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A nostalgic look at everyone's favourite friendly neighbourhood hero

CRAWL: Ellie Cox and Spider-Man sell cakes and raise funds at the 2016 Dean Scarecrow and Arts Festival
CRAWL: Ellie Cox and Spider-Man sell cakes and raise funds at the 2016 Dean Scarecrow and Arts Festival

TODAY, actor Tom Holland celebrates his 25th birthday.

Born and raised in Kingston upon Thames in southwest London, Holland’s career started on the West End when he was selected to perform in Billy Elliot the Musical, he was later promoted to the lead role.

Now a Hollywood star, the actor has appeared in several movie productions from The Impossible to Uncharted. Holland is perhaps most well-known, however, for playing Peter Parker/Spider-Man in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

 

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Appearing as the New York icon in six movies, his last display as Spider-Man brought together all three actors who have played Peter Parker on the silver screen. Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield made emotional returns to the franchise to help the young Parker battle a group of villains in ‘Spider-Man: No Way Home’.

The web-slinger first appeared nearly 60 years ago, when Fantastic Four creator Stan Lee looked to create a new superhero that teenagers could relate to, after Marvel Comics saw a surge in demand from readers in their teens.

Now, the ‘Friendly Neighbourhood’ hero is seen as one of the most popular and commercially successful comic book characters. There have been several animated and live action television series, comic strips, and multiple films since its inception in 1962. A Broadway musical based on the character, with music and lyrics by Bono and The Edge from U2, took to the stage in 2010.

One search online will give you a wide list of websites attempting to answer why Spider-Man has been so popular for so long. In an interview with the Chicago Tribune before his passing in 2018, Lee said he liked Spider-Man “because he's the one who's most like me - nothing ever turns out 100 percent okay; he's got a lot of problems, and he does things wrong, and I can relate to that.”

In another interview, the creator shared that part of the reason why so many around the world choose to dress up as the New Yorker may be due to the imagining that anyone could be under the costume.

In today’s nostalgia section, we prove Lee’s point by sharing images of Cumbrians young and old who have chosen to dress up as Spider-Man throughout the years.

 

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