This year, as I’ve mentioned once before, I’ve set a goal for myself: watch and rewatch as many superhero movies as I can. And since I’ve got something of a platform here, I wanted to periodically update you on my progress and tell you what I’ve been thinking so far. (If you want to keep up with my progress, you can follow along on the Letterboxd list I update each time I watch another film.) In my first column about this process, I talked about the Marvel Cinematic Universe to date. Today, our Venn Diagram is going to have a little bit of overlap, as we look at one of the few characters to have a successful cinematic career before joining the MCU: Peter Parker, the Amazing Spider-Man.

I didn’t watch all of these films in order, but I’m going to talk about them more or less that way. Also, In that aforementioned first column, I spent time talking about Tom Holland in Spider-Man: Homecoming, so I’m going to get this out of the way first. Holland’s Spider-Man is the best...