Amid the struggles of the Multiverse Saga, Marvel Studios has landed on an unbeatable ingredient for box office success: nostalgia. In the absence of the Infinity Saga’s Avengers, the MCU has turned to an earlier era for its biggest crossovers. 2021’s Spider-Man: No Way Home earned almost $2 billion worldwide after bringing two former Spider-Men and their villains back to the big screen. 2022’s Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness pulled in $955.8 million at the global box office as it introduced alternate versions of Mister Fantastic, Professor Xavier, Black Bolt, and Peggy Carter, just for them to be quickly disposed of during Wanda Maximoff’s grief-induced killing spree. And 2024’s Deadpool & Wolverine cleared $1.3 billion worldwide on its multiversal trip down memory lane, where it summoned Hugh Jackman out of superhero retirement and lovingly roasted two decades’ worth of Marvel movies from 20th Century Fox and New Line Cinema.
These films weaponized nostalgia to produce the three most successful box office hits of the Multiverse Saga and establish a blueprint for the studio to navigate its way out of a faltering cinematic era. We’ll see that blueprint put to use when Robert Downey Jr. and Chris Evans—along with several familiar faces from Fox’s original X-Men trilogy—return in December’s Avengers: Doomsday. Yet these movies have, for the most part, been hollow stories that use the multiverse to justify improbable crossovers and manufacture crowd-pleasing cameos while forfeiting impactful, character-driven storytelling.
But before Doomsday arrives this winter, Marvel is kicking off what has otherwise been a quiet year for superheroes at the cinema with the return of its most popular title character: Spider-Man. Directed by Destin Daniel Cretton (Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings) and written by returning scribes Chris McKenna and Erik Sommers, Spider-Man: Brand New Day is the fourth installment of Tom Holland’s Spider-Man franchise, a milestone that neither of his big-screen Spider-predecessors ever reached. Like No Way Home before it, Brand New Day is loaded with Marvel crossovers—except this time, the film uses them to help tell the best Spidey story of the series.
Brand New Day is a love letter to the multimedia titan that is Spider-Man. The film draws inspiration from classic comic book covers to re-create some iconic images on the screen while also borrowing some fighting moves and other stunt choreography from Insomniac’s Spider-Man video games. It features some of the best web slinging we’ve seen since Sam Raimi helmed the franchise in the 2000s. And it incorporates a number of Spider-Man’s enemies and allies in a way that feels natural to his world and his life following the traumatic events of No Way Home.
At the end of No Way Home, Spider-Man had to make a difficult sacrifice: To save the world, he had to erase any existing memories of Peter Parker, including those of his closest friends, MJ (Zendaya) and Ned (Jacob Batalon). It was a bit of a ridiculous solution to the movie’s even more ridiculous inciting incident, which saw Peter convince Doctor Strange to brainwash the entire planet just to help his friends get into their desired college. However, Brand New Day makes full use of No Way Home’s conclusion, along with Aunt May’s needless death, to focus on Peter at the loneliest point in his young life.
Early in the film, there’s a montage of Spider-Man fighting criminals and defending New York City as he commits to being a full-time superhero with no personal connections. We see a few members of Spidey’s impressive rogues’ gallery, including Scorpion, Tombstone, and Boomerang, as part of a string of Easter eggs that highlights the threats Peter faces on a day-to-day basis. The four years that pass are measured against MJ and Ned’s college experience, and Peter obsessively checks social media to watch his former friends move on with their lives, blissfully ignorant of any past they’d shared with their forgotten high school classmate.
Dating back to the introduction of his character in 2016’s Captain America: Civil War, Holland's iteration of the beloved superhero has always been a part of the wider world of the MCU. He’s grown up around other heroes, and now that everyone’s forgotten Peter Parker’s existence, his Spider-Man persona and that fantastic world are all he has left. And so as Brand New Day progresses, Peter crosses paths with familiar MCU characters—without the need for any multiversal portals.
When Peter needs intel on a mysterious figure who’s using mind control to uncover government secrets, he pays a visit to the new Black Widow (and New Avenger), Yelena Belova (Florence Pugh). Sure, it may be a way for Marvel to plug in the headlining member of a fledgling, lesser-known superteam. But given Yelena’s past as a foreign spy who’s dealt with plenty of mind control (in 2021’s Black Widow), as well as her current position of power as leader of the New Avengers, she’s a logical resource. Yelena also provides a steady source of humor, as usual, and it’s fitting that she instantly recognizes the sad, lonely life Peter now leads, after Thunderbolts* explored her depression following the death of her sister.
After Peter’s acute distress—understandably brought forth by seeing his ex with a new man—leads him to acquire uncontrollable heightened senses and organic webbing, he turns to another superhero for advice on how to deal with his novel mutations: Dr. Bruce Banner (Mark Ruffalo). Although the former Avenger might not remember Peter, Banner remains one of the smartest people in the MCU—and who better to help Peter find a solution to his volatile transformation than the guy who’s managed to coexist with the Hulk inside him? Banner provides crucial insight to help Parker create an inhibitor for his evolving arachnid powers, which doubles as a weapon against the mystery telepath. But Bruce also provides some sage advice, telling the confused superhero that he should consider letting this natural evolution run its course.
