Sure, they were sent back to the Sony-verse in NWH’s conclusion, but it cemented their existence in the ever-widening MCU Multiverse. The most obvious example of this is Spider-Man: No Way Home, a movie that famously starred the casts of Sony’s Spider-Man and The Amazing Spider-Man franchises along with Tom Hardy’s Venom in a wasted cameo. And it helps differentiate The Amazing Spider-Man from previous movies that Gwen Stacy ( Emma Stone), not Mary Jane Watson, is Peter/Spidey's love interest here.Thanks to the Sony-verse’s latest exploits, the Spider-Man spinoffs all technically exist inside Marvel’s MCU. He's antsy and curious and very charming. Garfield brings a different but equally fantastic energy to the role his Peter has a skater-on-the-fringes angst that's not emo and not super-boyish (like Maguire) but still perfect for a teenage superhero. So is there any reason to love this new outing, which treads over much of the same backstory as previous films did? Well, yes.

Sure, the third film of the last set, which featured the wonderful Tobey Maguire in the titular role, was a bit disappointing, but overall the series was a crowd-pleaser in many ways. Let's be honest, though: The Spider-Man franchise didn't really need a reboot. This Spidey wants to show off, as a teen encountering new powers would, and he deserved a proper fight. One gripe worth airing is about Spider-Man's nemesis: The Lizard seems scary enough, but not so scary as to be a worthy opponent. He lingers on the teen romance, which is delightful, and serves up thrilling action sequences without the show-off-y quality that too many superhero movies rely on. Director Marc Webb brings a realism to the proceedings that's hard not to like in this superhero reboot.

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