For many fans who aren’t quite old enough to recall the Sam Raimi trilogy, or who understandably missed the Andrew Garfield duology after the second movie was so legendarily terrible that it tanked any plans Sony might have had for that version of the character, Tom Holland is the definitive on-screen Spider-Man. After Spider-Man: Brand New Day, a fantastic movie that also includes his best performance as the character, this reputation has become pretty unassailable.
Ever since his debut in Captain America: Civil War, which for my money is one of the greatest depictions of Spider-Man on-screen of all time, Holland has set the tone for the MCU Peter Parker, and upheld it through four feature films of his own, not to mention several appearances in the big crossover movies. Across each of them, he’s run the gamut of who Spider-Man is as a hero and the kind of movies he can star in. They’re all pretty good, but which is the best? Well, we’ve decided to find out.
Note: This ranking doesn’t include Spider-Man’s appearances in other movies. It only rounds up his four solo outings, ordered from worst to best. Without further ado…
4. Spider-Man: Far From Home (2019)
While far from a terrible movie, Far From Home had the unfortunate distinction of being the first Marvel movie after Avengers: Endgame, serving as something of an epilogue to the Infinity Saga. It found Peter reckoning with Tony Stark’s death and adjusting to life after the Blip had been reversed, which never really allowed the movie to stretch its own legs.
With the plot taking Peter and his friends to Europe on a school trip, where he’s recruited by Nick Fury to take on Quentin Beck/Mysterio, an illusionist summoning various giant-sized elemental threats, everything feels a bit distractingly fake. Several character dynamics are held in stasis, the Mysterio fake-out is too obvious, and that slice of the continuity feels awkward and immovable. The MCU had little idea of where to go post-Endgame, and this movie was the first casualty of that lack of direction.
3. Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017)
To be clear, I think that Spider-Man: Homecoming is a pretty good movie, and perhaps more importantly, it’s one that really benefits from its association with the broader MCU. With Parker having already debuted in Civil War, this, his first solo outing, is able to sidestep his origin and get moving with a pre-existing relationship with Tony Stark. Peter’s desire to impress Stark and become an Avenger allows for some natural conflict to emerge without having to waste time reiterating obvious plot points.
My main problem with this movie is that it’s a middle-chapter solo outing that can’t move the needle too much continuity-wise, and that it’s unashamedly an angsty high-school movie of a kind that I’d already aged out of by the time I saw it. Spidey finds himself embroiled in a plot by Adrian “Vulture” Toomes to repurpose stolen Chitauri technology from after the first Avengers movie, but the stakes feel small-scale. Most of the action is a bit shallow and disposable, while the meat of the high-school drama is solid but just has a more specific demographic than most solo Marvel movies.
2. Spider-Man: No Way Home (2021)
Despite outwardly appearing like a shameless way to cash in on nostalgia by using the Multiverse concept to shoehorn in Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield, Spider-Man: No Way Home is crossover shared-universe storytelling done just right, in my view. It’s obviously a bit of fan-service overkill, but the introduction of old heroes and villains makes sense within the narrative and, crucially, allows for some new emotional contours to those heroes and villains to make their inclusion worthwhile.
More to the point, it also allows Holland’s Peter Parker to become a real grown-up hero by embracing personal sacrifice — the exact opposite of the impulse that caused the mess that kick-starts the movie — while allowing the other Spider-Men a chance to reckon with their own failings and legacies. It was easy to overlook and be snooty about at the time, but in hindsight, I think it’s really cool.
1. Spider-Man: Brand New Day (2026)
As well as being a backdoor pilot for X-Men storytelling in its inclusion of Sadie Sink’s Jean Grey as a switcheroo “villain”, Brand New Day is a great Spider-Man movie on multiple levels. Holland delivers his best work as the character here, with Peter having spent years fighting crime alone after being forced to put a spell on his closest friends that prevents them from remembering him. His only friend is The Punisher, which is always a warning sign, and the emotional pain of trying to continue being a superhero while totally alone, as well as while undergoing significant physical and metaphorical changes, is the engine that drives the entire feature.
Daniel Destin Cretton, who also made the underrated Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings and the fantastic Wonder Man, delivers the best Spider-Man action ever, with a tremendous sense of kineticism and tactility. Characters from the broader continuity — including Punisher, who last showed up in Daredevil: Born Again and his own spin-off movie, Florence Pugh’s Yelena, and Mark Ruffalo’s Hulk — enhance the story being told, and there’s real, effective emotional sentiment underpinning everything.
As ever, Marvel is promising that Peter Parker will return. But if — or more accurately, when — he does, this outing is going to be tough to beat.