Spider-Man also runs into some friendly fire when he’s interrupted by Frank Castle (Jon Bernthal) in the midst of a deadly car chase. Since four years of local crime-fighting experience have been added to Spider-Man’s superhero career, it doesn’t come as much of a surprise when Brand New Day foregrounds an existing relationship between the antihero and Spider-Man, even though they haven't yet been shown together on-screen. What with Frank’s lack of friends (outside of maybe Karen Page and longtime frenemy Daredevil) and nonexistent personal life, he represents the kind of tortured figure that Peter could become if he lets his grief and inner rage take hold of him.
These crossovers arrive early and often, but they’re not one-off cameos. Each character returns after their initial appearance, with Banner and Castle taking on pretty sizable roles in the film as its mystery villain escalates her efforts to break into the Department of Damage Control for unknown reasons. When she destroys Banner’s Hulk inhibitor to unleash the college professor’s inner beast, the stage is set for Spider-Man and the Punisher to face the Hulk in an epic clash that feels ripped straight out of the pages of a comic. Holland and Bernthal’s natural (and preexisting) chemistry, in particular, shines as their characters’ diametrically opposed personalities collide for some of the film’s funniest moments, and also some of its most heartfelt.
But most surprising is how Brand New Day integrates its unlikely villain: Jean Grey (Sadie Sink). The mysterious telepath is revealed to be the beloved mutant, best known as one of the founding members of Professor Charles Xavier’s X-Men. Yet within the context of this film and the current timeline of the wider MCU, Jean is just a lost, angry girl who’s looking for her kidnapped sister, Sara. Jean invades the minds of as many people as it takes—from Banner to MJ to Castle to dozens of other unsuspecting hosts—to locate Sara, who, we eventually find out, has been taken by the DODC’s shady director, Bill Metzger (Tramell Tillman), who wants to study the telepathic abilities she shares with Jean. Jean’s true identity is withheld a little too deep into the 145-minute movie, but it’s an exciting revelation that ultimately aligns with Peter’s chapter of rapid change.
Anyone who’s ever watched an X-Men movie or animated series or read an X-Men comic knows that mutants have been dealt a tough existence. Unlike their revered superhero counterparts, they’re hated and feared by humanity for being different. Peter may not be a true mutant, but his metamorphosis in this movie and his instinct to inhibit his evolving powers are narrative elements that fall squarely into X-Men territory. Yet even beyond her mutant qualities, Jean is another extraordinary being who—after discovering Sara’s death—has to learn how to cope with her overwhelming grief and loneliness. And by peeking into Peter’s memories and experiencing a pivotal conversation he’d shared with Aunt May soon after she discovered his superpowers, Jean finds a way to regain hope and move forward. Sink’s actual screen time is somewhat limited relative to her character’s impact on the story, as Jean is often puppeteering various hosts in the first half of the movie, but her emotional performance through Jean’s tragic backstory makes for a promising introduction.
Brand New Day carries a lot of narrative baggage, factoring in not just the events of the series’ three preceding films but also those of the entire MCU franchise. It bears the responsibility of welcoming the first member of the studio’s new generation of X-Men, as well as unveiling Metzger, a prominent anti-mutant activist in the comics who’s very likely being positioned as an antagonist in the MCU’s X-Men reboot. All of this extra narrative weight can be a burden for the audience at times, as has often been the case within Marvel’s wide web of interconnected stories, and it doesn’t always work in this film. After the opening crime-fighting montage, the ancient cult called the Hand returns to work for the DODC—the members continuing to wear their red ninja uniforms—which seems strangely out of place, even if the crime syndicate’s wuxia-inspired action sequence is one of the film’s many thrilling visuals. Precious time with MJ and Ned is sacrificed to carve out space for the film’s many MCU connections.
But Brand New Day offers an invigorating reminder of how fun these superhero spectacles can be when they use their crossovers to strengthen their stories—and ground their central characters within the context of the surrounding chaos—instead of just using those stories as flimsy excuses for crossovers. This latest entry in the MCU may feature the Hulk, the Punisher, the Black Widow, and Jean Grey in the span of a single film, yet it doesn’t lose sight of its core purpose, exploring Spider-Man’s never-ending struggle to balance his dual identity and the great responsibility that comes with his power. Brand New Day is a new beginning for this aging character and franchise (even if Holland already has his eyes set on his potential successor), and it’s shaping up to be another massive box office hit for Marvel and Sony. As the film’s end credits announce, “Spider-Man will return,” most likely in next year’s Avengers: Secret Wars or in another Spidey sequel. The future of the MCU might be murky, but Spider-Man’s place in it remains as bright as ever.
