Superhero comics have been a mainstay of popular culture for action comics introduced Superman in 1938. The popularity of these characters has risen and fallen over the decades thanks to moral panics and organizations such as the Comics Code Authority, but modern society is more saturated with superhero media than ever. Marvel’s MCU film and TV series is a big contributor, but individual characters like Spider Man received various live iterations long before Marvel Studios Iron Man teased the Avenger Initiative in 2008.
DC Comics’ Caped Crusader, Batman, is one of the clearest examples of how different takes on a comic book character work. Fans have long debated the merits of Bruce Wayne’s performances, from Adam West’s campiness in the 1960s to Robert Pattinson’s more serious turn in 2022. The Batman. However, simply voiced takes on the character are just as often part of the discussion, with many expressing their love for Kevin Conroy in Batman: The Animated Series and Rocksteady Arkham Games.
Likewise, voice actor Yuri Lowenthal becomes as recognizable for playing Spider-Man as the character’s live-action counterparts. Lowenthal’s experience covers a wide range; games like Titanfall 2, Injusticeand Super Smash Bros Ultimate on TV shows like young justice, Ben 10and Esoteric. But as soon as Marvel’s Spider-Man 2When released in 2023, he’ll have reprized his role as Peter Parker in six different games, with no signs of slowing down anytime soon.
The Long History of Spider-Man Performances
Although Spider-Man was created by Stan Lee and Steve Ditko some 30 years after Superman, DC Comics’ golden boy, introduced in 1962 amazing fantasy nope. 15, it received about as many adaptations. While Adam West and Burt Ward portrayed Batman and Robin in live-action, a Spider Man animated series debuted in 1967 starring the late Paul Soles. This low-budget iteration became known for memes like Spider-Man pointing the finger at himself, and the Japanese “tokusatsu” series from the late 1970s is equally recognized for its humorous potential – starring Shinji Todo in the role of Takuya Yamashiro, who uses the robot Leopardon. .
In the late 1990s, Marvel went bankrupt and began selling the rights to various characters. This led to popular film franchises in the 2000s, such as Fox’s x-men titled by Hugh Jackman and Sony’s take on Spider Man with Tobey Maguire. Director Sam Raimi worked on three Spider Man films between 2002 and 2007, bringing the superhero a unique style fostered by his work on projects like the evil Dead series. However Spiderman 3 came out with a whimper, thanks in part to studio interference according to Raimi, the treble of Spiderman 2 left audiences thrilled about his return to Marvel with Doctor Strange: Multiverse of Madness.
Once the MCU took off, Sony tried again with the amazing spider man series of films starring Andrew Garfield. Marc Webb was only able to direct two films for it, released in 2012 and 2014, as they weren’t as well received as Raimi’s trilogy. Just two years later, a third live-action Spider-Man hit the big screen when Tom Holland debuted in Captain America: Civil War. Holland would receive a series of MCU films co-produced by Sony, leading to messy negotiations between the conglomerates in 2019, resulting in Marvel receiving more revenue.
This renewed agreement gave way to 2021 Spider-Man: No Coming Home, a movie centered around multiversal shenanigans in which Maguire and Garfield return alongside a handful of villains like Willem Dafoe’s Green Goblin and Jamie Foxx’s Electro. Although the importance of Sony Spider Man the films made Maguire, Garfield and Holland key exponents of the character, many others put on the mask. For example, Jake Johnson plays an older Peter Parker in Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse alongside Shameik Moore’s Miles Morales, and there have been several animated TV shows with Peter voiced by Neil Patrick Harris, Josh Keaton, Robbie Daymond, and more.
Yuri Lowenthal’s Ongoing Run As Spider-Man
Among this pantheon of Spider-Men, Lowenthal is best known for bringing the character to life in Marvel’s Spiderman – developed by Insomniac Games and released in 2018. However, this isn’t the first time Lowenthal has taken on the role. According to the Internet Movie Database (IMDb), the voice actor also played Garfield’s Peter Parker in the 2014 video game adaptation. The Amazing Spider-Man 2.
It’s the Insomniac title that really matters, because Marvel’s Spiderman became one of the biggest first-party releases for the PlayStation 4. It put Peter Parker alongside icons of the era like God of the war (2018) Kratos, Horizon Zero Dawnis Aloy, and the last of us 2‘s Ellie, all of which benefited from Sony’s marketing power in the PS5 generation. Lowenthal returned for Spider Man‘s DLC, and in a tertiary role as a mentor to Nadji Jeter’s Miles in Spider-Man: Miles Morales although the remastered original game included with some versions of Miles Morales was controversial for redesigning Peter Parker’s face model to better reflect Lowenthal’s performance.
The fact that Insomniac decided to rebuild its main character in an ongoing franchise based on the voice actor is telling, and Lowenthal’s performance was immediately iconic enough to earn him appearances in other games. Lowenthal reprized the role in Marvel Ultimate Alliance 3: The Black Order and Marvel Future Revolutionaccording to IMDb, and Firaxis Games made headlines by announcing that Lowenthal would be playing Spider-Man in Marvel’s Midnight Suns. He will also return alongside Jeter in the PS5 exclusive. Spiderman 2and there’s no doubt more to come for this branch of the Marvel Universe as Insomniac is developing a Wolverine Game.
That being said, Lowenthal is not de facto Spider Man in all projects off the big screen. Sean Chiplock, known for video game roles like Revali in The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wildtook over in Crystal Dynamics’ PlayStation exclusive Marvel’s Avengers DLCs. Still, it’s not hard to see Lowenthal gaining a Batman-like reputation from Conroy in non-real-life projects. If Conroy can stand out among the likes of Christian Bale and Michael Keaton, Lowenthal can also stand the test of time alongside Maguire, Garfield and Holland.
Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 is planned for 2023 on PS5.