Peter Parker/Spider-Man had existed on page and in other formats before 2002’s , but it was that live-action blockbuster that ultimately proved the iconic superhero could work in a big way on the big screen. portrayed the character for an entire trilogy between 2002 and 2007, with one other appearance in a 2021 film, while took over the role for two movies (and he also showed up again in the role in 2021). Within the Marvel Cinematic Universe, though, it’s who’s been playing the role, and his time as Spider-Man isn't over just yet, either.

There have been half a dozen movies to date that have featured Tom Holland playing Peter Parker/Spider-Man, with three solo movies and three bigger MCU movies that the character has happened to show up in. All of those are ranked below, . None of these movies are misses, though, which is important to highlight straight away. All are good, it’s just that some are ultimately better than others.

So, in 2016, there were two movies that pitted iconic superheroes against each other, and of those, was certainly the better one (the other was the all-over-the-place ). Captain America: Civil War might've sounded like it was the third movie, based on that title, but Avengers 2.5 could be a technically more accurate thing to call it. The title character clashes with Tony Stark/Iron Man, various other heroes pick a side, and then the movie still tries to find time to introduce new characters like Black Panther and Tom Holland’s (then) new Peter Parker.

Getting Peter Parker/Spider-Man in there kind of works. Like, he feels as though he doesn’t need to be here for the main story to progress, but he had to be introduced at some point, and doing so here, . The Spider-Man scenes are fun, if a little like the cinematic equivalent of empty calories, and the movie overall is a bit scattershot. It wants to be weighty without upsetting the status quo too much, and juggles arguably too many balls at once… but certain sequences do shine, and some of the set-up here for latter Phase 3 movies can be appreciated in hindsight.

is far from the best of Tom Holland’s solo Spider-Man movies to date, but it has some tough competition and remains, overall, a pretty good film, all things considered. It serves as something of an epilogue to Phase 3’s real climax, exploring some of the fallout from the events of the conflict against Thanos while also lowering the stakes a little… at least for most of the movie. It does conclude with something of a game-changer narrative-wise, as far as the Spider-Man movies are concerned.

But that lowering of the stakes is felt mostly because Far From Home is all about Peter and some classmates going on a summer trip to Europe, shaking up the scenery as far as Spider-Man goes, given how intrinsically tied to New York City the character usually is. He ends up clashing with one of the more iconic foes from Spider-Man’s long comic history, and the mix of humor, action, and spectacle here is relatively well done. .

As mentioned before, Captain America: Civil War skipped all the origin story stuff for this new version of Peter Parker/Spider-Man, and then the character’s first solo movie, , did much the same. Homecoming succeeds in letting viewers know a little more about this particularly young, naïve, and optimistic Peter Parker, and fits in well tonally with the humorous stuff the MCU was offering in 2017. After all, (for the most part) and were also quite focused on comedy; a calm before the storm that came in 2018, perhaps.

Spider-Man: Homecoming also features a fair bit of Tony Stark/Iron Man, who serves as something of a reluctant mentor to Peter Parker, with the latter’s first big villain also emerging here: the Vulture. Homecoming keeps things relatively grounded by MCU standards, and . Spider-Man: Homecoming is well-balanced, entertaining, and easy to like, as you might expect from an MCU movie released around this time, when the franchise really was at its best (and most consistent).

Things get a little tricky here, because is a high point as far as superhero movies go, but Spider-Man himself is in it very little. So, if judged as a Tom Holland superhero movie, there’s simply not as much to latch onto here, but it’s also an impressive film in its own right. .

There would’ve also been a point in history when even saying that Tom Holland was in this movie would’ve been considered a spoiler, but time marches on (and, even back then, the likelihood of so many people staying dead in the MCU would’ve been low; consider all the money that would've been lost). Speaking of movies that were once talked about in hushed tones for fear of – in hindsight, quite obvious – spoilers…

In the lead-up to , the big question was: Will all three live-action Spider-Man actors from the 21st century show up in this movie? Actually, if you were a little more cynical, the question was probably more: Why wouldn’t the three live-action Spider-Man actors from the 21st century show up in this movie? It’s an idea that sounds like financial dynamite, and it was, because No Way Home made a ton of money. It was also a very satisfying and overall entertaining film.

It hits the ground running after Far From Home’s climax perhaps a little too chaotically, but eventually finds its feet and has a good deal of fun with the multiverse-hopping premise; one that brought some older Spider-Man villains, as well as Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield, into the MCU for a little while. It’s a movie unabashedly heavy with fan service, perhaps comparable in that sense to , but fans were serviced and in Holland’s fourth Spider-Man movie.

While had a lot on its plate, and quite clearly was not a solo Spider-Man movie, it nonetheless utilized Peter Parker extremely well. Balance was achieved here in a shockingly effective way, with the occasional messiness of Captain America: Civil War feeling like a kind of distant memory in comparison/hindsight. Everyone comes together to defeat Thanos, an existential threat to the universe, and someone who only grows more powerful with just about every new scene he’s in.

There’s a steady progression to an ultimately tragic conclusion, . Sure, Endgame largely fixes things, but Infinity War can still be appreciated for how much it temporarily shook things up. It might well be the best film in the MCU to date, and given Tom Holland’s in it a sizable amount (a supporting character, sure, but an impactful one), it feels fair to call it his best outing in the MCU, too.

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