Spider-Man has had some amazing big-screen adventures, but he has also occasionally dropped the ball from time to time. As the flagship character of Marvel Comics, Spider-Man would swing into animation, toys, and video games before finally landing on the big screen in 2002's Spider-Man. Since then, Spider-Man has stood as one of the most beloved big-screen superheroes of all time, with 2021's Spider-Man: No Way Home even bringing Tobey Maguire, Andrew Garfield, and Tom Holland's Web-Heads together in a true love letter to Spider-Man.

Sony's Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse and Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse would also crack open the multiverse even wider to bring literally hundreds of Spider-People to the cinema screens, including Miles Morales (Shamiek Moore) and Spider-Gwen (Hailee Steinfeld). While Spider-Man's movies have consistently been popular and generally well-received, there have been some hiccups along the way, whether in terms of character or story choices or missed opportunities for crowd-pleasing moments. Here are the 15 times the Spider-Man franchise has made mistakes in different corners of the Spider-Verse.

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15 Maguire & Garfield's Cameos In Across The Spider-Verse

Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse is packed with a cornucopia of Spideys, both animated and live-action. Across the Spider-Verse would even go as far as to bring Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield's Web-Slinger's into the story, but there would nonetheless be a catch. Specifically, Maguire and Garfield only appear through archival footage from their respective Spider-Man movies.

Considering just how universally well-received Maguire and Garfield's earlier returns in Spider-Man: No Way Home would prove to be, the fact that Across the Spider-Verse would only include them via old footage and not proper cameos is perplexing. Indeed, with Donald Glover's all-new Prowler appearance in Across the Spider-Verse, the absence of Maguire and Garfield cannot help but feel like something of a missed opportunity. While it is great to have official confirmation that Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield's Spideys are part of Sony's growing Spider-Verse, actual Peter #2 and Peter #3 cameos still would have been a big step up.

14 No Way Home Using Lizard & Sandman Actors' Archival Footage

Spider-Man: No Way Home brings a quintet of villains from Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield's Spider-Man movies into the MCU, including Thomas Haden Church's Sandman and Rhys Ifans's Lizard. For the most part, both Sandman and Lizard shine in No Way Home and even get some of their best on-screen moments in the film. However, upon being de-powered and sent back to their universes in the movie's final battle, Church and Ifans appear on camera through archival shots from Spider-Man 3 and The Amazing Spider-Man.

To be fair, with No Way Home being filmed during the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, film productions had to abide by strict on-set safety measures to avoid being shut down. With Sandman and Lizard primarily appearing in No Way Home in their mutated forms, this would be one effective way for the movie to streamline filming. Still, it is unfortunate that No Way Home could not make these shots a bit more unique.

13 Spider-Man Movies Setting Up Sinister Six & Never Paying It Off

The Amazing Spider-Man 2 has enjoyed some retroactive redemption thanks to No Way Home, but during its initial release, the movie was famously positioned as the beginning of Sony kicking off a Spider-Man cinematic universe. That would include The Amazing Spider-Man 2 setting up the villainous team known as the Sinister Six, with Easter eggs liberally peppered in the film's third act. Unfortunately, these plans would fall by the wayside with The Amazing Spider-Man 2's underperformance and the subsequent debut of Tom Holland's Spidey in the MCU.

No Way Home's five-villain cabal and Venom cameo are the closest the Sinister Six have come to being realized on the big-screen, and with the end-credits scene of Morbius, Sony is still seemingly determined to make the Sinister Six happen. With the poor box office performance of Morbius, Sony's Sinister Six aspirations still remain vague and with no clarified relationship with the Venom movies and Kraven the Hunter. Hopefully, with Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse being such a hit, Sony can finally deliver on their Sinister Six plans sooner rather than later.

12 Aunt May Dying In No Way Home

In Spider-Man's origin story, the death of Uncle Ben is a turning point for Peter Parker, in which he famously learns that with great power comes great responsibility. While Uncle Ben's death has previously been seen in Spider-Man and The Amazing Spider-Man, the MCU would take a different approach with Ben already dead. In essence, Robert Downey Jr.'s Tony Stark and Marisa Tomei's Aunt May fill the Uncle Ben role for Tom Holland's Spider-Man, which of course would lead to both being killed off.

