After 24 Years of Live-Action Spider-Man Movies, These 3 Things Still Make No Sense About All of Them

Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man hit theaters in 2002, and 24 years and eight more live-action films later, these three things still make no sense about the movies. Raimi’s trilogy, Marc Webb’s The Amazing Spider-Man movies, and the MCU’s four Spider-Man films all offer a different take on Peter Parker, giving him different personalities, villains, jobs, friends, and more. However, they all rely on the same source material, meaning that their differing adaptations still share some common oddities.

Spider-Man: Brand New Day is the most recent live-action Spider-Man film, with Tom Holland’s take on the character returning years after the world forgot about Peter Parker. The box office success of Brand New Day proves that the franchise is far from over, with Beyond the Spider-Verse releasing next year and there already being talks about future Spider-Man movies. Brand New Day raises even more questions about the cinematic web-slinger, and while some of these questions are answered in the comics, for fans who only watch the movies, these three things make no sense.

3) How Strong Is Spider-Man’s Healing Factor?

In Marvel Comics, Spider-Man has an incredibly strong healing factor. For whatever reason, though, the movies never make this power as big of a deal as the X-Men movies do with Wolverine and Deadpool. In the comics, Spidey’s healing factor is far weaker than Wolverine’s. He can’t regrow limbs, but he can quickly get over broken bones, concussive hits, and major cuts.

Spider-Man’s healing factor is definitely present in the movies. After all, Tobey Maguire’s Peter has his poor eyesight almost instantly healed soon after being bitten. In all three series, Spider-Man can withstand massive falls and get up with ease. This is even more apparent in the MCU, where Spidey faces off against all kinds of powerful foes and heroes.

However, his healing factor is very inconsistent, with it mostly relying on what narrative beat the film wants to hit. For action scenes, Peter is seemingly invincible, whereas his plot armor will disappear when the film needs a dramatic moment. For example, in Brand New Day, Spider-Man tanks hits from the Hulk, but later is almost killed by a regular bullet. None of the movies explicitly state how fast it takes Spidey to heal, what he can withstand, and what he can’t withstand, making his healing factor seem incredibly nebulous.

2) Why Can’t Peter Parker Get A Better Job?

Of the three series, Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man movies spend the most time on Peter Parker’s financials, showing him working at the Daily Bugle and a pizza shop throughout the trilogy. However, The Amazing Spider-Man series almost entirely ignores this aspect. The MCU Spider-Man films have Spidey live with Aunt May and receive support from the Avengers for the first three movies, but by Brand New Day, he loses that support. Peter is able to afford an apartment and all kinds of gadgets to experiment with despite having no source of income, as he isn’t getting paid for his vigilante crime-fighting.

Timing-wise, it’s understandable that it may be hard for Peter to maintain a job while simultaneously having the ability to slip out and be a superhero at any moment. However, when Peter does have a job, it’s as a photographer or at a restaurant. Peter has a genius-level intellect and connections to companies like Oscorp as well as major universities. It shouldn’t be hard for him to get a job that pays well and is pretty flexible, giving him the ability to fund his Spider-Man gear. In the modern day, Peter could even get a remote research job, making it even easier for him to balance his career and his role as a superhero.

1) Why Does Spider-Man Theme Himself As A Spider?

One of the strangest aspects of Spider-Man is why he is Spider-Man at all. Yes, Peter does get his abilities from being bitten by a spider. However, that doesn’t mean that this needs to be a key part of his brand. Very few people that Peter interacts with know the origin of his powers, and super strength, increased healing, the ability to climb on walls, and enhanced intuition aren’t traits that the average Joe would immediately associate with spiders.

It makes more sense in Sam Raimi’s movies since Peter’s webs there are biological, but in the other two series, Peter’s webs are an invention that comes after he gets his initial powers. It seems odd that Peter feels obligated to theme himself after a spider just because that’s how he got his powers. For Batman, the bat has a thematic purpose, something that doesn’t exist in any of the Spider-Man movies. Would Peter have themed himself after any animal that bit him and gave him this same moveset? With these powers, it would have made more sense for Peter to theme himself after an acrobat or a ninja. After all, the invention of the webs is a priori to the spider theme in most iterations. It makes sense for the branding of a Marvel comic book, but it doesn’t make sense for the in-universe branding of Peter Parker.

What do you think? Leave a comment below and join the conversation now in the ComicBook Forum!