Spider-Man Brand New Day (2026)
Destin Daniel Cretton · Marvel Studios · Standard showing★★★★
Note: This review contains spoilers for Spider-Man Brand New Day and Daredevil: Born Again
An Amazing Fantasy
I love the character of Spider-Man. Growing up, it was Spider-Man, Batman, and Superman for me. As you can imagine, I've watched all the theatrical Spider-Man movies. My favorite Spidey will always be Christopher Daniel Barnes' iteration from Spider-Man: The Animated Series (1994), but my favorite cinematic Spidey will always be Tobey Maguire. I have to admit that he had it easy, though. Being the first cinematic version of any character grants you some leeway in the way that the audience receives you. There's nothing else to compare you to, other than the source material. It was a similar thing with Iron Man and Guardians of the Galaxy. The general audience will judge the movie and characterization by itself. This is much more difficult when a character has several iterations that can be compared to. Look at Batman, for example. Spider-Man had the misfortune of having several back to back movies with not much breathing room. The series was first rebooted only ten years after it first started when Andrew Garfield first donned the web shooters. And then Garfield's iteration only lasted 4 years before his version was also rebooted. Many fans were left wanting both a Spider-Man 4 and an Amazing Spider-Man 3 to this day.Suddenly, there was a new player: Tom Holland. They once again sent him back to high school, but this time there was no origin story. Unfortunately, this Spidey became relegated to "Iron Man Jr." I initially liked this new take on Iron Man and Spider-Man's working relationship. It had a Batman and Robin dynamic. However, it got old really fast when all of Spidey's villains and tech had a Stark logo on them. As such, I never felt that Tom Holland's Spidey was a true Spider-Man. He had the powers and not much else. I also disliked that Aunt May was killed by an alternate universe Green Goblin, meaning it wasn't even a villain from his world that had the biggest impact on his life. This Spider-Man didn't have his own identity. That is, until Spider-Man: Brand New Day.
Brand New Summary
We begin about four or so years after we last saw Peter. During that time, Peter has been keeping the streets of New York safe as their Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man. Holland's Spider-Man finally feels like an actual Spider-Man and not just a sidekick. He still keeps a close eye on his friends MJ and Ned (Played by Zendaya and Jacob Batalon, respectively), but keeps his distance to keep them safe. We also get a cool montage of Spidey recreating some classic comic book covers and panels, pitting him against the likes of Tombstone and other B-List villains and even The Hand. One day, there's and out of control tank ramming through the city on the way to a Department of Damage Control (DODC) prison. The Punisher (Jon Bernthal) tries to intercept this tank in his own loud and messy way, but ends up getting taken out by Spidey to avoid unnecessary collateral damage. When the tank eventually reaches the DODC prison, Spidey discovers its a old woman who was being mentally controlled by a telepath that can hop into other people's bodies looking for 'V-Max'. The telepath starts to hop around the facility until this person tries to hop into Spidey's mind, only to find they can't. The telepath ends up sending Scorpion to an undisclosed location and Spidey loses the telepath's tail. Spidey later meets up with the director of the DODC, Bill Metzger (Tramell Tillman) at the suggestion of Yelena Belova (Florence Pugh) and they discuss this new threat as they seemingly appear to be on good terms with each other.Later, Peter runs into Ned at a store and he follows him back home to a party. Here, he gets to talk to Ned for the first time in years and also talks to MJ. He sees that she's moved on with another guy and he goes on an emo Spidey swing in the rain. Pretty cool scene in my opinion. He gets back home and he passes out. When he wakes up the next day, he's in a web cocoon outside of his building. When he gets back to his place, he finds that he's developed heightened senses as well as organic web shooters. Then, Scorpion appears again in the city causing havoc, but when Spidey arrives, it turns out he's being mind controlled by the telepath and he loses control of his new strength and nearly kills Scorpion as well as a police officer. Peter decides to work on an inhibitor that would not only suppress his new powers but also those of the telepath. Also, using some very questionable methods (given the real world implications), he discovers who the mystery telepath is - Jean Grey.