Aunt May's death is one of the most emotionally powerful and tragic moments in Holland's Spider-Man tenure and cements that Aunt May is every bit as important to Peter as Uncle Ben. Unfortunately, it still meets the criteria of fridging, in which a female character's death becomes a motivating factor for the hero. Even great superhero adventures like Spider-Man: No Way Home can indulge in tired clichés, and it is still best to give it its credit as an emotional pillar of Peter Parker's story.

11 Peter's First Web-Shooter Test In The Amazing Spider-Man

While Tobey Maguire's Spider-Man swings around New York City with organic web-shooters (much to his fellow Web-Slinger's shock in No Way Home), Andrew Garfield's Peter Parker goes further back to Spidey's origin story by creating web-fluid and mechanical web-shooters. While both work like a charm in The Amazing Spider-Man, Garfield's Peter seems far less cautious than Maguire or Tom Holland's Peter. In his first on-screen test of his web-shooters, Garfield's Peter allows himself to fall from a skyscraper before shooting a web-line to swing to the ground.

To be clear, it is a triumphant moment for the budding superhero, with Peter excitedly whooping like he is on a roller coaster as he builds a key component of his Spider-Man identity. Still, it would seem prudent that Peter take his first few swings from some less life-threatening heights before doing so hundreds of feet off the ground. Whether Peter did so off-screen or not, The Amazing Spider-Man shows Garfield's Spidey to be a true thrill-seeker, but perhaps one who tends to get a bit ahead of himself.

10 Venom's Short Visit To The MCU

Just two months before the release of Spider-Man: No Way Home, Venom: Let There Be Carnage would open its own doorway through the multiverse with Tom Hardy's Eddie Brock and the Venom symbiote being zapped into the MCU. Even better, Venom sees Tom Holland's Spidey on TV and recognizes him (Venom originating from a symbiote hive mind). While this teased a Spidey-Venom battle royale, Venom's end-credits appearance in No Way Home would not last long before he would return to his own universe.

Though Venom would leave a fragment of his symbiote form in the MCU, the build-up to Eddie's No Way Home appearance is one of the movie's few letdowns, but an undeniable one nonetheless with the unrealized tease it embodies. Still, there are countless Web-Slingers throughout the Spider-Verse, with calls abounding for Andrew Garfield's Spidey to cross paths with Hardy's Venom. Should that happen, one hopes it goes much further than Venom's No Way Home cameo.

9 Amazing Spider-Man 2's Rushed Green Goblin Setup

The Green Goblin has long been Spider-Man arch-nemesis, and in Spidey's canon, both Norman and Harry Osborn lay claim to that title. The Amazing Spider-Man 2 would make a somewhat novel decision by having Norman (Chris Cooper) seemingly die early, with Harry (Dane DeHaan) becoming the Green Goblin in the movie's final act. While Dehaan's Goblin suit and make-up look okay, his journey to that point is certainly on the fast side.

In The Amazing Spider-Man 2, Harry is driven to villainy by the knowledge that Norman has passed a terminal illness on to him and becomes vengeful of Spider-Man after he refuses to give him a sample of his blood as a potential cure. While the dark turn of DeHaan's Harry makes him a much more sinister version than James Franco's tragic but redeemed Harry in Spider-Man 3, the brevity of the Green Goblin's role in The Amazing Spider-Man 2 cannot be overlooked. In the end, it is the result of The Amazing Spider-Man 2 being a bit too eager to get there.

8 Flash Thompson Keeps Missing Something

Peter Parker's high school bully Eugene "Flash" Thompson is one of the most complex characters in the Spider-Man ensemble, pushing Peter around while being the Web-Head's biggest fan (and Peter and Flash later becoming friends as adults). While Flash Thompson has been featured in every live-action Spider-Man movie series, none have managed to fully nail his essence. Joe Manganiello's Flash in Sam Raimi's Spider-Man captures Flash's merciless aggression toward Peter very well, but he is also written as more of a generic jock bully.

