#spnwh

MJ’s Power!

I’ve learned that in every Spider-Man movie there is a moment when you realize a portrayal changes from some guy in a mask to “THIS is my Spider-Man.” I grew up with Tom Holland’s Spider-Man, and my moment was when he was trapped under rubble after fighting Vulture, crying out while being collapsed under tons of rocks and debris, screaming for help and barely able to breath. I was on the edge of my seat in my own spider suit, tears threatening to fall on the familiar red and blue. It reminded me that no, this isn’t a sharp shooting, quick footed man with all the quippy sarcasm in the world, this is a 16 year old kid who’s terrified he could die. When he looks into the water below and sees his mask torn on the ground, hiding half of his face, half showing his bruises and scrapes—the person, the human underneath—he realizes it’s not the mask who makes you Spider-Man, it’s you. Seeing Peter become who he was thrown into to being onscreen, a sophomore boy just a few years older than me, changed me. He rises AS Spider-Man from the rock and rubble and hurries to saves his enemy, no matter how much fighting he has to go through to do it.

Tobey Maguire’s Spider-Man held my heart during the train stopping scene, maskless, torn up, and terrified that he might not be able to save these people, never mind saving himself. He tears off his mask—his safety net—fabric burning to ash as he tosses it to the wind, and rushes to save them at all costs, himself and his true identity included. After he uses the last of his strength to stop the train, he passes out and begins to fall, but the people in the train cling onto him, pulling him from certain death in the most Rennaissance painting way as possible. “He’s…just a kid…no older than my son.” One says, and I broke down sobbing. When he comes to, he’s terrified that they’ve seen his face. He believes New York hates him, and expects anger and fury, but a man kneels down who gently tells him it’s alright, and two young children come forward. They say they’ve found something, hand him back his mask, and “promise we won’t tell nobody.” He smiles at them before putting it back on, and realizes maybe New York still wants him around.

Andrew’s is, unsurprisingly, the saving Jack scene. ​DO NOT GET ME STARTED ON HIM GETTING HELP FROM NEW YORK TO GET TO GWEN We watch as Dr. Connors flees below the bridge, damaged and regressing back to his human form, a time where it would be all too easy for Spider-Man to capture him and bring him to justice, Peter instead turns on his heels and jumps off, swinging to a webbed up car where a terrified kid is hiding. He has no qualms or complaints about revealing his identity to save a child, and so he does without a second thought. He speaks calmly and comfortingly, never scares Jack into safety, never shows his fear, never yells or demands him to come closer; instead he learns to connect with him, gives him his mask—his cover—and he earns his trust, even when the car’s engine bursts into flames and he can barely hang on to the back bumper. When he manages to hand off Jack back to his father, he cries out “my son, my son” over and over, and Peter sits there, out of breath and slightly burned, and realizes that night a parent might’ve had to bury their child, and a child would be fatherless. Jack’s father turns to him in amazement and asks, “who are you?” and with a choked up voice, Peter replies, “I’m Spider-Man.”

I see how every scene I reference shows the person under the mask, the person we connect with, and when that happens, whenever I am shown the person under the mask is human like you or me, I know then that whoever is on screen has earned the right to be Spider-Man.

I’m a little biased but if you really liked the last Spider-Man movie and Andrew Garfield’s Spider-Man, my gf wrote this really good fic with a multiverse spideypool with venom, miles and spider-Gwen ! It’s really good and with a really complex plot and yeah give it a try if you’re into that !  Summary:

Basically a rewrite of the first Deadpool movie mixed with The Amazing Spider-Man movies (AKA what if they were the love interest in each other’s movies).