‘Spider-Man: Brand New Day’ Is a Superhero Movie for Yearners

Spider-Man: Brand New Day remembers what the comics have always been about—a man who keeps getting back up, even at his lowest. If you are looking for a typical superhero flick , hitting action beats and cameos and not much else, look elsewhere.

Brand New Day , which hits theaters July 31, is a deeply emotional, more mature Spider-Man film than anything in the “Home” trilogy. The characters have grown up, Ned and MJ have moved on, and Peter Parker is trying to make his way in the world alone—a difficult feat with or without superpowers.

The movie speaks to the current moment on multiple levels. The age of connection is also the age of isolation , and the themes of loneliness and longing for genuine connection resonate in an era where relationships are mediated by screens.

On another level, the movie parallels our cultural struggle with AI. It’s easier than ever to generate content that looks like a movie, or a photo, or a comic, without feeling like one. Box-office results for superhero movies are far from their 2019 peak , and simply churning out assembly-line blockbusters that hit their beats and follow the formula does not guarantee results.

Instead, Brand New Day feels lovingly made by people who understand the characters, who love Marvel, and who trust the audience to feel something rather than to simply watch something. It reads as a continuation of what Thunderbolts (i.e. the New Avengers) started—superhero storytelling grounded in darker, more emotional territory.

Brand New Day leans on what it means to be human: to grieve, to long, and to care for one another. The audience is pulled into the film’s longing even before entering the cinema, thanks to the extended wait since No Way Home , which released in December 2021. As a persistent hater of long stretches between installments in a series or trilogy, I have to admit that, in this case, it serves the plot, the actors, and the movie as a whole.

Not only does it make sense for time to have passed in Spider-Man’s New York, it makes sense for the audience to have spent time missing Peter and MJ and Ned, to have spent time wondering how they’re doing, and to long to see them together again. This makes the emotional beats in the movie that much more resonant.

It has also served the actors well. Since No Way Home came out in December 2021, Tom Holland and Zendaya have had a incredible slate of roles—most recently, both in Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey —lending their characters the benefit of their experience and grounding the entire movie in convincing and emotional performances.