Storytime with Rachel F Hundred

A great Spider-Man movie, but more importantly, a brilliant Peter Parker one.

Spoiler Warning

Of all the comic book heroes, I fell in love with Spider-man first.

Saturday morning cartoons were Spider-Man and his Amazing Friends (1981-1983). I loved that show. My best friend and I used to play the characters at breaktimes on the playground. She would be Spider-man and I would play Firestar. I’d later come to love Batman and the X-Men (especially Wolverine) but Spider-man was my first comic book hero love.

I know I’m not alone in my nostalgic love for Spider-man and walking into Spider-Man Brand New Day (2026), I wondered whether it would be able to live up to its previous outing Spider-Man No Way Home (2021). Beating that movie which was essentially a love letter to all the Spider-Men films, and with its emotionally devastating ending as Peter loses everyone and everything to correct his mistake – it was always going to be difficult. And this movie does not quite succeed in capturing my heart in the same way as its predecessor, but it is a damn good movie in its own right.

As noted at the top of this review, I am going to go into spoiler territory so please bail here if you really do not want to be spoiled.

Criticisms first, of which I have very few notes.

There are two main story arcs: Peter’s journey to accepting that he is both Spider-Man and Peter Parker and that he cannot live his life completely alone, and Spider-Man’s quest to find and stop a mind control villain terrorising the Department of Damage Control.

In the first storyline, there are flashbacks to previous Spider-Man movies to help catch the audience up. This isn’t the first time the MCU has used flashbacks. I’m not a fan. I get why – not just to increase the likelihood of the emotional beat landing, but also to narratively catch the audience up with events. I just think there are ways of doing both of these things narratively and with performances without resorting to flashbacks. So, the flashbacks were not my favourite thing in the movie.

My second note of criticism is Peter’s home set-up. While the movie does show how Peter acquires the space, it does not really show how Peter earns any kind of money to invest in the electronics set-up that he has. Did he dumpster dive for all of it? Did he set up an online Etsy shop? Did the New Avengers donate it to him? Does he get some kind of payment from the city? Is there a fund Tony Stark left him which Peter is using? It is a niggling gap in the narrative.

Finally, the movie seems to simply ignore the events of Daredevil: Born Again (2025-). The character of Sheila Rivera hands Spiderman a key to the city which suggests it is set after the events of the TV series. However, unless I missed it, there is no other nod to the period when Kingpin was Mayor and how his old lawyer ended up revealing himself as Daredevil, despite the presence of the Punisher. I appreciate why – possibly it felt like it would need to be wedged in rather than sitting in the narrative easily, but here is a city in love with a masked superhero which seems miles away from the distrust fostered by Kingpin and the days of the anti-vigilante squad.

Small niggles in the main.

I think others may have a problem with the second storyline more than I do, although I can accept that maybe there is a small kernel of valid criticism. The quest arc arguably is the introduction of a major new character to the Marvel Cinematic Universe, a character who has importance in the comics and previous film franchise; Jean Grey. Is this the right movie to introduce her? Are the changes in her powers and backstory a terrible idea? Does her story detract from Peter Parker’s, making this a Jean Grey story rather than a Peter Parker one? For me the answer is no, but I can see why others may feel differently.

Marvel certainly hasn’t gotten the balance right in other projects before. For all that I love Hawkeye (2021), I can accept that it was more of an introduction to Kate Bishop than an exploration of Clint Barton as a character. Captain America: Brave New World (2025) told a Hulk story not a Captain America one. Here though, I thought the introduction of Jean was done in a way which only highlighted Peter’s superhero qualities and gave additional poignancy and weight to Peter’s emotional arc.

Jean is a mutant who was kicked out and abandoned by her mother for being different. Her only comfort was her sister, Sara, who was in the same boat. Sara was taken by the Department of Damage Control and dies during their experiments, reaching out right at the end to connect telepathically with her sister and leaving Jean with an enigmatic word: v-max. Jean, not realising her sister is dead, believes the message is a clue, a way for Jean to find and rescue her sister. Jean’s motivation is rooted in love; she wants to save her sister who protected her from also being taken by DODC. When Jean realises that the word is nothing more than the last thing Sara saw before dying, it lands a horrifying emotional blow, her traumatic response and her immediate want for revenge is understandable.

Indeed, once Peter realises why Jean was attacking the DODC, he gets her motivation immediately; he is alone because he wants to protect the people he loves and he almost killed the Green Goblin because he wanted revenge for May’s death. Thematically, Jean’s situation holds a mirror up to Peter’s own backstory and motivations.

That said, Jean’s methods in trying to find her sister do paint her as a villain. She uses other people without consent, body-hopping telepathically to control them. She seemingly does not care about the collateral damage in her wake of telepathy, explosions and attacks. In Jean’s pursuit of finding her sister, the means justify the ends; she doesn’t care about the innocents caught up as she seeks her revenge. I get why my fellow X-Men fans may flinch at a Jean Grey doing ethically problematic things without the influence of the Dark Phoenix, but I think it is more interesting to introduce the character as flawed rather than in her good girl persona. The reveal of Sara as her motivation means we understand why Jean decided that the means justified the end, why she is only focused on revenge.

