I’ve never been a Spider-Man guy…for all the comics I read as a kid, never bought Spidey, liked the movies fine but nothing special, although I did love the cartoon as a kid.
..but for me Spider-man in high school is the perfect distillation of what the character represents. Stan Lee always said he was made to be their every man superhero who deals with the kind of problems the reader does….and for a character thats one of the best superhero role models, in terms of prioritizing responsibility, community, showing that things won‘t always go perfect, picking yourself up when you get knocked down, not having to be the biggest/strongest etc etc…a high school version of the character is going to connect best with the audience it’s meant for.
Brian Michael Bendis who wrote some of the more iconic Daredevil storylines, wrote what for a generation after ours was largely considered the definitive run….Ultimate Spider-man. (Breaking Stan Lee & Jack Kirby’s record for longest run on a Marvel comic)…..and the whole series took place with Spidey in high school.
So for that version of Spider-man, that allows kids to transpose themselves onto the big screen….while seeing the kinds of issues they deal with in school, while also being a Superhero? That’s pretty tough to beat, imo….and Holland as that Spidey is flawless, and blows the other two dorks out of the water. (Imo).
I agree, as kid Spidey, Holland is good. But he’s a short guy, and short guys will always sort of just look like they’re still kids. Like Elijah Wood, like Harry Potter, those types of dudes. So if the Spidey movies want to just stay in high school, Holland is fine. But my criticism is more about the films themselves - enough kid Spidey. We’ve had 10+ movies of that.
I was always a huge Spidey fan, loved the cartoons and loved the comics even more. But in the comics he sort of grows up quick. And once the 80s came around (which was my starting point), the comics got darker, a bit edgier. I think there was this period from the early 200 issues to 300 where there was a long running story about the Hobgoblin and who he really was because there were lots of suspects from his circle, and a mob murder mystery storyline that weaved through it with the Rose and the Kingpin. It’s still probably the best Spidey run for my money. And Peter ain’t no kid during it. He’s an adult dealing with adult issues, and not school trips.
They need to ratchet up Spidey into a more serious character. They’ve only pushed the always unlucky kid and clowny dumdum Spidey persona in the movies (I mean, Tony Stark’s little bitch, what an insult). But he’s got adult love life issues, money problems, deaths that haunt him, and the dude is a scientist who is outsmarting the villains while chatting them up. I just don’t think they’ve captured the essence of Spidey beyond the high school version.
But it’s across all media. Even the comic books have been just trash for at least a decade or two and have gone towards the movies, rather than continue in their direction. And the cartoons are literally only for kids age 5 and under. So it’s probably not changing any time soon until some Chris Nolan type steps in and says step aside and let me take this character to the next level.