Happy Homecoming, Spidey (Lamb)

## Introduction

*“With great power comes great responsibility.”*

*-Uncle Ben*

Spider-Man―from his first debut in 1962 to present day―is the literal heart of Marvel Comics. Created by Stan Lee  and Steve Ditko , Spider-Man is the hero of his own story despite his young age, one of the few teenage superheroes to passed on the typical sidekick shtick.

As most already know the backstory pertaining to the famed Webhead, when bitten by a radioactive spider, Peter Parker developed spectacular arachnid powers that drove him to fight crime in order to help others while vowing to never use his new-found abilities for personal gain. A science prodigy, freelance photographer, nerd, weakling and perpetual loser, Peter Parker is everything Spider-Man isn’t. Frequently described as “your friendly neighborhood Spider-Man,” the wise-cracking, smart-aleck adolescent superhero is someone who is never short of a clever quip and can admire the grin-jerking irony of his seemingly endless predicaments.

There have been over 50 years of Spider-Man comics―majority taking place across the two universes known as the Ultimate and 616―and almost as many movies. In the past 15 years, there have been as many Hollywood actors donning the trademark web-patterned mask as there have been presidents inhabiting the Oval Office. At the start of the twenty-first century, Tobey Maguire took up the web-shooting, wall-crawling mantle for three pretty successful, well-received movies. The trilogy was most remembered for its classic upside-down kiss with Mary Jane, the scenes of Spider-Man swinging through New York for the first time, and Alfred Molina’s incredibly riveting performance of Doctor Octopus. However, while Maguire’s alteration of Peter Parker was rather spot-on, his Spider-Man was, for the most part, dull and utterly lackluster when compared side-by-side to the lively and extremely rambunctious Spider-Man seen in the comics. Overall, the movies were great up until last installment Maguire’s Spidey-flicks; the third movie that literally no one wanted to see (even Aunt May looked as if she knew it was a bad idea).

Next came Andrew Garfield, the second installment in the twenty-first century to model the web-shooters for two more films. While the execution of these movies wasn’t as amazing as the title promised, Garfield’s portrayal of Spider-Man was noticeably more believable and accurate, as he was funny, sarcastic, and quick with the one-liners. Good Spider-Man? Yes. Good Peter Parker? Well, no. Not so much a loser-nerd as he was a troubled-lone-wolf, Garfield’s Peter Parker had a skateboard, a heavy load of teenage-angst, a vintage camera, and a very front-and-center hipster-vibe that made the character a little “too cool for school”. The movies really sparked to mind what Douglas Rushkoff said: “Just when it appears that a new medium is going to replace its predecessor, we tend to figure out the true value of the older,”

.

The final reboot of the Web-Slinger came in 2016 in the form of Tom Holland. The young British actor became the new Spidey and was fully established in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) . As the saying goes, the third time’s the charm as Holland’s Spider-Man took on an entirely new take of the spider-like superhero―energetic, go-getting, and eager to please, this Spider-Man is hungry for the approval of Tony Stark, his idol and hero, and a place amongst the Avengers. In Homecoming, Holland’s Peter is awkward and has a tendency of babbling uncontrollably; he wears dorky T-shirts, gets tongue-tied when talking to his crush, and hangs out with his friend (singular) to build Lego Death Stars. He is the very essence of a high school nerd while his Spider-Man is fast, resourceful, cracks jokes like no one’s business and taunts baddies like his life depends on it. Also, the heroism, intrepidity, and resolve to do the right thing, the aspects that make Spider-Man who he is, is prominent in every shot, scene, and line delivered.

## Remediation

*“You're the Spider-Man, from YouTube!"*

*-Ned Leeds (Homecoming)*

### **Fan Art**

Different people have been able to fabricate multiple remediations of Spider-Man, and not just in terms of literature, but in the form of art, as well. This drawing of Spider-Man's homemade suit, before receiving Tony Stark's wicked upgrade, created by NakedMazaFaker on deviantart.com, refers to Peter's resourceful quirkiness and just what he had to work with in the beginning stages of his hero-career. In Captain America: Civil War, Parker told Stark that he made and designed his own web-shooters and his own costume for patrolling. We see this version of the spider-suit a few times in Homecoming, mostly toward the end after his high-tech suit is confiscated, so this piece of artwork really captures the time before Ironman took Peter under his wing and became his mentor of sorts. This piece of artwork also really helps present Peter as this young teenager who’s still trying to figure out his superpowers while struggling to handle his other responsibilities at home and school.

### **Fan Animation**

There have been several fan-made videos that have been associated with Homecoming content. One of the more popular videos was created by a YouTuber who went by the username LHUGUENY. This particular fan has already made several Marvel and DC related parody songs in addition to the one the left.

