With great power, comes great responsibility. But Spider-Man’s greatest responsibility has nothing to do with saving busloads of tourists – it’s matching up to the other hundred odd Spider-Men that all wear the same suit. Since he first arrived in comic form in the 1960s, Spidey has turned up in films, TV shows, cartoons, games, theme park rides and one really shit Broadway musical written by U2.
He’s been Peter Parker, he’s been Miles Morales. A boy, a zombie, a LEGO minifigure and a talking pig. With Spider-Man: Across The Spider-Verse now throwing even more web-heads into the mix, it’s time to rank the 10 best Spider-Men (so far)…
10. Nicholas Hammond
What he’s been in: Spider-Man (1977), Spider-Man Strikes Back (1978), Spider-Man: The Dragon’s Challenge (1981)
Next time you watch The Sound Of Music, look out for Nicholas Hammond as the second-eldest Von Trapp kid – then only a few years out from swapping his lederhosen for Lycra as history’s first live-action Spider-Man. The TV show ran for two years but is best remembered for being re-edited into three separate movies – all showing off Hammond’s over-earnest, slightly cocky, annoyingly smart take on Peter Parker. Deserves credit for inspiring the look of the ’90s cartoon, as well as for giving Spidey his funkiest theme tune.
9. Shinji Todō
What he’s been in: Spider-Man (1978-1979)
When the Japanese Toei Company bought the rights to Spider-Man from Marvel in the ’70s, a few things might have gotten slightly lost in translation. The red-and-blue suit looks kind of the same, but that’s about where the similarities end. The hero here is Takuya Yamashiro, a hotshot motorbike racer who finds a crashed UFO and gets injected with the blood of an alien from Planet Spider. One episode in, he’s summoning a giant transformer and driving a flying car into a load of magic lizard men. Disney are cowards for not going there.
8. Nicolas Cage
What he’s been in: Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse (2018)
Renaming himself after Luke Cage, calling his son Kal-El, and once having a priceless copy of Action Comics #1 stolen from his mansion, Nicolas Cage might be Hollywood’s biggest superhero fan. Perfect, then, to play the oddest/coolest animated version of Spidey. More Batman than Spider-Man, Cage’s character is an old-school, hard-boiled Nazi-bashing detective (who also still shoots string out of his wrists…) from a black and white 1930s corner of the Spider-Verse. The best alt-spid of many in the recent films, a full live-action Spider-Man Noir series is now in the works.
7. Jake Johnson
What he’s been in: Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse (2018), Spider-Man: Across The Spider-Verse (2023)
Being Spider-Man isn’t something anyone wants to still be doing in their forties. Mostly that’s because it’s really hard on the knees, but it’s also because superheroes are forced to sacrifice all their own happiness; ending up divorced, alone, and obsessed with the mating habits of seahorses. So goes Jake Johnson’s middle-aged Peter Parker who we first meet in Into The Spider-Verse, returning for the sequel as a happily married dad who feels no less keen on letting Miles do all the cardio. This is a Spidey for anyone who aches a bit when they get out of their cinema seat.
6. Paul Soles
What he’s been in: Spider-Man (1967-1970)
There’s a dark timeline somewhere out there where the ’60s Spider-Man cartoon never happened. Where Spidey never got his classic surf rock theme song (and where everyone from the Ramones to Homer Simpson never covered it). Where everyone’s favourite “hey! those two things are the same!” meme never got made. Paul Soles’ Saturday morning ‘toon also carried over a lot of the fun of the original comics (see the episode where he fights pirates using a sword made out of webs) and helped set the weird, wacky tone for many a Spidey to come.
5. Christopher Daniel Barnes
What he’s been in: Spider-Man: The Animated Series (1994-1998)
Jump deep enough into the rabbit hole of the MCU multiverse and you’ll eventually reach the last two episodes of the ’90s Spider-Man cartoon – the first time Peter Parker crossed multiple dimensions and the root of everything great that’s happened to the character since. But you’ll also find a hero who feels most like he’s just swung out of the pages of the comics. Sixty-five episodes gave plenty of room for expansion (spanning multiverses, fighting the X-Men, introducing Venom), the real thrill was in watching a show that gave as much time to Peter as it did to Spidey.
4. Andrew Garfield
What he’s been in: The Amazing Spider-Man (2012), The Amazing Spider-Man 2 (2014)
The only thing that lets Andrew Garfield down is the films he’s in. Forget the shonky set pieces, bad script and derailing off-screen drama; the man in the suit between 2012 and 2014 was genuinely an amazing Spider-Man. Arguably the most talented actor that’s played the role, Garfield nails the balance of tragic comedy, odd gawkiness, old-school romance and sk8er boi action while looking like he’s genuinely happy to be doing it. And then he goes and fights a Welsh lizard man that looks like he was drawn on a PS2…
3. Shameik Moore
What he’s been in: Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse (2018), Spider-Man: Across The Spider-Verse (2023)
Two films in, we’ve already forgotten about Peter Parker. Some of the credit for Miles Morales belongs to Nadji Jeter’s top-notch voice and mo-cap work in the recent PlayStation games, but the character belongs to Shameik Moore. More emotionally open, less obsessed with solving everything with science, and packing a much more interesting back-story, Miles feels like Peter 2.0. It also doesn’t hurt that he’s been in two of the best Spider-Man movies ever made.
2. Tom Holland
What he’s been in: Captain America: Civil War (2016), Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017), Avengers: Infinity War (2018), Avengers: Endgame (2019), Spider-Man: Far From Home (2019), Spider-Man: No Way Home (2021)
The most convincing teenager of the lot, Tom Holland’s MCU Spider-Man is the one that feels the most likeable. It’s a shame Holland never got the origin story that all the others got as his high school days were the most convincing of the lot (even if he did go to school with Zendaya). More grounded than most, the friendliest of neighbourhood Spider-Men also got the biggest blockbuster set-pieces – and the biggest blockbuster box-office – making Tom Holland’s web-head feel the most definitive. Almost.
1. Tobey Maguire
What he’s been in: Spider-Man (2002), Spider-Man 2 (2004), Spider-Man 3 (2007)
Before we had the MCU, we had Sam Raimi’s trilogy. Now officially sort-of part of the new Spider-Verse, it’s more obvious than ever how much we lost when Tobey Maguire hung up his Lycra in 2007. The geekiest and most believable of all the Peter Parkers, it was never not obvious that Spider-Man was just a clumsy, bullied kid in a costume – even when he was rendered in wobbly noughties CGI (and even if he was 32-years-old by the end). He gets one of the best set-pieces (the train bit in Spider-Man 2), the best kiss (upside down in S-M 1) and by far the best soundtrack (Sum 41, Alien Ant Farm, The Strokes).
