really good, and the end of nwh gave me the feeling they now gonna show him becoming an adult. Felt like they gave the end a more gritty vibe and by removing all the stark tech he will probably grow into his own hero. I would guess they gonna make this a trilogy as well. So the first three being him learning what it means to be a superhero and the next is him growing up and learning what it means to be an adult
That, and he was 15 when introduced. Couple years later he got blipped from existence for 5 years, then films 2 and 3 happen immediately after. so he's still a teen.
A lot of these critics seem to misunderstand Spider-man's run in the MCU, much like how the writers of today do their best to screw over Peter's life to add unnecessary drama and trauma. The MCU is not only a collection of stories, but it's a continuing narrative that is interconnected in a single universe, meaning events have an impact on other stories. Peter has a naive and childlike persona and glorified angle on heroism at the start was because he grew up with the likes of Iron Man and Captain America being prominent characters in his life, news and interviews about them, their history is known to all. Peter wanting to be an avenger and him being a petulant child is accurate since everyone grew up with the image of the Avengers being the best, wanting to be like his Hero who saved his life when he was a kid is a major factor too. Peter in the MCU is a teen, and the way they framed it actually works because even if we continue to throw in comments about Comic Peter, you forget MCU Peter doesn't have that history yet, he was just starting and Comic Peter is mostly stand alone and isolated from other heroes, they have no interaction or impact on one another unlike the events in the MCU. Also to note, Tony Stark being his mentor also falls in the same category, there's no way they'll let a vigilante go around doing stuff after the whole fiasco of Ultron and the massive destruction caused by Hero fights, that's why Peter was introduced during Civil War and became Tony's unofficial Mentee, it's to show that previous events impact how others perceive characters and that a Vigilante like Spider-Man in the MCU would have been arrested by the authority under the Soccovia accords regardless, so him being Tony's mentee gives him leeway to do his thing. Tony isn't the greatest example of a mentor, so Peter had to contend with that and the fact he barely had time with the man and then suddenly his legacy falls on his shoulders, which became the starting point of Peter breaking away from the teenage years and starting to glimpse the grima nature of the business and the amount of sacrifices made, that's why it ended with Peter losing everything and starting over again. He didn't graduate not because they want to continue him being a young teen, but because even if he did Graduate, or meant nothing when all his records are forgotten, Unlike one more day, in the MCU Peter Parker no longer exist so he had to start over and get his GED.
I feel like a lot of people just don't understand MCU Peter's story. First, unlike popular belief NWH was NOT based on One More Day it was based on One Moment in Time which is the book that "explains" One More Day. (it also has one of the greatest negative space covers I’ve seen) There is dialoged that is ripped straight out of the book. Second, MCU Peter is not supposed to be comic book Peter. This is a Peter who as a young child was saved by Ironman (he's the little kid from Ironman 2) and has looked up to/worshiped superheroes for almost his entire life. This is a Peter who grew up in a world of heroes. Comic book Peter Parker was the first Superhero in the marvel comic. (the fantastic four are not superheroes they are adventures with superpowers) MCU peters childhood hero was ironman while Comic Peters childhood hero was his father.
Exactly! Context matters. The MCU isn't like the comics. In the comics Spider-Man was literally one of the first superheroes and had been a part of basically every superhero team in the setting. In the MCU he's barely had his powers for like 6 months before Tony showed up in Civil War. Of course he'd need a mentor. The trilogy is all about him learning to be his own hero. It also makes sense has has access to better technology. Ant-Man literally has nano suits and so does everyone on his team. Peter should likewise have that tech eventually especially since he literally had a mentorship at Stark Industries.
@@Linklex7 yeah no that's completely bullshit. Peter in the MCU is a perfectly fine character since he bounces off of and causes status quo changes, as any character in a shared world should.
I tried rewatching all the live-action movies to see why I lost touch, but this video sums it up perfectly. Pete never grows up. Besides the crazy futuristic tech he shouldn’t have, the closest thing to adulthood, for me, is insomniac Spider-Man and Spider-verse. Also, Tom’s Spidey has been anything but a friendly neighbourhood Spider-Man. He’s barely in the neighbourhood. As Nick Fury once said, “bitch please, you've been to space.” Half the time, he’s on Avenger-level missions. 😂
That’s my problem with all the Live Action versions of Spider-Man. They take bits and pieces of Spider-Man, but they forget some of the the biggest points of the Webhead.
Yeah, lotta good points here I agree with. As much as I love the character his particular status quo is the most limiting of any other mainstream superhero. Every major superhero at Marvel and DC has a status quo, but they are more naturally flexible than Spider-Man. You can plug Batman into pretty much any story with any tone. Superman can die, become a father, get lost in in space for a long time, etc. but not only does Marvel not let Peter grow, the fans don't either. Take Peter out of the broke/struggling/messy love life/constantly lying to everyone dynamic and the fans flip out. There is only so much of Peter's particular brand of arrested development I can take before it becomes annoying, stale, and honestly...makes Peter actively unlikeable.
what you on about? Spider-Man fans for years now have been begging for Peter to finally move on, be a father (again) basically everywhere I go I see people talking about how sick they are of Peter being stuck in the same point of his life. Every Spider-Man video, I see, has comments filled with jokes how the writers absolutely hate Spider-Man, because he never gets a break or a happy ending.
@@DatAsianGuy thank you, I feel like fans keep getting the blame for where Spider-Man is at when really it's been writers and editors who constantly say that Spider-Man needs to stay in the status quo and do everything possible to keep it that way, because they don't like changes.
@@DatAsianGuy If you say so. In my experience this really isn't the case. Any time a writer even takes a baby step out of the standard spidey mold fans go insane.
I honestly have no idea why you think the GED scene from No Way Home is somehow delaying him to go to college when in fact it's the opposite. Him doing a Ged exam was just their way of getting him into college despite the stuff that happened in the movie. It would be bizarre if the next movie doesn't start with him in college, and I'm confused why you would bet the opposite. MCU Spiderman has to follow the MCU timeline, they're not deliberately slowing his development but matching it with the world of the MCU. Peter is gonna act like a high school sophomore in 2017 and he's gonna act like a high school senior in 2024 (because of the snap). And he's gonna act like a college student years after that. They're matching it with real time the same way the comics did. I know this because I'm literally growing with Peter. I was focused on my dance when he was. I was focused on my college apps when he was. And I'm gonna be focusing on college issues when he's gonna be
Love this, but I'd interject that part of Peter's character IS trauma. He is resilience personified. It's why Logan likes him, he's seen how much trauma Pete takes.
I've never felt like the "endless trauma" kept him young. In fact, I've always felt the opposite and that kind of conflict tends to just lead to more emotional stories, which I like. I totally agree that we need to move onto some more adult Spider-man and stop hanging on to the kid, but I don't feel the traumatic events are really doing anything to hold him back.
There is a big, ugly elephant in the room when it comes to Spider-Man arrested development. It's not a corporate decision. Not really. As you said, fans have never liked seeing Peter not maturing. There hasn't been a single point in time that would even remotely signal to Marvel that their readers, both old and new, didn't like an adult Spider-Man. The thing is, in reality at this point, Peter Parker is NOT an escapist youth fantasy for the readers. He is an escapist BACHELOR fantasy FOR THE WRITERS. Seriously, Marvel editorial and writers are literally the only people on Earth that have ever talked about the desire of an eternally young Spider-Man, using the "he has to be relatable" BS as an excuse. And the most telling thing about this all is that, if there is one thing that the writers have exploited the most out of Peter's "youth", is him being single so they can pair him up with their preferred waifu of the week. I'm not exaggerating. Peter has had like double the amount love interests in the 15 years since "One More Day" than in the 45 years since the creation of the character and the publication of that piece of garbage. Something that makes this whole issue all the more painful is that Peter's relationship with Mary Jane in the comics is one of the best written in the history of the medium. MJ didn't become one of the most iconic super hero love interests because she's a redhead bombshell (although it definitely helped), but because his chemistry with Peter was off the charts. Pretty much since the beginning, but especially since Gerry Conway solidified their dynamics during his run in the 1970s, and later solidified by writers like Tom De Falco, John DeMatteis (when he didn't have Marvel marketing breathing down his neck) or JMS down the line. So much so that it's pretty much impossible to split them up in a way that feels natural, or even realistic. Not without breaking one or both characters. Marvel tried this "natural" route a couple of times in the 90s and 2000s, but in order to even just put in on the page, they had to write her, or both of them, so blatantly out of character that fans didn't buy it for one second. That's why they had to resort to crazy shenanigans like making Peter a clone, trying to kill off Mary Jane, Mephisto's forever infamous cosmic retcon, or most recently, hooking up Mary Jane with a random guy in a pocket dimension and adopting some kids. And the most tragic thing is... that this may start to work... The writers have filled Peter and MJ's relationship with so much artificial pain and misery that I see more and more fans saying that they have stopped rooting for the couple. Not because they have come to hate neither character, nor the relationship itself. They just want the writers to stop. And yes, it's as toxic and messed up as it sounds.
That's exactly the problem. Whenever sensible fans complain the editorials and writers be like "how dare you tell us we need to grow up, you know what I will make Peter Parker more miserable and looser on the next one"
Seconded. The fandom still pines for the spider-marriage, so that clearly wasn't something that was driving fans away. And hasn't Joe Quesada said in interviews that part of the reason he broke up the marriage was that his marriage had failed, so he didn't see how Peter's could work? (Or something to that effect?)
I think you have to realise with how it’s going in the MCU what age he would still be. They started him young. The fans asked to have someone young play this character. He had to be dusted to for Tony’s story line, there for in this story line he’s not old yet 🤷♀️ I hope we get an adult version of the character being a main leader of the team
I do think that some of the best Peter Parker stories are the ones when he became a high school teacher and living that domestic life with MJ... and (this might be a hot take) to a certain extent, his short run inheriting Parker Industries from when Doc Ock became Superior Spidey. The stories that involves adulting shit.
Haha I just mentioned these two iterations in another comment. I (and others) were less of a fan of the Parker Industries era, but mainly because there are enough super-richies in Marvel and DC with infinite money and turning Peter into yet another one really distances himself even more from that everyman, real human experience.
Characters perpetually stuck in a young adult age is one of the biggest issues with the anime/Manga industry. Getting into my 30s it becomes more and more apparent how /stuck/ some characters are. It's why I always appreciate a time jump and a character that grows up with the viewers.
This is honestly so brilliant. I didn't grow up with Spiderman, but I instantly loved Into the Spiderverse for the amazing themes of growth. Listening to what you have to say puts Across the Spiderverse in a new light to me. Its no wonder that Miles is so frustrated at everyone treating him like he's still the kid everyone knew in the first movie.
Peter Parker is broken and we as the fans are too, I literally cannot imagine a Peter who can't suffer, who doesn't experience trauma, it is effectively ingrained in my mind that Peter must be miserable and still rise to the occasion for him to be Spider-Man.
Makes you wonder if that's what Across the Spider Verse was trying to point out, almost as if the people making that movie wanted to send a message to Marvel that the trauma doesn't have to define Spider-Man.
You say that his suffering is a tool for people to keep him young, but really his suffering is one of the core themes of Spider-Man, to have crime fighting cost him so much but he will still do it because it’s the right thing to do
I think there's a lot that can be done with the character; particularly if you take inspiration from Buffy. We got seven seasons of seeing her innocence crushed as she functionally become a philosopher king of sorts. Just take Peter through high school then college then beyond. I think the biggest problem for Peter right now is more that his brand is being diluted by all the spiderverse fare. People love Spider-Man because of Peter, not because he's a big spider.
There's no need to fix Peter Parker. Let him grow old slowly, as if once a month we see his life run in real time. And let him deal with his brokenness. I know what it means to grieve. The feelings of losing someone stay with you, it's how you deal with them that show your character. It's an endearing part of the reason I love Spider-Man. I agree. The real problem with Spider-Man since the 90s has been all the stupid story lines they've put the character through. The best thing they could do would be to strip the storyline back to the point where they made Parker a clone and treat him like a real person again.
