Every Spider-Man Movie & TV Show Explained By Kevin Smith | WIRED

so you want to learn to be spider-man can you teach me yes I can how many more Spidey people are there it can get weird hey ma'am I'm Kevin Smith and I am here today to talk about every iconic version of spider-man that has ever been on film or television the amazing spider-man is Nicholas Hammond in the first live-action version that we Americans saw at the same time there was another Spiderman live action happening over in Japan in 1978 but the one that we saw Nicholas Hammond was very special because it was first time he got to see spider-man in real life plus he was played by a kid who was one of the original family members in The Sound of Music so that made it cool for your mom so you'd be like I'm watching spider-man should be like this is ridiculous and you'd be like that boy was in The Sound of Music its months since my mother loved Julie Andrews in the sound of music she was like then I approve of this spider-man and we got to watch it but it didn't last very long it's fun watching him climb up the building get him hold up the rope and he would just do this he didn't quite wall crawl [Music] spider-man Strikes Back comes out circa I think 1978 so it predates the Empire Strikes Back is the best thing we could say about spider-man Strikes Back is somewhere George Lucas was flipping through a TV Guide going Strikes Back there it is Star Wars - what was I thinking and suddenly he had a new Knight a name for his movie but the movie itself spider-man Strikes Back not very memorable there's no scene where somebody's like I am your father you know and it's Mysterio or something no it's a nothing more than a title then of course it all wraps up with spider-man the dragons challenge which I was out by then I didn't see that one man and I think by that point I was headed toward the age of being interested in girls and I knew that an interest in spider-man wasn't going to get me where I needed to be so I let it go at that point I didn't see it long before Tom Hollands and and until Dima Guare was the guy who ever was who played spider-man in the electric companies spider-man shorts they depicted spider-man as being mute which really made an impact on me later on I'd play Silent Bob it was based on this version of spider-man he would have word balloons that popped over his head and you would see what he was thinking but sometimes they used it to communicate with other people in the scene it was very confusing like wait are they reading his thoughts but the idea was it was supposed to be a word balloon they didn't let the guy actually speak but it had a killer theme song even before what spider-man's always had a good theme song of course in the cartoon we had spider-man spider-man does whatever a spider can but in The Electric Company version it was spider-man ah like it was pretty pretty mysterious for a kid you know that was watching a program that wasn't quite Sesame Street then there was a spider-man cartoon most people know because it has the amazing theme songs by limited animation from back in the day but you know is definitely established in animation the the formula going forward Peter Parker has the secret identity he has spider-man he can't let Aunt May know about it he's got a girlfriend Mary Jane all that stuff was in the mix in there and they also introduced his rogues gallery of villains spider-man got one of the most colorful rogues gallery in all of comics like there's Batman of course then shoulder-to-shoulder with him is spider-man because he's got so many good Green Goblin he's got hobgoblins got all the goblins he's got Mysterio he's got Sandman he's got vulture the list goes on and on in the early 80s before spider-man and his amazing friends it was just spider-man and Doctor Doom featured prominently in it witch doctor doing more of a Fantastic Four villain you know spider-man way outgunned fighting a Doctor Doom but it was Saturday morning I remember in the credits they would be like Big Ben they should be like London as if like kids to be like oh smite he's got international but they figured out you know we can make this way better and they turned spider-man into spider-man and his amazing friends which added Bobby Drake his Iceman and Angelica Jones Firestar and they would live together cuz they're all going Empire State University and Aunt May lived with him she still didn't know that they were all heroes and stuff in that a room where things would flip and suddenly like you know the control board would come out little base their own little spider cave that was really great and I always loved it because at Stan Lee's voice and Stan Lee was the narrator of that show face front heroes this is Stan Lee and he would bring you into the story and then a commercial breaks who Ben oh no what's gonna happen next so he became a part of that series as much as warmly as I remember spider-man's amazing friends I think it has everything to do the fact that Stan was like the omniscient narrator of that show [Music] spider-man the animated series I always think of a spider-man the Toy Show because that was back in the day where KB the toy store was selling tons of spider-man toys toy biz company that bought Marvel later on made a bunch of toys based on that line based on the x-men cartoon and based on spider-man the animated series including like smite the Spider Slayer and stuff what I remember most about that series was the end oddly enough what you're telling me in your reality I'm a character in fiction the last episode Spiderman crosses into our dimension and meets his creator Stanley fireman Pam hold my calls for wiles of Stan as a voice in it's really special because Madame web is a character in it as well and Madame web was voiced by Stan's wife Joan Lee so they got to act together in the series finale of spider-man the animated series and it was also just cool to see all the villains represented spider-man's always made for a great cartoon because his rogues gallery is so colorful look at and it was no exception when they did spider-man the animated series in 1990 they used every every villain from every nook and cranny that Spiderman even crossed over with and also brought in heroes as well there was spider-man unlimited in 1999 and it was false advertising didn't live up to its name it was quite limited and it was gone before he knew it it was over didn't have the staying power of some of the earlier versions of spider-man so in 2003 they do a spider-man high-tech man like with 3d animation looks incredible and of course it has all the earmarks of the trappings of the spider-man story that we love but you know it was next generation it took it into the third dimension because spider-man can't be held by two