Chris Zylka's Flash in The Amazing Spider-Man is more fleshed out and even begins to show his admiration for Spidey, but it is also far less threatening than Manganiello's version. Tony Revolori's Flash Thompson would later be re-imagined in the MCU as science wiz on the same level as Peter himself, but also more of a nuisance to Peter than an effective bully, and one who mostly lands himself in hot water. Every big-screen version of Flash Thompson hits the bullseye on different aspects of him, but none have managed to bring them all into perfect harmony yet.

7 The Rhino Being Shortchanged In Amazing Spider-Man 2

Venom is not the only Spider-Man villain to get the short end of the stick in a movie, and it is arguable that Aleksei Sytsevich, a.k.a. The Rhino (Paul Giamatti), would be the far more cheated of the two. Despite being teased extensively in The Amazing Spider-Man 2's marketing, Sytsevich only appears in the movie's opening action scene before later battling Spidey again in the movie's final scene. Though Sytsevich faces Spidey in a Rhino mech suit, their confrontation still ends right as The Amazing Spider-Man 2 cuts to black.

Spider-Man: No Way Home would later quip about the brief appearance of Giamatti's Rhino, with Andrew Garfield's Peter #3 feeling "lame" for fighting "a guy in a rhinoceros machine" compared to Peter #1 and Peter #2's alien villains. Meta humor aside, it is still a shame that Paul Giamatti's Rhino never got his proper due after being hyped up so much for The Amazing Spider-Man 2.

6 Never Seeing Prowler Until Across The Spider-Verse

Sony's 2023 animated sequel Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse brings more Wall-Crawlers to the big screen than ever before, and the movie also includes some unexpected live-action cameos. One of the most surprising would be Donald Glover as Aaron Davis, Glover having previously appeared in the MCU movie Spider-Man: Homecoming. Even better, Davis is held prisoner in the Spider Society's headquarters in his full Prowler garb, and while a splendid cameo indeed, the interim between Glover's two appearances feels like a missed step.

Clearly, Aaron has become Prowler some time between Homecoming and Across the Spider-Verse and was presumably captured in that time, as well, but that still leaves his life as Prowler off-screen. Whether Tom Holland's Spidey, the Spider Society, or some combination of the two captured him remains unexplained. Though Prowler's cameo in Across the Spider-Verse is a crowd-pleasing one, it still leaves a great Spidey-Prowler confrontation out of the picture of the Spider-Verse.

5 No Jameson In Amazing Spider-Man 2 (J.K. Simmons Is Right There)

When Andrew Garfield became the second big-screen Web-Slinger in 2012's The Amazing Spider-Man, one of the biggest casting questions hovering over the new franchise was who would become the new J. Jonah Jameson. This would be a far bigger casting conundrum than most comic book movie handovers since J. K. Simmons, as the Jameson of the Sam Raimi Spider-Man movies, is so wonderfully cast. The Amazing Spider-Man 2 would obliquely acknowledge that, with Jameson not appearing at all and only communicating with Peter through email as the budding photographer sells photos of himself web-slinging to the Daily Bugle.

Simmons's much-heralded return as the J. Jonah Jameson of the Marvel Cinematic Universe in Spider-Man: Far From Home would later lead to his full-blown return in Spider-Man: No Way Home. Ordinarily, new versions of superhero franchises necessitate re-castings of their entire supporting cast, and the history of Spidey himself shows the value of new actors tackling iconic characters. However, the world sadly has never gotten to see Peter #3's Jameson, and after No Way Home, it seems like the best option would have been to make Simmons's Jameson a constant throughout the Spider-Verse.

4 No Peter #2 VS. Green Goblin Rematch In No Way Home

When it comes to iconic supervillain performances, few can compete with Willem Dafoe's unforgettable Norman Osborn, a.k.a. the Green Goblin. Dafoe's portrayal of Osborn is as haunting as it is sinister, with endlessly quotable lines like "Back to formula?!" and "First, we attack his heart!" coupled with an unmistakable villain laugh and Dafoe's frightening sharp facial contortions. Dafoe's Goblin would return for the multiverse ensemble Spider-Man: No Way Home, as would Tobey Maguire's Spider-Man, but they surprisingly have little direction interaction in their reunion.

