The deterioration of the Marvel Cinematic Universe evokes the process of what comic collectors call ‘Marvel chipping’. The term refers to a defect specific to Marvel comics printed during the Silver Age, a frayed, chipped right-hand edge courtesy of the era’s printing presses. While not the tidiest description of the MCU’s degradation, the comparison illuminates the special manner in which its stories have depreciated, accounting for the shoddy construction, the disintegrating integrity, the assembly-line-esque sameness that cheapen these stories and their novelty.
Spider-Man: Brand New Day is both condemnation and confirmation of this decline. Director Destin Daniel Cretton, whose MCU credits include Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings and Disney+’s fabulous Wonder Man series, somehow feels both free of and chained to the corporate trappings of the Marvel Machine. Two of the movie’s selling points – the respective returns of Mark Ruffalo’s Hulk and Jon Bernthal’s Punisher – are more a by-product of insistent branding than narrative necessity, though Bernthal’s onscreen rapport with Holland injects colour and levity into this otherwise drab entry.
Its plot, however busy it gets, bursts with potential. Brand New Day pits Spider-Man against his most insidious foe yet: loneliness. As he lugs himself from fight to fight, tit to tat, he mourns the life he forfeited to keep his friends safe. He grieves the fact that he’s not at MIT, experiencing college with ex-girlfriend MJ (Zendaya, as grounded, sweet, and relatable as ever) and best friend Ned (the eternally goofy Jacob Batalon), and that even if he did, they wouldn’t know him. To make life even more stressful, his spider-powers have begun to evolve beyond his control, just as a terrifying new threat emerges.
Like so many MCU films before it, Brand New Day runs too long, takes too few risks, and feels too beholden to fan service to stand out as a moviegoing experience, but it isn’t without its charms. Cretton captures the grand and the quotidian, framing Spidey’s crusade as everyday charity rather than some noble, hero-specific calling and reminding us why the character resonates. Peter Parker is remarkable, yes, but he’s also just a guy.
Tom Holland understands this, and it shows. The guy drips with a charisma that only accompanies unfailing, uncompromising, reckless goodness, the kind of everyday purity that magnetises anyone nurturing this quality. Zendaya mirrors this intrinsic gentleness, bringing to MJ an authenticity that makes her every bit as lovable as Holland is as Peter.
The villains aren’t nearly as fun or compelling. Tramell Tillman’s Bill Metzger commands every moment he graces, but the script can’t keep up with him. Michael Mando, reprising his role as Mac Gargan/Scorpion, only resurfaces to set up a bigger threat, further crowding a story that already feels too cluttered, too busy.
Ruffalo’s Hulk proves similarly superfluous, showing up only so he can dispense advice, set up a lame Avengers joke, and position Spidey and the Punisher for a team-up. The ensuing fight – a three-way brawl in and around the Department for Damage Control headquarters – never transcends its purpose, which of course involves shoving its MCU-ness down our throats.
Brand New Day may be a marvellous showcase for Holland, Batalon, and Zendaya, but for most of the cast, it’s treated as little more than a contract stipulation, an obligatory pop-in that simply checks a box. Cretton pulls off a handful of inventive action sequences, and the script presents a more mature and self-actualised Spidey, but it isn’t quite enough to save the final product. Here’s hoping Peter Parker’s next adventure packs more of a punch.
SPIDER-MAN: BRAND NEW DAY is in cinemas now.
