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Peter Parker is a fictional character portrayed by Tobey Maguire in Sam Raimi's Spider-Man trilogy–based on the Marvel Comics character of the same name–also known by his alias, Spider-Man. The trilogy focuses on Parker's growth from high school to college, and his troubled relationships with Harry Osborn and Mary Jane Watson. Parker struggles with his dual life as a college student and young adult, as well as his job as a freelance photographer for the Daily Bugle. As Spider-Man, Parker mainly fought the superhuman criminals Green Goblin, Doctor Octopus, and Sandman.

Maguire's version of the character was followed by the Peter Parker played by Andrew Garfield in The Amazing Spider-Man film series and the Peter Parker played by Tom Holland in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU). Maguire eventually reprised his role as Peter Parker / Spider-Man in the MCU film Spider-Man: No Way Home (2021), appearing alongside Garfield's Parker as supporting characters to Holland's version. To distinguish himself from the other versions, he is referred to by the other Parkers as "Peter-Two", while Marvel.com officially named him the "Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man".

Maguire's portrayal of the character has received largely positive responses from critics and fans alike, along with receiving praise from Garfield and Holland, and Maguire has also recieved multiple accolades for his performance as Spider-Man.

Concept and creation

Background and development

• Throughout the 1990s, comic book movies, even at their best, were heightened experiences that placed the superheroes at the center of a fantastical world that little resembled our own. At their worst, they were exercises in too-cool-for-school irony and overblown excess, winking at the tropes of comic book storytelling and never, ever taking any of it seriously. Koepp and Raimi abhorred that approach.

  ---

The Marvel Comics character Peter Parker / Spider-Man first appeared in the fifteenth and final issue of Marvel's anthology comic book series Amazing Fantasy, which was published in August 1962. ^[1] The issue was written by Marvel Comics editor and head writer Stan Lee and drawn and penciled by artist Steve Ditko; Lee wanted to create a character whom teens could identify with, ^[2]: 1 and cited pulp magazine crime fighter the Spider as well as seeing a spider climb up a wall as an influence and an inspiration. ^[3] The character became popular during the 1960s, and was adapted into other media. ^{[3] [2]}

Development on a Spider-Man film began in the 1980s, with Marvel Entertainment negotiating with several production companies to produce it. Cannon Films eventually became the production studio for the film, and hired Joseph Zito to direct it. ^[4] By the late 1990s, no studio showed interest in making a Spider-Man film after the critical and commercial failure of the superhero film Batman & Robin (1997), which made studios not take those films seriously, seemingly seeing them as "intended for children." In 1998, Marvel emerged from bankruptcy, and sold the film distribution rights of their most popular characters to multiple film studios; the success of Blade eariler that year helped establish that a Marvel Comics character could be adapted to film; and 20th Century Fox began working on X-Men (2000) mostly based on the success of X-Men: The Animated Series (1992–1997); Spider-Man's rights were sold to Sony Pictures Entertainment for $7 million, with Marvel retaining 5% of the profits and 50% of merchandising. David Koepp was hired as the screenwriter of Spider-Man (2002), "to the strength of his own bold ideas", including how to approach Peter Parker's relationship with Mary Jane Watson. ^[5]

Casting

During development of Cannon's Spider-Man film, the studio considered Tom Cruise for the role of Peter Parker / Spider-Man, while Zito was interested in casting actor and stuntman Scott Leva, who previously did promotional appearances as Spider-Man for Marvel. ^[4] When Sam Raimi was hired as director and Koepp as screenwriter by mid-2000, what was critical to Raimi's approach was finding the right actor to portray Peter Parker. The press noted possible actors that Sony did not seriously consider– Leonardo DiCaprio, ^[a] Wes Bentley, Heath Ledger, Ewan McGregor, Chris Klein, Scott Speedman, Jude Law, and Freddie Prinze Jr.–but Raimi described all those actors not right for "a working-class high school nerd who can't get the girl." ^[5] At the end of July 2000, Tobey Maguire was cast as Parker / Spider-Man for three films, ^[6] after Raimi watched The Cider House Rules (1999) and saw the character in him. ^[7] Maguire was trained by a physical trainer, a yoga instructor, a martial arts expert, and a climbing expert, taking several months to improve his physique. ^[8] Maguire began his physical training for Spider-Man, and sought to learn the typical movements of spiders in his spare time. ^{[9][ better source needed]} After casting finished, the question became "how [do we] bring Spider-Man to [film] in a way that felt true to the comics and [yet] grounded in the real world." ^[5]