I’d personally prefer if marvel (and to an extent dc) was handled similar to ultimate Spider-Man. Have them grow up in real time, and if you want the character to continue then have them help create a successor like miles. Too many characters have successors that are perpetually stuck as a side kick. Night wing is one of the comic industries favourite characters, and it’s because of the growth he experienced as he got older. Same with Wally west’s flash. Then every generation would have their own iteration of marvel, their own iteration of dc. Just like we do with music, movies, games, etc. the industry changes and evolves over time and you see characters and other things you love develop.
It's one of the reasons why Savage Dragon from Erik Larson does so well is because the characters' change, grow and develop as everything happens IN real time. atleast for the first couple of years of it's run.
They did not let him grow in real time. A year and a half passed in universe when a decade passed in the real world. He has never aged that slowly before. This is not a bad thing bc Bendis writes really decompressed, so aging in real time or even the classic 1:4 ratio would skip over a TON of his day to day life. That said, him staying 16-17 for a decade is part of where Marvel got the idea that a younger 616 Peter was needed. They cite the success of ultimate as an influence for OMD
I have never thought about Spider Man this way and this entire video has kind of blown my mind. Honestly makes me want them to grow up Spider man. The current events of the MCU feel way to large for high-school/college Spider man and if we want to see him be more involved, we either need smaller stories or for him to be allowed to grow up.
While I agree with your overarching premise for this essay, I too really want Peter to grow older. I think you overstate the issues with the MCU portrayal. Peter spends a lot of time in the earliest runs idolizing and seeking mentorship from other Avengers. Capt. America, Reed, Iron man, etc. Some of his character development in the comics centers around him realizing he has the similar or greater capacity than many of them. To your credit, it's vexing how often he never gets to live up to that. My hope is that they make good on how his MCU trilogy feels like one origin story for this iteration of the character, and they carry him forward long enough to become the man and leader of the Avengers everyone knows Spider-man can be, and that he's so rarely gotten to experience in the comics.
15:00 This part of your essay is a little bit off point. MCU SpiderMan introduced in Civil War is not infantilized as a child - or rebooted or retconned. He IS a 15 year old boy. [it's like you want him to be the 17 year old from Stan Lee's story or an older Peter which CAN'T make sense in the MCU as it would beg the question of where he has been during all the pre Civil War events]. I'm saying that 15 year old high school kid Parker was perfect to fulfill his function in the MCU because the MCU was already a boomer story with a bunch of older heroes. Unlike Stan Lee's original who existed in a New York with NO AVENGERS. Iron Man was created AFTER Spiderman after all. Problem is NOT that he started out as a 15 year old. Problem isn't even that he didn't mature in Infinity War and Endgame. His line: _You can't be a friendly neighborhood Spiderman if there's no Neighborhood_ from inFinity War is one of his best moments EVER. No....the problem is that his trilogy regressed no 17 year old Parker back to a 15 year old again. When Tony dies - he runs to Dr. Strange to ask for fairy magic to solve adult problems in No Way Home - and it's all downhill from there.
The next MCU Spider-Man film, if/when it happens, should take advantage of the idea that Peter has grown. He’s lost a lot after Strange’s spell and is working to put his life back together, so what if he does? What if, at the beginning of MCU Spider-Man 4, he’s seen a quantum leap in character progression? Years of solo superheroing, an arsenal of homemade gadgets, maybe heading up a tech company, and really sour on the idea of working with the Avengers again after his last misadventure.
Wow, yeah this basically sums it up. A couple areas of disagreement: 1) The death of Gwen Stacy was pretty explicitly to change things up, not keep things the same. It didn't stop Peter from growing, it actually caused it. 2) Peter in NWH does finally grow. Getting his GED means he'll be done with high school in the next film. The death of May made him a mich more serious character. We can finally move forward with him again, it seems we're done with the comedy/slice of life take on the character 3) Experiencing trauma is not always problematic for Peter, it's about what the intent and result are. The question is why is the thing happening and how will Peter respond? Of the answer is growth, then it's okay to do. Of the answer is 'to make him younger and more relatable', then it's a cataclysmic decision that will actually make things worse.
Also, Ultimate didn't really have Peter age. In a decade he only aged a year and a half. That's the slowest he ever has. And then they killed him. He's the Spider-Man that never got to experience life milestones.
I think people focus way too much on how supposedly MCU Spider-Man’s development diverged from the creator’s intention, and less on the fact that their way of showing Peter’s development is perhaps one of the greatest iterations of Spider-Man in terms of his gradual transformation from boyhood to manhood, which, like you said in this video, was something Stan Lee intended to emphasize in his original work. The writers for MCU Spider-Man just emphasized it to a much larger extent. And so when you think about it that way, MCU Spider-Man is the most faithful adaption to the character structure of the Spider-Man Stan envisioned years ago.
I kinds see the end of no way home as peter growing up, since it's about him taking up responsibility and sacrificing for others rather than calling out to the "adults" in his life to help him with his problems
i get the point.. i will say this - a lot of people complain about Peter's age, but it's one of the reasons i love him - he's always young. I don't like too mature superheroes. they don't pick my interest quite the same. so... kind of grateful for Marvel here...
Marvel Editorial: "We need to keep Spider-Man young forever. People don't care about character development." Narrator: "Turns out, people do care about character development."
Another issue could be as a result of Peter growing older and maturing is that all the other characters will have to do the same as well. So by the time Peter’s kid (if he has one) is a teenager, characters like Ironman would most likely be in their late forties early fifties.
This reasoning falls apart when many characters that were introduced long after spider-man (1962) in the 70's and 80's have aged more. A 2014 asm comic claims peter at that point was 28 when he should've been early or mid thirties by then. Marvel's obsession with "youth" is a lie when they utilize multi month time skips far more frequently and casually the past fifteen. years. They just want Peter free to be paired with whatever pet character will secure whoever is writing at a given time royalty checks.
No bc the rest of the universe is aging slowly. The only character Marvel drags their feet with is Peter. Arguably about 15-16 years have passed since 1961 in the Marvel Universe. If Peter had a kid right now, they wouldn't be in teenager for like another 50 years
JMS tried to let Peter grow up. Peter was a teacher, he and MJ were married. Aunt May learned Peter was Spider-Man, and accepted it! Spidey was on the Avengers! Then, One More Day.
That's the thing, now hes alone, now he cant be reliant on others to parent him into being a superhero. I think it was done so he wouldnt be front stage in the infinity saga. Now hes starting his own journey where now he doenst have stark tech, venom is lurking, and hes on his own with no relation to anybody. I think he finally will since i see that happening with the spiderman games and the overall approach to spiderman in general considering what they have done with peter be parker in the spiderverse series.
TASM peter is (sometimes) starstruck as well. I particularly recall him getting a pep talk from Captain America about whether or not he should enlist to fight in Vietnam.
I was with you right up until the Iron Boy Jr thing. I thought the same thing before Homecoming came out but the relationship between Peter and Tony was really something special and he was never a sidekick. It's possible to have a mentor and still be your own person. I really love how important Peter became to the entire MCU with him being the reason why Tony decided to research time travel. I love that their relationship made Peter getting snapped so emotionally devastating for the audience.
Though I enjoyed peter & Tony's interactions, I don't like how Tony basically blackmails peter into joining a fight he has no context about. Plus Tony making the spiderman suit, equipped with billion dollar AI, peter having edith and a private jet at his disposal... basically peter having stark industries behind him takes a lot away from the working class friendly neighborhood spiderman. That's why the MIT arc feels so stupid to me.
@@b_a_t_m_a_n_He doesn’t have any of what you just said, it’s Stark Indudtries tech but they aren’t paying the bills, it’s an “internship” not a nepotism thing
@@thomasjohnson1885 dude Tony left the billion dollar drone weapon Edith for peter in his will. That's not an intern thing. Plus in far from home, peter makes one call and happy comes in a private jet to rescue him. Peter has expensive machines making his suit in ffh and nwh. He even goes to stay at happy's high tech apartment. He's supposed to be a working class hero yet has thr privileges and backing of a billionaire.
The thing is, it is a pretty famous dialogue that "anyone can be Spider-Man", what they could have done was to let peter age out of being Spiderman. Becoming a father taking too much time away from his crime fighting, meanwhile he could have trained a younger Spiderman with his own storylines and everything. Who would then also age out and maybe be there to train miles morales or whoever was next. Create this whole lineage of spidermen that kept the city safe.
I loved this video, thank you. Peter needs to grow. Even if they start a new run with him starting as a kid again, it would be great if existing runs could continue for the people who grew up with it. I love PS1 Spider-Man for that exact reason, even more as an adult than I did as a kid. I'd love to say you could throw in the PS4 Spider-Man game with that as well, what with depicting a seasoned Spider-Man bordering on 30 years old, but then there's the whole PS5 baby face replacement fiasco. I feel like Miles could be the key to finally seeing Peter get the chance to grow up.
Pre/early mcu had the best superhero adapations. From spiderman 1-3, to incredible hulk, to iron man. God those were the good days. The superheroes were actual real people on top of being heroes. MCU is more DC now, which is why normal people could care less
I understand having an overall problem with Spider-Man never growing up but he entered the MCU as a 15 year old. It makes a lot of sense in the MCU. It would not make sense to intro a 25 year old seasoned Spider-Man into the MCU like 12 movies in. Where the fuck was he and why was he never mentioned. It makes sense that at 15 he is impressionable. If his growth stagnates sure, trip. But so far the MCU adaptation has been a great.
this is why we have a multiverse, you wanna de-age peter? start a new seperate run of comics, that way old time fans can continue to grow old with their hero while every generation of comic fans gets their very own spider-man
I do want to agrue a bit on No Way Home Spiderman, as I do think his whole development is leading him to force him to grow up and become more independent, not the other way around like you suggested
If there’s another trilogy where they focus on the man part rather than the boy part, then I could forgive the childlike nature of his character up until now. It would really give you a sense of growth since you watched him grow up the whole time.
To me, now. Peter Parker should be grown up. A mature Spider-Man with his origins established with him being bit by the spider and his uncle being bit by the bullet. Yes it’s an incredibly rich origin and one that could be even more heartbreaking with the right build but right now, I’m ok with them doing more so what Insomniac has been doing Spider-Man is older, struggling with the adult jobs but still has dreams for himself like falling in love, getting a house and settling down. He is for the adults who relate to the juggling act of life. Miles, is the younger Spider-Man. He is what Peter was in the 60’s. A young, charismatic guy who is bitten by the spider and learns to become something greater. We are with Miles and Peter. Spider-Man is showing the perspectives on life and how it can be hard. Showing that from both teenage and adult and how they mix together can be fun.
@@spider-man500problem is there were five other Spider-Man movies so the mcu had to take risks and make different types of spider-man movies in the mcu because fans at the time were complaining that the amazing Spider-Man movies were telling too similar stories like the death of uncle Ben etc so marvel had to do different spider-man stories so as to not become stale
This essay gave me a new way to look at across the spider verse. Miles being an anomaly altered the story of Peter B. Giving him the opportunity to change his life.
This is why I loved Spiderman ps4 since its a grown up spiderman that actually grows up, he has to deal with Aunt mays death instead of saving her and dooming everyone else. We see him go through personal problems but also mature. Hell, I could see him and mj getting married in Spiderman 2.
It’s funny that the two most popular versions of Spider-Man out right now are the two where he’s an adult competent hero. PS4 & The Spider-Verse movies. Yes, Peter B Parker is competent. He’s let himself get out of shape cause of his divorce, yet you see he’s still pretty good at his job. You realize if he wasn’t so down about the divorce, he probably could’ve solved this whole adventure by himself.
@Linklex7 Well, people are tired of the same old teenage Spiderman. We want him to grow, and yeah, the divorce definitely did that to him. It was actually a good plot point for his character.
I must say that, given how they handled Iron Man, I have faith in the fact they might do the same for Spidey. Despite it being unavoidable anyway because of contractual reasons with RDJ, Marvel DID prove to be willing to put a good story before wanting to capitalize on Tony’s popularity forever. I mean, Holland’s Peter still feels pretty childish, yes, but his movies up until now - unlike Tobey’s - resembled comic book issues more than comic book runs. For example, if Spider-Man (2002) loosely adapts Peter’s entire high school/early college period, the Home movies merely adapt single episodes or mini arcs WITHIN his high school period. So yeah, the growth process has been slowed down, exactly like Tony Stark’s journey towards his final sacrifice has been slowed down in the Infinity Saga. But we DID get there eventually. So who knows, we might actually get to a Peter Parker who settles down with a family and ends his journey.
