Spider-Man: Brand New Day

Superheroes are the loneliest creatures on Earth. They occupy a kind of double life, one in which the mask is not merely a disguise but a home base. They can always return to their private selves, shed the cape, blink away the persona. Yet in Spider-Man: Brand New Day, Peter Parker, memorably played by Tom Holland, has slipped into something bleaker. After a night spent chasing criminals across the city, he returns to his New York attic apartment, where he lives like a hermit, surrounded by computer screens, symbolically the glow of unresolved thoughts. His present existence dares you to feel sorry for him: a Jekyll-and-Hyde case where one half has overtaken the other.

Directed with adrenaline and feeling, though sometimes short on pacing, by Destin Daniel Cretton, and written by returning screenwriters Chris McKenna and Erik Sommers, the film leans successfully into the humanity of its hero, and his specific vulnerability that has always been Spider-Man’s richest resource. It’s angst, yes, but it is also craft: the kind that insists that the character’s pain is not incidental, but an essential aspect of him.

If you remember Spider-Man: No Way Home, released in 2021, you’ll recall that a nasty spell has erased Peter Parker from everyone’s memory. I hope the spell did not work viewers, and you have some memory of this! The result is that people remember being saved by Spider-Man, but those closest to Peter, especially his best friend, Ned (Jacob Batalon), and his girl, MJ (Zendaya) are unable to recall his secret identity, or their shared history. Add the death of  Peter’s beloved Aunt May (Marisa Tomei), and the story’s central fact becomes devastatingly simple and heartbreaking: Peter Parker is alone. He compensates for his depression by devoting his entire existence to embodying Spider-Man, 24/7, as if his crime fighting endurance could ever substitute for companionship.

And despite these past events, the new film feels, strangely, like a fresh start. The title of the film truly says it all. It offers something more grounded, more mature, clearly an unmistakable pivot away from the earlier movies. In doing so, it also reaffirms Spider-Man’s status as arguably the character that casts the longest shadow in the Marvel universe, which goes a long way toward explaining the franchise’s enduring appeal. McKenna and Sommers have gotten into the skin of Peter/Spidey and, if this successful new installment is any indication, and they follow this new approach towards the main character, there will be no shortage of stories still to come.

What the filmmakers appear to be molding is a character with quasi-Shakespearean weight: not merely a hero in trouble, but a tragic hero, changed by forces he cannot fully control. The movie’s tone is markedly different from the previous film. Whereas that chapter of the story felt like a crowded spectacle, this installment aims to honor Spider-Man’s legacy while quietly redirecting the series onto a new plane. It wants to carry the character to even higher ground, provided, of course, that his web holds. For now, the Tom Holland era is firmly in place, and against expectations, it continues to get better.