Because after Endgame, that's pretty much the only thing on my mind. I can't wait until Far From Home comes out.
Prepare for fangirling. You've been warned...
I watched Spider-Man for the first time when I was really young, in 2006, or about there. I don't think I saw the whole thing, but I really liked it, even though I was firmly against anything I considered a "boy movie", only because my oldest sister hated boys and "boy movies", and as the youngest I naturally followed in her footsteps (it didn't last; Star Wars and The Incredible Hulk TV show boosted all of us out of the "no boy stuff" phase forever). My dad turned it on one day, my sister and I watched at least some of it, and we loved it. I somehow missed the whole "genetically engineered spider" (a la Tobey Maguire version), and thought the idea of getting spider powers from an ordinary spider bite was ridiculous, but fell in love nonetheless.
Fast forward to us getting Netflix (2009 to 2011ish). Not long after we got the streaming service, we watched Spider-Man and Spider-Man 2 (Spider-Man 3 was, sadly, not available for streaming). And I loved it. The quintessential superhero movie, basically. I don't care how predictable it is. That's my Spidey you're watching right there.
And then 2012 hit. And all the The Amazing Spider-Man commercials dropped. They showed his face in the commercials and I was lowkey furious. That was not my Spidey. They already had a Spidey and he was a pretty new Spidey, too. There was no reason to reboot a franchise that had just come out. (It had only been five years since Spider-Man 3!) Thankfully, most of the world agreed with me, though I didn't know it at the time. Even Andrew Garfield said making the movies "broke his heart", because they were nothing like his dreams of being Spider-Man were. I resolved to myself never to watch the movie (or its subsequent sequel) if I could help it.
Eventually, we found Spider-Man 3 somewhere really cheap, so my family bought it for me and we watched it. One of my sisters absolutely hated it, but I still loved it. It's not quite as good as the first two, but still really good.
Right around that time, I met someone who really liked the Amazing Spider-Man movies, and, while she is my friend, I just don't understand it. Because of her, I decided to finally watch The Amazing Spider-Man one Sunday when I was sick and it was on TV. And let me tell you (sorry, Danielle), WHAT THE J JONAH JAMESON. I mean, Peter Parker, uber-nerd, certified loser, and possessor of the Parker LuckTM , should not be skateboarding down school hallways. Losers don't skateboard down school hallways. Also, Andrew Garfield is not small enough to be Peter Parker. He doesn't look like a loser, he looks like a cool kid. His version of Peter Parker is not sweet, but instead, arrogant, rude, cocky, and a certified stalker (who the heck has a picture of the girl they don't even talk to as their LAPTOP BACKGROUND???). And you could sneeze at all of his nerdiness. Tobey Maguire's Peter is sweet and supportive, even if a little self-absorbed at times. Okay, angry rant over.
Then the Marvel craziness won out over the rest of the entertainment world, and Sony finally agreed to let the most popular Marvel superhero join the MCU. The Marvel overlords decided not to rehash the Spider-Man origin story again, and so, when my sisters and I went to see Captain America: Civil War in theaters, we were treated to our first glimpse of the new and improved Spider-ManTM .
I walked out and said, "I think I like him better than the Tobey Maguire version."
Okay, first of all, he actually looks fourteen! You look at him and you really think he could be in high school. A++ casting just on that aspect. And second, they nailed him as a nerd and certified fanboy like no one else did. The other Spider-Mans were just really smart, but this one is so relatable nerdy.
And then he died and my heart did too.
Ugh, the new Spider-Man movie was just so good! (See me fangirling more about it
here.) Even Flash Thompson was a cool and refreshing take on the character. I was so excited for
Infinity War and then at the end he turned into dust and do you know how traumatizing it is to see your childhood hero die before your very eyes?
Yeah... Waiting for Endgame was agonizing, even though I knew Spidey had to come back because of the sequel. And I saw it recently and
Do Not Read Any Further Or Risk Endgame Spoilers
oh my word. The fact that we aren't going to get any more Iron Dad and Spider Son? I live for Iron Dad and Spider Son! How is Peter going to cope without Tony Stark? He already lost two father figures and now he's lost another, probably forever? I'm gonna cry, guys, because it's just not fair. Peter saying hi to Tony was great, and then he said, "Mr. Stark, we won, Mr. Stark, we won, I'm sorry, Tony." And I'm just over here crying, don't pay any attention to me. The whole reason Tony decided to help the Avengers bring the Vanished back was because he saw a picture of him with Peter and realized he couldn't not help bring his son back and Tony died because of it and no I'm not okay!
Okay, you can read again, no more Endgame
I also started reading the comics recently and they're as good as I thought they'd be. A lot like the MCU in that literally everything is connected. Peter Parker's parents were double agents in HYDRA and Red Skull ordered them assassinated by the Finisher when he found out they were undercover for the CIA and Daredevil helped Spider-Man when he was temporarily blinded by a bad guy and Tony Stark designed special glass and knock-out gas for the NYC police that helped them keep Maggia members from escaping after capture by Spider-Man. There was an issue where Pietro and Wanda Maximoff came to NYC and Pietro tried to capture Spidey because he thought he was a bad guy and thought capturing a bad guy would help alleviate some of the bad press on Pietro and Wanda. My hands down favorite story, though, was when Peter got the flu, and he didn't realize he could still get sick because he was Spider-Man, and so he thought he was losing his Spider powers, and so he told all of his friends he was Spider-Man (and I mean ALL of his friends, Harry, MJ, Gwen, Flash, everyone), and then he went to the doctor and found out he just had the flu and had to ask a boy whose life he had saved to wear his costume so he could convince his friends he was just delirious and he wasn't really Spider-Man. Classic Parker Luck right there. And now I want more and I'm not sure I have access to any more.
To finish off, I will leave you with some Iron Dad and Spider Son, because this is SPOILERS all we're gonna get now. END SPOILERS
Who's your favorite superhero? Did Batman die in Infinity War? TELL ME I NEED ANSWERS!!!
Tricia Mingerink is the author of the bestselling The Blades of Acktar series and the Beyond the Tales series. She lives in Michigan with her family and their pack of pets. When she isn't writing, she can be found pursuing backwoods adventures across the country.
You can connect with Tricia on her blog, Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram
To celebrate the cover reveal, Dagger's Sleep, a Sleeping Beauty retelling and book one in the series, is on sale in Kindle for $.99 this weekend! Click here to purchase on Amazon.