Dude the one more day thing isn’t even funny. It wasn’t even “no more marriage EVER!” It was just: “Im going to remove your marriage to screw with you, and you can indeed restart later”
I feel like the evolution of trauma being so big in Spider-Man media these days might also be a reflection of the times, and how newer generations maybe relate to Peter Parker. Just a thought.
That still pisses me off to this day they didn’t have him survive By current MCU timeline Peter would be 24 but Marvel wouldn’t like Peter being that old in their universe do they blipped him.
surprised you didn't bring up the very cool short comic series "Life Story" that goes through peters life and stories as if he aged in real time. It's awesome and really makes me wish we would get another alternative universe in the comics like Ultimate. Only problem with life story is that it jumps in time a bit too much, you get a nice micro look into specific parts of his life, to then jump 7-12 years into the future in the next issue. I would love this proposed alternative universe to do something like every few months is a year in universe or something. That would be awesome.
Many of us, especially in regards to the recent ASM comic book run have been voicing similar concerns to this film essay. If you're sympathetic to this criticism, which I am, it sounds like Jonathan Hickman's new Ultimate Spider-Man series is a bit of a remedy to this (hopefully) in the comics. He's said it was inspired by Peter B. Parker, in part. Just saying, as someone that dropped ASM for the first time in my life with the recent run, I'm putting my money where my mouth is and supporting a comic about an adult Peter looking to get his life together.
Does bro forget Peter Parker is supposed to be 15 aka a Teenager/ Kid basically I understand the complaints about him being reliant on tony, but complaining about his immaturity is ridiculous when he is portrayed as an actual 15 year old and every other on screen adaptation portrays him more as a mature 18-19 year old. Why not complain about Raimi's Peter being a pushover wallflower in comparison to Lee and Ditko's somewhat abrasive Spider0Man or Bendis' Brash Ultimate Peter Also to complain about the story 19:05 running on "forever" is ridiculous, RDJ's Iron Man and Chris Evans' Captain America came to an end and their deaths were not adaptations whats to say Tom Holland's Spider-man wont die in a few films aswell. Ironic how you then proceed to bring up ultimate Spider-man an adaptation of Peter who was in high school for 200+ issue before he died as a Teenager. Yet Tom holland's Peter being in highschool for 3 films before getting a clean slate is somehow prolonging Tom to forever be young Peter? RDJ has had 9 on screen appearances before he died, Tom has only had 5
Thank you! Talking about a 15 years old being immature while previously saying the inspiration for Spider-Man was a hero kids could relate to is a bit..jarring? Like, that's the point. That hasn't changed and MCU's Spider-Man story is far from over and the jury is still out for how his development will continue. MCU's Spider-Man trilogy is essentially what Sony's first parts of the Spider-Man movies were just more fleshed out in 3 solo movies. Tom Holland has signed for 6 more movies, so 3 solo movies and 3 team ups, that's a lot of space for more development. And No Way Home's ending certainly puts him into a new place far from where he has been at in all the previous movies. Heck, the movie titles represent that: Homecoming, Far From Home and No Way Home. "Home" is his youth, his loved ones and No Way Home ends with him being alone, in an empty low-income apartment, no loved ones and no Stark tech. I've seen people call it a reset of MCU Spider-Man but let's not forget that his experience from the former movies stay with him and he has to now navigate through life alone, which is a stark difference to when he was, again; a *child.* A child doesn't have to battle with the things an adult has to, a child doesn't have to carry responsibilities as an adult has to. But this child is also a hero. MCU Spider-Man shows what it means to be a hero, what responsibilities come with it while also acknowledging "hey, that *is* still a child!". Peter Parker first and foremost has always been a realistically depicted person struggling with family, school, bullies, relationships, jobs, rent..on top of his super hero duties and those 2 lives clashing with each other. He's a hero, but also just a person with your everyday struggles.
You blew my mind! Your analysis of the previous films, along with the reasons behind the constant reboots, are things I've never really put much thought into.. My God! A+
I disagree with you regarding MCU Spiderman. He starts off as a 15 year old boy who gets the attention of a genius superhero billionaire. Of course he's gonna look up to him go along with what Tony says. That's not that unrealistic or hard to believe. The blip also stops him from aging since he was snuffed from existence fo some time. When would he have had time to grow up. These first 3 movies were meant to focus on a young peter and they did that brilliantly. And as No Way Home has alluded to, the next 3 will be about a more mature Peter. So I think Marvel has handled Peter really well actually. Also what do you mean Peter is intimidated by Strange? He literally stands up to him and balks at his decision to let the villains go home and die. If that's not Peter asserting himself then what is?
For reasons similar to this, this is why I loved insomniacs first Spider-Man game. He was seasoned and older. But then when they did the face swap they made him look 10 years younger. I can’t get passed how young he looks now and I find it impossible to believe that this Spider-Man has been Spider-Man for almost a decade when he looks like he’s still in high school. Closer to mileses age then his own.
THANK YOU for the bit about MCU spidey’s trauma being more like torture. It genuinely hurts to watch and not in a good way. It’s the kind of cruel aimless suffering I would expect from a dead dove super angsty hurt no comfort fanfiction. Seeing it in the source material and the character being tortured by the writers being a child with nothing to help him cope with everything is absolutely insane to me. I’m really glad spiderverse seems to be fighting against this pointless traumatizing of the characters. And all of this is coming from ME the idiot that read NARUTO dead doves for fun. It’s not that I’m unfamiliar with angst or don’t like it, spider man just isn’t the right character for this kind of thing and the trauma he goes through isn’t handled properly by the writing.
I would love to see a series of movies, or a TV show, or even the Insomniac Universe follow a Peter from a young adult all the way to retirement. Insomniac has even seemed to want to take a step back on Peter's story as of the end of Spider-Man 2, but I hope they can realize that everyone ages, and showing a character age can speak volumes to their relatability to the audience.
We are literally watching him become spider-MAN in the 1st trilogy, and we will now see him grow into his own and age gracefully. We never had an actual teenage Spidey in films, toney was 26, Andrew was like 30. This way we get to see the entirety of the story and his growth. I understand your point, but I'm loving it and looking forward to more myself
Part of the appeal to Peter Parker's character is certainly determination in the face of hardship. I do understand where the need for trauma appears to come from, but it has become an issue in the last 20 years. J Michael Strazcynski famously developed Peter and Mary Jane's marriage to an insane degree, was forced to include his name on One More Day and resign shortly afterward. Since that day, writers have been struggling to write around editorial mandates for the character. There is nothing less relatable than the character having his history reset anytime it gets inconvenient.
I dont mind a lot of trauma but only if its used thematically for the story. Which I don't think most Spider-man stories do. I would say Daredevil does the relentless trauma better, only because it ties back into DD's themes. Spider-man has the theme of responsibility, but you could easily do that without killing everyone he loves.
Well after the 3rd movie came out, I became at peace with Toms version of Spider-Man, he was a teen in a universe of heroes, it is okay for him to fan over them, it is okay for him to look for a father figure given that Uncle Ben was never a big thing for him in this universe. I just hope in the future movies they continue down the road, of Peter in university, and don't just eventually do a reboot or smt...
I like Spider-Man a lot, I think the character has something really special. It's a shame that so few creatives who get their hands on him seem to know how to let him shine. Loved this video!
Thats why i love the insomniac games because its giving us that and the same thing with spiderverse miles and the game version of him to where im getting older and i relate to peter and miles more in that version than i do to a high school version. Like peter having a child will give him a new growth to us who are basically to that point i mean look at the mcu ironman where he has a child now even ant-man who also has a child and what i love about the antman that i relate to is feeling like im missing time with my little siblings just like scott felt with his daughter. I love spider-man always have and i always will but i feel that while the comics are trying to step backwards we as the fans just like the insomniac people who are fans like us need to show them that we need to move foward with these characters. That we need to let them grow, let them fall in the adult life and inspire us, guide us on how to get back up. That why we love spider-man. And that what makes him that hero we love and you can tell that type of story even with an adult spider-man who is deep in his career. Marvel need to step up and grow up like the rest of us. Like a game version of peter parker from the 2002 spider-man movie game said "no matter how much you wanna hold on to a moment, you can't stop time from moving on."
Personally I saw NWH as the start of this growth. He has his sewn suit, he lives on his own in New York, taking his GED is this end of his high school chapter, he doesn’t even have all of his relationships anymore but he has the same experience. He’ll meet new people and start a new chapter.
Not to mention in the comics there is a mention that Franklin Richards likes Peter so much that he is keeping him at the set age he is. I would like to see a story where Peter finally says, "No, I'm *NOT* going to lose someone again" and the arc is all about him doing what is necessary to save that person/relationship in a moral and ethical way.
One of the strengths of Spiderman in the comics, as well as Tobey and Andrew's incarnations, is that when he's Spiderman in the streets people have no clue that he's a teenager. He was SpiderMAN. I love Tom Holland's Spidey but they did not nail this. Everyone and their mom HAD to know that was a kid.
I agree with everything, i’ve been jaded with Peter being in a constant loop in highschool/college era in Spider-Man media, it’s one of the reason why i was never invested with MCU’s take on Spider-Man, it’s just boring. Which is why i’m hyped of Ultimate Spider-Man 2024 since it does something different with the character by having him be a 40 something year old Peter with kids and a wife.
thank you for recognizing the sheer perfection of ps1 spider-man. that is the REAL spider-man and i need him back! venom in that game is excellent as well, his relationship with spidey is so fun.
I've seen a disconnection between most of the content creators I follow and the commenters regarding No Way Home. I felt the same way. I felt I was being cheated into nostalgia for nostalgia's sake, sprinting to the finish line in order to hone in some cameos. Don't get me wrong, there were some great character moments in that movie, but it's like eating a cookie only for a few chocolate chips. I love how your essays are able to look at the big picture and point out some things that, if you don't go into detail about why you think what you think, may turn you into an instant hater just for speaking your mind.
I left Spiderman as reader in the mid 80s because I found X-men to tackle more subject matter closer to my life. The whole Professor X (MLK Jr.) and Magneto (Malcolm X) dynamic and Mutant being a metaphor for being black appealed to me a lot more. The Graphic Novel "God Loves, Man Kills" is still my favorite story that made me leave Spiderman. They used that book as source material for X-2 but they managed to FUBAR it.
I get what ya sayin, but I look at it in a different way. I always recall the whole Madame Webb storyline when I look at the MCU. I forgot which Spiderman cartoon it was, but it was an old one. In this cartoon Madame Webb showed Peter multiple iterations of Spiderman and enlightened not only Peter, but us viewers that there is a Spider verse. Into the Spider-Verse did an amazing job portraying the different kind of Spiderman stories. Peter B. Parker is the adult Spiderman that you were ichin for, however there are clearly MULTIPLE iterations of Spiderman, and Peter Parkers that it's honestly maddening. I mean there is a Peter Parked CAR for cryin out loud. So I think Marvel just made a smoothe recovery of Spidey's story by adding onto the idea of the Spider-Verse, and thus stretchin out Spidey's longevity since he's honestly all they got left, so business wise it's a good move to try and restart the story. I do also think though that they should go back and finish up/continue the other 2 Spidermen's stories. I see Tobey's Spiderman as the perfect adult Peter Parker. I see Andrew's Spiderman as a perfect dark Batmanish Peter Parker. Finally I see Tom's Spiderman as the perfect Teenage Peter Parker. I love what the MCU did to Spiderman cuz it gave a different kinda story than the regular old NYC Spiderman that lost uncle Ben and do the same old run down. Instead we get to see him interact with numerous other heroes, and we get to have this almost Naruto and Jiraiya bond with Peter and Tony. It's fun to see and I think it adds a lot more to this version of Peter that makes the story WAY more engaging for me. It's not like they didn't let Peter grow up I mean we clearly see in No Way Home Tobey's Peter was much older. Andrew's Peter was also older. Also there is even talk about one of those 2 Peters getting another movie, so we might just get a continuation on 1 or 2 of the adult Peters. I loved seeing Tom's Spiderman interact with Doctor Strange. Peter is a comedian at heart and so he tries to lighten the mood and make little jokes here and there and have a funny and light persona that makes people less stiff around him it's why he acts the way he does towards Strange. We clearly saw that he went up against Strange in No Way Home, so I didn't really get that point you tried to make saying he was like a teacher of some sort when that's just him trying to smoothen things out with Strange since he's also askin for a favor in the beginning. On the point with him being "Robin" only not growing into his own like Nightwing. That again doesn't make much sense since Tony is kinda dead...Also nobody knows him anymore...So his solo arc begins now. What we saw was a long and very different origin story. In this iteration of Peter we now see that he went through a LOT of pain before coming into his own as a adult Spiderman. Instead of just Uncle Ben, Gwen Stacy, and Aunt May Tom's Peter lost Uncle Ben, Tony, Aunt May, MJ, Ned, Dr. Strange, etc... 3 of the listed are dead, but the rest just don't remember any of the time they spent together with Peter which is arguably worse. Anyway this is my take on this so take it how ya will.