What makes that missed opportunity even more shocking is that set photos reveal that Maguire and Dafoe did film a fight scene in No Way Home's climactic Statue of Liberty battle, which was ultimately cut from the film. Some of the best Spider-Man fight scenes ever put to film have been Dafoe's Goblin tangling with Maguire's Peter in Spider-Man, along with Holland's Spidey in No Way Home pitting Holland's Spidey against the Goblin. No Way Home stands as a tribute to Spider-Man and one of the best movies in his filmography, but the lost battle of Peter #2 vs. Green Goblin is still a missed opportunity.

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3 Peter's Dance In Spider-Man 3

In the comics and Spider-Man: The Animated Series, Peter Parker's bond with the alien symbiote turns into a toxic relationship, with Peter becoming more aggressive and violent, and the suit even taking Peter out on missions while asleep. Spider-Man 3 certainly shows a change in Peter's personality, but a considerably lighter one with Peter growing more and more full of himself. That, of course, would lead to the much-memed Peter Parker dance of Spider-Man 3, which really takes the Web-Head to the goofier side.

While Spider-Man 3 shows the black suit bringing out the worst in Peter, it is also tied to him learning that the Sandman (Thomas Haden Church) is really Uncle Ben's killer, so much of Peter's darker turn is natural anyway. To be sure, with the drug-like effects of the symbiote, it's arguable that Peter would inevitably fumble his efforts to act cool, which could make Spider-Man 3's Peter dance more clever if viewed from the right angle. In the end, Spider-Man 3 does still go a bit overboard with Peter's dance, though at least Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse would mine some humor from it.

2 Venom Being Shortchanged In Spider-Man 3

Eddie Brock might have a fruitful big-screen career in Sony's Venom movies, but despite Venom being the perfect villain for Spider-Man 3, he would be unfortunately underserved in his big-screen debut. Spider-Man 3 tackles Spidey's famous black suit story from the comics, with the suit being an alien symbiote that eventually bonds with Eddie Brock (Topher Grace). Unfortunately, while the black suit story itself is the foundation of Spider-Man 3, Venom's presence is far less prominent.

After Eddie and the symbiote bond, Venom only appears in Spider-Man 3's climactic battle, and while he looks fantastic, the brevity of his role would be a big letdown for Spidey fans and general audiences alike eager to see one of the Web-Head's most beloved enemies. Spider-Man 3's numerous villains and parallel plot lines have been cited as the reason for Venom getting the shaft, but 2021's Spider-Man: No Way Home would later pull off that juggling act, and with all three big-screen Spideys on board. With Venom being teased as the main event for Spider-Man 3, his minor role is a flub on the Spider-Man franchise.

1 Doc Ock Throwing The Car At Peter

Like Willem Dafoe, Alfred Molina also would deliver another electrifying villain performance in 2004's Spider-Man 2 as Doctor Otto Octavius, a.k.a. Doctor Octopus. More commonly referred to as Doc Ock, the eight-limbed supervillain is both a formidable enemy of Spider-Man and a mentor to Peter Parker as an up-and-coming science student. It seems odd, then, that Doc Ock would be so careless as to hurl a car at Peter in a café while on a mission to set up a rendezvous with Spider-Man.

Doc Ock is not aware that Peter is Spider-Man at this point in Spider-Man 2, but even lacking this knowledge, it is surprising that he would risk killing the very photographer who can deliver a message to the Web-Head to rescue the kidnapped Mary Jane (Kirsten Dunst). Octavius is under the influence of his artificially intelligent tentacles, so it could be argued that their aggression would lead him to throw caution to the wind against Spider-Man. In any case, Peter's spider-sense would be the only thing to save him and M.J., and like Doc Ock's own fusion reactor, it demonstrates that Doc Ock is not above miscalculations.