Following Spider-Man's record-breaking $115 million opening weekend, Sony set Spider-Man 2 to release in 2004, with Raimi returning. ^[10] After Maguire finished filming Seabiscuit (2003) in late 2002, there has been two differing accounts of what happened behind-the-scenes:

• Maguire suffered from a pre-existing back condition that bothered him; Gyllenhaal was cast to replace him in mid-April 2003. At the time, the former was dating Jennifer Meyer, the daughter of Ronald Meyer–head of Universal Studios–who helped him regain the role, with a salary of $17 million. ^{[11] [12]}
• In 2003, Maguire was close to being released from his three-film contract following a dispute between him and Sony executives; he complained about the physical strain of his last two films, of which the executives stated was was simply "part of Maguire's negotiating tactics." Maguire's publicist quickly dismissed this statement. ^[13]

In January 2010, Sony announced that the Spider-Man film franchise would be rebooted with The Amazing Spider-Man (2012) after Raimi decided to no longer continue his version of the franchise; Maguire left his role as a result. ^[14]

Sony proceeded with a reboot of the series titled The Amazing Spider-Man, starring Andrew Garfield as Peter Parker. The reboot was released in the United States on July 3, 2012. ^{[15] [16] [17] [18]}

Spider-Man: No Way Home

Chris McKenna and Erik Sommers began exploring the idea of the multiverse and potentially revisiting characters from past Spider-Man films while writing the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) film Spider-Man: No Way Home (2021). The duo ultimately decided to fully integrate the characters into the film and worked hard to prevent No Way Home from being "fan service" by using the returning characters to progress the MCU version of Peter Parker's (portrayed by Tom Holland) story. ^{[19] [20]} In December 2020, Alfred Molina was set to return as Otto Octavius / Doctor Octopus from Spider-Man 2 for No Way Home, ^[21] with Maguire reprising his role and Garfield returning as Spider-Man. ^[19] At that time,  Collider reported that Maguire and Garfield would appear in the film alongside  Kirsten Dunst as  Mary Jane Watson from Raimi's Spider-Man trilogy and  Emma Stone as Gwen Stacy from the  Amazing Spider-Man films. ^[22] Around Christmas 2020, McKenna and Sommers rewrote the introductions of Maguire and Garfield as well as much of the third act in time for those actors to start filming. They had not been able to focus on those scenes earlier because they were busy during filming of much of the first and second acts in the previous months. ^[20]

Maguire wanted the film to reveal only minimal details about what happened to his character after the events of  Spider-Man 3 (2007). ^[19] Marvel.com officially named Maguire's Spider-Man the "Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man". ^[23]

Characterization and themes

The first film characterizes Peter Parker as an intelligent, bookish, and level-headed yet lonely and isolated teenager, focusing on his personality as a shy and bashful outsider before he gains his powers and subsequent struggles of deciding between using his newfound abilities for personal gain or for the betterment of others. By overcoming these struggles, Peter uses his abilities to help people after his uncle Ben is killed by a robber during a robbery, for which Peter was indirectly responsible. Inspired by Ben's last words, Peter is motivated to use his super-human abilities for a more noble cause under the persona of a masked vigilante: "Spider-Man". ^[25] However, even after taking up the persona of Spider-Man, Peter still retains his socially-inept, awkward and dorky, yet endearingly good-hearted nature, and develops a sarcastic and witty sense of humor in his Spider-Man guise. Peter deals with all his personal struggles, all while wrestling with his feelings for his childhood crush and close friend Mary Jane Watson and handling his close relationship with his best friend Harry Osborn.