What worked
Overall, I liked this movie. It has the structure of a proper "day-in-the-life" Spider-Man movie. It shows Peter Parker down on his luck and relying mostly on his wits to perform his duties, no longer relying on Stark Tech. He uses what appears to be a homemade AI system, but that doesn't really feel out of place nowadays. His costume is the best it's looked since the Tobey Maguire days. I've always felt that the costumes that succeeded Tobey's suit weren't that great. Holland's Spidey feels like he came right out of the Animated Series, and the comic for that matter. I enjoyed the swinging scenes as well, since the previous Holland Spidey movies didn't really show much swinging. New York was finally properly showcased in a Holland Spidey movie. I was surprised to learn that much of the movie was shot on location in London so the VFX team did a great job blending London with New York. The ending credits with B-Roll of New York and it's citizens are probably my favorite MCU credits of all time.I think the inclusion of The Punisher was also done well. It was pretty cool to see Spidey and Punisher riff off of each other, giving it a buddy cop feel. It's also cool that The Punisher was featured in a Spider-Man movie since he actually made his debut inside of a Spider-Man comic book. There's another character that I wish had made an appearance, but I'll get to that later.
I also really liked that we finally got back the "Savage Hulk". As a kid, I always found the idea of a "Smart Hulk" to be pretty cool, but I don't like it as the default mode of the Hulk. The Incredible Hulk, despite what his latest appearances in the MCU would have you believe, is a tragic character. Bruce Banner is in a constant struggle to control the raging beast within him. Sure, he gets close to some sort of cure, but he is never truly free of the curse of the Hulk. I'm glad that it seems that the status quo has been restored for Banner, even if it unfortunate for him.
Peter and MJ not getting back together was another thing I enjoyed. I went in fully expecting that to happen. After all, Holland and Zendaya are married in real life, so I figured they'd want their characters to get back together. They tease the reunion, but it doesn't end up happening. That's not to say it could never happen. After all, she still has the broken Black Dahlia necklace that Peter gave her back in Spider-Man: Far From Home. But for now, I like that Peter was given the closure needed for him to move on. I hope they do explore other love interest for him from the comics, such as Black Cat. On the flip side, I thought it was funny and cool that he and Ned clicked right away, despite Ned's lack of memories of Peter. It's a testament to their friendship.
What didn't work
As much as I enjoyed the movie, it still didn't garner a 5 star rating. One thing that I think holds the movie back is the simple fact that it'd an MCU movie and that it has to set up other movies in the universe. I have always preferred movies that are able to stand alone and don't need to spend a bunch of time setting up the sequel or spin-offs. All you need is to watch previous movies in the series and you should be set. This is the movie that they chose to set up the existence of mutants in the MCU. Technically, the first mention of a mutant was back in Ms. Marvel and the first time we saw X-Men in the MCU was in the post credits scene to The Marvels. But this movie actually showcases an X-Man (or X-Person?). It feels like 2/3rds a Spidey flick and 1/3 a Jean Grey origin story. Not only that, but Jean Grey was a straight up villain in this movie. I thought it was cruel that she takes over the body of an old guy and has him get run over. I understand within the context of the movie why that had to happen to show how dangerous she is. But the way the scene is shot implies that she straight up commits murder. She never really shows any remorse nor is it ever confirmed if that old guy survived. The argument could be made that this could be addressed in the upcoming MCU X-Men movie, but that breaks the "self-containment" thing I mentioned earlier. I prefer that all relevant plot threads are resolved in the movie that they're brought up in, unless it's setting up some Thanos level plot point. At that point, it would just feel like a retcon.Besides having Jean in this movie, I also felt it was a bit bloated with all the non-core Spider-Man characters. Yes, I did enjoy Yelena, Punisher, and Hulk. But I would also have been okay if they didn't show up. I would have been much happier if we had Kurt Connors helping Spidey instead of Bruce Banner. This one is more of a nitpick, but if the story was more self-contained, I might have been more inclined to give it a higher rating. A proper Spider-Man villain like Mr. Negative might have been a better match here. Though, I understand the reluctance to use him since he was used relatively recently in the PS4 video game. Either way, I with they leveraged more Spider-Man adjacent characters rather than try to add MCU cameos.