### **Archive of Our Own**

Over the years, fans have remediated the different versions of Spider-Man in a surprising number of ways. One of the most popular and well-reviewed methods, besides art-work, is fan fiction. There are almost over 8 thousand different pieces of fan-fiction concerning Tom Holland's Spider-Man, and that's a lot of fics considering how new the movie is. Similar to FanFiction.net, Archive of Our Own (or, AO3) is "a nonprofit open source repository for fan-fiction (fic) and other fan-works contributed by users". When I searched the most liked (or, rather "Kudo"ed) work for Homecoming, the username grilledcheesing popped up. This writer normally fabricated short fics pertaining around 10 thousand words or less, and most were in-depth stories concerning the relationship of Tony Stark and Peter Parker. Grilledcheesing has currently written 11 fics for Spider-Man: Homecoming and because of the strong bond they depict in their writing between both Parker and Stark, it makes me wonder if maybe they wish there were more bonding moments for them in the movies.

## Interpretation Disputes

*"I'm not obsessed with him, I'm just observant."*

*-Michelle (Homecoming)*

Interpretive discussions take root on account of the multiple diverse evaluations that refer to certain differing ambiguities. There are several issues of eminent debate in the Spider-Man community in regard to the new actor wearing the mask, and these wide-eyed online communities help assist the numerous ongoing disputes. Anyone with access to the internet can voice their opinions simply by writing or posting on a blog, booting up a fan club, or by merely commenting on another person's blog, video, and post. This is one of the bigger arguments concerning Spider-Man: Homecoming that has spawned all kinds of online uproar across the web (and this is not the first time, either).

### **Who Is the Best Spider-Man?**

Since the first reboot of Spider-Man in 2012, a solid decade after the first Maguire film, starring Andrew Garfield, Maguire fans have held his new replacement in a rather resentful light. Nobody likes change, as the saying goes, and, just when things were calming down, came Tom Holland. However, a majority of fans were very satisfied with Holland’s overall performance. Still, it's impossible to please everyone, so, of course, some fans thought otherwise. According to www.ranker.com, against the new popular opinion, “Tom Holland is an amazing Spider-Man but he isn't the Amazing Spider-Man. Andrew Garfield is the best Spider-Man. He just is."

There are enthusiasts who will strongly affirm that―despite all of the changes made to the authorization, franchise, etc.―Tobey Maguire’s Spider-Man is, and will forever remain, the best because of all his iconic moments. Others spark the argument that Andrew Garfield’s interpretation while lacking in some aspects of the character, was the best version of the superhero, and that Maguire's Peter Park was the best. And then there are the fans who swear up and down that Tom Holland is the best in every area―the ideal version of the Wall-crawler. This was somewhat pointed out on Reddit.com, titled: "[Serious] Why did everyone hate "The Amazing Spider-Man" with Andrew Garfield?" by Nejfelt: "Garfield was a great Spider-Man, but a poor Peter Parker. Maguire was a good Spider-Man and a good Peter Parker. Holland, for the little we have seen him, has been a great Spider-Man, and a great Peter Parker. The issues with Amazing 1 & 2 have more to do with the storylines, lackluster villains, and the convoluted mess they present, than with Garfield."

### **Haters:**

For the majority of movie-watchers, Spider-Man: Homecoming Tom Holland effectively captured both sides of Peter Parker—the ambitious, intelligent, socially-awkward high schooler who wants to do the right thing and the fast-talking, never-short-of-a-sassy-comment Wall-crawler—in every way possible. Nevertheless, Homecoming received some hate when it was first released in 2016, mainly due to the fact that it was the sixth Spider-Man movie in fifteen years, and fifteen years is definitely enough time to form unyielding attachments to certain actors and their own individual portrayals of the superhero. While some were overjoyed about the Sony-Marvel contract, others were frustrated because a new universe (the MCU) means a new Spider-Man (again).

### **Spider-Man, from dust to…?**

*Peter Parker: Mr. Stark? I don’t feel so good…*

*Tony Stark: You’re all right.*

*Peter Parker: I don’t… I don’t know what’s happening. I don’t know… I don’t want to go. I don’t want to go, sir. Please. Please, I don’t want to go. I don’t want to go. I’m sorry. (Peter disappears).*

  In a “Wired World” the lines of what we know and what we think we know become blurred and slippery. Online, Marvel Studio notably has less power when it comes to withholding their secrets from people who wish to spoil them for others. And because of this fact, Kevin Feige , the president of Marvel Studios, has become rather notorious for the stern non-disclosure agreements Marvel makes everyone sign when they are involved with their movies. Literally, it doesn’t matter how much or how little that person knows because they are not allowed to reveal anything, not even the tiniest bit of information (unless Kevin Feige gives them permission).