Thematic analysis

In Spider-Man 2, director Sam Raimi felt that the film had to thematically explore Peter's internal conflict with his personal wants against his responsibility, the positives and negatives of his chosen path, and how he ultimately decides that he can be happy as a heroic figure. ^{[27] [28]} Raimi stated the story was partly influenced by Superman II, which also explored the titular hero giving up his responsibilities. ^[29] The sequel's story is mainly taken from the comic book series The Amazing Spider-Man No. 50, "Spider-Man No More!" ^[27] According to Raimi, Peter Parker's story is about "a life out of balance". Peter is caught between a life where he tries to help people and atone for his uncle's death with his Spider-Man alter-ego and another where he tries to balance his studies, occupation as a photographer and his relationship with his family and friends. Peter acknowledges that he cannot be with Mary Jane without endangering her, due to his Spider-Man alter-ego; fearing that if his enemies would ever find out about his true identity, they would target his loved ones. As a result, Peter distances himself from Mary Jane, but eventually rekindles his relationship with her after she finds out about his dual life, and struggles he has faced. ^[30]

In Spider-Man 3, Raimi intended to further develop Peter's character with the planned film focusing on Peter learning that he is not a sinless vigilante and that there can also be humanity in those he considers criminals, especially as the Venom symbiote brings out the darker aspects of Peter's personality upon bonding with him. ^[31] Raimi himself quoted: "The most important thing Peter right now has to learn is that this whole concept of him as the avenger or him as the hero, he wears this red and blue outfit, with each criminal he brings to justice he's trying to pay down this debt of guilt he feels about the death of Uncle Ben. He considers himself a hero and a sinless person versus these villains that he nabs. We felt it would be a great thing for him to learn a little less black and white view of life and that he's not above these people." ^[26] Raimi based his ideas out of the original comic books. ^{[27] [28] [30]}

Design

Costume designer James Acheson began forming several concepts for Spider-Man's suit designs and claimed that the suit left Maguire feeling claustrophobic, preferring only to wear the suit if a scene did not require him to put on the mask. ^[32]

Although Spider-Man's suit wound up being faithful to the Spider-Man comics, many designs were made. One concept that costume designer James Acheson became fond of was the idea of having a red emblem over a black costume. Another, which would eventually lead to the final product, featured an enlarged logo on the chest and red stripes going down the sides of the legs. ^[33] To create Spider-Man's costume, Maguire was fitted for the skintight suit, being covered with layers of substance to create the suit's shape. ^[34] It was designed as a single piece, including the mask. A hard shell was worn underneath the mask to make the shape of the head look better and to keep the mask tight while keeping the wearer comfortable. For scenes where he would take off his mask, an alternate suit where the mask was a separate piece was made. The webbing, which accented the costume, was cut by computer. The mask's eye-lenses were designed to have a mirror look. ^[35] Dykstra said the biggest difficulty of creating Spider-Man was that as the character was masked, it immediately lost a lot of characterization. Without the context of eyes or mouth, a lot of body language had to be put in so that there would be emotional content. Raimi wanted to convey the essence of Spider-Man as being "the transition that occurs between him being a young man going through puberty and being a superhero." Dykstra said his crew of animators had never reached such a level of sophistication until giving subtle hints of making Spider-Man feel like a human being. ^[36] When two studio executives were shown shots of the computer-generated character, they believed it was actually Maguire performing stunts. ^[33] A challenge during development of Spider-Man was the need for extensive CGI pre-visualization to get the look of Spider-Man swinging through New York City right, a practice that was still in its infancy during the early 2000s. ^[5]

Costume designer James Acheson made numerous subtle changes to Spider-Man's costume in Spider-Man 2, although keeping the design relatively the same. The colors were made richer and bolder. The spider emblem was given more elegant lines and enlarged, the eye-lenses were somewhat smaller, and the muscle suit underneath was made into pieces, to give a better sense of movement. The helmet Maguire wore under his mask was also improved, with better movement for the false jaw and magnetic eyepieces, which were easier to remove. ^[27]

In Spider-Man 3, Peter has two variations of his suit: his traditional one and one colored in black that forms due to an alien symbiote bonding to him. The symbiote suit worn in the comics by Spider-Man was a plain black affair with a large white spider on the front and back. Initially, the design for the symbiote suit for the film was made of latex and looked more faithful to the one in the comics, but it was rejected by the producers. The final design was changed for the film to become a black version of Spider-Man's traditional costume, complete with webbing motif. It also had a slightly different spider symbol. As a consequence of this, the suit Topher Grace wore as Venom also bore the webbing motif; as producer Grant Curtis noted, "it's the Spider-Man suit, but twisted and mangled in its own right." ^[37] Additionally, the motif gave a sense of life to the symbiote, giving it the appearance of gripping onto the character's body. ^[38]

