Peter Parker will be grappling with a mid-life crisis as well as the dichotomy that places him in the middle of the road between anonymity and superstardom in the upcoming installment of the Spider-Man franchise, which has set box office records before and is almost sure to be a blockbuster season smash when it opens on June 27, 2016, coincidentally the same day as Tobias Vincent Maguire's birthday.

Tobey, as he is still known to friends, sits alone on a soundstage where months earlier he had filmed a scene in which Parker found himself in a compression chamber attempting to destroy the arachnid tendencies and superpowers that made his alter-ego famous. The character wants to be plain old Peter once again.

Aunt May is gone as is Mary Jane and because Maguire now commands $85 million a film, there are only CGI characters built in to complement the story. As both Maguire and Parker, he essentially talks to himself, punches himself and swings and kicks himself in front of a green screen. As he sits down for the first of several interviews on a 48 hour junket streamed live through the Internet sites of media outlets and onto the set-top boxes in 3 billion homes, Maguire's face is translucent. His hue still boyishly pale as he has perserved the off-white tone of his melanin deficient skin in a $20 million hyperbolic chamber he purchased after the phenomenal success of Spider-Man 7: Black Widow. It's fitting that the man who was once Leonardo Dicaprio's best friend is speaking candidly about struggling with the same paradox as the character he plays on the eve of the release of Spider-Man 9................

That's the anecdotal opening to what could potentially be one of many articles about the richer-than-rich mega-star Tobey Maguire after he makes one too many Spider-Man movies and sits alone in his own tax-bracket and in a type-casted prison should he continue on the path of cinematic monotheism as the face behind the face behind the mask of a superhero. This hasn't happened yet though.

However, his is a cautionary tale of the art vs. commerce fork in the road that every artist and entertainer on a white-hot streak must stand at and decide which way to go. The question is simply, "do I go for it again?" After setting a half-dozen box-office records including biggest movie debut ever with $150 million domestically and $382 million in box office receipts in two days, it's not inconcievable that this latest chapter  could rake in more than $1 billion in revenue after the DVD, pay tv and regular tv windows have been filled. As his salary and gross participation grow larger and his merchandising points and producer residuals come in, he'll continue his jaunt from having what actors describe as "@!&% you" money to having "mother &^%$@! you" money to being the non-executive chairman of Sony and ruler of the kingdom of Oregon where he essentially purchases the state and hires a private army to guard its borders.

Think for a minute what would happen if Peter Parker refused to take pictures of Spider-Man, was fired by Jay Jonah Jameson and had to live on Top Ramen, dollar-menu burgers and Gray's Papaya Hot Dogs just to provide enough cushion for the rent. As a great actor this is what Maguire himself needs to think about, what he needs to channel if he ever wants to be what he once was, an actor and not what he has now become, a brand. After all, didn't Vicent Chase walk out on Ari Gold on HBO's Entourage after a pitch meeting where the agency tried to sell the same type of "Microsoft-will-be-synonomous-with-you" poppycock that so called "serious" actors are supposed to hate?

But who's to say he wants to go back even if he could. He's pizz-aid for life and can now produce the types of films that garnered him critical praise such as Ice Storm, Pleasantville, The Cider House Rules, Ride with the Devil and Wonder Boys. He can even choose to be in them if he wants to -- naysayers be damned. It's all good right now. He's having fun calling Michael Moore an "ass" and settling into a life with a young family. He's told media outlets that his "top priority" is spending time with his significant other, Jennifer Meyer, and their 5-month-old daughter, Ruby Sweetheart. By the way, you have to be famous and loaded with dough or a hippy and loaded on drugs to name someone after a family restaurant chain, replacing Tuesdays with Sweetheart. But then again, let me reiterate that he could buy a state and have people come down from Oregon to kill me. 

There's a way to avoid all that. Being the expert card player that he is, he should watch what's on the table in front of him. If he plays his cards right, he'll dissappear and wait to see if helmer Sam Raimi comes back and decides to write another "screenplay," this time with his second-cousin and the unemployed drunk he met at the pub getting co-writing credits on yet another lousy script. Some time away would make the hearts grow more fonder and the executives grow more desperate for another box office hit and then he can charge for Spider-Man 4 what will make Tom Hank's new fee -- $50 million -- for the Da Vinci Code sequel look like a welfare check less taxes and payday loan fees.

Wait a minute though, oh what a tangled web we weave when first we practice to oversaturate and overstay our welcomes. Dare he put on the spider suit again, risk another $20 million wedgie and see his great talent further diluted by dialogue that caters to the matinee crowd? And with inflation looming, trade deficits soaring and the dollar losing value, will a $500 million dollar box office opening be deemed a failure by a torch-carrying press looking to afflict the comfortable? With endless possiblities afoot, keeping the crowd guessing is the best course of action at this juncture. Show up at a couple of Lakers games, maybe go to Daniel Day Lewis's shoemaking workshop and take up being a cobbler for a while. This is good. Don't be like Jay-Z with a post-retirement album or Michael Jordan on the Washington Wizards or Willie Mays on the New York Mets or Harrison Ford as a geriatric Indiana Jones.

In summary, to avoid the lonely junkets, cortizone shots for youthful skin and epidurals after a flip at age 41 in a spider suit made you feel like your back was broken, please mull giving Peter Parker back his indentity and seriously consider calling it quits on the franchise just to be on the safe side.