What do you think about the state of Peter Parker?🕸 Do you want adult Spider-Man? Comment below!💥 Thanks again to Monopoly Go! 💰Download Monopoly Go for free: www.inflcr.co/SHJEu
I do. Spider-Man is amazing.
Yes
@@ch42965true you are right except 616 is also one of the best just not recently
Broken and that's not a bad or good thing they shouldn't push that onto every charecter
Ok.
This is why I'm loving Ismomniac's Peter Parker so far. We're following a Spider-man who has been at least 8 years in the business and he has real problems and he handles everything like an adult. An actual adult Spider-man. The way he's mentor to Miles, the way he treats everyone around him, the way he talks to people at FEAST, his final talk with Doc Ock. I love all that. I hope they nail it again with Spider-man 2. Cautiously optimistic lol
True but the face change COULD have been done to make him look younger.
@@leafyishereisdumbnameakath4259 it's been years since it changed and I'm still not over it. just find it unnecessary
Yuri just looks too old nowadays to play a spiderman mask off therefore making motion capture very difficult. That is why they changed it. And the new face actor has done a good job imo, he can really still portray the emotion and it just allows for them to grow this face throughout the next few games (assuming a spiderman 3 will exist hopefully)
Yeah, and even if he does go through tragedy, it’s how he grows from it, and how it develops the character that makes him so good. My only problem with this video was claiming that trauma is inherently negative, and that trauma being linked to the character is a “mistake”, but it isn’t, spider-man’s whole thing is pushing through tragedy, and making the most out of life, I mean, his origin is literally tragic, it’s how he grew from that, how he used that to be a better person, that defined him
@@leafyishereisdumbnameakath4259I remember looking into this and basically, something about the game engine makes the old face look broken when they tried to adapt it, so that’s why the had to recast him. The character writing is very consistent with an older Spider-Man
This is why insomniac is having so much success with their franchise. They understand the character and what story needs to be told because they are actually FANS of the character.
That is so true. They are basicaly fans making games. Insomniacs spiderman is my fav
Not so sure anymore
@@mookiedt I think not, as well.
Are they though...
@@mookiedtyes but plz tell me why you don’t think so
Something I’d love someone to speak on is the Peter from the 90s animated Madam Web crossover who didn’t have the trama of loosing Ben. After Across the Spiderverse I immediately thought of that version and was curious how he’d fit into the conversation on what “needs” to happen
Yeah but miles did give me an idea that not every superhero needs to keep going through trauma, and trauma doesn't always make a hero. Sometimes, it makes villains. Miles isn't a hero because of guilt he did it because he has a good heart. Yes, he did lose his uncle, but he was trying to be spider-man before that. He did it because he made a promise, and sometimes that is what it takes.Just cause he isn't traumatized like the others, it doesn't make you spider-man. That's why I was against miguel being spider-man means putting others first even if it cast you your happiness or life. Not allowing someone to suffer or die doing nothing. That is the first thing when I think of spider-man, and Miles shown that time and time again in both movies without having to lose alot.
@@ajwebhead21 Every superhero does need to keep going through trauma.
@@trevturp6891why?
@@trevturp6891they need to keep going *in spite* of trauma. Not be complacent and just *allow* horrible things to happen.
It's why Hulk is the bar-none strongest character, it's not the ancient magic and energy or cosmic radiation or whatever. He's strongest because he completely personifies "persevering through pain/grief/trauma."
And the absolute impossible feats anyone can become capable of doing when they learn how to completely do that.
With Hulk they just personified it as a Giant Green Monster who can rip The Celestials in half with his bare hands.
It's no different for why Miles's Story in ATSV works so well and why Miguel is an excellent foil for him while also not being the *actual* full-on villain of the story.
@@trevturp6891no they don't
I feel like the Insomniac Spider-Man games have done better with this concept of letting Peter grow older. The fact we flat out skip high school and college was very refreshing in the 2018 game.... Interested to see how his story progresses in the new game!
And Miles gets to be the younger Spider-Man. It's the best of both worlds
Yea... They did Peter dirty in the second game ngl. They have made it clear as day they wanna phase out Peter and make Miles their #1 MC. They made him weirdly incompetent at being Spider-Man at times when Spider-Man 1 Peter had feats that would make those failures look like light work.
@@blazypoo1723he will be in the third game though, and he will come out of retirement, its abundtantly clear
@@swamprat22 I am confident that they will kill Peter off at the end of the third game.
@@blazypoo1723bro, TF you on about? How's Peter incompetent in the game? He's clearly still a very competent Spider-Man but just letting Miles take over some of the stuff because he wants to have more time for his personal life. I actually love what they're doing with Pete. The fact that there's another Spider-Man around let's Peter have a break and put some time into his normal life. The only people close to him are MJ, Miles, and Harry at this point. He doesn't have a lot of friendships outside of that because he dedicated most of his time to being Spider-Man.
I doubt he's gonna completely retire, the fact that they're setting up Norman and Octavius as possible villains for a third game would make it very personal for Peter. But if he actually retires after that and let's Miles take over completely, I can 100% see why. You can't be a hero forever man. Part of being a hero is teaching others courage so they can take the mantle after you're gone. Peter's been around for over 50 years. It's time to let others take the mantle too. Let the poor man rest.
I’ve been reading the spider girl comics, and I gotta say, they’re definitely some of the best spidey stories ever written. Not only is mayday awesome on her own, it also lets Peter (and MJ) change. Pete is a self acknowledged hypocrite about letting May fight crime. He knows he’s a hypocrite about it, but now he knows what it feels like to be the person waiting for a super hero to come home at night.
The best thing about it is how it evolved the themes. Peter passes down the idea of responsibility to May. Peter became Spider-Man in response to tragedy. May becomes a hero to stop one. She doesn’t need to fail to stop someone dying in order to be urged into heroism
Her dad already taught her that lesson
Well said! Love the MC2, though I do wish they would've done more with other characters. Like letting members of the Avengers have kids, instead of just killing them off.
Those comics are 616 canon too me I don't care what anyone says.
If the first 35 years of spiderman comics were a 9 season TV show spider-girl is like a fantastic 4 season sequel/epilogue to them.
You should read renew your vows it’s my favorite Spider-Man story
@@poog6064 didn't really like MJ becoming a superhero. Never made sense to me. It was unnecessary
I've been saying for a very long time that Marvel comics seriously needs to let Peter Parker Spider-Man grow up and move forward as a character, and letting him be married and have his daughter Mayday Parker Spider-girl alive and kicking in the mainstream marvel universe is the perfect way for his character move forward, that way we can have Peter parker finally move forward as a character and Miles Morales could be the new spider-man for this generation and boom problem solved everybody wins at least in my opinion.
We all are brother
Spider Man Life Story is everything ASM is doing wrong but done right
@@shreypaliwal9170 indeed not only that but also Spider-Man across the Spider-verse and Spider-girl mayday parker is everything ASM is doing wrong but like you said done right which I approved.
@@TevyaSmolka yeah that’s why I think Peter is outdated
@@TevyaSmolka I mean in a way that in Spider-Man Life Story Peter graduate from University and also got PhD, then work for Reed Richards as a scientist and after that he build Parker Industries and run that company with his moral values and maturely not like ASM where doc ock took over Peter's body then doc ock got the PhD degree and Parker Industries only for ASM(616) to get his body back and destroy the company
@@shreypaliwal9170 that’s true and you’re right about that
Yuri Watanabe: “The doctor said you have 14 broken bones”
Peter: “Which means I have 192 non-broken ones”
*guys I had 206 likes but I lost 14 of them I now have 192… ;-;*
Now you have 271+
Funny that you didn't mention Insomniac's Peter Parker. I think this is the best recent adaptation of the character that allows Peter to mature and grow up, we started with a Peter that has been spider-man for 8 years already, have fought countless super villains besides his main 3 arch nemesis, and in the second game he will be Spider-man for 10 years, mentoring Miles for 2 years as a new Spder-MAN, not spider-boy, he's not Peter's sidekick, and by the end of the game Peter will pretty much be the same age he was when One More Day happened in the comics, but at least we know Insomniac will move on beyond that.
The main issue with the regression of Peter Parker, is that Marvel could have and should have committed to an older Peter Parker. It’s not like they couldn’t have released a new series filled with teenage Spidey stories. They created series like Untold Stories of Spider-Man and Ultimate Spider-Man, etc. Spider-Man is a timeless character because you can always make new versions that strikes the chord of a teenage Spidey. Heck, both PlayStation Peter and Spider Verse has shown people WANT a grown up Peter. Heck, isn’t that the whole point of bringing Miles into Earth 616 after Secret Wars happened, to allow Miles to be the younger Spider-Man? Marvel needs to learn that we all want to see adult Peter because we all loved adult Peter… and besides, through the use of alternate universes and/or Miles Morales, there will always be a younger Spider-Man to keep fanning the flames for younger fans.
Not only do they have Miles to give people teenage superhero stories, they're also rebooting/relaunching the Ultimate Universe so we'll probably get a teenage Peter from that. At this point it feels like a missed opportunity to not let him age up.
@@WikiThisActually Hickman said that his Peter would be “Ultimate Peter B. Parker.” In a midlife crisis. So we’re getting an older Peter who going through hardship.
@@windghost2
Honestly, that description has me curious now. Sounds a more interesting than what ever mainline Peter is doing.
@@WikiThis Agreed.
Yeah. They did all that for awhile w the comics but then they decided to completely undo it in a way everyone hated, ruined the comics for years, and they've sort of bounced back and forth between letting him grow and then taking it all away again.
They do the same thing with the movies. Spider-Man grows from a teenager to a young man but then they end the progress and reboot it all again with a new teenage Peter Parker.
This is why I love your essays bro. The second you said, "trauma porn" I was literally yelled " yessssssss". I feel Peter's arrested development has been going on so long people think it's a personality trait for the character. Everyone complained that Tom Spidey wasn't really spider man but for the wrong reasons. The trauma is not was makes him good. Its not what makes him interesting. It was a by product of business decisions. You nailed it bro. 10/10.
Tom Spidey is just overrated and terrible.
@@marktheshark7588 i don't think so at all. Tom Spidey elevated the MCU when they managed to share the rights with Sony. The problem is that you can't do classic spidey in the MCU. Not without rebooting the whole thing. Spider Man is a cornerstone character in comics and in the MCU he was literally a nobody and encountered like ONE of his classic rogues gallery. They couldn't make him a cornerstone. They didn't have full control of Spider-Man to do so and still don't.
I don't think Tom Spidey is terrible, I just don't think he's a traditional Spider-Man. He feels more like an alternate dimension version of the character rather than the real character. That isn't a bad thing, but it is a different take. That being said, if we were given the option to see, say, Insomniac's version of the character in the MCU, I would take that in an instant.
@@RainbowMan9407agreed, insomniac spiderman is what I envision current Peter Parker would be at other than spider verse of course.
There are great ones who didn't lose anything
Two things...
1.) I agree with your take on MCU Peter. My hope is that, now that he essentially hit the reset button yet is still aware of his past, he'll be able to move forward in ways that build upon his mistakes. He has an apartment, he has a police radio, and he has his Spider-Suit-a perfect jumping-off point for what could be massive character growth. Fingers so, SO crossed.
