'Spider-Man: Brand New Day' Is a Return to Joy

I’m not a Spider-Man fan. I don’t not like him; he’s just not my favorite superhero. At least, he hasn’t been since I was six, when I was dressed up as Spider-Man for my birthday and posed on the floors and stairs imagining I was climbing up walls. Spider-Man is colorful, bright, and funny. My favorite color is black and probably too serious for my own good. My kids love Spider-Man, and my nephew is obsessed with him, which gives my wife all the excuse she needs to shop for all sorts of Spider-Man merch from furry pillows to backpacks to rubber shoes. I don’t not like Spider-Man, I just think the IP is really aimed at kids, and I’m just a cantankerous old man who reads comics. So when the first 10 minutes of Spider-Man: Brand New Day has scene after scene of him swinging around, taking down his rogues gallery, recreating iconic covers and panels from the comics, I was a little surprised to find myself teary-eyed. I was six years old again. 

Brand New Day is nearly two-and-a-half hours of pure joy. For the viewers, that is, because most of it is torture for Peter Parker (Tom Holland), who has been forgotten by the world after the events of 2021’s No Way Home. Peter spends practically all of his time as Spider-Man, having no human connection save for the occasional phone call to detective Jean DeWolff (The Bear’s Liza Colón-Zayas), who’s sort of like James Gordon to Spider-Man’s Batman. The scenes where Spider-Man observes his (former) friends from afar are torturous and sad, and one of the best parts of Brand New Day is how Holland stares with such aching longing at Mary Jane, who’s played by his real-life wife Zendaya. Holland sells it, even the way he misses his best friend Ned (Jacob Batalon), lending Brand New Day an uncommon emotional weight that perfectly balances Spider-Man’s lighthearted tone. The isolation and lack of human contact takes its toll on Spider-Man, giving him more challenges — and changes — to deal with on top of stopping the errant bad guy.

As much as the film gives little nods and Easter eggs to the comics — the title Brand New Day is itself a reference to a major Spider-Man storyline — the film is unafraid to craft something entirely new. Spider-Man faces a threat that fans of the web-slinger have never seen before, a mysterious, unseen enemy that only he can seem to sense. Spider-Man’s unique interaction with the villain’s powers is never explained, which is one of the film’s many plot holes and contrivances, but it’s entirely forgivable because Brand New Day never demands to be taken too seriously. It’s a comic book movie that has kids in mind from start to finish, from the way Spider-Man concerns himself with saving everyone to how much he is loved by New York City. It’s a Saturday Morning Cartoon in hi-definition, and it’s glorious.

Brand New Day doesn’t just feel like a soft reboot of Spider-Man; it feels like a fresh start for the MCU. Kevin Feige’s transmedia storytelling was a powerful tool that helped build up to one of the greatest cinematic experiences of all time, but has since been rudderless and scattered since Avengers: Endgame. It certainly didn’t help that all the groundwork for the next phases went down the drain thanks to Kang actor Jonathan Majors’ domestic abuse case, necessitating a directional shift for all stories moving forward. Brand New Day is a step in the right direction, bringing in old friends such as The Punisher (Jon Bernthal) and the Hulk (Mark Ruffalo); and old adversaries like The Scorpion (Michael Mando) who appeared in Spider-Man: Homecoming, and The Hand, who were in the Marvel Netflix shows; while bringing in something new, such as a villain who’s not from Spider-Man’s usual lineup of adversaries and giving him a challenge he can’t easily punch or tie up in webbing.

The Punisher first appeared in The Amazing Spider-Man #129 in 1974, originally intended as a villain but became so popular with readers that he was eventually written as an antihero who got his own comic book. Frank Castle’s dour demeanor is a foil to the friendly neighborhood Spider-Man’s quippy approach, and the two have a buddy cop dynamic that works so well on screen. It’s the sort of classic Marvel Team-Up that should make old comic readers smile. Holland and Bernthal have been friends since they both appeared in a 2017 film called Pilgrimage, and both share a palpable chemistry that makes all their scenes together an absolute delight. It’s this same chemistry that makes all of Spider-Man’s scenes with Mary Jane and Ned so poignant and at times heartbreaking.

Peter, dealing with the aftermath of Dr. Strange’s spell and Sadie Sink’s mysterious character’s entanglement with the U.S. Department of Damage Control, drives the story forward. The DoDC first appeared in Homecoming and most recently Wonder Man on Disney+, which was also directed by Brand New Day director Destin Daniel Cretton. The DoDC is poised to play a bigger role in the MCU, and Severance’s Tramel Tillman as department head Bill Metzger is a real treat. Cretton balances an imbalanced plot with uncanny aplomb, stringing together logical implausibilities and narrative conveniences into an experience that’s so unabashedly fun that plot holes and inconsistencies don’t matter. At one point, while fighting the red ninjas of The Hand, Spider-Man is so awestruck by their balletic attacks that he mutters, “that is so cool,” to himself. That’s because it is. Everything in Brand New Day is just so cool that we let our guards down and let it bludgeon us with the wonder of comic books.

Brand New Day is the payoff from three Spider-Man films and various appearances in other MCU entries, with a Tom Holland who has grown with and into the role in a way that other Spider-Man actors never quite managed to. If No Way Home was a pandering mess that capitalized on nostalgia and fan service, Brand New Day is a Spider-Man story that’s ready to move in new directions. Sure, a large part of the film feels like a set-up for new and bigger things for the MCU that isn’t even really Spidey-adjacent, but it’s a solid story that’s loaded with emotional beats, visually arresting action sequences, and stellar performances from a clearly bonded cast. Brand New Day is the best Spider-Man film in the MCU and a solid contender for the best live-action Spider-Man film against Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man 2. Brand New Day is a return to the sort of joyous filmmaking that awakens our inner child. It’s really no wonder Spider-Man is everyone’s favorite superhero. I mean, I’m still not a fan. But the six-year-old in me is going, ‘thwip! thwip!’ while shooting imaginary webs and swinging between imaginary buildings. What a ride.

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