Brand New Day is Marvel’s Best Shot at Ending a 19-Year-Old Spider-Man Curse

by

Spider-Man movies tend to be most successful when they focus on one main villain for Peter Parker to battle. This pattern has held true in films featuring villains like the Green Goblin, Doctor Octopus, the Lizard, the Vulture, and Mysterio.

Spider-Man movies often struggle when they try to include too many villains, making it hard to focus the story. The upcoming Spider-Man: Brand New Day could fall into this same trap, but it might also offer a solution to this long-standing problem.

Is a Sinister Six Impossible to Do Well?

A team-up of Spider-Man’s six most famous enemies – the Sinister Six – would be an amazing sight on the big screen, pitting Peter Parker against them all in one epic battle. It’s funny, though, because most Spider-Man movies have only managed to feature one main villain effectively.

The villains in the Spider-Man movies often feel underwhelming. In Homecoming, characters like the Tinkerer and Shockers are forgettable sidekicks, and the threats in Far From Home aren’t even genuine villains. No Way Home tries to avoid this problem by turning a fight with three villains into a larger, more balanced one. However, it does so somewhat artificially – the Green Goblin and Doctor Octopus don’t appear until after the initial three villains are already weakened, and ultimately, only the Green Goblin serves as the main antagonist.

As a big Spider-Man fan, I’ve always thought about how well villains are balanced in these films. And honestly, Sam Raimi’s first Spider-Man is the only one that really nailed it, in my opinion. It gave roughly equal screen time to both Green Goblin and Doc Ock, letting their stories breathe. Later, The Amazing Spider-Man tried something similar, setting up a mystery around Uncle Ben’s killer, but it quickly dropped that plotline as soon as the Lizard showed up. It felt like they just abandoned a perfectly good villain arc, which was a shame!

Spider-Man 3 & TASM2 Illustrate the Downfall of Multiple Villains

Spider-Man 3 would have been much stronger if it had fewer villains. Focusing on Sandman as the main threat, and revealing that Flint Marko was responsible for Uncle Ben’s death, could have made for a great story, even setting up Venom for a future movie. Alternatively, Harry Osborn’s story arc as the New Goblin was compelling enough to deserve its own film, potentially as a fifth installment in the series.

While separate movies wouldn’t fix all of The Amazing Spider-Man 2‘s issues, the film could have benefited from a more developed storyline for Harry Osborn’s family curse. The movie tried to do too much, juggling Harry’s struggles with underdeveloped villains like Rhino and Electro, Peter Parker’s investigation into his parents, his relationship with Gwen Stacy, and her plans to move to London. This resulted in a crowded plot that didn’t fully explore any of these elements.

Brand New Day Has an Edge

The upcoming Spider-Man: Brand New Day can really succeed by exploring the time gap between it and Spider-Man: No Way Home. However, to do that, the movie needs to show us a compelling and believable picture of what Peter Parker’s life was like during those missing years, including who he spent time with and what challenges he faced.

We know Peter Parker will recognize Frank Castle, the Punisher, a violent character who hasn’t appeared in any of Peter’s stories yet. Because of this, the new Spider-Man story needs to show that they met sometime after the events of Spider-Man: No Way Home to explain how they’d know each other as crime-fighters in New York City.

Lower-level Spider-Man villains like Boomerang and Tarantula probably won’t have significant roles in Spider-Man: Brand New Day. They’ll likely appear briefly at the start, perhaps in a quick montage showing Spider-Man’s recent adventures. This montage could also explain what Peter Parker’s life has been like ever since Doctor Strange wiped everyone’s memory of him.

The movie also includes several other villains, like Scorpion and Tombstone, and we might even see some currently unconfirmed characters appear. It will be interesting to see how the filmmakers handle so many villains – whether they’ll show them quickly in a montage, or give them more individual attention. Scorpion, in particular, is already a well-known character and doesn’t really need much explanation.

Scorpion, first appearing as a minor villain in Spider-Man: Homecoming, doesn’t need much backstory—a quick flashback to his tattoo in the first Spider-Man film with Tom Holland is probably enough, aside from explaining his high-tech suit. However, Tombstone would need a more detailed introduction, establishing him as a powerful crime boss who mysteriously appeared out of nowhere, especially considering Wilson Fisk’s Kingpin never mentioned him in Daredevil: Born Again.

Even though some villain appearances will likely be brief, and others are already known characters, it will be a big accomplishment if Spider-Man: Brand New Day can successfully feature such a large number of them. If it doesn’t, it risks becoming like Spider-Man 3, The Amazing Spider-Man 2, and Spider-Man: No Way Home – a Spider-Man movie where the villains didn’t feel fully developed or important to the story.

Read More

2026-02-21 18:11