2.) Read Spider-Man: Life Story if you haven't already. It's written as if Peter ages decade by decade, starting in the 60s and going all the way up to the modern day. Brilliant stuff.
That's not Spider-Man Blue, that's Spider-Man Life Story. Spider-Man Blue is just retelling the early stories of him and Gwen.
@@rickrivers2021 Yes, I've read Spider-Man: Blue as well. Also brilliant stuff
Indeed; Life Story is the true love letter to Spider-Man as a whole.
Nah they took an original Spider-Man that wasn’t just a 616 rip off and pissed on him till he was just as sad and pathetic as comic Peter
I don't understand. The whole theme of MCU spiderman is about growing up. And he DOES grow up. I'd say he is the film adaptation of spiderman that has had the most noticeable growth. Precisely because of the contrast of how young he starts. But somehow he... didn't grow up? He is still trapped in adolescence? Did we watch the same movies? Each iteration of spiderman is basically a different character in of itself. Why are we treating Peter Parker like this cosmic entity that embodies each iteration and is somehow going through the same loops of development every single time. That's the whole point of rebooting something. To have a NEW take, not to carry the same story and expectations you had with the character from 20 years ago. You want to let Peter Parker grow? You also have to let an iteration of him DIE and accept that new iterations are different, and have different progressions.
Yea i dont really agree with his thought process about the MCU spiderman. Its the biggest difference of the the previous. In the previous Peter grew up fast in 10 intervals. MCU occured withjn a cpl of years. It was put on fast forward. In the MCU. Hes only been spiderman for barely 4 years in his timeline. Hes an infant superhero because hes an infant superhero. The other spiderman had life and time to grow up and mature. MCU is going indepth of how it is actually developing him as Peter is becoming independent and growing up and how it shapes him as spiderman. You want an adult spiderman theres plenty of that. Into the spiderverse and MCU is that they are growing up. Personally im glad that we got to see more of the MCUs of how it actually shows how Peter is trying to go up and processes tehe things that happen. We already got Peter in across the spiderverse get married and have kids. Its just not in live action. So personally i dont really understand the complaint hes pointing out. It feels contradictory.
"You also have to let an iteration of him DIE and accept that new iterations are different, and have different progressions."
News flash, not everyone has to be on board with changes just because they’re a "different take".
If a story gets adapted into a new format, the adaptation has a responsibility to be a good representation and honor its source material and if not that at least make something that's actually fresh and interesting with it, not dumb it down and make it worse, otherwise you run the risk of alienating previous fans and misinforming new ones. In my opinion, Tom Holland's MCU Peter Parker / Spider-Man, up until by the end of "Spider-Man: No Way Home", has just been the latter for me and he has just been a shallow base level of the character with almost all the interesting layers underneath stripped out. Tony Stark literally making Peter Parker a Spider-Man suit that's equipped with a billion dollar AI, Peter Parker being bequeathed with E.D.I.T.H. and an entire army of drones from Tony Stark after his death, and Peter Parker having a private jet at his disposal... basically Peter Parker having Stark Industries behind him takes a lot away from the working class "Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man" that I love and what Stan Lee and Steve Ditko originally wrote. Hell, even in "Spider-Man: No Way Home", Peter Parker goes to stay at Happy's high tech apartment. Peter Parker is suppose to be a working class superhero yet he has the privileges and backing of a billionaire in "Spider-Man: Homecoming" and "Spider-Man: Far From Home" and in a lot of "Spider-Man: No Way Home" which just isn't relatable or down-to-earth at all which are two things that are *always* suppose to be the core aspects of Spider-Man as a character. I mean, Tom Holland's MCU Peter Parker / Spider-Man couldn't even simply just acknowledge Uncle Ben's existence lol...
@@whattheworldneedsiscreativ6421 did you just... prove my point? lol
@@whattheworldneedsiscreativ6421 did you not read what he just said. his point was that the MCU peter parker is a different entity, and does honor its source material to an extent. it's not word for word to the comics like you want it to be, and that's okay, since nobody wants to see the same story told again. besides, how would comic book spider-man even work in the MCU?
take the how to train your dragon trilogy for example. you may know there's a book series that it's based off of, and you may also know that in said book series, toothless is an asshole, not a lovable dragon. the movies, by your definition, would be absolute garbage because they're not faithful to the source material written by Cressida Cowell. yet, the films are beloved by many, even though they changed almost everything.
your point about homecoming or far from home not being relatable is completely falsified, as the core themes of both films is growing up, similar to no way home where he suffers loss. the only thing you're upset about is the fact that these themes are embodied by situations or storylines that don't exactly happen on the street level you're used to.
let tom holland's character grow into something you don't know, and stop trying to make it the same story you had growing up. he is a different person than in the comics, so let him be just that.
I guess I always just assumed that by the end of No Way Home, they had created an entire trilogy out of the build up to him becoming Spider-Man that usually occupies the first 20-30 minutes of other Spider-Man origin movies.
By the end of No Way Home, he’s experienced his form of “get your shit together” moments/tropes, and ultimately took responsibility for himself and sacrificed his entire existence up to that point for the greater good of others; Ushering him into a less child-like Spiderman going forward. Now if they continue with the child-like spiderman in the next couple films, your theory of keeping him locked in development will be true.
But until that happens, they definitely seem to be setting up a new phase for him and completing his initial journey into becoming Spiderman, and not just getting the Powers/suits. The next set of movies need to be centered around him BEING Spiderman, since they basically built a trilogy out of him BECOMING Spiderman.
100% The complaint about MCU Peter in this video was so out of place when put next to all of the legitimate criticism. Homecoming was in 2017, No Way Home was 2021. We had Peter in high school for 4 years in the MCU, exactly as we should.
this was what i was about to comment but you put it way better than i would've. let's just wait and see. if in spiderman 4 the growth to adulthood doesn;t show , which im pretty sure it will cuz marvel know what their doing in my opinion, then this video is 100% true.
I’m unfamiliar with the character. Have you heard of Daredevil?
I have not...Johnny Blaze perhaps?
I agree with a lot of your points, but at the same time I think in some ways the MCU Spider-Man’s continual vibe of being young and inexperienced through his movies feels kind of authentic for the current time period. The portrayal of Spider-Man has often had him be a teenager while having his superhero identity be justification for him to be treated in the narrative and BY the narrative as if he’s a fully grown adult. His stories often don’t let us think too deeply about the ethics of a teenage superhero getting beat up by adults because they’re too busy dazzling us with cool action. “It’s not messed up for a kid to fight adult supervillains, he has powers!”
I definitely agree that Peter deserves to age and experience really solid character growth, but you have to let him be a kid, and VISIBLY, for the growth to really show. We’re more aware these days that our brains are still developing past 18, and so there’s still a lot of growing up to do even when he’s in college. I definitely agree that he needs to experience some of those changes without tragedy, but I think removing every single bad thing would be doing him a disservice. A lot of the time, people learn important lessons as a result of tragedy, and that’s not to say that tragedy is a necessary part of becoming a better person but it’s honestly a realistic one, and that kind of realistic characterisation is what makes Spider-Man my favourite superhero.
Awesome video dude, I learned a lot
Yeah, I hope they continue letting the Tom Holland spiderman grow up. I want to see more of his villians and personal issues as he learns to become an adult without his mentors.
Agreed, plus even then he still did grow a lot in nwh . Even if they didn’t show him graduate, it shows him looking at colleges and eventually and moving out on his own (which is a huge ass moment )
I feel like the way they made the 3 movies about him still learning the ropes and figuring stuff out was really good, and the end of nwh gave me the feeling they now gonna show him becoming an adult. Felt like they gave the end a more gritty vibe and by removing all the stark tech he will probably grow into his own hero. I would guess they gonna make this a trilogy as well. So the first three being him learning what it means to be a superhero and the next is him growing up and learning what it means to be an adult
That, and he was 15 when introduced. Couple years later he got blipped from existence for 5 years, then films 2 and 3 happen immediately after. so he's still a teen.
A lot of these critics seem to misunderstand Spider-man's run in the MCU, much like how the writers of today do their best to screw over Peter's life to add unnecessary drama and trauma.
The MCU is not only a collection of stories, but it's a continuing narrative that is interconnected in a single universe, meaning events have an impact on other stories.
Peter has a naive and childlike persona and glorified angle on heroism at the start was because he grew up with the likes of Iron Man and Captain America being prominent characters in his life, news and interviews about them, their history is known to all. Peter wanting to be an avenger and him being a petulant child is accurate since everyone grew up with the image of the Avengers being the best, wanting to be like his Hero who saved his life when he was a kid is a major factor too.
Peter in the MCU is a teen, and the way they framed it actually works because even if we continue to throw in comments about Comic Peter, you forget MCU Peter doesn't have that history yet, he was just starting and Comic Peter is mostly stand alone and isolated from other heroes, they have no interaction or impact on one another unlike the events in the MCU.
Also to note, Tony Stark being his mentor also falls in the same category, there's no way they'll let a vigilante go around doing stuff after the whole fiasco of Ultron and the massive destruction caused by Hero fights, that's why Peter was introduced during Civil War and became Tony's unofficial Mentee, it's to show that previous events impact how others perceive characters and that a Vigilante like Spider-Man in the MCU would have been arrested by the authority under the Soccovia accords regardless, so him being Tony's mentee gives him leeway to do his thing.
Tony isn't the greatest example of a mentor, so Peter had to contend with that and the fact he barely had time with the man and then suddenly his legacy falls on his shoulders, which became the starting point of Peter breaking away from the teenage years and starting to glimpse the grima nature of the business and the amount of sacrifices made, that's why it ended with Peter losing everything and starting over again.
He didn't graduate not because they want to continue him being a young teen, but because even if he did Graduate, or meant nothing when all his records are forgotten, Unlike one more day, in the MCU Peter Parker no longer exist so he had to start over and get his GED.
I feel like a lot of people just don't understand MCU Peter's story. First, unlike popular belief NWH was NOT based on One More Day it was based on One Moment in Time which is the book that "explains" One More Day. (it also has one of the greatest negative space covers I’ve seen) There is dialoged that is ripped straight out of the book. Second, MCU Peter is not supposed to be comic book Peter. This is a Peter who as a young child was saved by Ironman (he's the little kid from Ironman 2) and has looked up to/worshiped superheroes for almost his entire life. This is a Peter who grew up in a world of heroes. Comic book Peter Parker was the first Superhero in the marvel comic. (the fantastic four are not superheroes they are adventures with superpowers) MCU peters childhood hero was ironman while Comic Peters childhood hero was his father.
Exactly! Context matters. The MCU isn't like the comics. In the comics Spider-Man was literally one of the first superheroes and had been a part of basically every superhero team in the setting.
In the MCU he's barely had his powers for like 6 months before Tony showed up in Civil War. Of course he'd need a mentor. The trilogy is all about him learning to be his own hero. It also makes sense has has access to better technology. Ant-Man literally has nano suits and so does everyone on his team. Peter should likewise have that tech eventually especially since he literally had a mentorship at Stark Industries.
Still don’t matter. Still doesn’t make MCU Peter a good character. Which he didn’t become until the end of No Way Home
@@Linklex7 disagree
@@Linklex7 yeah no that's completely bullshit.
Peter in the MCU is a perfectly fine character since he bounces off of and causes status quo changes, as any character in a shared world should.
I tried rewatching all the live-action movies to see why I lost touch, but this video sums it up perfectly.
Pete never grows up. Besides the crazy futuristic tech he shouldn’t have, the closest thing to adulthood, for me, is insomniac Spider-Man and Spider-verse.
Also, Tom’s Spidey has been anything but a friendly neighbourhood Spider-Man. He’s barely in the neighbourhood. As Nick Fury once said, “bitch please, you've been to space.”
Half the time, he’s on Avenger-level missions. 😂
Tom's version is spiderman in name only.
Spider-man fights crime and evil everywhere, just like every good guy. Not just in one place.
That’s my problem with all the Live Action versions of Spider-Man. They take bits and pieces of Spider-Man, but they forget some of the the biggest points of the Webhead.
