Spider-Man: Brand New Day is a rare thing in the MCU; a movie that’s not only incredibly good, it also balances continuity and connectivity with tremendous skill. There are a staggering number of cameos and co-stars; Punisher, Hulk, and of course Jean Grey herself. Impressively, though, every one of these characters serves both the plot and the film’s themes. They’re all mirrors of Spider-Man in one sense or another, reflecting the theme of connection and loss.
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The result is a film that connects to the wider MCU while still feeling like its own thing. It makes the MCU feel lived-in, like an actual world that other characters are part of, rather than just a franchise where characters hop in and out for the sake of fan-service. For all that’s the case, though, this isn’t just a standalone story to be considered in isolation; it’s also extremely important in terms of setup, establishing some major MCU stories going forward.
8. Spider-Man: Brand New Day’s Post-Credits Scene is Classic Avengers Setup
Let’s start with the most obvious setup: Spider-Man: Brand New Day‘s post-credits scene. This apparently sees Spider-Man vanish from New York, apparently materializing in space on another Earth. It’s pretty obvious setup for the multiversal collisions we’re expecting in Avengers: Doomsday and Secret Wars, and fits with teases about a crisis in space in Thunderbolts*‘ post-credits scene. Given Yelena was complaining about nobody telling the New Avengers what was going on, it’s rather amusing to see “small potatoes” Spider-Man drawn into it all.
Tom Holland isn’t confirmed for Doomsday, which means there’s currently intense debate over which of the two upcoming films Peter Parker will appear in. Marvel’s Kevin Feige is dodging the issue, merely hinting Spider-Man will indeed be in an Avengers film. “For people who’ve seen Brand New Day, they know the storyline leads us into more Spider-Man films and into the future of the MCU,” Feige says. “And, I think we’re still in spoiler territory because the movie only just came out, but it leads into another very well-known Marvel franchise created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby.”
7. Jean Grey is the Most Obvious X-Men Setup Imaginable
Let’s stay with the blindingly obvious: Sadie Sink’s Jean Grey is the most obvious X-Men setup Marvel could have gone with. The end of Brand New Day saw Jean heading off upstate, and it’s pretty easy to guess where she’s probably going: Westchester, the traditional home of Professor Charles Francis Xavier. Jean is famous as one of the original X-Men, and Kevin Feige has confirmed she’s key to the future of the MCU. Sadie Sink is now positioned at the heart of the Mutant Saga.
All this raises the question of how the MCU’s Jean Grey will interact with her traditional love interest. It’s only a matter of time before we get some more X-Men casting news; if rumors are to be believed, we’ll learn more at D23. There, we’re sure to finally get confirmation about who will play Cyclops. And from there, the X-Men will move into their ultimate soap opera style, because it will need to be someone who has great chemistry with Sink.
6. One Specific Jean Grey Power Sets Up the MCU’s Phoenix Saga (If Marvel Want It)
Fox adapted the “Dark Phoenix Saga” twice, and failed with both versions. Ironically, one scene in Brand New Day is subtly tied to the original comic book story; the one where Jean breathes for Spider-Man, keeping Peter Parker alive. This inverts Jean Grey’s origin story in the comics, where her powers first developed after her best friend was killed in a car crash. Jean’s mind entered Annie’s, and she experienced death with her. But that Jean was powerless to save her friend, unlike the version we see in Brand New Day.
Marvel eventually retconned this as the moment Jean caught the attention of the Phoenix Force, a cosmic entity of death and rebirth. It saw Jean’s potential to hold back death, and her desire to use that power appealed to the Phoenix. Given the MCU’s Jean has just exceeded her comic book incarnation by actually pulling it off, it wouldn’t be a surprise to see the Phoenix begin to show interest in this Jean. In fact, the telepathic / telekinetic wave of power she released riffed on a Phoenix-related scene from Wolverine and the X-Men, so the idea’s already been set up.
5. Metzger Escapes with Knowledge of Universal Inhibitors
Spider-Man just invented one of the MCU’s most dangerous weapons. Fearing his spider mutation, Peter sought out Bruce Banner and created a universal inhibitor. The design is immediately recognizable to anyone familiar with the comics, because this is the prototype for the inhibitor collar – anti-mutant tech that was used to enslave mutants on the island of Genosha. Peter may be a scientific genius, but he’s now officially making the same mistakes as his mentor Tony Stark; he’s inventing tech that will wreak havoc on a global scale.
