Summary
- Tobey Maguire’s Spider-Man uses organic web shooters, making him more interesting compared to other versions.
- Peter Parker’s struggle to maintain his identity as Spider-Man in Spider-Man 2 begs scientific questions about his powers.
- Peter Parker’s high-quality homemade Spider-Man suit and inconsistent use of Spider Sense present notable inconsistencies.
Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man deserves a lot of credit for establishing the popularity of the superhero genre in live-action, but Tobey Maguire’s version of Peter Parker isn’t without his inconsistencies. Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man trilogy broke new ground in the superhero genre ever since it began back in 2002, forever altering the cinematic landscape with its success. While Tobey Maguire’s version of Peter Parker is still fondly remembered by many, the interpretation was still prone to puzzling choices.
None of the widely-released Spider-Man movies are without their faults, but the plot holes of the Raimi films have a particular impact on Peter Parker’s character. Some elements of his life as Spider-Man still raise some absurd questions, both in his characterization and how he interacts with the world. None of these faults ruin the performance by any means, but do present a bumps for returning audiences to contend with should they wish to revisit the films with a more critical eye.
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10 Spider-Man Should Be Dehydrated For Using His Webs
Spider-Man
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Spider-Man (2002) PG-13ActionAdventureSuperhero Where to Watch
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Release Date May 3, 2002 Studio(s) Marvel , Columbia Pictures Distributor(s) Sony Runtime 121 Minutes Franchise(s) Marvel , Spider-Man
Perhaps one of the most notable differences from Raimi’s Spider-Man and most other iterations of the character is Tobey Maguire’s organic web shooters. In comparison to most Peter Parkers, who build the web shooters themselves to supplement their powers, Tobey Maguire can simply fire spurts of organic webbing straight from an orifice on his wrists. Maguire’s cameo in Spider-Man: No Way Home pokes fun at this, with Andrew Garfield and the MCU characters aghast at Maguire’s ability to fire webbing from his body.
Spider-Man’s powers are expressly scientific in nature, and not magical in the Raimi movies or almost any other interpretation of the character. Thus, the liquid Spider-Man’s body would use to produce so much organic material would have to come from somewhere, meaning Spider-Man should be quite dehydrated after a full day of firing off webs. In all likelihood, Peter Parker would be dangerously dehydrated after shooting just one building-sized length of webbing.
9 Spider-Man Losing His Powers Is Never Adequately Explained
Spider-Man 2
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Spider-Man (2002) PG-13ActionAdventureSuperhero Where to Watch
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Release Date May 3, 2002 Studio(s) Marvel , Columbia Pictures Distributor(s) Sony Runtime 121 Minutes Franchise(s) Marvel , Spider-Man
One of the biggest plot points going into Spider-Man 2 was Peter Parker’s struggle to maintain his identity as Spider-Man while juggling life after high school. Peter struggles with his studies at Colombia University, allows his romance with Mary Jane to crumble, and has a difficult time holding down a job, all thanks to his responsibilities as Spider-Man. Eventually, the stress becomes too much, and his very powers are affected, giving out from sheer stress.
This is a neat way to tie together Peter’s internal struggles with his external ones, but begs a lot of scientific questions as to how exactly Spider-Man’s powers work.
This is a neat way to tie together Peter’s internal struggles with his external ones, but begs a lot of scientific questions as to how exactly Spider-Man’s powers work. Could Peter risk losing them again with future emotional turmoil, or was he simply mentally sabotaging himself from using powers that never went away in the first place. Spider-Man 2 allows this specific subplot to fall by the wayside before a satisfying answer can be given, opening up one more confusing can of worms regarding Spider-Man’s powers.
8 Peter Parker Is Terrible At Hiding His Powers At School
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If there’s one thing Sam Raimi’s movies rarely are, it’s subtle. In Spider-Man‘s case, this would’ve come in handy when it comes to believably concealing Peter Parker’s identity as Spider-Man. But soon after getting his powers in the first movie, Tobey Maguire’s Peter Parker is quick to show off. He famously catches all of Mary Jane’s food on a lunch tray when she slips and falls, and other teens in the high school cafeteria even see him fire a sticky mess of webbing at another tray.
