The Depth of Spider-Man’s Brand-New Day: It May Surprise You

With the success of the Tom Holland Spider-Man trilogy, a fourth movie is now out and is expected to be the biggest one. The projected opening weekend income is about $275 million, which is $75 million more than the 2021 blockbuster hit Spider-Man No Way Home. Spider-Man Brand New Day takes place after Dr. Strange erases everyone’s memory of him to save the universe. In the movie, Peter Parker has to navigate through a world that has forgotten who he is, which involves the pressure of seeing all of his old friends moving through life without him, grief, and overcoming the poor circumstances in his life. This film will appeal to the original Spider-Man lovers that miss the level-one Spider-Man from the original, who was on his own and had to figure it out all by himself. After the last three movies of crazy connections with the Marvel characters and even the other Spider-Mans, like Tobey Maguire or Andrew Garfield, the fanbase has been craving a more basic Spider-Man movie. Brand New Day introduces a new unknown threat to Spider-Man and the world. Through this new threat, the movie is almost a reset to the series, removing the disconnect that many people feel about the new Spider-Man movies and allowing new audiences to get into the movies.

In the opening part of the movie, we see a Spider-Man that seems normal and back to an original form of Spider-Man, quick and flashy. He is talking with his usual snarky comments and confident appeal. Then that all starts fading away when his foe, Scorpion, is revealed to be a lot more complicated than he originally thought. We realize that Scorpion is more than just a physical fight, it will be a mental war, which brings us to the increasing trouble in his mind of being all alone. He then sees his old friends, Ned and MJ, and follows them into a party just to try to be a part of their lives again. This all comes to a climax where we see him in his worst state mentally, attempting to hurt himself. This causes his arachnid hormones to spike, and he begins to spew out organic webs. Now he needs to learn how to control his new power and his emotions while the villain that he is unsure of is rising in power. With research and getting beaten up many times, he finally knows that his enemy is Jean Grey, a telepathic teenager that plans to get back something from the Department of Damage Control (DODC).

We see that this all builds up to the victory he has over Jean Gray and the DODC’s possession of her. We learn that there was a lot more to the DODC’s desire for her than just to keep people safe. We learn about the torturous testing that they do to her and did to her sister who died after it. After understanding Jean Gray’s backstory more, Spider-Man realizes that he has been hiding his emotions inside him. The pent-up emotion from losing everyone around him causes an abrupt attempt to save Jean Grey. Upon learning that her sister was dead, Jean Grey persevered through the DODC’s front forces and fought through the testing equipment. Being the strongest she’d ever been, she took complete control over the city and began fighting Spider-Man telepathically with the DODC’s ninja crew (The Hand). He fights them as he communicates with Jean until she asks the vital question: “Are you Spider-Man or Peter Parker?” In which he responds, “I’m both.” As he finally has complete control over his heightened Spider powers, he easily defeats the ninjas and gets to Jean. They connect as he lets her into his mind. She lets the city go and all is good for now. He rekindles his relationship with Ned and MJ naturally and starts his arc of having people around him again. 

The release is expected to be a big success, and I think that it will live up to the expectations. It is what most Spider-Man fans were looking to get: an emotional story of Spider-Man that had to fight a street enemy by himself, whilst also learning more about himself and being the most powerful we’ve ever seen a Spider-Man. From the people that I have talked to, their reactions have all been positive, and recency bias aside, many of my peers have said it is their favorite Tom Holland Spider-Man, if not their favorite Spider-Man movie ever. I think people will like Jean Gray as a villain or possible hero because she is intriguing and has an emotional background, which will interest Spider-Man fans the most. The Hulk is also a part that will spark a lot of people’s interest as he is bigger and more powerful than ever. Frank Castle is also a great character because of his dynamic with Spider-Man and his role as a comic relief character. Overall I think this movie was great and was deeper than a Spider-Man movie has ever gotten. I think it meets the Spider-Man fans expectations and it won’t disappoint the true Spider-Man lovers.