Spider-Man: Brand New Day Is Continuing the MCU’s Oldest Peter Parker Problem

Spider-Man: Brand New Day is almost here, and while it does look like a significant improvement on its predecessors, it is still continuing one of the MCU’s biggest Peter Parker problems. The MCU has done a lot right with Peter Parker, integrating him into the world of Marvel superheroes while still keeping his identity true to the source material. The end of No Way Home set up Brand New Day as the most faithful Spider-Man movie yet, but it is still falling into one of the series’ biggest pitfalls.

Tom Holland’s Spider-Man was introduced to the MCU in Captain America: Civil War, meaning that he was palling around with the Avengers since his debut. While this was the big advantage that Holland’s iteration had over Maguire and Garfield’s, it has meant that the MCU is lacking in street-level Spider-Man stories. However, the multiversal consequences of No Way Home caused everyone to forget who Peter Parker is, meaning that he is truly alone for the first time in the MCU. Unfortunately, Brand New Day hasn’t stuck to this promise.

Brand New Day Is Another Spider-Man Team-Up Movie

Brand New Day is the MCU’s fourth Spider-Man solo movie, yet that label doesn’t exactly work. This is because, in all four of Spider-Man‘s MCU films, each one has contained the heavily-marketed presence of another well-established MCU hero.

Iron Man was a major character in Spider-Man: Homecoming, with the film setting up the MCU’s problem of making Peter feel like Iron Man Jr. Spider-Man: Far From Home gave Nick Fury an even bigger role, with him acting as one of the main characters of the film. Spider-Man: No Way Home‘s entire plot hinged on the involvement of Doctor Strange, and by the end of the movie, Peter had to team up with Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield’s Spider-Men in order to take down a team of returning villains from previous Spider-Man universes.

Now, Spider-Man: Brand New Day is continuing this trend and doubling down on it by bringing back two MCU heroes. The film will feature Frank Castle’s the Punisher and Mark Ruffalo’s Hulk, both of whom have never been connected to Spider-Man in the MCU before. At least Iron Man and Doctor Strange had met Spider-Man before, whereas the Punisher and Hulk seem far more random picks than those two. Yes, both characters have connections to Spider-Man in the comics, but this doesn’t justify shoving their MCU counterparts into a series where Spider-Man still hasn’t gotten a true solo movie.

Spider-Man playing with other characters in the MCU sandbox is fun, and it’s the main appeal of the character being added to the MCU. However, after four solo films and several crossover movies, it would be really nice to get a true solo Spider-Man movie. Peter doesn’t always need to be hanging out with other superheroes, and the fifth film should really be when Peter gets the spotlight to himself.

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Spider-Man: Brand New Day – Everything We Already Know

Spider-Man’s Team-Up Problem Could Be Fixed By Brand New Day

In every Spider-Man movie so far, Peter has been infantilized by the characters that he is crossing over with. He acts like Iron Man’s sidekick in Homecoming, Nick Fury is supervising him in Far From Home, and Doctor Strange is constantly telling him he doesn’t know what he’s doing in No Way Home. This probably isn’t going to get better in Brand New Day, based on the Punisher’s entire demeanor and the fact that Peter is going to Bruce Banner for advice in the trailer.

However, the story of Brand New Day may set up a better way forward. If every Spider-Man movie is going to feature other MCU heroes, at least we can move away from the infantilization of Peter. It is heavily speculated that Sadie Sink is going to play another Marvel superhero, like Firestar or Jean Grey. If a future Spider-Man movie uses her or other younger heroes as the crossover characters, then Peter can act as their mentor, flipping the script.

Although Peter is still young, he’s been a superhero in the MCU for well over a decade now. He could easily lead a team of younger street-level superheroes, and a quasi-Defenders team would be a fun setup for the next Spider-Man movie. Even if the fifth film is a crossover, making it an homage to projects like Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends or the Ultimate Spider-Man TV shows would be a much better way to handle it than what’s been done before.

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