This is far from where the blatant use of supernatural powers ends, including an additional scene where Peter Parker, who previously exhibited zero athleticism, does a standing backflip to avoid a walloping from Flash. Upon seeing Spider-Man on the news, any fellow student at Peter Parker’s high school should’ve easily been able to connect the dots that the kid who literally created a massive web from his bare hands at lunch was indeed Spider-Man. But somehow, no fellow student is able to put the pieces together.
7 Tobey Maguire’s Spider-Man Makes A Goblin Cure Without Any Previous Knowledge
Spider-Man: No Way Home
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Spider-Man: No Way Home PG-13SuperheroActionAdventureFantasy Where to Watch
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For the first time in the cinematic history of Spider-Man, our friendly neighborhood hero is unmasked and no longer able to separate his normal life from the trials and tribulations of being a superhero. In Spider-Man: No Way Home, Peter Parker (Tom Holland) asks for help from Doctor Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch) when his identity becomes a problem for the ones he loves. Unfortunately, when the spell goes wrong, Spider-Man will now have to face off with villains such as Doctor Octopus (Alfred Molina) and Electro (Jamie Foxx) as Peter finally comes to terms that he can’t run from being Spider-Man. Supported by his close friends and help from an unexpected place (or multiverse), Spider-Man will go toe-to-toe with some of the most legendary foes in his storied history.
Director Jon Watts Release Date December 17, 2021 Runtime 148 Minutes Main Genre Superhero
Tobey Maguire’s cameo in Spider-Man: No Way Home was a sight for sore eyes, and his morality in insisting that the trio of Peter Parkers strive to cure their villains rather than kill them speaks volumes on his character. Like the many other villains, Green Goblin’s actions are influenced by his affliction by an outside force, specifically the Goblin formula. This experimental concoction was developed by Oscorp to create a Captain America-style super soldier before being tested too early by Osborn himself, resulting in some nasty side effects.
While this is indeed the source of power for both the original Green Goblin and James Franco’s New Goblin, Peter Parker never actually learns of this knowledge in any of the original films. It seems unlikely that he’d know how to easily whip up a cure from scratch with nothing but ingredients that could be found in a high school science classroom. Admittedly, Peter may have learned of this at some point in the time between Spider-Man 3 and Spider-Man: No Way Home, but it’s still never directly stated.
6 Spider-Man’s Costume Is Way Too High-Quality To Be Homemade
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One regard in which the Sam Raimi films stuck fairly true to the source material was in the creation of Spider-Man’s costume. Just as in the original comics, Peter Parker simply creates the Spider-Man suit by hand, having no connections or wealth with which to stealthily commission a high-quality superhero suit. Yet despite previously showing off no knowledge of sewing or tailoring, Tobey Maguire’s Peter Parker manages to create one of the best-looking live-action Spider-Man suits all on his own.
With a shoestring budget and no previous experience, Peter Parker is somehow able to make a complicated, high-quality costume that uses many other materials aside from simple cloth. Not only that, but the fights he gets into throughout the series frequently damage the suit in drastic ways, implying that Peter has the skill to maintain the costume, sewing it back together, good as new every time. Few items are as powerful in the Sam Raimi Spider-Man universe as Aunt May’s sewing machine.
5 Bonesaw’s Attacks Are Immune To Spider Sense
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Spider Sense might be the single most defining superpower in Spider-Man’s arsenal. Essentially a short-term burst of clairvoyance, Spider Sense warns Peter Parker of incoming danger moments before it can strike, giving him a heads-up before responding with his superhumanly fast reflexes. What exactly qualifies as “danger” is up for debate in different versions of the character, but Tobey Maguire’s use of Spider Sense seems inconsistent at best.
Bonesaw also voiced Jeremy the Crow in
The Secret of NIMH 2: Timmy to the Rescue
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This is best exemplified in his fight with the wrestler Bonesaw early in the original Spider-Man. The musclebound cage fighter manages to land blows on Spider Man with a steel chair, and even manages to grab Spider-Man. Later, Green Goblin is also able to surprise him by disguising himself as a sobbing old woman in a burning building, as well as getting off a sneak attack with sleeping gas. It’s safe to say Tobey Maguire’s Spider Sense could use some sharpening.
4 Spider-Man Allows Harry To Unmask Him
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Despite his less than subtle methods of keeping his powers under wraps, Peter Parker is somehow able to deceive his best friend, Harry Osborn, regarding his secret identity for about half of the Sam Raimi trilogy. It isn’t until Doc Ock delivers Spider-Man on a silver platter to Harry that he gets unmasked, shocking the wealthy scion of the Osborn family. Though Spider-Man initially seems to be knocked out cold under his mask, Tobey Maguire is wide awake when he finally looks Harry in the eyes face-to-face as Spider-Man.