On the visual effects and suit design for Parker in No Way Home, Digital Domain's VFX supervisor Kelly Port said the VFX team based it on what the costume department had made for Maguire and Garfield. For some time, they based the suits on the original ones, but with slight variations. ^[39]

This version of Peter Parker utilizes organic webbing instead of the web-shooters used in the Spider-Man comics and previous adaptations. ^[40] This idea remained a constant in all of Koepp's rewrites from Cameron's scriptment, ^[41] with Raimi feeling he would stretch the audience's suspension of disbelief too far to have Parker invent mechanical web-shooters. ^[8]

Fictional character biography

Background

Peter Parker is raised by his uncle Ben and aunt May. His childhood best friend is Harry Osborn, the son of Oscorp Industries founder and CEO Norman Osborn, whom Parker idolizes; his childhood crush is Mary Jane "MJ" Watson, having been watching her school plays since he was six-years-old. At high school, Parker is a bespectacled, shy outsider who is bullied by MJ's boyfriend Flash Thompson. Near the end of his senior year, before going on a field trip to Columbia University, Harry introduces Parker to Norman, who is impressed by Parker's intelligence. ^[b]

Becoming Spider-Man

Harry, Thompson, MJ, and Parker enter a genetic laboratory at the university, being toured around by a scientist. MJ notices one of the fifteen genetically-modified spiders has escaped, which lands on Parker and bites him. Feeling ill, Parker returns home and wakes up the next day, learning he is no longer near-sighted and with superhuman strength. Parker leaves school early to train his new powers, deciding to use these powers at a wrestling match to win money for his, May, and Ben's house's electrical bill. Brushing off Ben's advice that " with great power comes great responsibility", Parker defeats Bonesaw McGraw as the "Human Spider", but gets scammed. The wrestling promoter is robbed by a burglar, who Parker lets escape; returning home, Parker finds Ben bleeding and eventually die, prompting him to chase for the killer in revenge. Parker eventually learns it is the same man that robbed the promoter, and decides to use his powers for good as the superhero Spider-Man after graduating sometime later.

Parker becomes a freelance photographer for the Daily Bugle to get money, having to get pictures of Spider-Man for its editor-in-chief J. Jonah Jameson, who personally considers Spider-Man a "menace" and publishes negative editorials about him. Parker is assigned by Jameson to take pictures at the World Unity Fair, where it is attacked by the Green Goblin. As Spider-Man, Parker duels Goblin, who proposes a truce for he and the former to work together. When Spider-Man later refuses, the two fight in a burning building and the former is kidnapped by Goblin when the latter attacks the Bugle, giving a speech about how the city will eventually turn against Spider-Man.

At a Thanksgiving dinner with Harry, MJ, May, and Parker, Norman deduces Parker is Spider-Man ^[c] and later attacks and hospitalizes May as the Goblin in an attempt to "go after [Peter's] heart." While visiting May at the hospital, Parker is called by Goblin, and encounters him as Spider-Man. Goblin forces Spider-Man to choose who to save: a Roosevelt Island Tramway bus full of children or MJ. Spider-Man saves both, and the pair are sent to an abandoned building. Goblin brutally attacks Parker before being counter-attacked by the latter; Goblin chooses to fool Parker by unmasking himself as Norman Osborn, but Goblin attempts to impale Parker by using his glider. Parker dodges and the glider impales Norman / Goblin, and brings the body to be healed by Norman's butler Bernard Houseman. Harry sees Spider-Man bring the body but the latter escapes, and a week later at Norman's funeral, vows to get vengeance on Spider-Man for allegedly killing Norman. Parker rejects MJ, and recalls Ben's words and fully accepts his responsibility as Spider-Man.

Losing powers and fighting Doctor Octopus

Roughly two years later, Parker struggles to maintain college, Daily Bugle photography, a second job as a pizza delivery boy, and financial issues while serving as Spider-Man. He is fired from his pizza delivery job, and is simultaneously growing distant from Harry and MJ while discovering May is facing foreclosure of her home. As the current CEO of Oscorp, Harry introduces Parker to his idol Dr. Otto Octavius, whose work is being funded by Oscorp, before running a fusion power demonstration with his four mechanical tentacles. The demonstration causes an accident, where Octavius is fused with his tentacles and his wife Rosie is killed, and Parker saves Harry and bystanders as Spider-Man. While Parker and May discuss the latter's foreclosure at a bank, Octavius robs the bank in an attempt to finance a redo of his experiment. Spider-Man manages to rescue the held-hostage May from Octavius despite he getting away with the money.

