Hot take: Tom Holland is the best Spider-Man. While I also really like Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield, when Holland debuted as Spider-Man, he was the first Peter Parker to actually feel like he belonged in high school. Part of it was his age. Holland was 19 when he began as Spider-Man, whereas Maguire was 25 and Garfield was 28. Holland also looked a good deal younger and, in the stories featuring him, there was greater emphasis placed on the everyday high school stuff.

Even though Spider-Man is past high school in the upcoming Spider-Man: Brand New Day, I’m optimistic about where Holland and director Destin Daniel Cretton (Shang-Chi, Wonder Man) will take the character next. I’m especially excited to see Spider-Man come into his own, finally stripped of the “Junior Hero” status he’s carried for a decade in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

That said, I cannot fathom the idea that Spider-Man: Brand New Day will somehow be better than the best-ever Spider-Man movie, Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man 2.

After the blockbuster success of his first Spider-Man movie in 2002, Raimi followed that up with Spider-Man 2. Now a college student at Columbia University, Peter is........

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