simple dimensions so there are three spider-man cartoons that have come out in the recent years that I have not caught up on your honor the spectacular spider-man I bite then there's ultimate spider-man and then in 2017 spider-man and I know my friend Scott Mosier wrote scripts for one of them I think he did that for ultimate spider-man or something like that but uh no I stopped watching the spider-man cartoons because they start making spider-man live-action movies suddenly you didn't have to just look at animation suddenly you could see spider-man in real life and it wasn't the guy that I grew up watching on TV I wasn't wild about the Sam Raimi spider-man came out is definitely you know groundbreaking I love the trailer when it when they first start showing spider-man swinging through the chasms of New York like it looked really convincing but then when I saw the movie itself I was a little put off because there's a big scene between the two the hero in the villain spider-man and Green Goblin and both of them are wearing these masks from head to toe so you can't even see their faces so at a certain point it kind of looked like Power Rangers just people talking to each other like a couple c-3po s nobody's face which I thought was so silly because Willem Dafoe who played the Green Goblin played Norman Osborn has one of the most expressive like faces in the business so they could have just painted in green and suddenly they would have been there but instead they put him Sam Raimi put him in a helmet I was happy that we had a spider-man movie but it wasn't my cup of tea spider-man 2 the one that Raimi did afterwards I absolutely loved with Doc Ock and that's probably one of the greatest spider well move removed one of the greatest superhero movies ever made and that one really touched me that it has a moment where Mary Jane like says to Peter Parker it's about time somebody saved her in life really human moment because that's who you got to remember is the that's the epicenter of your story yes spider-man's impressive and it could swing and do this but it's the story of Peter Parker it's a story of somebody incredibly mild-mannered who when he has the mask off you know it's kind of milquetoast and isn't the guy who you know is the center of attention in the room but when he puts on the mask he could be this guy create this character of spider-man who's engaging and quippy and funny so I thought like Tobey Maguire was a good Peter Parker but like his spider-man like didn't you didn't play like my spider-man my spider-man was always cracking wise and his spider-man didn't really crack wise so I guess you can't really blame that on him but his Peter Parker was pretty altruistic he came across that way so I liked him and then the third one [Music] spider-man three is when he's groovin down the streets in New York and dancing and doing this stuff and you know that one was a little tough also had a venom that didn't look very venom and Topher Grace playing Venom's like hey Parker he's kind of small so that movie like you know I did well made money at the box office but for me it didn't capture my imagination I loved I had the black suit in it the symbiosis don't get me wrong but spider-man 2 was the high-water mark of the Raimi trilogy for my money that being said I'm sure Sam Raimi's like nothing you ever did was good so I won't judge his shoe [Music] the amazing spider-man the one that came after the first reboot very controversial because we were just finished watching spider-man and then all sudden Sony was like hey it's happening again different spider-man different director and all new characters and stuff playing all new actors and actresses playing the same old characters so it was controversial because it was a reboot so close to the one that had just concluded and folks didn't know what to think but when it came out I enjoyed it man I enjoyed that first amazing spider-man movie I thought it was the reverse of Tobey Maguire playing face as folks of call Tobey Maguire he he was a great Peter Parker whereas Andrew Garfield I think was a great spider-man he's quippy and funny when he was in the suit no one seems to grasp the concept of the mask I bought it he felt like the comic book page spider-man but his Peter Parker was way too hot I would have this Peter Parker you know what I'm saying and like he was attractive and happening and with it no glasses and stuff so that was kind of a departure from the spiral from the Peter Parker that I was familiar with so that's the one thing I didn't I didn't like too much about Amazing Spiderman man give me the like Peter Parker can't be too cool for school this is my then they made a sequel had electro women and oh my lord the whole thing went off the rails amazing spider-man 2 it's got Jamie Foxx like a friend once it in account acting in a way that led you to believe he'd never read a comic book in his life like he was like business what a bad guy sounds like and then there was another villain - oh they had the Hobgoblin slash Green Goblin combo in there yeah it was kind of misguided and and you know it made a bunch of money but it wasn't my cup of tea wasn't my cup of web-one my cup of web fluid there you go my fluid sounds way dirtier than I meant it sorry [Music] nice job kid Thanks well I couldn't start the landing a little better it's just a new suit Tom Holland in his first appearance of spider-man in civil war is when we the spider-man fans finally go there it is there he is not only are they showing spider-man as a young boy in high school he looks like he should be in high school Tobey Maguire looked like he was 40 in spider-man you know what I'm saying like he reminded me of when I saw grease as a kid and all the kids in high school look like there were 30 so when I got to high school and I look like a kid I was like what the happened why don't world look like Greece because they were all adults playing those roles same thing in Sam Raimi's spider-man Tobey Maguire I thought was a little too old for it where's Tom Holland is just right man the one thing that Tom Hall brings to it though nobody else ever thought to bring to that character was he plays it with a Queens accent yeah she down real flat Thanks how adorable is that so he sounds like a kid from New York for heaven's sakes every other incarnation spider-man all the animated series all live actions even the video games nobody bothered to give him a New York accent so I thought that was ingenious and then I just buy him I believe his performance I believed his excitement at being involved with the Avengers being called in for this little mission and whatnot so yeah he was a revelation and right then and there I was like this is my cinematic spider-man [Music] fine one of the things