You know who Spider-Man is, right? Peter Parker, bit by a radioactive arachnid, gained the ability to do whatever a spider can. He lost his beloved Uncle Ben when he refused to act to stop a burglar, but he gained an important lesson: with great power comes great responsibility.If you’ve only watched the movies, you might think that description is missing a key element. Spider-Man is in high school, right? Even if it’s Miles Morales under the mask, Spidey has to learn to balance his family obligations and his superheroing with his job. Yet, for most of the 60-plus years that Spider-Man has been around, Peter Parker has been a grown-up, sometimes even dealing with a wife and child while web-slinging.cnx.cmd.push(function() {cnx({playerId: "106e33c0-3911-473c-b599-b1426db57530",}).render("0270c398a82f44f49c23c16122516796");});Fans of the movies have only seen Peter Parker as a proper grown up once. Fortunately, it was a perfect portrayal. For that reason, Sony or Marvel or whoever just needs to do it, and let Jake Johnson play Spider-Man in live action already.Peter Parker’s Personal PunishmentBeyond his age or civilian identity, Spider-Man has one defining feature. He is a loser. Peter Parker is an anti-power fantasy. Sure, he’s an orphaned nerd raised by his loving aunt and uncle, but his life gets worse when a radioactive spider-bite gives him the ability to do whatever a spider can. His uncle dies because he treated other people like they treat him, he cannot balance his responsibility as a superhero with his other obligations, and his greatest victories come with demoralizing defeats.Nothing illustrates the dynamic better than the moment that he thought he had rescued his girlfriend Gwen Stacy from the Green Goblin’s attack. Not only did the mental break that drove Norman Osborn to become the Goblin and kidnap Gwen stem from Peter’s desire to be a good friend to Harry Osborn, but it was the web that Spider-Man shot at Gwen to stop her fall that actually broke her neck.Spider-Man has suffered similar setbacks since that story in 1973. He has been buried alive and betrayed by friends. He’s lost his marriage to editors the devil, and gets dismissed by other heroes. He had his greatest enemy take over his body and straighten out his life, and he went through clone debacles more than once. And yet, at the end, Spider-Man always does the right thing.That’s what makes him a hero.To be sure, every live-action Spider-Man has played elements of that tragic status. The wide-eyed innocent played by Tobey Maguire, the brooding teen played by Andrew Garfield, and the energetic kid played by Tom Holland have all suffered their tragedies, and each of their movies end with their Parkers suiting up to save the day once more.But in each of their cases, that resilience can be explained away as the optimism of youth. The ability to keep doing the right thing in the face of hardship means a lot more when it’s being done by a man in his 30s or 40s. And that’s where Jake Johnson excels.When Peter Met NickIn New Girl season one episode “Jess & Julia,” the fussy Schmidt discovers that his roommate Nick has been using his towel. Adding to his consternation is the revelation that Nick has never washed a towel, as doing so runs contrary to his logic.“I don’t wash the towel, the towel washes me,” he reasons. “What’s next, am I gonna wash the shower? Wash a bar of soap?”Nick’s rant is funny enough on the page, but it’s perfected by Johnson’s delivery. Nick Miller has confidence and aptitude, ranging from skills as a plumber to the ability to write a novel. But his idiosyncrasies, a sort of code to which only he understands or adheres, keeps complicating his life.If there’s anyone who can understand the need to keep a code no matter what the personal cost, it’s Peter Parker. And that’s why we loved Johnson’s portrayal as a sad, defeated grown-up Peter Parker in Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse. Johnson perfectly captured not just the pathos of a divorced guy in his r/malelivingspace apartment, eating pizza in his underwear. He also captured Peter’s absurd commitment, an attitude that could be misinterpreted as swagger or confidence but is actually just making a decision and holding to it, no matter the cost.With Nick Miller, such undertakings are absurd to a comedic degree. With Peter Parker, it’s heroic. But it’s the same impulse in both cases.With Great, Grown-Up PowerWe’ve seen Maguire, Garfield, and Holland play Peter Parkers who have such excessive principles. But again, they’re all younger men, and young men have made worse decisions and had terrible outcomes and still manage to bounce back. These Peters have much lower stakes.It’s much different for a grown man to be constantly late for his family and unable to hold down a steady job. To anyone who doesn’t realize that he can’t get it together because of his great responsibility as Spider-Man, Peter looks like an absolute loser. Even those who know why he slips out of a meeting to put on his costume think that he’s gone too far, even if he saves the day in the end.We need to see more of this grown Peter Parker in action, a guy whose heroism extends past the impulses of youth and matures into a steady conviction, no matter what the cost. That type of guy could be utterly unbearable, which is why Jake Johnson needs to take the part, making Peter’s refusal to get rich by selling his webbing formula seem like a charming, if misguided, choice, and making his insistence on helping others seem inspiring.The post Spider-Man: Make Jake Johnson Live-Action Middle-Aged Peter Parker Already appeared first on Den of Geek.