Over the years, the Avengers have become some of the most well-known and beloved superheroes of all time. But with this rise in popularity, there also comes division.
Fans have become conflicted when passionately debating various MCU topics, such as who is the strongest Avenger or which Avenger has the best ass (Captain America, obviously). But one topic that fans hotly debate and have an even harder time agreeing on is which Avenger is the ultimate fave.
At first glance, the humble character of Peter Parker is easy to overlook. He isn’t a billionaire genius like Iron Man, he doesn’t have insane superhuman strength like Hulk, and he’s not a god like Thor. In terms of superheroes, he doesn’t really stand out in any one area and seems a bit average when compared to his compatriots, but at the end of the day, this is exactly what makes him and his Spider-Man alter-ego so amazing.
Peter Parker is an everyday teenager who isn’t very popular at his school. He has a part-time job where he constantly gets yelled at by his boss and he struggles to find the confidence to ask out his crush. So if he is so average, then how on Earth could he be our favorite Avenger?
The reason is that there is a bit of Peter Parker in all of us. We can all connect to the experiences and struggles that he’s had to endure. We know what it’s like to go through the rollercoaster ups and downs of high school, work a lousy part-time job, put up with a power-hungry boss, and we most definitely know the feeling of butterflies in our stomachs as we build up the courage to ask out our crush. By the same token, most of us can’t relate to the life of a billionaire or the experience of turning ourselves into an angry green monster, and we most definitely can’t relate to a god who lives in an entirely different dimension.
In a world where we are so often divided because we look for the differences between ourselves and others, Peter Parker is able to bring us all together, to unite us. He is the best Avenger not because he is the strongest or richest, but because even as Spider-Man he reminds us that at the end of the day, we are all human.