I loved about spider-man homecoming was they didn't show us Uncle Ben getting killed again like they didn't bother with that stuff cuz you know they are they figured the audience knows it man they've seen it in the Raimi spider-man's they've seen it in the amazing spider-man 2 movies so we don't have to hit them with this like with great power comes great responsibility part of the parable they hit the ground running man we all know that something bad happened to Peter in order for him to become the man he is today that's the beauty of spider-man like Stanley would always say like spider-man is not like Batman or Superman Superman you know who he is you know he's a middle-aged white guy Batman because he's wearing a cowl this parts cut out you know exactly who is also he's a rich guy white rich guy Stanley said that even though of course Peter Parker was a white guy from Queens quite kid from Queens he said the real charm of that character they realized was spider-man was covered from head to toe so once he's in the costume you know who he is you know what he is you don't know if he's a boy or girl you know what race creed or color or anything that character is so any kid reading that book can see themselves as the character it's kind of ingenious kind of wonderful but that character means so much to so many people because you can see yourself in it and and the beauty of that character is he's a boy completely out gun he's a child completely outgunned and outclassed but still he wants to do the right thing you know and most kids if you got that power when you were a kid you'd be like oh my god I'm Ilya rich which is what he tries to do in the beginning but then realizes of course as we know with great power comes great responsibility and turns it around and he becomes one of the most relatable superheroes that ever existed this is a guy who's late for his rent who's always kind of getting in trouble when he's not wearing the suit and could pull himself out of it just like that if he would just lean into being spider-man for profit but won't do that because he's a hero my name is Miles Morales I'm the one and only spider-man at least that's what I thought we've seen various incarnations of the Peter Parker character and we all we know he's a white kid but thanks to Miles Morales whose character was introduced and ultimate spider-man the ultimate lion like years back and now is in spider-man into the spider verse you finally get the idea of that writ large it ain't just some white guy swinging through Manhattan now it's african-american Latino kid Miles Morales that's what they do with the spider verse characters is all the elements that you're familiar with have been slightly remixed in this different planet or different universe where spider-man is not Peter Parker but instead he's this and so for years they're a bunch of us who love the character or like when they gonna put them in a movie and there's been no sign of him showing up in a live-action movie except in spider-man homecoming the Prowler referenced having a nephew and everybody knows comics knows the prowlers nephew is miles morales miles got bit by a radioactive spider that come home in a bag that the Prowler his uncle had brought home and stuff as Norman Osborn was trying to repeat the same process that created Peter Parker spider-man with my what he was trying to duplicate it but miles wound up getting bit he didn't want no kid to get bit and stuff and thus the adventure begins my name is Peter Parker Peter porker the spectacular spider ham I remember buying that comic when I was a kid and you know it's his characters been around as the animal version of some of the Marvel heroes and whatnot in that universe but you never imagined you'd see it beyond the page but we live in such a such a golden era right now where somebody's like let's whip spider-ham into this movie as well do animals talk in this dimension because I don't want to freak him out pretty pretty astounding that we get to see that in my lifetime before I die a cinematic spider-ham actually so Gwen Stacy and one version of the spider-verse story it's gwen stacy who gets bit by a radioactive spider not Peter Parker Peter winds up taking a liquor that turns immense little lizard and stuff and then when he changes back he dies in spider Gwen's arms well which is fitting because Gwen Stacy dies over and over again in spider-man's arms and the classic telling of the story she's thrown from the bridge by the Green Goblin spider-man whip tries to save her but she snaps her neck in the process so spider Glenn having Peter Parker died in her arms was only fair and fitting and whatnot and then her character kind of got to go off and have her own adventure kind of remix hey fellow spider-man noir is kind of like the idea of the Marvel noir universe was you know what would Marvel have been like in the 30s so they you know tell a darker older version of it not as quite ly quite brightly lit or super heroic as you're used to with comic book stories a little on the darker side is pretty genius they got Nic Cage to do his voice in that movie and then penny Parker is from a futuristic version of spider-man where like her dad built this giant suit this robot thing it's like kind of giant robot like Evangeline or something like that and he's he gets killed and she has to take on the the spider and so it's a different take on it and so Peter Parker got penny Parker she's a little Japanese girl who controls this machine that is their version of spider-man it's the kind of cool thing about the concept is you can do it a bunch of different ways you know we all know what spider-man looks like and what the concept is but like you know you can go over to Turkey and see their version of spider-man he's a villain the Turkish Spiderman was a bad guy fighting Captain America some versions of spider-man he could shoot lasers you know whenever they'd bootleg him and do them overseas and the Japanese spider-man was a motorcycle racer who was doing it to avenge his brother's death you know so it's a character that can translate into any culture because that captures our imagination this flip flip I'm gonna hit you with a bunch of web and capture people it's kind of cool and stuff but what makes that character transcendent why it can go through so many different cultures is because at the end of the day that's who I think most people feel they would be in a world of superpowers you know we'd all like to believe that we're Wonder Woman or Superman or something like that but chances are we'd probably be fumbling through it and figuring it out you know with a with a heart of gold like Peter Parker well Stan we all to grow up sometime I suppose even us characters of fiction by the man it's time to go

