On Thursday, we got our very first glimpse of Tom Holland's Spider-Man and his glorious suit in the newest trailer for Captain America: Civil War. As we all know, this is not the first Spider-Man to grace our screens. In fact, there have been a total of 5 different actors before Holland to play the character, each with their own suit(s). So, I thought it would be fun to rank every live-action Spider-Man suit ever. Now, surprisingly enough, this list is my own personal option. If you disagree, that's totally cool. In fact, I encourage you to write your own version of this article with your own ranking. Now, let's get down to it!
7. Spidey Super Stories (1974-1977)
Back in the 70's, there was a television program called The Electric Company. It had a recurring sketch called "Spidey Super Stories", featuring everyone's favorite web-slinger. The sketches consisted of Spidey fighting crime in live-action comic book pages. This version of Spider-Man never spoke, but instead had speech bubbles for the kids to read. Danny Seagren was the first person to ever portray Spider-Man on the big or small screen.
Now as we can all see, this suit is sort of a mess. It's incredibly cheap, due to the fact that its budget was almost nonexistent. Seagren is literally wearing a cloth over his face and body, distorting all his facial expressions. It's not a good look. But look at the bright side: it only gets better from here on out.
6. Spider-Man (1978-1979)
Also in the 70's, the Japanese company Toei (Dragon Ball, Sailor Moon) and Marvel Entertainment signed a deal that basically said that they could use each other's characters for virtually any reason. From this deal emerged a Japanese Spider-Man TV series (yes, it's as strange as it sounds). In this version, there is no Peter Parker. Instead we get Takuya Yamashiro (played by Shinji Todo). He's a young motorcycle racer who sees the starship Marveller crash-land on Earth. When he goes to investigate, he discovers Garia, the last surviving warrior of planet Spider, who injects Takuya with his own blood, thereby granting him his spider powers, and charges him to finish his interstellar battle against Professor Monster and the evil Iron Cross Army. Takuya also inherits the Marveller, which just so happens to feature the ability to transform into a giant robot called Leopardon. Because Japan.
Now, you'd think with all these plot changes, the suit would surely have drastic changes made to it as well. But nope. It's still pretty much the same suit. The main difference? The freaking gauntlet on his arm. How rad is that thing? In fact, it's the main reason this suit is higher than Spidey Super Stories.
5. The Amazing Spider-Man (1977-1979)
Before the Japanese version came along, the very first stand-alone live-action Spider-Man was played by Nicholas Hammond. This version of Spider-Man was pretty faithful to the comic books, with the only huge difference being the age of Peter Parker. As opposed to being a high school student, Parker is in college at the time of this series.
While still being incredibly cheap, this costume adds more detail into the webbing and introduces the reflective eyes (something that would stay with the character up until the Amazing Spider-Man film series). This is the costume that would serve as the inspiration for the rest of the character's live-action costumes.
4. Spider-Man, Spider-Man 2, & Spider-Man 3 (2002-2007)
The Spider-Man movies were partially responsible for bringing comic book movies into the mainstream. When director Sam Raimi began working on he first film, he had something those TV shows didn't: a budget. Tobey Maguire donned a suit more thick, bulky, and expensive than any other Spidey suit before it. There's also a heavy amount of fine detail added, mainly the raised webbing all over the suit and the textured pattern of the whole thing. The suit would go on to set the bar for other comic book movies to come.
And no, I did not include the black suit from Spider-Man 3 in this list, simply because it's literally the exact same thing as the red one.
3. The Amazing Spider-Man (2012)
With Spider-Man 3 getting torn to shreds my critics and fans alike, Sony took drastic measures: they started over.
Andrew Garfield's Peter Parker went with a more homemade look for his suit, which makes total sense, considering Peter is a high school kid. The suit as a whole has been made a lot smoother, and the webbing has been pushed under the surface (as opposed to the raised design worn by Maguire's version). The eyes act as homage to the '77 Amazing Spider-Man TV series with the inclusion of the reflective style. The spider logo is also more stretched out than it had been in the past. Overall, it's a pretty cool and original concept.
2. The Amazing Spider-Man 2 (2014)
The Amazing Spider-Man 2 got mixed reviews. Either you loved it or you hated it. But no matter what you thought of the movie, it's hard to deny how good that suit looks.
The suit looks a lot like the original trilogy suit, but with some major differences. The webbing is raised up, yet also made thinner. The entire suit also just looks much lighter than the Raimi one, but heavier than the one from The Amazing Spider-Man. It's also a lot more colorful than the 2012 film. However, I think we all know what makes this suit so great: the eyes. Bigger than we've ever seen them before, they add a more comic book feel to the movie while also just simply looking awesome.
1. Captain America: Civil War (2016)
Maybe I'm jumping the gun here. Maybe it's too early. Maybe I'm just too excited to think straight. But to me, this suit looks really good. Tom Holland's new version of the web-slinger is a callback to the old days, looking like it came straight off the page of the comic book. Yet the black stripes also give it an updated feel. We finally see the "fat-spider" logo on the suit for the first time in live-action. Oh, and did I mention that the eyes freaking squint!? Because they totally do.
Now I know it's only five seconds of footage, but from what we've seen so far, this suit just looks great. Or should I say...amazing? No? Okay. Sorry.
Do you agree with my list? How would you rank them? Let me know in the comments, or write your own version of this article and put the link in the comments! I'd love to read what you guys think.