14 Years Later, Drake Bell’s Goosebumps Spider-Man Performance Still Mogs Tom Holland (It’s Not Even Close)

While the debate over the best Spider-Man often centers on the three live-action actors, Drake Bell’s vocal performance trumps all of them, and this one scene from The Avengers: Earth’s Mightiest Heroes is enough to prove everyone else wrong. In the episode, ‘Along Came a Spider…’, Drake Bell’s Spider-Man holds up a collapsing tunnel while refusing to quit. 

The episode aired in 2012 and, 14 years later, still gives goosebumps to fans as Bell uses everything in his power to keep the tunnel from collapsing. His vocal performance is off the hook, making viewers feel the pain, struggle, and the undying hope that defines Spider-Man. Tom Holland could never match up to this.

Drake Bell Went Super Saiyan as Spider-Man in This Episode

A still from The Avengers: Earth’s Mightiest Heroes | Credits: Disney XD

The Avengers: Earth’s Mightiest Heroes has plenty of cameos from the Marvel roster, and in the second season’s 13th episode, Spider-Man comes in. Captain America is hated by the public after a Skrull impostor made him look like a traitor, and Spider-Man is already dealing with J. Jonah Jameson’s smear campaign. Two heroes with ruined reputations are thrown together when the Serpent Society attacks a prisoner convoy. 

A street collapse then drops them into a failing subway tunnel full of frightened civilians who do not trust either of them. The key moment comes when Captain America, who is dealing with the tag of a traitor, says that he will not waste time explaining himself and that he will let his actions define his loyalties instead. This sets up the ultimate heroism from Spider-Man.

As Cap takes on the Serpent Society, Peter holds up the collapsing tunnel. While he buckles under its weight and has a moment of weakness, Cap motivates the heck out of him. This is where Drake Bell goes full Super Saiyan and starts to handle the enormous weight of the collapsing brick and mortar that will destroy everyone if it passes him.

Bell’s tone of a man losing his grip on the task at hand while also putting everything in his power to save the people is what heroes are made of. Bell screams at the top of his voice, and we can feel the weight of everything crushing him, but he survives and saves everyone regardless. Now that is a Spider-Man.

Bell Beats Tom Holland’s Spider-Man With His Incredible Performance

Tom Holland in Spider-Man: Homecoming | Credits: Marvel Studios

Drake Bell is best known for Drake & Josh, but he has plenty of experience as the web-crawler. He went on to voice the part in Ultimate Spider-Man, Avengers Assemble, and Hulk and the Agents of S.M.A.S.H.

Bell is, in many ways, a definitive version of Spider-Man, as most of the cartoons and animated shows of the character from the 2010s have his voice. He is barely taken into the debate of the best Spider-Man merely because he was not in live-action. Sure, we love Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield, but Drake Bell deserves a chance.

Take Tom Holland’s rubble scene from Spider-Man: Homecoming. It has a lot of similarities to the scene we just mentioned in The Avengers. Peter is down in the dumps, having been caught by the Vulture, and his suit is taken away by Tony Stark. He is back to basics, and the heroic thing he does is get out of the rubble without any technological assistance.

But Drake Bell brings out so much desperation and undying spirit with just his voice alone. The intense screaming defines who Peter is: a kid who just needs to be motivated to do the unthinkable. Tom Holland’s performance in this scene, though impressive, does not even come close to Bell’s. It is criminal that we do not take Drake Bell into the conversation more often.

Which Spider-Man is your favorite? Comment below.