Channel: WIRED

Views: 3,167,065

Keywords: spider man, spider-man, spiderman, tom holland spider-man, spider-man history, history of spiderman, spiderman homecoming, spiderman tv show, spiderman kevin smith, kevin smith interview, kevin smith spiderman, spiderman into the spiderverse, spider-man into the spiderverse, spiderman movies, spider movies history, best spiderman, spiderman break down, spider-man breakdown, wired, every spider-man, spiderman movie, spider-men, every spiderman ever, kevin smith wired

Id: KOnpjyHDQuI

Length: 21min 52sec (1312 seconds)

Published: Fri Dec 14 2018

Reddit Comments

[u/Cjpappaslap]

Yeah really felt like like he was just stating a bunch of opinions he’s heard

[u/[deleted]]

(Me when watching the video guessing what he’ll say and being right) You’re pathetically predictable

[u/skilledinceptor]

You'll get to criticize Raimi when you fix your damn filmography!

[u/batnat280]

Yea it felt he was pandering to everyone and just gave out the stuff people wanted to hear, which are "He was a good Peter not Spidey, and this other was a good spidey but bad Peter, and this last one was good at both".,

[u/drinklesscola]

He wouldn’t be saying that if Tobey voiced the older Peter in this.

[u/[deleted]]

Fuck this guy

[u/Polaredditor]

I just find these superficial complaints tiresome, boring and exasperating now because when people use them they seem to think it's their own original opinion when they've been, in fact, regurgitated so many times.

"Tobey was far too old" I mean he was only 26 and I don't think it takes too much effort to suspend your disbelief to believe he's a high schooler but, more importantly, WHO CARES BECAUSE HE TURNED IN A WONDERFUL PERFORMANCE.

"Goblin looks like a power ranger" I still to this day don't see the similarities but everyone else does so I guess I'm on my own on this one but, with that being said did the green goblin from the comics not look any less "silly"?

"He doesn't crack jokes" This criticism has been debunked numerous times so I'll just say this firstly, he does and secondly, he does it when the situation called for it. Would the bridge scene be improved in any way if Spider-Man just told jokes? NO! Because that would rob the situation of any tension.

Finally, we can't forget about the most overused argument of all time against these films "IT'S JUST NOSTALGIA."... No.