Spiderman is an entry level superhero. He’s easy to like quippy, legitimately good. So it makes sense to have Spider-Man be young. To give it that much more relatability to him. Most kids aren’t going to be into something like the punisher, and not should they be. That’s a level of psychology and darkness that no kid or teen should be at. Keep Peter young. As they grow, they’ll come to like other characters.

I think they’re spreading out their demographics. Having one of the marvel team in highschool is more relatable to that age bracket.

I like the newer Spiderman films, and it’s interesting how he has to navigate the vulnerabilities of being a minor while possessing incredible powers. Homecoming did a great job of showing this with the confrontation scene on the way to the prom, where, for a few minutes, he was just a terrified kid. The tension was visceral.

That said, I liked how the Superman reboot started after he was established. It was way more interesting than another origin story. But James Gunn is a fantastic writer/director and probably could have done well no matter where the film landed on the timeline.

But I don’t think about age that much. You seem to have a weird obsession with specific ages and age differences going by other things I’ve seen you post.

Personally, I’m tired of reboots that show Ben dying, Krypton exploding and the crime alley shooting. We all know what happened but please Hollywood, waste half the movie rehashing.

In No Way Home we did see Peter as an adult - Tobey Maquire - and it was refreshing to see Peter with wrinkles.

Hollywood keeps starting Peter Parker in high school because most reboots usually start with an origin story, which usually puts Peter in high school. I don’t see Uncle Ben dying as likely if Peter was in college or working.

I also feel like part of the hallmark of Spider-Man is that, even with some experience, he is usually put into positions way over his or any age peer’s head. The older Spider-Man is, the less likely that Spider-Man will be overwhelmed. Or, that kind of overwhelmed feeling can be better described by a different super hero.

Should Spider-Man be 50 or 60 at this point? Should he continue to be an effective hero?

Do we want origin stories — where Parker is a teenager — or do we want to know what he’s doing as a seasoned hero who is older? Because Hollywood keeps giving us the former. And it’s not necessarily because Hollywood prefers Spider-Man as a teenage boy. I think origin stories are safer bet for bringing in new fans, and that’s the point. Spider-Man is a younger hero so he’ll always be younger. Meanwhile Iron Man is a bit older, was a bit older when Tony Stark became Iron Man. I think he was closer to 30?

Looking over at anime, there are a few stories out there where the protagonists are in their 20s. They don’t do as well as series where the protags are in their teens. Of course that’s anime, in Japan your salad days were when you were in high school, not college like in the west, because high school to Japan is culturally what college is to the west. So it gets treated the same.

Teens or 20s, they’re all too young for me, so I have to accept that characters are not made for my age group/demographic anymore. Maybe in my late 40s I shouldn’t like superhero movies or anime, but I like what I like and I don’t apologise for it. Two presently-airing anime series I’m watching now have the characters all around 15-16 (My Hero Academia) and in the other, the main girl is 4 (SPYxFAMILY). None of these characters are attractive to me. One, because of their ages (I’m not even entertaining the potential attractiveness of Anya; I mean the MHA characters) but also because I’m not attracted to cartoon characters. The mom (of the main guy on MHA: Google “Inko Midoriya”) looks like she’d be fun for some Netflix and chill, though. I mean, if she were a real person. I’d give Mr Crybaby Broccoli a little sister or brother.

I always felt older parker made more sense for his genius to show. Highschoolers are idiots always.

depends on the story you want to tell

regardless, don’t forget about the new Into the Spiderverse animated films which, though feature a teenage protagonist, do liberally include an adult Peter Parker and we see some glimpses into their life and struggles

That’s the thing with rebooting stories, they usually start at the beginning, and run till they’re cancelled. Because of this you may only get one or two stories about Peter navigating his Medicare, but there’s 3000 versions of a teenager being bitten by a spider.

When I was a kid reading the comics in the 70s, he was a college student. Mid 30’s would be a good age.

The problem is, every time they re-boot, they put him back in high school.

I think it should serve the story it’s in. There are good stories to be told about teenage Peter Parker. I liked the new Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man cartoon, and him being a teenager really works there.

With that said, I’ve seen a lot of that version. For new stories I’d be a lot more interested in stories following an older Peter.

He’s an adult in at least 5 animated series. In addition to the ones you mentioned, he’s an adult in the 1981 series, Spiderman Unlimited, and Spiderman and His Amazing Friends

having read the comics from… decades

imo a real time story of him should be mid to late 20s