Will Brand New Day be the metamorphosis Spider-Man needs?

Well folks, it looks like it’s a Brand New Day for Tom Holland’s portrayal of the web-slinging Spider-Man as he makes an historic return in a fourth film, setting a precedent not matched by the previous live-action iterations of the character. But despite the film seeing the continuation of Holland’s tenure as the wall-crawler, the sequel is offering what appears to be a fresh start and return to form for the Spider-Man films, given its title. Considering the trajectory of Marvel’s reputation over the past few years, though, the question is, will the film really bring anything ‘brand new’?

The film will focus on the classic elements of the Spider-Man character, such as his choice to live a lonely life in a small apartment, burdened with his great responsibility

In a recent issue of Empire, Marvel Studios head Kevin Feige describes the film as an authentic ‘comic-accurate’ Spider-Man movie, but what does he mean by this? Ironically enough, ‘comic-accurate’ is a tricky term which is seldom used precisely, but Feige elaborates by stating the film will focus on the classic elements of the Spider-Man character, such as his choice to live a lonely life in a small apartment, burdened with his great responsibility. This is to be expected given the melancholic ending of No Way Home, where – spoilers! – Peter Parker gave up knowledge of his entire existence for Doctor Strange to rectify the multiversal madness caused by the film’s events. Comic book plots are crazy, aren’t they?

Brand New Day director, Destin Daniel Cretton, expands on Peter’s responsibility being the core theme of the film as he is “dedicating his entire existence to his job”. Cretton describes this as something innately relatable to anyone who has undergone loss, an experience which almost always has harmful effects. In Peter’s case, this comes in the form of detachment from his loved ones – his best friend Ned Leeds (Jacob Batalon) and true love Michelle (MJ) Watson (Zendaya) – who Peter can be seen sadly watching from afar through his phone in the film’s promotional footage.

We can expect the film to delve into this emotional distance and turmoil as producer Amy Pascal promises that Brand New Day will be a more “internal movie”, while fans have already started posting diabolically heart-breaking edits made from trailer footage on social media.

So, what we can gather so far is that the film will be familiar yet different, dealing with the tension between life as Peter Parker and life as Spider-Man. While these comic-accurate elements that Feige mentions aren’t exactly a new addition to the live action Spider-Man formula, the execution of them definitely will be, with the introduction of what Tom Holland playfully calls “Spider-Puberty”.

While films like 2004’s Spider-Man 2 dealt with Peter’s stress causing him to lose his powers, Brand New Day seems to be doing the opposite, with Peter’s powers evolving in a way reminiscent of comic storylines such as ‘The Other’ and ‘Disassembled’

It seems that the stress and trauma of Peter’s solitary life will activate a metamorphosis of his powers, causing organic webbing, increased strength and enhanced senses, as seen in the trailers when his “spider-side” takes over and he enters a deadly trance-like state. This itself is quite the inverse from what we’ve previously seen, as while films like 2004’s Spider-Man 2 dealt with Peter’s stress causing him to lose his powers, Brand New Day seems to be doing the opposite, with Peter’s powers evolving in a way reminiscent of comic storylines such as ‘The Other’ and ‘Disassembled’.

The film looks to be taking inspiration from more modern Spider-Man stories, which – while not as iconic or popular than some we’ve seen adapted before – are new and unique enough to deserve a second life on the silver screen.

The title of the film itself, Brand New Day, refers to the one comic storyline which sees Spider-Man return to a familiar status quo after the events of ‘Civil War’ and ‘One More Day’, ironically thanks to Doctor Strange erasing the world’s knowledge of his secret identity. It’s clear Marvel Studios want to follow a similar revitalisation.

With the film’s extensive ensemble of supervillains, … will this film be able to break the ‘cameo curse’ that has struck the previous MCU phases post-Endgame?

Despite all of this, what are we to make of the film’s cramped cast, with Spider-Man being reluctantly assisted by The Punisher (Jon Bernthal), reckoning with the return of a savage Hulk (Mark Ruffalo) and the machinations of Sadie Sink’s mysterious ginger psychic (if you know, you know). With the film’s extensive ensemble of supervillains including Boomerang, Tarantula, Tombstone, Scorpion, The Hand, and Ramrod (no I’m not making that last one up), will this film be able to break the ‘cameo curse’ that has struck the previous MCU phases post-Endgame?

Our answer will be found when the film inevitably releases on July 29th. Yet given Marvel’s insistence that this will be the definitive comic-accurate Spider-Man film we’ve been waiting for, perhaps the promise made when Spider-Man first joined the MCU ten years ago will be finally fulfilled, one where the web-head is front and foremost in an interconnected world. And to that I say: “Go get ‘em, Tiger.”