My Thoughts on Spider-Man: Brand New Day

I saw Spider-Man: Brand New Day at 9:40pm on Thursday, July 30th. I wanted to get a quick review out but then I had a crazy series of events that prevented me from writing it. I abandoned my poor wife and my daughters, one of which is a 3-week-old, to see this movie so I could provide you all with a review. That’s how much I care about you guys! But now I’ve missed the hype surge window and everyone has already seen the movie—or at least 24 million of you have.

I still have some thoughts on the movie that I’d love to share, though, and maybe this will still justify the temporary abandonment of my infant daughter (probably not).

Spider-Man: Brand New Day is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. It’s a genuine Spider-Man movie. It wasn’t just a MCU Spider-Man movie—it felt like the classic web-slinger in situ. His fancy tech was Spider-Man tech, not Ironman tech (with the exception of an AI assistant but it’s 2026).

Gone are the days of Iron Man’s over-influence—I don’t think he was mentioned once in the whole movie. I love RDJ’s Iron Man but we were all getting tired of the Iron Man-lite Spiderman. Tom Holland has finally come into his own and stepped out of Tony Stark’s shadow. He even has a new loved one to mourn since his Aunt May died at the flyer of Green Goblin in last movie.

Spider-Man has always been a tragic hero and each reboot has sought to outdo the last in how much they can torture poor Peter Parker. In Spider-Man: No Way Home, they cleared the deck on the trauma of the past Spider-Men by bringing Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield into the MCU world and having Tom Holland help them heal their worst enemies. Garfield even underwent a sort of immersion therapy wherein he saved Holland’s MJ from a death that his Gwen Stacey suffered.

So, the former Peter Parker’s are healed through healing those they formerly couldn’t and are consoled as they’re able to redeem themselves. But Tom Holland’s Peter is still left with a dead father figure, Tony Stark, and a dead mother figure, Aunt May, on top of his (presumably) dead biological parents and then the entire world is caused to forget him because of Doctor Strange’s spell, including his best friend, his girlfriend, and Happy, the surrogate father figure.

The message? Tom Holland’s Spider-Man has it the worst but he will continue to crack on because that’s what Spider-Men do—great power and great responsibility, and all that.

That’s what Sony and Marvel set up and they completely delivered it in Spider-Man: Brand New Day! The movie is emotionally tortuous. You feel so bad for Peter Parker almost the entire movie. You can’t help but love him and wish the best for him. That’s Spider-Man. That’s his essence. He’s just a kid with accidental powers trying to do the right thing while being torn asunder by conflicting responsibilities and love and friendships. They really got us there this time.

Even the supporting actors were better in this movie. Zendaya was very good and I usually don’t like her acting. Ned wasn’t utterly insufferable—so, good work there. I was disappointed to see Sadie Sink when she first appeared on screen as Jean Grey, but she did a great job in this version of Jean. It was also pretty great to see her get to play a better version of Eleven from Stranger Things. I’ve never been a huge Jean Grey fan so I don’t care much about how they portray her but maybe X-Men fans will have something more to say about the way they chose to portray her in this movie.

They nerfed the Punisher and unnerfed the Hulk. Both amazing choices. How many times can you bloody-up Jon Bernthal? We get it. This cartooned-down version was really enjoyable. He felt much more like the PG 90s Spider-Man: The Animated Series Punisher and that’s great with me. It was genuinely hilarious to see him jumping up and down in the hospital room window with the Spidey mask on, grunting like a savage. My Thursday night theater was packed and we were all cracking up.

They made Bruce Banner far less hokey in this one and the Banner-Hulk fusion was even sort of cool—at least he was more gritty than the End Game version. But then they finally killed that version and brought back the real Hulk—Ragnarok, Planet Sakaar Gladiator-style Hulk, or maybe more accurately, he was the frightening 2012 Avengers Hulk—though Spidey escaped that Hulk-smash-whip that wrecked Loki and which Loki was so pleased to see Thor receive.

It’s a very New York movie. I’ve seen lots of movies set in New York but this one really felt New Yorky—like Toby Maguire’s Spider-Man 2 but a little more serious. I’ve never been to New York so take my opinion about what feels like New York for what it’s worth.

The main, deep, philosophical message of Spider-Man: Brand New Day is this: Lone wolves get sick and die. Everyone needs community.

We see this theme played out primarily in Peter Parker who quite literally gets a gnarly hormonal spider sickness because of his deep-seeded loneliness, grief, and trauma. This is the MCU/Sony take on Man-Spider and it’s pretty cool!

Peter tries to solve his unwanted evolution with technology but it fails him. Eventually he is forced to harness it and incorporate these unwanted powers into his own self-conception and person. But he can only do this after the healing that begins from being honest with MJ and building some LEGO with Ned.

You need friends. You need love. And so does Spider-Man.

This theme is also brought out through the Punisher, who begrudgingly becomes friends with Spider-Man after Spider-Man saved his life on Coney Island (sometime off camera). The Punisher tells Spider-Man not to be like him and that he’s only a lone wolf because all of his loved ones are dead.

After setting Peter straight, and accidentally shooting him in the back, the Punisher’s heart grows three sizes through the friendship he enjoys with the young hero. So, even the loneliest of lone wolves, Frank Castle, renounces the singleton life and is redeemed by optimistic friendship.

This undercutting of the lone wolf motif is beautiful and I wouldn’t have appreciated it as a younger man. Recently I had an older saint drop this wisdom flash-bang into my world and it changed my entire outlook: “lone wolves are sick, man. They’re supposed to be with their pack. If they’re out on their own, there is something wrong with them and they’re going to probably die pretty quick.”

That’s the message of Brand New Day. Spider-Man thought he could protect his love ones by cloistering himself off from them, but that only poisoned him and made it harder for him to protect them when his secret affiliations with them were revealed to his enemies. Thankfully, they gave Spidey back his wolf pack.

A second major message of the film comes through Jean Grey’s arch and it’s about the importance of motherhood. Jean’s mother abandoned her and her sister when she found out that they have psionic powers—mutants! Jean’s sister partially fills that mother role but you can see that Jean longs for a true mom.

Jean’s sister is stolen from her and inadvertently killed in tortuous experiments at the hands of the evil Damage Control agency.

Jean goes on a rampage to get her sister back and then turns on her killers at Damage Control when she finds out her sister’s fate. The only thing to free her from her destructive psychic mind-bomb is Peter Parker’s mental image of Aunt May—Peter’s own surrogate mother. A memory of Aunt May speaking words of kindness and wisdom to Peter vicariously heals Jean. Peter then takes over and offers her genuine friendship and acceptance and that seals the deal.

We often find the importance of Fathers in other Spider-Man movies—obviously Uncle Ben, but more recently, Tony Stark and Happy. But this movie reminds us that moms matter too. When our biological mothers fail or pass away or are otherwise absent, we still need positive mom-figures to help us in need. Aunt May played that role for Peter and then to Jean.

So, those are my thoughts. I loved the movie and I can’t wait to go watch it in theaters again soon.