After discovering MJ has been engaged to Jameson's son John and getting into a fight with a drunken Harry, Parker suffers an emotional breakdown over his inability to balance his life, and gives up the Spider-Man identity after consulting a doctor and losing his powers. Parker succeeds in his studies, begins to make amends with MJ, and reveals to May his role in Ben's death. While he helps May move out of her home, she advises him about the hope Spider-Man gives to the people in spite of the sacrifices he must make. Parker attempts to decrease crime in New York, though his powers remain lost.

MJ invites Parker to a café to discuss whether or not he loves her, but the two are attacked by Octavius, who has formed an alliance with Harry. Octavius captures MJ, whose endangerment leads to Parker regaining his powers; after recovering his Spider-Man suit, Parker battles Octavius and falls into a New York City subway train that is later damaged by Octavius and left out of control. Parker saves the civilians and stops the train, but feels exhausted; the passengers see Spider-Man unmasked and protect the unconscious Parker from Octavius. Octavius eventually captures Parker and delivers him to Harry, who unmasks the latter; Parker confronts Harry and returns to stop Octavius' fusion reactor and save MJ. During the battle, Parker unmasks himself to Octavius, ^[c] who regains control from his tentacles and sacrifices himself to stop the reactor. MJ, having seen Parker unmasked, leaves John at her wedding and encourages Parker to help the police stop a crime.

Bonding with Venom and fighting Sandman

By a year later, Parker is successful and financially stable in both his personal life and as Spider-Man; he and MJ are happily dating, and spend some time at Central Park. He talks with May about proposing to MJ, to which she gives him the engagement ring Ben gave her, and he is is attacked by Harry; in the year since learning Parker's identity, Harry has begun to utilize the Goblin serum and Norman's equipment and as such uses them against Parker in their battle; Parker sets a trap that ultimately knocks Harry unconscious and with a case of amnesia. Parker discovers that his rival freelance Bugle photographer, Eddie Brock, has also begun taking pictures of Spider-Man, as well as a ceremony hosted by Gwen Stacy, whom Spider-Man saved and is also Parker's college lab partner, to give the latter the key to the city; during the ceremony, Parker kisses Stacy as Spider-Man, which angers MJ.

The police inform Parker and May that Ben's real killer was Flint Marko, not the burglar as previously believed for the past three years; Parker develops a vendetta against Marko and unconsciously bonds with an extraterrestrial symbiote. Using the symbiote's amplified powers, Spider-Man battles Marko and seemingly kills him, and a regained-consciousness Harry blackmails MJ into breaking up with Parker. Parker confronts Harry and shoots a pumpkin bomb at his face, exposes Brock's fake Spider-Man pictures, and begins to act more arrogantly. He takes Stacy to a jazz club, interrupts MJ's performance, and inadvertently hits her; seeing her horrified, Parker leaves the club and utilizes church bells to remove the symbiote suit.

After talking with May, Parker sees a news broadcast of Marko (as the Sandman) and Brock (who has become Venom) capturing MJ and dangling her from a construction site; Parker goes to Harry for help to no avail, and goes there alone in his original red-and-blue suit. He barely manages to fight Sandman and Venom until Harry, having learned the truth of Norman's death, rescues them and the two fight the enemies. Venom prepares to stab a captured Parker using two poles but Harry stands between them and suffers a major injury. Parker throws a pumpkin bomb at Venom, which Brock steps inside of, killing them both. Parker forgives Marko for Ben's death, which was said to be an accident, and swings to the injured Harry, tended to by MJ. Harry dies and after his funeral, Parker and MJ begin to repair their relationship, which remains complicated but was eventually worked out years later.

