A New Day, But a Classic Spider-Man

A breath of fresh air from the multiverse-hopping adventures we have grown used to seeing in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU), Spider-Man: Brand New Day (2026) gives Peter Parker (Tom Holland) something he has not yet had: a life entirely to himself. Following the tragic events of Spider-Man: No Way Home (2021), the world is left with no memory of Peter Parker, and Peter Parker is left with no one. Rather than trying to reclaim the life he has lost, Peter chooses to throw himself into being Spider-Man, nearly losing himself in the process. This movie remembers that Spider-Man is much more interesting than what the Marvel franchise around him has become and delivers Holland’s Peter at his best through beautiful emotional depth and stunning action.

Within the first five minutes of Brand New Day, director Destin Daniel Cretton makes it clear that this is a movie made for the Spider-Man fanatic. The early scenes feature a montage of stunning slow-motion recreations of iconic ‘60s and ‘70s Spider-Man comic book covers from runs such as The Amazing Spider-Man (1963-1998) and Amazing Fantasy #15 (Spider-Man’s first appearance in 1962). In contrast to the massive-scale battles we have seen Peter Parker face in Jon Watts’s Spider-Man: Far From Home (2019) and Spider-Man: No Way Home (2021), Brand New Day is a return to showcasing the street-level neighborhood Spider-Man. While Watts often emphasized Peter’s youth and place in the larger MCU as a whole, Cretton establishes Spider-Man as an independent hero of New York, grounding the action in the city while emphasizing Peter’s isolation and responsibility. Peter’s new suit helps to sell that transformation. This is a Spider-Man without any of Tony Stark’s fancy technology (notably lacking built-in heating, so Peter must wear a vest and beanie in the winter season), resulting in a suit that feels tangible in the way it moves and ripples in the wind. The first Spider-Man suit in the MCU to not use CGI (computer-generated imagery), this tactile look with raised webbing draws inspiration from Tobey Maguire’s suit in the Sam Raimi trilogy (2000-2007), and the bright red and blue colors reference original comic designs as well as Andrew Garfield’s costume in The Amazing Spider-Man (2012 & 2014). Holland’s Peter met the other two Spider-Men in No Way Home, so it makes sense that he draws from the other suits when designing his own. In Brand New Day, Peter is shown on his own, with no Avengers (for the most part), multiverse, or technological safety net.

After much speculation, Jean Grey is revealed to be the secret character played by Sadie Sink. In the broader Marvel universe, Jean Grey is an immensely powerful mutant with limitless telepathic and telekinetic potential. Brand New Day deliberately withholds information about her, making her character feel more like a supernatural mystery than a conventional supervillain. Jean moves through bodies (leading to visually exceptional body-hopping sequences) and acts through them while the person she is inhabiting has no clue what is going on, even turning the Hulk into an unwilling weapon. Marvel is obviously setting up the introduction of the X-Men and mutants into the MCU, as Jean Grey is hardly the obvious choice for a Spider-Man villain over a more traditional character. But the more Peter learns of her backstory, the less satisfying and more complicated the hero/villain dynamic becomes. This is precisely Jean’s role in the Spider-Man story, away from whatever mutant plans the MCU has in store for her. Jean Grey mirrors the darkness of Peter’s own isolation. In the final “conflict,” Jean finds herself in Peter’s mind, where he is able to console her by appealing to the grief that connects them. Rather than defeating Jean, Peter reaches the part of her that is still capable of understanding, effectively redeeming her through empathy rather than force. While it may seem like her redemption came too easily, this is fitting for the character of Peter Parker: Peter has always been the kind of hero who tries to save people rather than simply defeat them.

Brand New Day’s inclusion of other characters like Bruce Banner a.k.a. the Hulk (Mark Ruffalo) and Frank Castle a.k.a. the Punisher (Jon Bernthal) expands the film’s exploration of identity, grief, and the ways people respond when loss changes who they are. As Peter experiences changes in his own body and feels himself losing control, he turns to the person who would understand this best: Bruce Banner. Brand New Day creates an interesting parallel between Peter and Bruce; in the same way Bruce spent years trying to push down the Hulk, Peter wants to use the same approach to what is happening to him. Here, Bruce Banner delivers a very Einstein-on-the-bomb warning: how do you choose what parts of yourself need to be suppressed? Throughout the film, Peter has treated his identity as Spider-Man as something he can control by shutting away the parts of himself that scare him. Banner, who’s known for being scared of himself, forces Peter to consider that suppressing those parts may mean suppressing Peter Parker himself. Peter’s journey is ultimately not about returning to who he was before, but learning to accept the person he has become. On the other side of the spectrum, Frank Castle has completely embraced his grief and allows that to manifest in violence. Many of the Peter & the Punisher scenes are mostly for laughs, but there are also moments when Castle illuminates the importance of Peter’s moral code on what it means to be a hero. Where the Punisher sees justice as punishment, Peter sees heroism as believing people are more than the worst thing they’ve done. 

In its concentrated focus on exploring the new Peter Parker, Brand New Day falls short in pushing the stories of Ned Leeds (Jacob Batalon) and MJ (Zendaya) further. This film relies too heavily on the love and investment fans have developed for the pair through the trilogy and allows Ned and MJ to exist solely in Peter’s realm rather than develop stories of their own. Their return to Peter’s story consequently feels more like a necessary step in his arc than a continuation of theirs, making their involvement rushed. That being said, the lessons the two of them teach Peter are crucial to his growth. Through Ned and MJ, Peter gets a glimpse at the life he lost; he spent so long convincing himself that being Spider-Man is the only thing he can be that he has forgotten that Peter Parker is supposed to exist too. This is where Tom Holland shines. In the original MCU trilogy, Holland’s character was focused on trying to prove himself as Spider-Man; here, the challenge is not becoming Spider-Man, but figuring out who Peter Parker is when Spider-Man is all he has.

Tobey Maguire’s Peter is earnest and melodramatic, and Andrew Garfield captures romance and humor, but Tom Holland may now have the most complete version of the Peter/Spider-Man character. Brand New Day gives him the chance to combine the awkward, high-school energy of his earlier performance with the maturity he has developed as an actor. The result is his most convincing performance in the role, emulating the best of both worlds of the character, and perhaps the clearest argument yet that he is the definitive Peter Parker for this generation.

With New York City as the backdrop and artists like Tame Impala and Bad Bunny on the soundtrack, Destin Daniel Cretton’s grounded fight scenes and dazzling swinging sequences capture how much the fans love the character. For all its obligations in the MCU franchise, Brand New Day is at its best when it is simply a Spider-Man movie. That does not mean its larger MCU connections are inherently a problem. Scenes with characters like Yelena Belova (Florence Pugh) make Peter’s world feel lived-in, reminding us that he exists in a universe populated by heroes we love. The MCU cameos are most successful when they illuminate something about Peter. His interactions with other heroes also reinforce how much Peter has grown since his introduction: he is no longer the inexperienced teenager desperately trying to prove himself to the Avengers, but a hero who can stand (or bathe) alongside them on his own terms. After three movies spent asking whether Peter Parker could be Spider-Man, this film asks a far more interesting question: what happens when Spider-Man has to learn how to become Peter Parker again?