(Spoilers) Spider-Man: Brand New Day - Rebuilt Connections

In the previous film, No Way Home, the whole world ultimately forgot Peter Parker.

But in Brand New Day, Peter Parker is recognized by the world once again.

As a huge Spider-Man fan, and someone whose name even comes from Spider-Man, I realized that I had somehow never written an article about Spider-Man!

That said, this article will still focus on the film itself first. My own connection with Spider-Man can wait for another time.

I loved this movie so much after watching it. It has been a long time since I saw a superhero movie so focused on portraying a single hero. It is not just focused on introducing a world and characters, nor is it a pile of visual effects and godlike battles. The story simply revolves around "Spider-Man, Peter Parker": his experiences, his state of mind, and his choices.

The Spider-Man in this film radiates a strong sense of "loneliness" and melancholy.

A teenager forgotten by his comrades, closest friends, and lover still shoulders his responsibility and protects his neighborhood. Truly, your friendly neighborhood Spider-Man.

While watching, I kept quietly connecting my own feelings with Peter Parker's. The only person he can talk to on the phone is the director, and later the Punisher too. But when he asks whether they are friends, they just laugh without answering. Now that I have come to Tokyo, I have also arrived in a city where I have no connections. Even though I have visited a few times as a tourist, living here every day as a foreigner also gives me a powerful sense of loneliness and unfamiliarity.

The things he usually does also feel a lot like me: writing code and talking with his AI, E.V.

It suddenly reminded me that when I used to watch sci-fi movies like this, I always thought the scientists typing away in front of multiple screens looked so cool. Maybe that was also one small reason I wanted to become a software engineer back then.

From Loneliness to Mutation

The opening quickly runs through the past four years of him being Spider-Man, recreating classic comic covers one by one. He has defeated Scorpion, Tombstone, the Hand, Tarantula, and Boomerang.

During these four years, everyone who remembered Peter Parker has had that memory erased by the spell. The world only knows that there is a mysterious Spider-Man fighting crime around the neighborhood. No one knows Peter Parker.

I really like the idea of "spider mutation," where his psychological trauma affects his physical body. The intense loneliness of being forgotten by the world for four years causes a dramatic physiological change when he encounters familiar strangers, MJ and Ned. The spider DNA inside his body mutates even further.

In the first half of the film, he is unable to control the mutation because both his body and mind are moving closer to becoming a pure Spider-Man. The identity of Spider-Man has already overwhelmed Peter Parker. His mental state affects his physiology, and his body becomes more and more spider-like. He no longer needs web-shooters to create webbing, sleeps in a sleeping bag made of webs, gains heightened senses, and becomes physically stronger.

For a time, the spider mutation slips out of his control, and he even hurts the police.

Spider-Man or Peter Parker

When Peter Parker meets MJ, Ned, and Bruce Banner, he uses fake names. When he fights crime, the police director and everyone around him only call him Spider-Man. For a long time, the film never says the name "Peter Parker."

When he meets the new Black Widow, or drinks coffee at the Punisher's home, he also insists on keeping his mask on. It seems like he is protecting his identity, but he is also not yet ready to face "Peter Parker" beneath the mask.

Only when Jean Grey investigates Spider-Man's identity and says "Peter Parker" is Peter Parker brought back into this world.

To save MJ, he first asks the Punisher for help, forming something close to a teammate relationship. At the same time, MJ discovers from the note he left behind that Spider-Man is Peter Parker, and that name becomes known once again to his former lover. MJ then helps him reconnect with Ned. They build Lego together, something they used to do back in the first film, Homecoming, and this becomes his happiest moment in four years.

At the end, when he confronts Jean Grey and is faced with the question, "Are you Peter Parker, or Spider-Man?", he is finally able to answer, "I am both," and gains control over his mutated body.

At first, I thought this realization came rather abruptly, but then I realized that this is exactly the main theme. He has already found the Peter Parker part of himself again. The people around him are no longer only those who see him as "Spider-Man." He can reconcile his identities as Peter Parker and Spider-Man.