Entering an alternate reality

22 years later, ^[19] a 43-year-old Parker is transported to an alternate reality, along with pre-death Octavius and Norman, ^[c] as well as Marko. Parker begins searching for this universe's counterpart of him (later nicknamed " Peter-One") and is brought to Ned Leeds' grandmother's house via a portal the next day. He and an alternate version of himself, later nicknamed " Peter-Three", share stories of their deceased loved ones–such as Uncle Ben and Peter-Three's Gwen Stacy–to Peter-One, whose aunt May was killed by Green Goblin. Parker tells Peter-One to fight in May's honor, and together, the Spider-Men work in creating cures for Marko, the Lizard, Max Dillon, and Norman. The other Parkers nickname Parker "Peter-Two", and converse about Parker's organic webbing at the Statue of Liberty; Parker iterates the webbing is a natural thing that happens and Peter-Three expresses that he wants to see the holes. They also bond over the craziest villains they have fought, with Parker awed by the fantastical nature that Peter-One fought an alien in space. Parker describes this as a second chance and he and Peter-Three hope to team up again. ^[42]

Once Marko, Lizard, and Dillon arrive to the Statue of Liberty, the Spider-Men cure them with the help of Octavius, whom Parker reunites with. Goblin eventually attacks and destroys a contained spell from its original caster Doctor Strange–which originally transported Parker, Peter-Three and the villains to Peter-One's universe–causing the barrier between universes to break. Parker saves Octavius, Dillon, and Lizard while an enraged Peter-One nearly kills the Goblin. Parker stops Peter-One from stabbing Goblin with the Goblin Glider, but he himself is stabbed by Goblin. Peter-Three helps the injured Parker before they are returned to their universes.

In other media

Television

After the success of Raimi's first film, a CGI animated series/spin-off was released in 2003, starring Neil Patrick Harris as the titular protagonist. This series served as a loose alternate continuation to the first Spider-Man film and was considerably darker, grittier, adult-oriented, and mature in tone and direction, compared to other Spider-Man adaptations. It received a generally positive reception from critics and audiences. ^{[43] [44]}

Film

At one point, the writers of the Sony Pictures Animation film Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse (2018) wished to include a post-credits scene with cameos by Maguire, Garfield, and Holland, but this was cut as Sony felt such a moment at the time was too risky and would prove confusing. ^[45]

Video games

• The video game adaptations of Spider-Man, Spider-Man 2, and Spider-Man 3 all feature Tobey Maguire reprising his role as Parker in a vocal capacity. The trilogy of video games found their existence through a collaborative effort between (at the time) small-time video game publisher Activision and developer Treyarch. The first and second installments were met with favorable reviews by a large consumer base, earned upon each of their respective releases, with 2004's Spider-Man 2 garnering great success upon its arrival "with the PlayStation 2 version becoming the seventh-best-selling title of the year in the U.S.". The third installment of the video game trilogy did not live to the expectations of its predecessors, much like its film counterpart, as the game was met with lackluster reviews, leaving much to be desired about the title, although the Nintendo DS version received more positive reviews. ^[46]
• The Spider symbol from Spider-Man 2 is used on Spider-Man's chest in Marvel: Ultimate Alliance and Marvel: Ultimate Alliance 2. ^[47]
• This version of Peter Parker appears in Spider-Man: Friend or Foe, voiced by James Arnold Taylor. In an alternate timeline where all of his villains survived their original deaths, Spider-Man is recruited by S.H.I.E.L.D. director Nick Fury to travel to different locations around the world to recover shards from the meteor the Venom symbiote arrived in, before they fall into the wrong hands. Along the way, he faces old and new enemies who have been placed under mind-control, and subsequently teams up with them, as well as with other heroes.
• Parker's suit from the trilogy is available as a bonus suit as part of the Rhino Challenge Pack DLC in The Amazing Spider-Man film game. The black suit from Spider-Man 3 is also available in-game and is unlocked if certain requirements are met, or can be immediately unlocked by taking photos of hidden spider graffiti in the city.
• Parker's suit from the trilogy is available as an alternate costume in the 2018 video game Spider-Man (2018), initially developed for the PlayStation 4 by Insomniac Games. It is named the Webbed Suit. The suit is also available in the PlayStation 5 game Spider-Man 2 (2023).