Someone didn't watch Homecoming
@@ubedelarosa7562 That movie is part of the problem
Yeah, lotta good points here I agree with. As much as I love the character his particular status quo is the most limiting of any other mainstream superhero. Every major superhero at Marvel and DC has a status quo, but they are more naturally flexible than Spider-Man. You can plug Batman into pretty much any story with any tone. Superman can die, become a father, get lost in in space for a long time, etc. but not only does Marvel not let Peter grow, the fans don't either.
Take Peter out of the broke/struggling/messy love life/constantly lying to everyone dynamic and the fans flip out.
There is only so much of Peter's particular brand of arrested development I can take before it becomes annoying, stale, and honestly...makes Peter actively unlikeable.
what you on about?
Spider-Man fans for years now have been begging for Peter to finally move on, be a father (again)
basically everywhere I go I see people talking about how sick they are of Peter being stuck in the same point of his life.
Every Spider-Man video, I see, has comments filled with jokes how the writers absolutely hate Spider-Man, because he never gets a break or a happy ending.
I think it’s good for him to struggle, but what am I supposed to feel about Peter if he gets no wins?
@@DatAsianGuy
thank you, I feel like fans keep getting the blame for where Spider-Man is at when really it's been writers and editors who constantly say that Spider-Man needs to stay in the status quo and do everything possible to keep it that way, because they don't like changes.
@@DatAsianGuy If you say so. In my experience this really isn't the case. Any time a writer even takes a baby step out of the standard spidey mold fans go insane.
@@nope5657 yeah because I think Peter Parker has Peter Pan syndrome and this is I think that Peter Parker is outdated
I honestly have no idea why you think the GED scene from No Way Home is somehow delaying him to go to college when in fact it's the opposite. Him doing a Ged exam was just their way of getting him into college despite the stuff that happened in the movie.
It would be bizarre if the next movie doesn't start with him in college, and I'm confused why you would bet the opposite. MCU Spiderman has to follow the MCU timeline, they're not deliberately slowing his development but matching it with the world of the MCU. Peter is gonna act like a high school sophomore in 2017 and he's gonna act like a high school senior in 2024 (because of the snap). And he's gonna act like a college student years after that. They're matching it with real time the same way the comics did. I know this because I'm literally growing with Peter. I was focused on my dance when he was. I was focused on my college apps when he was. And I'm gonna be focusing on college issues when he's gonna be
Exactly! :D
Great take! This is how it was for me with Andy from Toy Story and Harry Potter.
Love this, but I'd interject that part of Peter's character IS trauma. He is resilience personified. It's why Logan likes him, he's seen how much trauma Pete takes.
I've never felt like the "endless trauma" kept him young. In fact, I've always felt the opposite and that kind of conflict tends to just lead to more emotional stories, which I like. I totally agree that we need to move onto some more adult Spider-man and stop hanging on to the kid, but I don't feel the traumatic events are really doing anything to hold him back.
There is a big, ugly elephant in the room when it comes to Spider-Man arrested development. It's not a corporate decision. Not really. As you said, fans have never liked seeing Peter not maturing. There hasn't been a single point in time that would even remotely signal to Marvel that their readers, both old and new, didn't like an adult Spider-Man.
The thing is, in reality at this point, Peter Parker is NOT an escapist youth fantasy for the readers. He is an escapist BACHELOR fantasy FOR THE WRITERS.
Seriously, Marvel editorial and writers are literally the only people on Earth that have ever talked about the desire of an eternally young Spider-Man, using the "he has to be relatable" BS as an excuse. And the most telling thing about this all is that, if there is one thing that the writers have exploited the most out of Peter's "youth", is him being single so they can pair him up with their preferred waifu of the week.
I'm not exaggerating. Peter has had like double the amount love interests in the 15 years since "One More Day" than in the 45 years since the creation of the character and the publication of that piece of garbage.
Something that makes this whole issue all the more painful is that Peter's relationship with Mary Jane in the comics is one of the best written in the history of the medium. MJ didn't become one of the most iconic super hero love interests because she's a redhead bombshell (although it definitely helped), but because his chemistry with Peter was off the charts. Pretty much since the beginning, but especially since Gerry Conway solidified their dynamics during his run in the 1970s, and later solidified by writers like Tom De Falco, John DeMatteis (when he didn't have Marvel marketing breathing down his neck) or JMS down the line.
So much so that it's pretty much impossible to split them up in a way that feels natural, or even realistic. Not without breaking one or both characters. Marvel tried this "natural" route a couple of times in the 90s and 2000s, but in order to even just put in on the page, they had to write her, or both of them, so blatantly out of character that fans didn't buy it for one second.
That's why they had to resort to crazy shenanigans like making Peter a clone, trying to kill off Mary Jane, Mephisto's forever infamous cosmic retcon, or most recently, hooking up Mary Jane with a random guy in a pocket dimension and adopting some kids.
And the most tragic thing is... that this may start to work... The writers have filled Peter and MJ's relationship with so much artificial pain and misery that I see more and more fans saying that they have stopped rooting for the couple. Not because they have come to hate neither character, nor the relationship itself. They just want the writers to stop. And yes, it's as toxic and messed up as it sounds.
That's exactly the problem. Whenever sensible fans complain the editorials and writers be like "how dare you tell us we need to grow up, you know what I will make Peter Parker more miserable and looser on the next one"
This is spot on
Seconded. The fandom still pines for the spider-marriage, so that clearly wasn't something that was driving fans away. And hasn't Joe Quesada said in interviews that part of the reason he broke up the marriage was that his marriage had failed, so he didn't see how Peter's could work? (Or something to that effect?)
I think you have to realise with how it’s going in the MCU what age he would still be. They started him young. The fans asked to have someone young play this character. He had to be dusted to for Tony’s story line, there for in this story line he’s not old yet 🤷♀️ I hope we get an adult version of the character being a main leader of the team
I do think that some of the best Peter Parker stories are the ones when he became a high school teacher and living that domestic life with MJ... and (this might be a hot take) to a certain extent, his short run inheriting Parker Industries from when Doc Ock became Superior Spidey. The stories that involves adulting shit.
Haha I just mentioned these two iterations in another comment. I (and others) were less of a fan of the Parker Industries era, but mainly because there are enough super-richies in Marvel and DC with infinite money and turning Peter into yet another one really distances himself even more from that everyman, real human experience.
Same here. Those exact same takes I have too.
Characters perpetually stuck in a young adult age is one of the biggest issues with the anime/Manga industry. Getting into my 30s it becomes more and more apparent how /stuck/ some characters are. It's why I always appreciate a time jump and a character that grows up with the viewers.
This is honestly so brilliant. I didn't grow up with Spiderman, but I instantly loved Into the Spiderverse for the amazing themes of growth. Listening to what you have to say puts Across the Spiderverse in a new light to me. Its no wonder that Miles is so frustrated at everyone treating him like he's still the kid everyone knew in the first movie.
Peter Parker is broken and we as the fans are too, I literally cannot imagine a Peter who can't suffer, who doesn't experience trauma, it is effectively ingrained in my mind that Peter must be miserable and still rise to the occasion for him to be Spider-Man.
Makes you wonder if that's what Across the Spider Verse was trying to point out, almost as if the people making that movie wanted to send a message to Marvel that the trauma doesn't have to define Spider-Man.
Yeah Marvel has this offensive obsession with “average/relatable Everyman = complete and utter loser who can never be happy.”
I think Peter should still suffer, it's ingrained in his character. But there should be a balance. No constant suffering and being a punching bag 24/7
You say that his suffering is a tool for people to keep him young, but really his suffering is one of the core themes of Spider-Man, to have crime fighting cost him so much but he will still do it because it’s the right thing to do
I think there's a lot that can be done with the character; particularly if you take inspiration from Buffy. We got seven seasons of seeing her innocence crushed as she functionally become a philosopher king of sorts. Just take Peter through high school then college then beyond. I think the biggest problem for Peter right now is more that his brand is being diluted by all the spiderverse fare. People love Spider-Man because of Peter, not because he's a big spider.
There's no need to fix Peter Parker. Let him grow old slowly, as if once a month we see his life run in real time. And let him deal with his brokenness. I know what it means to grieve. The feelings of losing someone stay with you, it's how you deal with them that show your character. It's an endearing part of the reason I love Spider-Man.
I agree. The real problem with Spider-Man since the 90s has been all the stupid story lines they've put the character through. The best thing they could do would be to strip the storyline back to the point where they made Parker a clone and treat him like a real person again.
I’d personally prefer if marvel (and to an extent dc) was handled similar to ultimate Spider-Man.
Have them grow up in real time, and if you want the character to continue then have them help create a successor like miles.
Too many characters have successors that are perpetually stuck as a side kick. Night wing is one of the comic industries favourite characters, and it’s because of the growth he experienced as he got older. Same with Wally west’s flash.
Then every generation would have their own iteration of marvel, their own iteration of dc. Just like we do with music, movies, games, etc. the industry changes and evolves over time and you see characters and other things you love develop.
It's one of the reasons why Savage Dragon from Erik Larson does so well is because the characters' change, grow and develop as everything happens IN real time. atleast for the first couple of years of it's run.
They did not let him grow in real time. A year and a half passed in universe when a decade passed in the real world. He has never aged that slowly before. This is not a bad thing bc Bendis writes really decompressed, so aging in real time or even the classic 1:4 ratio would skip over a TON of his day to day life.
That said, him staying 16-17 for a decade is part of where Marvel got the idea that a younger 616 Peter was needed. They cite the success of ultimate as an influence for OMD
I have never thought about Spider Man this way and this entire video has kind of blown my mind.
Honestly makes me want them to grow up Spider man.
The current events of the MCU feel way to large for high-school/college Spider man and if we want to see him be more involved, we either need smaller stories or for him to be allowed to grow up.
While I agree with your overarching premise for this essay, I too really want Peter to grow older. I think you overstate the issues with the MCU portrayal. Peter spends a lot of time in the earliest runs idolizing and seeking mentorship from other Avengers. Capt. America, Reed, Iron man, etc. Some of his character development in the comics centers around him realizing he has the similar or greater capacity than many of them. To your credit, it's vexing how often he never gets to live up to that. My hope is that they make good on how his MCU trilogy feels like one origin story for this iteration of the character, and they carry him forward long enough to become the man and leader of the Avengers everyone knows Spider-man can be, and that he's so rarely gotten to experience in the comics.
15:00 This part of your essay is a little bit off point.
MCU SpiderMan introduced in Civil War is not infantilized as a child - or rebooted or retconned. He IS a 15 year old boy. [it's like you want him to be the 17 year old from Stan Lee's story or an older Peter which CAN'T make sense in the MCU as it would beg the question of where he has been during all the pre Civil War events].
I'm saying that 15 year old high school kid Parker was perfect to fulfill his function in the MCU because the MCU was already a boomer story with a bunch of older heroes.
Unlike Stan Lee's original who existed in a New York with NO AVENGERS.
Iron Man was created AFTER Spiderman after all.
Problem is NOT that he started out as a 15 year old.
Problem isn't even that he didn't mature in Infinity War and Endgame.
His line: _You can't be a friendly neighborhood Spiderman if there's no Neighborhood_ from inFinity War is one of his best moments EVER.
No....the problem is that his trilogy regressed no 17 year old Parker back to a 15 year old again.
When Tony dies - he runs to Dr. Strange to ask for fairy magic to solve adult problems in No Way Home - and it's all downhill from there.
That trauma that Spiderman went through in Infinity War and Endgame wasn't enough.
The next MCU Spider-Man film, if/when it happens, should take advantage of the idea that Peter has grown. He’s lost a lot after Strange’s spell and is working to put his life back together, so what if he does?
What if, at the beginning of MCU Spider-Man 4, he’s seen a quantum leap in character progression? Years of solo superheroing, an arsenal of homemade gadgets, maybe heading up a tech company, and really sour on the idea of working with the Avengers again after his last misadventure.
Wow, yeah this basically sums it up.
A couple areas of disagreement:
1) The death of Gwen Stacy was pretty explicitly to change things up, not keep things the same. It didn't stop Peter from growing, it actually caused it.
