Back when Sam Raimi took the helm of Spider-Man, one of the biggest changes to the character was the fact that his webbing was organic. Instead of coming out of an invented gadget, it literally shot from his wrist. It's honestly kind of gross if one thinks too much about it.
Lots of the general audience didn't even know this was unusual. So when The Amazing Spider-Man came along and Andrew Garfield's Spider-Man didn't have organic webbing, it was a big deal. Instead, this new Peter Parker invented his web-shooters, in a much more comic-accurate fashion.
Then there was, of course, another reboot for the ol' web-slinger, this time with Tom Holland in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. The idea of an invented web-shooter stuck, and it became the norm once again. This time though, Marvel aimed to make them something as realistic as possible—something Tom Holland seems to feel they succeeded in doing.
So much so, that Holland actually admitted that the ones that Garfield's Peter Parker invented never made sense to him.
HOLLAND COMPARES WEB-SHOOTERS
Marvel Studios and Abrams Books for Young Readers have revealed a brand-new behind-the-scenes book called The Moviemaking Magic of Marvel Studios: Spider-Man.
The book, which is set to hit shelves on November 30 later this year, has an intriguing quote from Tom Holland.
One of the pages revealed includes a bunch of neat concept art of the web-shooters seen being used by Peter Parker in the MCU.
On the left-side page, there is a quote from Tom Holland talking about his old-school web-shooters. In the quote, Holland says that "what [he] loves about the original web-shooters is they're as real as they could be," and even compares them to Andrew Garfield from The Amazing Spider-Man, saying that his "[never made] much sense to [him]:"
"The old-school web-shooters are so cool. They're really big and chunky, they're really mechanical, and if you press the button, everything moves... What I love about his original web-shooters is they're as real as they could be. I know that's like impossible to make a thing that shoots web out of your hand, but the one thing with [the web-shooters in] Andrew [Garfield]'s movie is that they were so small and so compact, it didn't really make much sense to me. But this is a big chunky thing that a kid would make in his room."
There was an additional photo of the same page, but this time showing a tab that folds out to reveal various expressive eyes that the MCU's Spidery is known for.
ANDREW GARFIELD HAS SOME EXPLAINING TO DO
To be fair, lots of the things that Peter Parker theoretically is able to build as a teenager in a questionable living situation are, well... questionable. All-in-all, Tom Holland's Peter Parker probably has the most realistic interpretation yet.
While he's still an up-and-coming genius, having also personally created the web fluid used throughout the films, a lot of his more insane tech comes from Tony Stark—or made with the billionaire's money; which is a great contrast to his more chunky mechanical ones from Holland's homemade suit.
It would be really fun for this whole web-shooter debacle to be referenced or addressed in Spider-Man: No Way Home since the film is rumored to feature both Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield. The banter between the three of them is bound to be amazing no matter what is or isn't addressed, so really it's a win-win situation for both Marvel Studios and fans alike.
The world will be able to see Spider-Man: No Way Home when it hits theaters on December 17th, 2021. Until then, fans can watch the trailer whenever it happens to be released from captivity by Sony.
