At the beginning of Spider-Man: Brand New Day, the world has forgotten that Peter Parker is Spider-Man. Peter asked Doctor Strange for a favor that cost him everyone he loved. I’m addressing viewers who might be playing catch-up with the webslinger because of superhero fatigue and the general falling off of the Marvel Cinematic Universe since the golden age of Favreau and Downey Jr. gave way to the era of Mickey and Goofy. Just when you thought the superhero genre was a dead trend, here comes your friendly neighborhood Spider-Man to save the day with one of the best Marvel films ever made.
Starting at the top of the credits, director Destin Daniel Cretton (Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings) has made a nearly flawless movie. The action delivers bone-busting frames full of the brutal dynamism that characterizes the best MCU crime-fighting on screen. The screenplay by Spider-Man: No Way Home scribes Chris McKenna and Erik Sommers is practically perfect, populated by familiar characters energized by a new adventure in a story that captures the tortured, youthful ennui that always made Marvel comics more interesting than DC. Cinematographer Brett Pawlak shot an incredible film that has viewers spending half their time swinging or suspended above the streets of the Big Apple, buoyed on the strains of Michael Giacchino’s triumphalist synthesizer score.
When the movie finds its footing on the concrete, it’s often every hero and heroine for themselves in this film about misfit loners that serves as a prelude to the introduction of the X-Men to the MCU proper. Spider-Man, Frank Castle/The Punisher (Jon Bernthal), and a mysterious villain who can jump psychically from person to person are all outcasts because of their powers, traumas, and in the case of Peter Parker, a heartbreak and loneliness so intense that his spider DNA is mutating. This film reminds me of my favorite Marvel movie, Captain America: The Winter Soldier. Winter Soldier played like a 1970s conspiracy thriller that just happened to be a superhero film. This new Spidey picture plays like a working-class family drama as much as a comic book flick. We usually think of coming-of-age films as movies about young adolescents, but Brand New Day recalls Reality Bites, Kicking and Screaming, and even The Graduate in its grounded depictions of the shock of the real that accompanies the onset of independent adulthood in America.
Spider-Man: Brand New Day is a movie with deep emotions and real characters with unique dimensions even when they have relatively limited screen time. MJ (Zendaya) and Peter’s best friend Ned (Jacob Batalon) don’t remember anything about Parker or his connection to Spider-Man. Peter is learning about the sacrifices required of men when they outgrow childish things, but Holland and Cretton make it hurt. Bernthal and Sadie Sink never miss as The Punisher and the film’s mysterious villain. Bernthal’s troubled vet-cum-vigilante makes a great odd-couple pairing with Holland’s nice guy webslinger, and Sink shows she’s a natural movie star with a big role to play in one of the most sprawling film franchises ever. Mark Ruffalo has a primo turn as Bruce Banner/The Hulk, and Liza Colón-Zayas brings just enough mom energy to her portrayal of the soft-boiled Detective Jean DeWolff.
There’s also a theme here about the rejection of technology in favor of psycho-spiritual transformation. That might not sound like a superhero movie, but like Captain America: The Winter Soldier, this is bigger than just a superhero movie. It may also mark the beginning of a renaissance for the MCU. Your spidey senses should be tingling.
Spider-Man: Brand New Day opened in theaters July 31, 2026.
Joe Nolan is a critic, columnist and performing singer/songwriter based in East Nashville. Find out more about his projects at www.joenolan.com.