But Spider-Man’s technology is even more dangerous than that, because he’s invented something that can apparently prevent any expressions of DNA-based superpowers. This is a weapon against Gamma-irradiated monsters, super-soldiers like Captain America, mutants, and so much more. Even powerhouses like the Sentry could be neutralized by it. We saw the same kind of tech during Brian Bendis’ New Avengers run, in a story called “Powerloss,” where simple street crooks came close to killing off the Avengers.
4. The Hand Returned to New York in Spider-Man: Brand New Day
We last saw the Hand in the Marvel Netflix era, and they were nowhere near as cool as Brand New Day‘s iteration. The film introduced the Hand as they are in the comics, a ninja crime gang who dress in flashy red robes and who delight in killing their enemies. What’s more, their power levels and skills were staggering; they came close to killing Spider-Man in an enclosed arena, despite his powers. If Spider-Man hadn’t allowed his spider-mutation to happen, he’d have been defeated there and then.
What does this mean for the Hand, and why has the ninja cult reinvented itself from an in-universe perspective? These questions feel like perfect setup for Daredevil: Born Again, pretty much the only MCU TV show that still seems to be happening as a result of corporate mandates at Disney. We know Elodie Yung’s Elektra is returning in Born Again Season 3, a character strongly tied to the Hand. So expect to see these threads resolved sooner rather than later.
3. Brand New Day Sets Up Classic Members of Spider-Man’s Rogues’ Gallery
Meanwhile, Brand New Day also set up some classic Spider-Man villains. We got:
- Boomerang
- Ramrod
- Tarantula
- Tombstone
- Scorpion
Some of these likely have wider connections, too; according to the Spidey Tracker website, the fight with Tarantula was close to Staten Island, which means he may have been the villain Spider-Man helped Punisher against. Whatever the case may be, though, we now have so many more Spider-foes ready to give the wall-crawler a run for his money. More importantly, though, these villains would prove even more dangerous to vigilantes who aren’t as powerful as Spider-Man.
I don’t know whether we’re going to see more of these. Brand New Day certainly suggested scraps with these bad guys are everyday occurrences for the wall-crawler, so we can assume they have a good chance of crossing paths with Defenders characters too. It would be particularly exciting to see Tombstone against Luke Cage, given the MCU’s Luke reinvented himself as a rival crime boss for a time.
2. The Professor Hulk Era is Officially Over
Brand New Day brings back Mark Ruffalo as Bruce Banner, but radically changes his status quo. The Professor Hulk era is officially over, and Hulk and Banner are waging war against one another again. Brand New Day implied Bruce was the one who started it, too; he began depending on his Gamma inhibitor to suppress the Hulk, treating the Jade Giant in much the same way the Hulk treated him on Sakaar. Bruce wound up sent to a psychiatric hospital, where he’ll presumably be treated from Gamma-powered dissociative identity disorder.
In truth, this is a more interesting status quo for the Hulk than Professor Hulk. The conflict between Banner and Hulk drives the best Hulk stories, and the MCU hasn’t really known what to do with the Hulk since that was brought to an unwise ending. We’ve now course-corrected in the best possible way, setting up Hulk for some major plots going forward. What’s more, this Hulk is bigger and stronger than ever, meaning we could even get to see something like the iconic “World War Hulk.”
1. Spider-Man’s Powers Are Still Evolving
Finally, Spider-Man’s mutations may not be over. We haven’t really seen a sense of their impact yet; we know he’s stronger, faster, and has improved spider-sense, in addition to the phenomenal organic webs (which we can only hope dissolve after an hour like Peter’s artificial version). In the comics, Spider-Man’s mutations are tied to the fact he’s a spider-totem, tied to the “Web of Life and Destiny” that binds the entire multiverse together. If this is true in the MCU as well, then Spider-Man may become a key player in Doomsday and Secret Wars.
More excitingly, though, Spider-Man saw a video claiming spiders undergo three stages of metamorphosis in their life-cycle. This appears to be the second, which means a third could easily happen. Marvel decided not to full body horror and turn Peter into Man-Spider this time around, but we can’t rule that possibility out. Future mutations could easily happen down the road, and comics and animated shows both give us a sense of what’s possible from them.
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