The power inhibitor felt very much like a Deus Ex Machina. That's the only way they were able to subdue Jean. I understand that she's still young and not yet trained to be the Omega level mutant that she will eventually become, but her raw strength is still formidable. If not for this little device that Spidey conveniently was able to create, she would have been almost impossible to defeat. Jean would have been unstoppable if not for Spidey using the inhibitor on her when he did. If not for that, she would not have had the heart to heart with Aunt May.
As for the mutation Spidey was going through, I kind of wished they had gone all out with the spider stuff. I know that we probably would not have had a proper Man-Spider appearance, but a dream sequence where he transforms would have been gnarly. I thought it was random that he was suddenly able to use his new abilities just fine after struggling the entire movie with them. I thought the mutation was a result of his isolation, and that by opening up again, his spider hormones would go back to normal. But unless I'm mistaken, the effects of this secondary mutation are now permanent. It just felt like weird plot point. I did like that it sort of felt like an inverse of the problem he had in Spider-Man 2, where instead of losing his powers and giving up on Spider-Man, he gives up on Peter Parker and gets double the spider abilities. Either way, I do wish to see a form of Man-Spider some day. I'm a big fan of The Fly and Earth vs The Spider.
I mentioned earlier that Spidey uses questionable methods to track down and identify Jean. He uses surveillance cameras in conjunction with facial recognition software. We get a throwaway line on how what he's doing is illegal, and he laughs it off. The thing is that Spidey should be against this type of surveillance, considering how paranoid he is about his secret identity being revealed. Its hypocritical of him to use this technology, and it's also weird given the real life issues that the public has with these cameras. The Dark Knight also had Batman utilize illegal surveillance equipment to track down the villain. The difference here is that Lucius Fox was staunchly against the usage, and effectively quit on the spot because of it. But in the end the technology self destructed, showing how such technology should only in extreme cases. Jean was a powerful villain that needed to be stopped, but the fact that Spidey never considers the implications of what he's doing is what bothers me the most. It's never brought up again in the movie. It feels like he
s just as likely to use it on a purse snatcher as he is to locate a terrorist. Obviously this is a fictional movie, and we know he's a good guy. The problem is that in the real world, can we really trust the people using this technology? Anyway...
Is it just me or was the editing a little weird at times? It feels like they reorganized the movie a bit after some test screenings. One example is a scene of Spidey running into an alleyway and then suddenly he's on a rooftop putting his mask over his head. It just feels like a jarring cut, like we missed a little too much.
My final gripe with the movie is more of a nitpick. I wish the movie had featured Daredevil. As a kid, I always dreamed of seeing two live action team ups - Batman & Superman and Spider-Man & Daredevil. I know that technically Matt Murdock is in jail right now, but I'm sure they could have found a way to make it work. Either he's on parole, he breaks out, or the movie could have been simply set before the events of Daredevil: Born Again. Speaking of which, where was Spidey during Fisk's reign of terror? Again, just nitpicks but these are things that could have garnered the movie a higher rating for me. If all of my negatives were to have been addressed, I think this had the potential to be the greatest Spider-Man movie of all time.
Verdict
I think that Spider-Man: Brand New Day is a solid entry in the Spider-Man cinematic universe. It's certainly the best Spider-Man movie of the MCU, and I hope that Marvel continues to improve the quality of their movies. It was looking a bit dire for a second there. I'm looking at you, Ant-Man: Quantumania. I have already pre-ordered the steelbook of this movie and I can't wait to add it to the Vault.-TG
Hi. My name is Peter Parker. You don't remember me, but we used to know each other. Something bad was gonna happen, and the only way to stop it was to make everyone forget about me. Because I'm not just Peter Parker. I'm Spider-Man. And sometimes Spider-Man has to do the hard thing, even if it breaks Peter Parker's heart.