It is also more interesting to me that the X-Men introduction is painting a nuanced and complex positioning. The X-Men live in a duality of motivations; they are mutants who give sanctuary to mutants who are being persecuted or outcast by humanity but they also protect humanity from other mutants. The situation is not one note and it is good to see it isn’t presented as such. Establishing that there are sometimes good reasons to fear mutants and superheroes builds on the themes already introduced in the MCU: superpowered beings can be great, but they can leave immense damage in their wake. Humanity has some valid reasons to fear them.

On the flip side, how humanity protects itself can also be problematic and Director Bill Metzgar demonstrates this in spades because his actions are as equally ethically problematic as Jean’s. Between DODC and Jean, there isn’t a good guy – there are two people both acting unethically with protection as their motivations. Here the Punisher is also used to good effect as another unethical protector because Frank’s way of protecting people is to take out the danger; to kill the bad guys who are hurting the innocent.

By contrast, Peter is unquestionably the Good Guy which is why this whole quest arc works to highlight Peter’s superhero qualities; he constantly works to save people. He tries to save Hulk even when being attacked by him. He saves a member of the Hand in the final showdown from being skewered by a metal rod. He saves Jean just as Peter Two saved him from killing someone in revenge.

Saving people is a key theme of Peter’s own emotional story arc. Peter’s action in not informing Ned and MJ of who he was to them is motivated by love and the want to protect them. His motivation is the same as the DODC, the same as Jean, and in the showdown with MJ once she has read the letter, we see the ethically problematic side of his choice: his decision not to give MJ and Ned the right to choose for themselves, the hidden collateral damage of removing himself from their lives (because even if they don’t remember him, he has hurt them with his absence). Yet in the end, Peter’s choice mostly hurts himself – it isolates him and makes him feel completely alone.

Not only that, but the trauma of seeing how MJ and Ned have moved on, sends his arachnid hormones skyrocketing and speeds up a secondary mutation, one he rejects as he considers it to be a gross bodily horror making him violent and uncontrollable in a way which is an anathema to how he operates as Spider-Man.

But later in reconnecting with Ned and MJ he realises that he needs his friends; he needs to have a full life as Peter as much as he is dedicated to being Spider-Man. It allows him to accept himself fully and thus accept the physical changes he’s been rejecting just in time to save himself in the fight with the Hand as he battles to get to Jean.

The other aspect of this is the memory of May talking with Peter and reminding him that he deserves love, to not be alone. It is a brilliant device – not only to remind Peter but to give this message to Jean who did not have an Aunt May to love and hug her. When Peter tells Jean she isn’t alone because she has him, it is incredibly touching. Jean reciprocates Peter saving her by saving Peter in return, keeping him alive until the Punisher can get him to a hospital. The events here leave Jean with the knowledge of what it means to be a true superhero; to use her powers to save others; a lesson she can now take forward into the X-Men. And they leave Peter with the knowledge that he is loved and valued for himself too and not just for being Spider-Man.

I love both these story arcs. They play off each other beautifully, reinforcing themes and messages in a way which highlights Spider-Man as a superhero, and Peter as a good man who is deserving of love and friendship. Kudos to the writers Chris McKenna and Erik Sommers.

The direction and production of the film is also brilliant. Everything from the set design to the make-up; the costumes to the musical score. Sometimes Marvel has moments of wonky CGI, but there is nothing here that made me wince. Everything looks like it was done with quality in mind. The crew should take a bow.

The performances throughout are great. Tramell Tillman is a cold, calm and methodical problematic Director of Damage Control. Sadie Sink delivers a great Jean Grey especially once she gets the opportunity to play off the other characters directly. Jon Bernthal embodies the Punisher, seemingly enjoying the opportunity to stretch Frank in more rounded ways. His impression of being possessed by Jean is hilarious.

Both Mark Ruffalo and Florence Pugh turn in nice renditions of their MCU characters in their cameos. Just to note here that resetting the Hulk also deals with fan criticism of how the character evolved to Professor Hulk. Pugh’s Yelena continues to delight even if she doesn’t get to do much here except act as a source of information for Spider-Man.  

The stand-out performances are the original trio. Jacob Batalon gets less to do than the others, but he plays a grown-up Ned very well. He’s still funny and nerdy, still the Guy in the Chair if from a distance. It’s a lovely lowkey performance which shows how much he has been seeking the friend he lost even if he doesn’t remember he lost them.

Zendaya is also really solid in her performance as a grown-up MJ who has moved on with her life. However, the scene on the roof when she is Jean who pretends to be MJ remembering Peter is chef’s kiss. That moment when she reveals that she is Jean and devastates Peter packs a lot of punch. It gives Peter all the more reason to take Jean down rather than save her. The other scene which is just as good is the one where MJ having found the letter confronts Peter. MJ as MJ delivering that emotional punch of ‘I don’t love you; I don’t even know you’ was even more heartbreaking than the roof scene and was absolutely played to perfection by both actors.

This is without question Tom Holland’s best performance as Peter Parker and Spider-Man. It is clear that he had matured as a lead actor since the original trilogy. He is assured and confident in who Peter Parker is and he really sells Peter’s emotional journey through the movie.

In conclusion    

I loved this film.

It is a great MCU movie, definitely in the top tier with Marvel back to its best quality; a film which does link with the wider universe (I’m sure that inhibitor chip Peter invented will come back into play at some point) but in a way which underscores the superhero at the heart of this story.

This is a great Spider-Man movie – moreover it is a great Peter Parker movie and that is its true strength.

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