It’s fitting the Marvel Cinematic Universe has spent the past ten years or so as chaotic and frustrating as the actual universe — art imitating life, and all that. As it happens, that decade coincides with Spider-Man’s entry into the MCU proper, and it would be fair to say that subfranchise has also seen its share of ups and downs. But for all the logistical and structural contortions of Peter Parker’s solo trilogy, it was impossible to find fault with the winning tone of it, or with Tom Holland’s increasingly sure-handed take on the erstwhile webslinger.
As the title suggests, Spider-Man: Brand New Day (2026) offers a fresh start for Spidey, who spent No Way Home rewriting reality to erase Peter Parker from the world’s memory. (I mean, who among us hasn’t wanted to revise the universe since 2016?) He starts this new phase of his career focused entirely on crimefighting in New York, his only social interactions coming from a friendly police detective named DeWolff (Liza Colón-Zayas) and a Jarvis-like AI assistant named E.V. (Naomi Watts). Nobody remembers him, but he certainly remembers everyone else, especially his upbeat best friend Ned (Jacob Batalon) and brilliant, beautiful ex-girlfriend MJ (Zendaya), both of whom he stalks on social media. Peter’s emergence from lone-wolfdom finally begins when he takes on a stolen tank as it crashes through New York City, its target a Department of Damage Control facility. Peter quickly learns the tank thief is a mind-control telepath capable of transferring consciousness from one body to the next — a superpower unable to be used against Peter, evidently, due to unsettling new mutations of his spider-powers. This makes him especially useful to Damage Control honcho Bill Metzger (Tramell Tillman), who recruits Spider-Man to help track down this mysterious villain, who apparently wants something from the DDOC. Peter takes the case enthusiastically, but his mission entangles him with the villain in such a way that Ned and MJ eventually get sucked back into his orbit — and into jeopardy.
With its mindful themes, effective plot, and pitch-perfect performances from all the key players, Brand New Day is easily the best of the Holland Spider-Man movies. And Holland, of course, is the best of the Spider-Men, easily the most charismatic and sympathetic of the performers to wear the red and blue. His bestie-trio energy with Batalon and Zendaya is damaged not at all by the memory erasure, and indeed their awkward reintegration gives the narrative a stronger emotional core than the MCU generally delivers, as Peter weighs his emotional needs against his perceived responsibilities. Marvel’s marketing crossover tendencies can sometimes fill these affairs with what feels like contrived stunt casting, but here everyone is smoothly integrated — including (spoiler alert) the major Marvel heroes played by Jon Bernthal, Florence Pugh, Mark Ruffalo, and Sadie Sink. It’s also great to see so many recent TV breakouts migrate into the franchise, such as Colón-Zayas, Tillman, and Michael Mando (the secret weapon of Better Call Saul, who is underused here but perfectly cast as the Scorpion).
There are a few quibbles here and there, such as: must Spidey jump on the ChatGPT bandwagon and have a personal AI agent? And the post-credits tag, this time, is entirely skippable. But at the end of the day, this is a superb debut for the next-phase Spider-Man, and more evidence Marvel may have been listening to our complaints, reigning in its more excessive instincts to focus on smaller stories and higher quality.
