ASM2 is my second favorite Spider-man movie. It didn't quite hit the awesomeness of the original Spider-man 2... but it's better than any of the rest. Not sure how I compare it to 'the vast majority of MCU' but I like it a whole lot better than the MCU spider-man shows for sure.
Peter has passive-aggressive "nice guy" traits. Smart and sensitive but tends to snap when the stress piles up. I knew a pillar of the community who had Peter's personality. He pushed his pregnant wife when she threatened to have an abortion. They went back together and lived happily ever after. Domestic abuse is ugly and confusing.
On a related note, as a kid I hated Reed being so condescending and treating Sue like his daughter (drawn like he was her grandad) during Byrne's run, including slapping Malice in the face.
It's because Spider-Man and the Fantastic Four had pretty big fanbases and consistent characterizations by that point, so Peter and Reed's actions were registered as them acting out of character due to bad writing.
Whereas Hank at that time was more of a blank slate in people's minds, so the wife-hitting memes stuck to him like glue more.
It's the superhero version of "first impressions count".
I guess maybe it's my personal bias, but I just don't care for them at all. However, aside from that, I feel like their profile has declined ever since the X-Men and then the Avengers became Marvel's flagship team. Their movies failed, their comics haven't always done well, and I've heard a lot of people say they're boring, dated or bland. And I know they're important to Marvel's history, but that doesn't mean they're still as relevant. But again, I'm willing to admit that's my bias or limited experience.
IMO, any IP that can sustain an ongoing comic book, a couple of cartoons, and have multiple films with at least one of them being decently successful (the 2005 film wasn't that big a flop) counts as a 'big franchise'. Yeah, they've gone a bit downhill recently, but a lot of that has to do with studio politics and the effect of the 2015 film. I wouldn't be surprised if they're back on track soon.
I'm sick and tired of fans wanting to put Peter in the same box as Hank Pym. It's clearly not the same, even if it's true Sal Buscema's exaggerated style didn't help the scene. I agree with Glenn Greenberg's take, which most of you will already know:
"Now, on to the matter of Peter "hitting" Mary Jane. We got some heat over this, and some bad publicity. But come on, it's not like Peter Parker was suddenly being presented as a wife-beater! Consider the circumstances. Peter was in a rage, his whole world had been turned upside down, and he was in the middle of a brutal fight with the man he believed had just robbed him of his life. Mary Jane was warned by Seward Trainer not to go near them, that Peter and Ben were both out of control, but she ignored Seward and tried to get in the middle of them and stop the fight. She is clearly shown grabbing Peter's arm, and in the next panel, Peter is shown flinging that arm outward, to shove her away from him so that he can continue the fight. That's how I always interpreted the scene. Peter was so angry, so on the edge, that he wasn't fully aware of what he was doing. Had he been the slightest bit rational at that moment, he surely would have taken into account the fact that he had super-strength, and that he couldn't just shove a normal human being away like that. And I know that's how Tom DeFalco intended the scene to be interpreted. Looking at the issue now, though, I'll grant that maybe some of these subtleties did not come through in the art as clearly as they should have. And that provided enough fodder for anyone who was really looking to make a big stink about the scene". http://lifeofreillyarchives.blogspot...03/part-9.html
Not to mention the fact that Peter was immediately horrified by what he had just done.