2) Peter in NWH does finally grow. Getting his GED means he'll be done with high school in the next film. The death of May made him a mich more serious character. We can finally move forward with him again, it seems we're done with the comedy/slice of life take on the character
3) Experiencing trauma is not always problematic for Peter, it's about what the intent and result are. The question is why is the thing happening and how will Peter respond? Of the answer is growth, then it's okay to do. Of the answer is 'to make him younger and more relatable', then it's a cataclysmic decision that will actually make things worse.
Also, Ultimate didn't really have Peter age. In a decade he only aged a year and a half. That's the slowest he ever has. And then they killed him. He's the Spider-Man that never got to experience life milestones.
I think people focus way too much on how supposedly MCU Spider-Man’s development diverged from the creator’s intention, and less on the fact that their way of showing Peter’s development is perhaps one of the greatest iterations of Spider-Man in terms of his gradual transformation from boyhood to manhood, which, like you said in this video, was something Stan Lee intended to emphasize in his original work. The writers for MCU Spider-Man just emphasized it to a much larger extent. And so when you think about it that way, MCU Spider-Man is the most faithful adaption to the character structure of the Spider-Man Stan envisioned years ago.
I kinds see the end of no way home as peter growing up, since it's about him taking up responsibility and sacrificing for others rather than calling out to the "adults" in his life to help him with his problems
i get the point.. i will say this - a lot of people complain about Peter's age, but it's one of the reasons i love him - he's always young. I don't like too mature superheroes. they don't pick my interest quite the same. so... kind of grateful for Marvel here...
Marvel Editorial: "We need to keep Spider-Man young forever. People don't care about character development."
Narrator: "Turns out, people do care about character development."
Another issue could be as a result of Peter growing older and maturing is that all the other characters will have to do the same as well. So by the time Peter’s kid (if he has one) is a teenager, characters like Ironman would most likely be in their late forties early fifties.
This reasoning falls apart when many characters that were introduced long after spider-man (1962) in the 70's and 80's have aged more. A 2014 asm comic claims peter at that point was 28 when he should've been early or mid thirties by then. Marvel's obsession with "youth" is a lie when they utilize multi month time skips far more frequently and casually the past fifteen. years. They just want Peter free to be paired with whatever pet character will secure whoever is writing at a given time royalty checks.
No bc the rest of the universe is aging slowly. The only character Marvel drags their feet with is Peter.
Arguably about 15-16 years have passed since 1961 in the Marvel Universe. If Peter had a kid right now, they wouldn't be in teenager for like another 50 years
JMS tried to let Peter grow up. Peter was a teacher, he and MJ were married. Aunt May learned Peter was Spider-Man, and accepted it!
Spidey was on the Avengers!
Then, One More Day.
Damn you Joe Quesada!!!!
That's the thing, now hes alone, now he cant be reliant on others to parent him into being a superhero. I think it was done so he wouldnt be front stage in the infinity saga. Now hes starting his own journey where now he doenst have stark tech, venom is lurking, and hes on his own with no relation to anybody. I think he finally will since i see that happening with the spiderman games and the overall approach to spiderman in general considering what they have done with peter be parker in the spiderverse series.
TASM peter is (sometimes) starstruck as well. I particularly recall him getting a pep talk from Captain America about whether or not he should enlist to fight in Vietnam.
I was with you right up until the Iron Boy Jr thing. I thought the same thing before Homecoming came out but the relationship between Peter and Tony was really something special and he was never a sidekick. It's possible to have a mentor and still be your own person. I really love how important Peter became to the entire MCU with him being the reason why Tony decided to research time travel. I love that their relationship made Peter getting snapped so emotionally devastating for the audience.
Though I enjoyed peter & Tony's interactions, I don't like how Tony basically blackmails peter into joining a fight he has no context about. Plus Tony making the spiderman suit, equipped with billion dollar AI, peter having edith and a private jet at his disposal... basically peter having stark industries behind him takes a lot away from the working class friendly neighborhood spiderman. That's why the MIT arc feels so stupid to me.
Bro,the MCU basically makes a sidekick to Ironman in his own movie.And no matter what they do after NWH.He will always be called Iron Boy jr.
@@b_a_t_m_a_n_He doesn’t have any of what you just said, it’s Stark Indudtries tech but they aren’t paying the bills, it’s an “internship” not a nepotism thing
@@thomasjohnson1885 dude Tony left the billion dollar drone weapon Edith for peter in his will. That's not an intern thing. Plus in far from home, peter makes one call and happy comes in a private jet to rescue him. Peter has expensive machines making his suit in ffh and nwh. He even goes to stay at happy's high tech apartment. He's supposed to be a working class hero yet has thr privileges and backing of a billionaire.
The thing is, it is a pretty famous dialogue that "anyone can be Spider-Man", what they could have done was to let peter age out of being Spiderman. Becoming a father taking too much time away from his crime fighting, meanwhile he could have trained a younger Spiderman with his own storylines and everything. Who would then also age out and maybe be there to train miles morales or whoever was next. Create this whole lineage of spidermen that kept the city safe.
I loved this video, thank you. Peter needs to grow. Even if they start a new run with him starting as a kid again, it would be great if existing runs could continue for the people who grew up with it. I love PS1 Spider-Man for that exact reason, even more as an adult than I did as a kid. I'd love to say you could throw in the PS4 Spider-Man game with that as well, what with depicting a seasoned Spider-Man bordering on 30 years old, but then there's the whole PS5 baby face replacement fiasco.
I feel like Miles could be the key to finally seeing Peter get the chance to grow up.
Pre/early mcu had the best superhero adapations. From spiderman 1-3, to incredible hulk, to iron man. God those were the good days. The superheroes were actual real people on top of being heroes. MCU is more DC now, which is why normal people could care less
What the fuck are you saying? Marvel is more DC now?
I understand having an overall problem with Spider-Man never growing up but he entered the MCU as a 15 year old. It makes a lot of sense in the MCU. It would not make sense to intro a 25 year old seasoned Spider-Man into the MCU like 12 movies in. Where the fuck was he and why was he never mentioned. It makes sense that at 15 he is impressionable. If his growth stagnates sure, trip. But so far the MCU adaptation has been a great.
The mentor ship in the MCU Spider-Man films is to help Peter grow and become into Spider-Man in the 4th entry. A unique way of story telling.
this is why we have a multiverse, you wanna de-age peter? start a new seperate run of comics, that way old time fans can continue to grow old with their hero while every generation of comic fans gets their very own spider-man
I do want to agrue a bit on No Way Home Spiderman, as I do think his whole development is leading him to force him to grow up and become more independent, not the other way around like you suggested
If there’s another trilogy where they focus on the man part rather than the boy part, then I could forgive the childlike nature of his character up until now. It would really give you a sense of growth since you watched him grow up the whole time.
It’s so easy to fix the problem too. Have adult Peter and kid miles. Peter can have the adult problems, miles can have high school problems.
To me, now. Peter Parker should be grown up. A mature Spider-Man with his origins established with him being bit by the spider and his uncle being bit by the bullet. Yes it’s an incredibly rich origin and one that could be even more heartbreaking with the right build but right now, I’m ok with them doing more so what Insomniac has been doing
Spider-Man is older, struggling with the adult jobs but still has dreams for himself like falling in love, getting a house and settling down. He is for the adults who relate to the juggling act of life.
Miles, is the younger Spider-Man. He is what Peter was in the 60’s. A young, charismatic guy who is bitten by the spider and learns to become something greater. We are with Miles and Peter.
Spider-Man is showing the perspectives on life and how it can be hard. Showing that from both teenage and adult and how they mix together can be fun.
Tom's Peter Parker went from Iron Boy Jr. to Spider-Man.
Problem is he never should of been Iron Boy JR at all.
He should of been Spider-Man from the beginning.
Nah, he will probably be falcon boy jr next
@@spider-man500problem is there were five other Spider-Man movies so the mcu had to take risks and make different types of spider-man movies in the mcu because fans at the time were complaining that the amazing Spider-Man movies were telling too similar stories like the death of uncle Ben etc so marvel had to do different spider-man stories so as to not become stale
@@spider-man500EXACTY.
@@spider-man500Nothing about him was Iron Boy and this take is a stupid ass defense to think no way home’s shitty soft reboot ending was good
This essay gave me a new way to look at across the spider verse. Miles being an anomaly altered the story of Peter B. Giving him the opportunity to change his life.
Man, 25 years later even Ash retired at a ripe 10 years old. It’s about time PP got a break too.
Insomniac spiderman sittin high on ur list after Spiderman, MM, and Spiderman 2
Ohhhhh yeah they are haha
This is why I loved Spiderman ps4 since its a grown up spiderman that actually grows up, he has to deal with Aunt mays death instead of saving her and dooming everyone else. We see him go through personal problems but also mature. Hell, I could see him and mj getting married in Spiderman 2.
It’s funny that the two most popular versions of Spider-Man out right now are the two where he’s an adult competent hero. PS4 & The Spider-Verse movies. Yes, Peter B Parker is competent. He’s let himself get out of shape cause of his divorce, yet you see he’s still pretty good at his job. You realize if he wasn’t so down about the divorce, he probably could’ve solved this whole adventure by himself.
@Linklex7 Well, people are tired of the same old teenage Spiderman. We want him to grow, and yeah, the divorce definitely did that to him. It was actually a good plot point for his character.
I must say that, given how they handled Iron Man, I have faith in the fact they might do the same for Spidey. Despite it being unavoidable anyway because of contractual reasons with RDJ, Marvel DID prove to be willing to put a good story before wanting to capitalize on Tony’s popularity forever.
I mean, Holland’s Peter still feels pretty childish, yes, but his movies up until now - unlike Tobey’s - resembled comic book issues more than comic book runs. For example, if Spider-Man (2002) loosely adapts Peter’s entire high school/early college period, the Home movies merely adapt single episodes or mini arcs WITHIN his high school period. So yeah, the growth process has been slowed down, exactly like Tony Stark’s journey towards his final sacrifice has been slowed down in the Infinity Saga. But we DID get there eventually. So who knows, we might actually get to a Peter Parker who settles down with a family and ends his journey.
Dude the one more day thing isn’t even funny. It wasn’t even “no more marriage EVER!” It was just:
“Im going to remove your marriage to screw with you, and you can indeed restart later”
I feel like the evolution of trauma being so big in Spider-Man media these days might also be a reflection of the times, and how newer generations maybe relate to Peter Parker. Just a thought.
I genuinely thought that this was going to be a deep dive on his character, but turns out it’s another “McU SpIDer BaD” video smh
They also made him blip away for 5 years so that he wouldn't age further.
That still pisses me off to this day they didn’t have him survive
By current MCU timeline Peter would be 24 but Marvel wouldn’t like Peter being that old in their universe do they blipped him.
"Being married = growing up" is a really stupid way of thinking about a character, or people in general. Single people can grow up.
I wished he mentioned Insomniac's Spider-man (That already has more than 8 years of experience)
In the comics, Peter became a teacher at a Highschool. During his time as part of the New Avengers he taught high school students.
surprised you didn't bring up the very cool short comic series "Life Story" that goes through peters life and stories as if he aged in real time. It's awesome and really makes me wish we would get another alternative universe in the comics like Ultimate. Only problem with life story is that it jumps in time a bit too much, you get a nice micro look into specific parts of his life, to then jump 7-12 years into the future in the next issue. I would love this proposed alternative universe to do something like every few months is a year in universe or something. That would be awesome.
Many of us, especially in regards to the recent ASM comic book run have been voicing similar concerns to this film essay. If you're sympathetic to this criticism, which I am, it sounds like Jonathan Hickman's new Ultimate Spider-Man series is a bit of a remedy to this (hopefully) in the comics. He's said it was inspired by Peter B. Parker, in part. Just saying, as someone that dropped ASM for the first time in my life with the recent run, I'm putting my money where my mouth is and supporting a comic about an adult Peter looking to get his life together.
Does bro forget Peter Parker is supposed to be 15 aka a Teenager/ Kid basically
I understand the complaints about him being reliant on tony, but complaining about his immaturity is ridiculous when he is portrayed as an actual 15 year old and every other on screen adaptation portrays him more as a mature 18-19 year old.