At the very end, when Peter Parker goes to buy flowers and runs into Ned, he is finally willing to tell Ned that his name is Peter. What makes this different from Jean Grey and MJ is that Peter Parker was "discovered" by them, but with Ned, he chooses to reveal his identity himself. It shows that he is truly ready to keep living as both Peter Parker and Spider-Man.

After experiencing such intense loneliness, he finally realizes that he cannot remain alone forever, and he takes that step forward on his own.

The Self-Indulgence of Sacrifice

During his conversation with MJ, I also really liked the way MJ questions him. To keep MJ safe, Peter Parker chooses to keep his distance after being forgotten. But that decision is one he made entirely on his own. From MJ's perspective, it would definitely feel deeply hurtful. It also points to many problems in modern relationships: we often make decisions for the other person, take burdens on their behalf, and fail to choose honest, open discussion.

If it were the old me, I might have found this kind of tragic hero silently taking everything onto his own shoulders admirable. Now, I only see it as poor communication and the self-indulgence of over-giving. In the end, it usually becomes a lose-lose situation: the one making the sacrifice suffers, while the other person feels disrespected or even hurt.

The film's arrangement is also clever. Even though Peter Parker keeps his distance from MJ to protect her, MJ still ends up in danger. That makes Peter's four years of sacrifice and pain feel futile.

Fortunately, though, this also becomes the trigger that breaks Peter Parker out of his continued, silent sacrifice.

Redemption Through Love

I actually quite like the way Marvel explores the psychology of heroes in Thunderbolts and Spider-Man: Brand New Day.

At the beginning, Jean Grey is unable to smoothly enter Spider-Man's heart through telepathy. I wonder whether that is also because Peter Parker's self-identity is so confused at the time, and because he still has not faced Aunt May within his own heart.

After Peter Parker bravely works through this loneliness, he accepts Jean Grey into his inner world and lets her hear what Aunt May wants to say to him.

Aunt May says: "It is precisely because you are special that people will do dark and cruel things to you. But we love you, never because you are special, but because you are you. I hope you can feel proud of being special."

It is a simple passage, but to truly understand it and live by it is extremely difficult. How much unconditional love exists in this world? How many people cannot accept that they are unique, and cannot feel proud of being themselves?

I think Jean Grey also longs deeply to be recognized and understood. But her sister was taken from her too soon, leaving her to act for the sake of revenge. Peter Parker and Jean are both teenagers with special powers, but he was fortunate enough to receive Iron Man's help and Aunt May's unconditional love.

We do not see whether Jean Grey releases her control over the people around her because she is persuaded by Aunt May. But we do see her moved by Peter Parker's even more selfless act of taking the bullet, and that act also changes the Punisher.

Peter Parker keeps telling the Punisher not to kill, but the Punisher ultimately still decides to kill Jean Grey, just like the brutal methods he has used in the past. But after Peter Parker takes the bullet and ends up on the brink of death, the Punisher's heart softens, and he reconsiders his actions.

In the end, the Punisher also stays by Peter Parker's hospital bed, while Jean Grey uses her mind-control ability to share and stabilize Peter Parker's injuries.

Peter Parker receives Aunt May's love, then uses that love to redeem Jean Grey and the Punisher.

Finally, here are a few small moments and details I liked:

1. When the new Black Widow, Yelena, video calls him and sees MJ and Ned, she is happy that Spider-Man has made friends. She looks just like a relative smiling warmly from the sidelines.
2. The V-Max setup is genuinely brilliant. It looks so serious, and it turns out that the director of the Department of Damage Control was not pretending to be clueless. He really did not know what V-Max was. When Jean Grey finally realizes what V-Max means at the end, it is truly heartbreaking.
3. The whole film keeps reusing its pieces in clever ways. The device Peter invents to indiscriminately control mutant genes, and the words Aunt May says to Peter, can both apply completely to Jean Grey too.