Literature

• Peter David wrote novelizations for all the films in Raimi's trilogy, expanding upon scenes and additional elements not seen or mentioned in the films. Parker's childhood is also further explored than the films, showing that his parents died in a plane crash (orchestrated by Red Skull) and he was then adopted by uncle Ben and aunt May after being delivered to their home by social worker Mrs. Jennings. ^[d]
• The Raimi trilogy version of Spider-Man appears in the comics Spider-Man 3: Movie Prequel, which follows Peter Parker and Flint Marko before the events of the film; and Spider-Man 3: The Black, which expands the birth of Venom after Parker rejects the symbiote. Both were published in 2007, and Movie Prequel depicts Ben and May adopting Parker similarly to that of the 2002 Spider-Man novelization. ^[51]
• Maguire's Parker is referenced in the Marvel Comics event Spider-Verse (2014), which features various alternate versions of the comics Spider-Man, in which the character is described as "look[ing] just like the guy from Seabiscuit." Garfield's version of Spider-Man is also referenced. ^[52]

Reception and legacy

Maguire's portrayal of the character has received a largely positive critical reception. The actor's performance and portrayal of Spider-Man, along with Sam Raimi's characterization of the character, was subject to much of the praise towards Sam Raimi's Spider-Man film trilogy; being cited as true to the Spider-Man mythos as through obtaining most of the socially-inept, awkward and nerdy aspects of the character's personality, along with his witty sense of humor and cheesy one-liners, underlying humanity, internal conflicts, relatability and struggles with his dual alter-ego and his normal life, praising the well-rounded, character-driven and faithful take on the titular character.

The casting, mainly Tobey Maguire, Willem Dafoe and J. K. Simmons, is often cited as one of the film's high points. Eric Harrison, of the Houston Chronicle, was initially skeptical of the casting of Maguire, but after seeing the film he stated, "it becomes difficult to imagine anyone else in the role." ^[54] USA Today critic Mike Clark believed the casting rivaled that of Christopher Reeve as 1978's Superman. ^[55] Owen Gleiberman, of Entertainment Weekly, had mixed feelings about the casting, particularly Tobey Maguire. "Maguire, winning as he is, never quite gets the chance to bring the two sides of Spidey—the boy and the man, the romantic and the avenger—together." ^[56] The Hollywood Reporter's Kirk Honeycutt thought: "the filmmakers' imaginations work in overdrive from the clever design of the cobwebby opening credits and Spider-Man and M.J.'s upside down kiss—after one of his many rescues of her—to a finale that leaves character relationships open ended for future adventures." ^[57]

LA Weekly's Manohla Dargis wrote, "It isn't that Spider-Man is inherently unsuited for live-action translation; it's just that he's not particularly interesting or, well, animated." ^[58] Giving it two and a half stars out of four, Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times felt that the film lacked a decent action element: "Consider the scene where Spider-Man is given a cruel choice between saving Mary Jane or a cable car full of school kids. He tries to save both, so that everyone dangles from webbing that seems about to pull loose. The visuals here could have given an impression of the enormous weights and tensions involved, but instead the scene seems more like a bloodless storyboard of the idea." ^[59]

Legacy

In December 2017, Into the Spider-Verse producers Phil Lord and Christopher Miller said that an adult Peter Parker / Spider-Man would appear in the film as a mentor to the film's main protagonist, Miles Morales. ^[60] Maguire was initially considered to be cast as this version of Spider-Man, but the idea was dropped so as not to confuse the audience with the concept of the " Spider-Verse". ^[61] Jake Johnson was ultimately cast in the role in April 2018. ^[62] Peter B. Parker is intended to be an amalgamation of all pop culture Spider-Man adaptations and interpretations. ^[63]

Internet memes

Several^{[ who?]} have criticized Maguire's acting when he is possessed by the Venom symbiote in Spider-Man 3, particularly a scene in which he dances that has been described as "infamous". ^{[64] [65] [66]} The possessed Peter has been nicknamed "Emo Peter" or "Bully Maguire" by fans and his scenes have become a popular internet meme. ^{[67] [68]}

Accolades

Future

Following the appearance of Maguire's Parker in No Way Home, a fan campaign has been trending on Twitter under the name #MakeRaimiSpiderMan4, calling for Sony to make a fourth film in the Spider-Man series directed by Raimi with Maguire and Kristen Dunst. ^[75] Raimi later expressed interest in doing so in April 2022, noting that another sequel to his Spider-Man trilogy was possible after the introduction of the multiverse in No Way Home and his MCU film Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness (2022). ^{[76] [77]} He stated the next month that he had no plans to direct Spider-Man 4, but would do so if offered the opportunity to direct a story he approved of. ^{[78] [79]}

See also

• Spider-Man in film

Notes

References

External links

• Peter Parker on Marvel Database, a Marvel Comics wiki
• Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man on the Marvel Cinematic Universe Wiki