When it comes to naming the top dog in the world of comic books, Spider-Man is a surefire safe bet as far as Marvel goes, and even only a few others — chiefly Batman and Superman — could arguably eclipse the webslinger as the greatest comic book hero ever. Indeed, with the hero’s wisecracking nature, tragic ethos, and the accompanying truth that anybody can wear the mask for better or worse, there’s always been a lot to love about Peter Parker and his many variants.
And while you could argue that there’s never a bad time to love Spider-Man, these last few years have undoubtedly seen some the wallcrawler’s biggest consecutive wins.
As pointed out by one @FilmOptix on Twitter, since 2017 we’ve gotten Spider-Man: Homecoming, Far From Home, and No Way Home courtesy of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Spider-Man and Spider-Man: Miles Morales on Sony’s PlayStation consoles, with Spider-Man 2 on the way, while Into the Spider-Verse and Across the Spider-Verse have smashed the ceiling of animation, and are currently waiting on 2024’s Beyond the Spider-Verse to finish the job.
Suffice to say that the Spidey train has been well-fueled over these last several years, provided you don’t take Sony’s Spider-Man Universe into account (which, considering the absence of Spider-Man in all of those projects, we’ll happily rule out). And while we’d love to include the much-deserved Tobey Maguire era of films (yes, even Spider-Man 3; fight me), the dip that was the Amazing Spider-Man one-two punch interrupts the flow just a bit too much.
The best part? With the recent release of Across the Spider-Verse, this chain of top-notch Spidey stories has hit the highest peak yet, so even though Spidey fans have eaten well these last couple of years, we’re chowing down like never before in the present moment.
Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse is now playing in theaters.