Why not complain about Raimi's Peter being a pushover wallflower in comparison to Lee and Ditko's somewhat abrasive Spider0Man or Bendis' Brash Ultimate Peter
Also to complain about the story 19:05 running on "forever" is ridiculous, RDJ's Iron Man and Chris Evans' Captain America came to an end and their deaths were not adaptations whats to say Tom Holland's Spider-man wont die in a few films aswell.
Ironic how you then proceed to bring up ultimate Spider-man an adaptation of Peter who was in high school for 200+ issue before he died as a Teenager.
Yet Tom holland's Peter being in highschool for 3 films before getting a clean slate is somehow prolonging Tom to forever be young Peter? RDJ has had 9 on screen appearances before he died, Tom has only had 5
Thank you! Talking about a 15 years old being immature while previously saying the inspiration for Spider-Man was a hero kids could relate to is a bit..jarring? Like, that's the point. That hasn't changed and MCU's Spider-Man story is far from over and the jury is still out for how his development will continue. MCU's Spider-Man trilogy is essentially what Sony's first parts of the Spider-Man movies were just more fleshed out in 3 solo movies.
Tom Holland has signed for 6 more movies, so 3 solo movies and 3 team ups, that's a lot of space for more development. And No Way Home's ending certainly puts him into a new place far from where he has been at in all the previous movies. Heck, the movie titles represent that: Homecoming, Far From Home and No Way Home. "Home" is his youth, his loved ones and No Way Home ends with him being alone, in an empty low-income apartment, no loved ones and no Stark tech. I've seen people call it a reset of MCU Spider-Man but let's not forget that his experience from the former movies stay with him and he has to now navigate through life alone, which is a stark difference to when he was, again; a *child.* A child doesn't have to battle with the things an adult has to, a child doesn't have to carry responsibilities as an adult has to. But this child is also a hero. MCU Spider-Man shows what it means to be a hero, what responsibilities come with it while also acknowledging "hey, that *is* still a child!". Peter Parker first and foremost has always been a realistically depicted person struggling with family, school, bullies, relationships, jobs, rent..on top of his super hero duties and those 2 lives clashing with each other. He's a hero, but also just a person with your everyday struggles.
Yk what annoys me about Peter staying a child. We have miles now, he should be the main teen spidey for the time being and let Peter grow
You blew my mind! Your analysis of the previous films, along with the reasons behind the constant reboots, are things I've never really put much thought into.. My God!
A+
I disagree with you regarding MCU Spiderman. He starts off as a 15 year old boy who gets the attention of a genius superhero billionaire. Of course he's gonna look up to him go along with what Tony says. That's not that unrealistic or hard to believe.
The blip also stops him from aging since he was snuffed from existence fo some time. When would he have had time to grow up.
These first 3 movies were meant to focus on a young peter and they did that brilliantly. And as No Way Home has alluded to, the next 3 will be about a more mature Peter. So I think Marvel has handled Peter really well actually.
Also what do you mean Peter is intimidated by Strange? He literally stands up to him and balks at his decision to let the villains go home and die. If that's not Peter asserting himself then what is?
For reasons similar to this, this is why I loved insomniacs first Spider-Man game. He was seasoned and older. But then when they did the face swap they made him look 10 years younger. I can’t get passed how young he looks now and I find it impossible to believe that this Spider-Man has been Spider-Man for almost a decade when he looks like he’s still in high school. Closer to mileses age then his own.
THANK YOU for the bit about MCU spidey’s trauma being more like torture. It genuinely hurts to watch and not in a good way. It’s the kind of cruel aimless suffering I would expect from a dead dove super angsty hurt no comfort fanfiction. Seeing it in the source material and the character being tortured by the writers being a child with nothing to help him cope with everything is absolutely insane to me. I’m really glad spiderverse seems to be fighting against this pointless traumatizing of the characters.
And all of this is coming from ME the idiot that read NARUTO dead doves for fun. It’s not that I’m unfamiliar with angst or don’t like it, spider man just isn’t the right character for this kind of thing and the trauma he goes through isn’t handled properly by the writing.
I would love to see a series of movies, or a TV show, or even the Insomniac Universe follow a Peter from a young adult all the way to retirement. Insomniac has even seemed to want to take a step back on Peter's story as of the end of Spider-Man 2, but I hope they can realize that everyone ages, and showing a character age can speak volumes to their relatability to the audience.
We are literally watching him become spider-MAN in the 1st trilogy, and we will now see him grow into his own and age gracefully. We never had an actual teenage Spidey in films, toney was 26, Andrew was like 30. This way we get to see the entirety of the story and his growth. I understand your point, but I'm loving it and looking forward to more myself
I love how you used Disney’s Peter Pan as a reference. Plus, Peter Parker’s parallel to Wendy was subtle yet brilliant.
Part of the appeal to Peter Parker's character is certainly determination in the face of hardship. I do understand where the need for trauma appears to come from, but it has become an issue in the last 20 years. J Michael Strazcynski famously developed Peter and Mary Jane's marriage to an insane degree, was forced to include his name on One More Day and resign shortly afterward. Since that day, writers have been struggling to write around editorial mandates for the character. There is nothing less relatable than the character having his history reset anytime it gets inconvenient.
I dont mind a lot of trauma but only if its used thematically for the story. Which I don't think most Spider-man stories do. I would say Daredevil does the relentless trauma better, only because it ties back into DD's themes. Spider-man has the theme of responsibility, but you could easily do that without killing everyone he loves.
Well after the 3rd movie came out, I became at peace with Toms version of Spider-Man, he was a teen in a universe of heroes, it is okay for him to fan over them, it is okay for him to look for a father figure given that Uncle Ben was never a big thing for him in this universe. I just hope in the future movies they continue down the road, of Peter in university, and don't just eventually do a reboot or smt...
I like Spider-Man a lot, I think the character has something really special. It's a shame that so few creatives who get their hands on him seem to know how to let him shine. Loved this video!
great vid per usual griff
Thank you man! 🫶🏻
Thats why i love the insomniac games because its giving us that and the same thing with spiderverse miles and the game version of him to where im getting older and i relate to peter and miles more in that version than i do to a high school version. Like peter having a child will give him a new growth to us who are basically to that point i mean look at the mcu ironman where he has a child now even ant-man who also has a child and what i love about the antman that i relate to is feeling like im missing time with my little siblings just like scott felt with his daughter. I love spider-man always have and i always will but i feel that while the comics are trying to step backwards we as the fans just like the insomniac people who are fans like us need to show them that we need to move foward with these characters. That we need to let them grow, let them fall in the adult life and inspire us, guide us on how to get back up. That why we love spider-man. And that what makes him that hero we love and you can tell that type of story even with an adult spider-man who is deep in his career. Marvel need to step up and grow up like the rest of us. Like a game version of peter parker from the 2002 spider-man movie game said "no matter how much you wanna hold on to a moment, you can't stop time from moving on."
Personally I saw NWH as the start of this growth. He has his sewn suit, he lives on his own in New York, taking his GED is this end of his high school chapter, he doesn’t even have all of his relationships anymore but he has the same experience.
He’ll meet new people and start a new chapter.
Not to mention in the comics there is a mention that Franklin Richards likes Peter so much that he is keeping him at the set age he is. I would like to see a story where Peter finally says, "No, I'm *NOT* going to lose someone again" and the arc is all about him doing what is necessary to save that person/relationship in a moral and ethical way.
One of the strengths of Spiderman in the comics, as well as Tobey and Andrew's incarnations, is that when he's Spiderman in the streets people have no clue that he's a teenager. He was SpiderMAN. I love Tom Holland's Spidey but they did not nail this. Everyone and their mom HAD to know that was a kid.
I agree with everything, i’ve been jaded with Peter being in a constant loop in highschool/college era in Spider-Man media, it’s one of the reason why i was never invested with MCU’s take on Spider-Man, it’s just boring.
Which is why i’m hyped of Ultimate Spider-Man 2024 since it does something different with the character by having him be a 40 something year old Peter with kids and a wife.
THE IRONY THAT SPIDER-MAN 2 IS BROKEN TOO LMAO
Eh so far through my play through I'm loving it
@@FilmSpeakreal spider man will always be a white straight male cope and seeth
thank you for recognizing the sheer perfection of ps1 spider-man. that is the REAL spider-man and i need him back! venom in that game is excellent as well, his relationship with spidey is so fun.
Babe wake up. A new spiderman video dropped.
Into the Spider-Verse had a pretty good sound track, but brilliant? Nahhhh
I've seen a disconnection between most of the content creators I follow and the commenters regarding No Way Home.
I felt the same way. I felt I was being cheated into nostalgia for nostalgia's sake, sprinting to the finish line in order to hone in some cameos. Don't get me wrong, there were some great character moments in that movie, but it's like eating a cookie only for a few chocolate chips.
I love how your essays are able to look at the big picture and point out some things that, if you don't go into detail about why you think what you think, may turn you into an instant hater just for speaking your mind.
I left Spiderman as reader in the mid 80s because I found X-men to tackle more subject matter closer to my life. The whole Professor X (MLK Jr.) and Magneto (Malcolm X) dynamic and Mutant being a metaphor for being black appealed to me a lot more. The Graphic Novel "God Loves, Man Kills" is still my favorite story that made me leave Spiderman. They used that book as source material for X-2 but they managed to FUBAR it.
Spider-Man, the modern day Peter Pan
22:56 Trauma and tragedy are central to Spider-Man's story. There's no way around it, no matter what that Spider-Verse movie says.
I get what ya sayin, but I look at it in a different way. I always recall the whole Madame Webb storyline when I look at the MCU. I forgot which Spiderman cartoon it was, but it was an old one. In this cartoon Madame Webb showed Peter multiple iterations of Spiderman and enlightened not only Peter, but us viewers that there is a Spider verse.
Into the Spider-Verse did an amazing job portraying the different kind of Spiderman stories. Peter B. Parker is the adult Spiderman that you were ichin for, however there are clearly MULTIPLE iterations of Spiderman, and Peter Parkers that it's honestly maddening. I mean there is a Peter Parked CAR for cryin out loud. So I think Marvel just made a smoothe recovery of Spidey's story by adding onto the idea of the Spider-Verse, and thus stretchin out Spidey's longevity since he's honestly all they got left, so business wise it's a good move to try and restart the story. I do also think though that they should go back and finish up/continue the other 2 Spidermen's stories.
I see Tobey's Spiderman as the perfect adult Peter Parker. I see Andrew's Spiderman as a perfect dark Batmanish Peter Parker. Finally I see Tom's Spiderman as the perfect Teenage Peter Parker.
I love what the MCU did to Spiderman cuz it gave a different kinda story than the regular old NYC Spiderman that lost uncle Ben and do the same old run down. Instead we get to see him interact with numerous other heroes, and we get to have this almost Naruto and Jiraiya bond with Peter and Tony. It's fun to see and I think it adds a lot more to this version of Peter that makes the story WAY more engaging for me.
It's not like they didn't let Peter grow up I mean we clearly see in No Way Home Tobey's Peter was much older. Andrew's Peter was also older. Also there is even talk about one of those 2 Peters getting another movie, so we might just get a continuation on 1 or 2 of the adult Peters.
I loved seeing Tom's Spiderman interact with Doctor Strange. Peter is a comedian at heart and so he tries to lighten the mood and make little jokes here and there and have a funny and light persona that makes people less stiff around him it's why he acts the way he does towards Strange. We clearly saw that he went up against Strange in No Way Home, so I didn't really get that point you tried to make saying he was like a teacher of some sort when that's just him trying to smoothen things out with Strange since he's also askin for a favor in the beginning.
On the point with him being "Robin" only not growing into his own like Nightwing. That again doesn't make much sense since Tony is kinda dead...Also nobody knows him anymore...So his solo arc begins now. What we saw was a long and very different origin story. In this iteration of Peter we now see that he went through a LOT of pain before coming into his own as a adult Spiderman. Instead of just Uncle Ben, Gwen Stacy, and Aunt May Tom's Peter lost Uncle Ben, Tony, Aunt May, MJ, Ned, Dr. Strange, etc... 3 of the listed are dead, but the rest just don't remember any of the time they spent together with Peter which is arguably worse.
Anyway this is my take on this so take it how ya will.