This would’ve avoided the fallout of Harry discovering that his mortal enemy and best friend are one and the same
Soon after, Spider-Man gets up and casually shrugs off the barbed wire that was supposedly restraining him, which he seemingly could’ve done much earlier. This would’ve avoided the fallout of Harry discovering that his mortal enemy and best friend are one and the same, though doing so may have been for the better. Why Peter allowed this to happen when it could’ve been easily avoided remains one of the biggest plot holes in Raimi’s Spider-Man trilogy.
3 Bully Maguire’s Emo Haircut Makes Him More Attractive
Spider-Man 3
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Spider-Man: No Way Home PG-13SuperheroActionAdventureFantasy Where to Watch
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Director Jon Watts Release Date December 17, 2021 Runtime 148 Minutes Main Genre Superhero
By far the most infamous scene out of any Spider-Man film is the sequence in Spider-Man 3 in which Peter Parker leans into his dark side. Wearing the Venom symbiote underneath his clothes, Tobey Maguire’s change in personality causes him to start acting like a bully, creating a whole new character fans have since affectionately nicknamed, “Bully Maguire.” Peter switches up his style to reflect this internal change, getting an edgy haircut and wearing much darker colors.
Somehow, this change in appearance results in not one, not two, but three gorgeous New York women ogling him as he walks around.
Somehow, this change in appearance results in not one, not two, but three gorgeous New York women ogling him as he walks around, despite Tobey Maguire’s style in the scene being questionable even by 2007 standards. Even more astounding, the dimly-lit jazz lounge he takes Gwen Stacy to treats him like the star of the show despite his obnoxious behavior. While some women rightfully find Peter’s dancing intolerable, the fact that his new look and attitude work at all is by far one of the most unrealistic things about Spider-Man 3.
2 Peter Never Hears About John Being Left At The Altar
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While the jury on whether Kirsten Dunst’s Mary Jane is Spider-Man’s best romance in the movies is still out, there’s no denying that their relationship was incredibly turbulent. In Spider-Man 2, Mary Jane gets with J. Jonah Jameson’s son, a literal astronaut, solely to make Peter jealous, even going as far as to get engaged with him in the space of less than a year. Of course, she gives it all up for Peter once he comes back around to the idea of a relationship, literally leaving poor John Jameson at the altar.
J. Jonah Jameson, meanwhile, is an incredibly proud man, especially when it comes to his son’s accomplishments. There’s no way Jameson wouldn’t take this at least a little personally, making it hard to believe he’d be willing to work with Peter again, let alone offer him a position as a staff photographer at double the salary in Spider-Man 3. Tobey Maguire’s Spider-Man gets away with far more than he should in both his photography career and personal life.
1 Peter Should’ve Been Evicted After His Confrontation With Mr. Ditkovich
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Mr. Ditkovich is a seldom-remembered character in the Sam Raimi Spider-Man pantheon that brings to light another of Tobey Maguire’s most egregious errors as Peter Parker. Named after famous comic book artist Steve Ditko, Mr. Ditkovich is the father of Ursula, the woman Peter flirts with and is fed cookies by in Spider-Man 3, as well as Peter’s landlord. It turns out that Peter Parker has been late on the rent more than once, leaving Ditkovich to hound him for the missing money.
Famously, in Spider-Man 3 Peter Parker slams the door on one of his attempts to get the rent he is owed, screaming that he’ll get it only when he fixes his unit’s broken door. Such an outburst at a landlord, even one as understanding as Mr. Ditkovich, makes it hard to believe that Peter wouldn’t be evicted shortly thereafter, especially in New York City’s competitive housing market. While the two reconcile later in the film after Peter gets the symbiote off, Mr. Ditkovich’s lack of a harsher response points to yet another thing Tobey Maguire’s Spider-Man gets away with.
| Upcoming Marvel Movies | Release Date |
| Captain America: Brave New World | February 14, 2025 |
| Thunderbolts* | May 2, 2025 |
| The Fantastic Four | July 25, 2025 |
| Blade | November 7, 2025 |
| Avengers: Doomsday | May 1, 2026 |
| Avengers: Secret Wars | May 7, 2027 |