Spider-Man: Brand New Day has swung into theaters and shattered numerous records; everyone and their Aunt May went to see this film, it seems. And thankfully, it’s good! After a trilogy of Tom Holland movies that purposefully went in a different direction than what fans had come to expect of the character in prior adaptations–and to divisive results–Brand New Day ties up this iteration of Peter Parker in a much more familiar web.
In the latest film, the hero is devoted to his career of fighting crime, with zero time left for a personal life; he has to wrestle with his moral compass in order to stop the bad guy while remaining the hero; and he lives in a rundown Manhattan apartment that likely still costs multiple thousands of dollars. However, one of the movie’s greatest strengths also doubles as a point of weakness, particularly if you return to the Marvel’s Spider-Man games developed by Insomniac after watching it.
Despite Brand New Day’s best intentions to move Spider-Man toward his roots and away from his ties to the broader Marvel Cinematic Universe, the movie is still absolutely a part of the MCU machine. It sees Mark Ruffalo’s Hulk return to the films, while Jon Bernthal’s Punisher finally gets to make his big screen debut. We also get a new iteration of a popular character from Marvel comics, who ultimately acts as the film’s big bad.
I call this one of the movie’s greatest strengths, because their inclusion, in my opinion, is how Marvel should be handling these kinds of crossovers. Their appearances feel natural and meaningful to the narrative rather than to simply satisfy contractual obligations or have them filmed on green screen to be inserted into existing scenes. Their interactions with Peter, both as himself and his heroic alter ego, help bolster the webhead’s story while teaching the characters meaningful lessons of their own.
However, the inclusion of all these other characters also opens up the film to some critique. While I enjoyed the story director Destin Daniel Cretton and his crew chose to tell with the film’s shadowy villain, the narrative could have been much better served if that role was actually filled by a member of Spider-Man’s rogues gallery.
Early on in the production of the film, it was heavily speculated Brand New Day’s story would include Mr. Negative, the villainous alter ego of Martin Li who, when not organizing crime, helps run a charity for the homeless called F.E.A.S.T. While there’s the simple connection that Mr. Negative was introduced in the Brand New Day arc of Spider-Man comics, there’s also the fact that the villain of the movie is able to inhabit the minds of other people.
While Mr. Negative cannot possess others directly, he does have the ability to persuade them to do what he says, and with some tinkering to the script, he easily could have served as the movie’s antagonist while keeping a lot of the other elements of its story intact. Instead, the film features a character in that role that will leave Peter’s world and go onto serve as a foundation in a different corner of the MCU, and because of that choice, Brand New Day is ultimately tainted by sins akin to those in the first Tom Holland trilogy.
