By Joshua H. Stulman

Well the new Spider-Man: Homecoming movie is finally here! If you are a casual Spider-Man fan, curious outsider, or just want to see a fun summer movie, director Jon Watts delivers a fun well paced story with great acting, humor, and adventure. The script is lighthearted but touching when it needs to be and provides a great companion piece to the expanding Marvel Universe of movies.

However if you are a hard core Spidey reader from way back when, and are expecting to see a comic accurate version of the webslinger- well there’s a lot of good stuff here but it ain’t comic accurate to say the least.

But let’s not get bogged down just yet. There is a lot of good here and about 90% of the audience is going to love it, so stop reading this, go out and see it now cause there are a whole lot of SPOILERS BELOW!

The movie starts off with two major flashback sequences firmly establishing itself in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. The first features the Vulture (Michael Keaton) and his crew, which includes longtime Spider-Man villains- the Tinkerer called “Mason”, and the Shocker, whom fittingly enough run a salvage company hired to work on the clean up from the Chitari invasion of the first Avengers movie. The way the three villains work together seems really natural. Each have their roles, and its a great way to incorporate the many villains of the Spidey universe without going over the top (i.e, Spider-Man 3).

The second flashback fills in Peter Parker’s moments leading up to and during his Avengers debut in Captain America: Civil War. This is done through a video diary and it is hilarious- he continues to film and comment as he’s on the battlefield. It does an excellent job of really showing that Peter Parker (Tom Holland) is a kid, and almost a fan of the Avengers themselves.

Back to present day, the film does a great job of establishing both Peter Parker’s character as a witty, nerd-wallflower while Spider-Man is depicted as over-eager with plenty of well-intentioned and comedic escapades.

As Parker, he fawns over Liz Allen, is tortured by Flash Thompson, and hangs out with Ned Leeds building the Lego Deathstar. Parker is a modern day nerd who loves pop culture. Its very easy to imagine him playing video games and reading comic books. He’s not too much of a social outcast to be invited to parties or participate in afterschool activities.

The story picks up when Spider-Man finally observes an ATM robbery referenced in the trailer with crooks wearing the Avengers masks. They use some of the new Chitari weapons manufactured by the Vulture. This leads to a series of run-ins with the crew and a determination by Spidey to catch the Vulture. Tony Stark intercedes several times to prevent Spider-Man from further escalation, but Spidey’s stubbornness gets the best of him.

Throughout the movie there are numerous cameos by Captain America (Chris Evans) in the form of Public Service Announcements that become a running joke and are very funny.

As a side-note: Marvel does an amazing job of mixing appropriate pop songs as introductory pieces to set the mood for scenes, as well as classical movie orchestral music to punctuate important parts of the film. They really have opened up their wallets to bring great music that feels natural and not rushed (i.e. Suicide Squad).

OK, so this is why Spider-Man is not comic accurate:

Spider-Man: Homecoming is not comic accurate because Marvel doesn’t want it to be!

In the end credits there usually is a line that reads “Created by Stan Lee and Steve Ditko” but here the wording used is “Based on,” and that’s exactly what it is. The movie is shares similarities with the character but is purposely not trying to make a comic accurate movie. Marvel further establishes this in their intro crawl, which used to feature comic panels. It is now replaced by film clips of their other movies. Both Marvel and DC have transitioned away from their characters being based in Comics but rather Entertainment Media, because truthfully- most new fans are coming to Super-Heroes via TV, Movies, Toys, and Video Games- and not so much through reading comics.

Overall:

This movie is well worth the price of admission and is a fun movie that all ages can enjoy.

Movie Grade: 8.5/10

Comic Accuracy Grade: 6.5/10

Want to know what Spider-Man: Homecoming got wrong?

Check out Part 2 Next Week!

In the meantime, browse our great selection of Spidey Comics, CLICK HERE

Joshua H. Stulman

Owner, BrooklynComicShop.com