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Spider-Man: No Way Home is out now in cinemas. If you have not been living in a cave for the last year (and if you have, spoilers ahead), you will know that the film brings together all three of the big screen Peter Parkers (Peters Parker?) – Tom Holland, Andrew Garfield and Tobey Maguire.
Putting two decades worth of Spider-Men together, of course, will lead long-term franchise fans to start pitting them against each other, in order to decide who the best cinematic Peter Parker is based on their performance in No Way Home.
All three have points to recommend them. Tobey Maguire gave the OG performance that the other two built off of. Andrew Garfield is probably the best actor overall out of the three. Tom Holland is the only one who is believably a teenager.
(And, of course, fans could choose chaos and choose any of the Into the Spider-Verse as their favorite Spider-Man, but we will not get into that and make things even more contentious.)
With the competition for the best live-action Spider-Man so stiff, three of Newsweek's writers are here to make a case for which Peter Parker comes out of No Way Home the best.
Tom Holland leaves the others in the spider-dust
Although he faced stiff competition from Spider-Men of old, placing Tom Holland directly next to Andrew Garfield and Tobey Maguire reaffirmed many people's belief that it was third time lucky when casting the perfect Peter Parker.
Holland's acting range is on full display in Spider-Man: No Way Home as he deals with genuine tragedy pretty much throughout. His comedic abilities shine too, not only as the deliverer of punchlines and quips, but he often plays the straight man which allows MJ (Zendaya) and Ned (Jacob Batalon) to showcase their own talents too.
Most importantly, he still seems like an age-appropriate Peter Parker. Even though he's now completed his own trilogy, Holland is younger than both Garfield and Maguire when they started theirs. He's still seems like a fresh-faced high schooler but after five MCU movie appearances, he's an experienced superhero who has learned from his mistakes, as is shown with his final world-saving decision in Spider-Man: No Way Home.
– Jamie Burton
Andrew Garfield is the under-rated underdog
Of all three Spider-Men, Andrew Garfield's Peter Parker has the least enduring legacy. Sam Raimi's films with Tobey Maguire are, to this day, heralded as some of the best superhero flicks of all time, while Tom Holland's iteration of the character firmly has his place in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU). But, even if this is the case, in No Way Home Garfield is the clear stand-out.
His version of Parker is a lot darker than Maguire or Holland; he's wracked with guilt over Gwen Stacey's (Emma Stone) death and a lot more emotionally vulnerable than either of his counterparts. Garfield himself acts the heck out of his scenes, and his raw take on Parker adds emotional heft to the film. He reminds audiences why his iteration of the character was so strong, even if The Amazing Spider-Man films weren't always as powerful. If anything, Garfield's stellar performance in No Way Home redeems his era in the role, and it's a shame this is the last time we'll see him in it.
– Roxy Simons
Tobey Maguire proves that the original is always better than the sequel
Though some might (incorrectly) argue that the Holland trilogy is the best spider-run, Maguire's three runs as Peter Parker are the consensus choice for for the best Spider-Man movies. No Way Home in many ways proves that Maguire's run was the best – all of its best moments are the ones it takes from the Sam Raimi films, and there's a reason why the two villains who get the most screen-time are the ones taken from Spider-Man and Spider-Man 2.
But Maguire here does not just rely on past glories. He gives the kind of performance that makes you sad he has not appeared on-screen in a movie since 2014. In some ways, his character has an advantage by being the oldest – this is a Spider-Man whose heroics have ravaged his body, and has probably seen more friends die than he would care to remember. And Maguire's more sombre take on the character conveys all of that.
Maguire might not have got the best send-off thanks to Spider-Man 3, but now Marvel and Sony have finally righted that wrong and said goodbye to the original Peter Parker properly.
– Samuel Spencer