 Avengers: Infinity War was said to be the finale that concludes almost over a decade of MCU films — from Iron Man (2008) to Black Panther (2018), all connected and drawn together to form one amazing movie that left its audience either blubbering in their seats (if you were me), crying out in outrage at the massive cliffhanger, mentally analyzing what this means for the next series of blockbusters still on the way, or a combination of all three.

And after ten years building up Thanos’s big arrival, the countless fans who grew up watching the movies knew there was going to be some serious consequences that reaped with his appearance: heroes were expected to die. And boy, they did.

 With the mass genocide of half the universe that left a hefty portion of Avengers as nothing more than ashes, if you are as obsessed with these characters as I am, this event was pretty traumatic. Such as the moment Thanos snapped his fingers and made millions of MCU characters dissolve to dust as easily as, well, as easily as the snap of your own fingers. Heartbreaking, like a kick to the gut, and Spider-Man’s (Holland) final words left virtually all moviegoers even more stunned and emotional shook. But even as the credits were rolling, I knew Peter Parker couldn’t have actually died. After all the hoops Marvel had to jump through in order to obtain the rights to the beloved web-slinging crimefighter, they wouldn’t just kill him off like that. And besides, in the contract drawn up between them and Sony, there was a promise of a sequel to follow Homecoming. What? Are they going to cast a fourth Spider-Man? I didn’t think so, and either did the fans.

Even before the debut of Spider-Man, the MCU already had a pretty huge online community, its presence evidence to Ong’s own statement "reading public". There are hundreds of different web pages that have been created for the MCU by fans and diehard moviegoers where a variety of people(s) post theories they have concerning future and current movies, discharged information, the contracts regarding the main cast, and even their [characters] personal lives. In Spoiling Survivor, Henry Jenkins’s discusses ‘knowledge culture’ and ‘collective intelligence’ . Simply put, “No one knows everything, but everyone knows something.” What this means is that the virtual community for this ‘text’ has enough knowledge and expertise divided amongst its members to put what they know together and figure out what is most likely to happen in post-Infinity War movies. For example, Whateveraspidercan.com, one of the numerous online fan-pages linked to the MCU’s Spider-Man, stated as a fact that “Spider-Man will be back for more action in the MCU…”

 And this statement is not just theory because in February 2015, when the Marvel-Sony deal brought Spider-Man back home into the MCU―they somewhat spoiled the mystery and diehard curiosity of Infinity War and what comes next. The problem? Spider-Man was one of the multiple heroes who died in the cliffhanger ending, but he’s already set for second Spider-Man movie? Yes. Despite Marvel’s best efforts in trying to convince people that the webhead is actually dead―dust, ashes―it was impossible to persuade fans in the end because Amy Pascal, the chairperson of Sony, already confirmed Spider-Man: Far From Home (the second movie) is set just minutes after Avengers 4. So basically, Spider-Man will rise from the dead (and so will the other Avengers as well).

## Additional Links

Spider-Man: Homecoming Wikia

Spider-Man: Homecoming Forum

Spider-Man: Homecoming Reddit

## References

1. ↑ Stan Lee Wikia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stan\_Lee
2. ↑ Steve Ditko Wikia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steve\_Ditko
3. ↑ Rushkoff, Douglas. A computer ate my book. Course Readings. HUM 211
4. ↑ Tom Holland Wikia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tom\_Holland\_(actor)
5. ↑ Marvel Cinematic Universe Wikia:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marvel\_Cinematic\_Universe
6. ↑ NakedMazaFaker artwork: https://www.deviantart.com/nakedmazafaker/art/SPIDER-MAN-HOMECOMING-692493184
7. ↑ LHUGUENY Youtube channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCiha1h9wDB6MBXQKtttqHUg
8. ↑ Archive of Our Own (AO3) Home-Page: https://archiveofourown.org
9. ↑ Archive of Our Own (AO3) Wikia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Archive\_of\_Our\_Own
10. ↑ Here's Why Andrew Garfield Was A Better Spider-Man Than Tobey Maguire And Tom Holland. https://www.ranker.com/list/andrew-garfield-was-the-best-spider-man/zack-howe
11. ↑ Kevin Feige Wikia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kevin\_Feige
12. ↑ Ong, Walter. Writing Restructures Consciousness. Course Readings. HUM 211
13. ↑ Jenkins, Henry. Spoiling Survivor. Course Readings. HUM 211