The Psychology of Spider-Man: Brand New Day

I wanted to talk about the new Spider-Man movie, Spider-Man: Brand New Day: grief, trauma, how those things mix together and resolve. I want to also address resilience, and how women and men have to work together for trauma recovery. Even if you have not seen the prior movies, you should be able to understand what I address in this article.

Several years after No Way Home, Peter Parker lives alone and works almost exclusively as Spider-Man. That is his whole gig. Aunt May is no more after the attack by the Green Goblin. MJ and Ned are alive, but Doctor Strange’s spell has erased Peter from their memories. In order to protect the people he loved—his girlfriend and his best friend—Peter asked Doctor Strange to make everyone forget who he was.

So he lost his support network.

Peter visits Aunt May’s grave, watches his former friends from a distance, and channels nearly his entire existence into crime-fighting. He has become extremely effective as Spider-Man. But Peter Parker, as a human being, has almost ceased to have a personal life.

The movie gives us three responses to traumatic grief. Peter throws himself into work that helps others. Frank Castle throws himself into work that avenges and punishes. Jean Grey throws herself into personal vengeance. Super-sadness versus super-anger: that is complexity. That is the human experience.