LogFAQs > #960491678

MrMallard posted...

And frankly, Tom Holland is a bland Iron Man junior - every appearance has him being overshadowed by Iron Man, intentionally or not, to the point that he feels like a blank slate. People talk about the Marvel movies devolving into paint-by-numbers schlock, and the MCU Spider-Man is the epitome of that - he has nothing of his own to stand on. I don't think Tom Holland's portrayal has character, whereas both Ned and MJ's actors do add some sort of spice to the movies through their acting. I think the character's themes are reliant on other characters, which doesn't make Peter Parker all that engaging. Tom Holland's Spider-Man feels more like a smaller cog in something bigger than his own character - from the start, when he was drafted into an interpersonal conflict by Tony Stark, to his most recent movie where the theme was explicitly being caught in Tony Stark's shadow and having to clean up after one of the guy's many enemies.

See, I think that's where he shines. A central component of the character, for me, has always been his struggle to live up to the ideals instilled in him by a mentor. Usually that's Ben, but I think it works well with Ironman. Over his two films he progresses from being somebody who idolised Stark and needed him to clean up his messes into somebody who realises that Stark was flawed and managing to clean up his own and Stark's messes.