***This review contains spoilers for Spider-Man: No Way Home and very minor spoilers for Spider-Man: Brand New Day***
Spider-Man: Brand New Day takes place after the world forgets who Peter Parker is. At the end of Spider-Man: No Way Home, as the sky above the Statue of Liberty is breaking apart and villains from across the multiverse are breaking through, Peter makes the tough choice to tell Doctor Strange to cast the original, unaltered spell in hopes that all the villains will be sent back to their correct worlds. Doctor Strange warns Peter that everyone in the entire world will forget Who Peter Parker is and Peter says that he knows and is ok with this reality. Peter spends the final minutes before the spell sets in by saying goodbye to MJ and Ned. He tells them that he will come find them and explain everything to them. The Post-credit scene shows Peter going to the coffee shop where MJ works to try and tell her what had happened, but when he sees that both MJ and Ned had gotten into MIT, he decided that it's best that they don't know so that they can live regular lives.
Spider-Man: Brand New Day picks up with MJ and Ned starting their freshman year at MIT, while Peter lives on his own back in New York. Unable to completely let go, Peter constantly tunes into Ned’s live streams, watching his old friends navigate college without him. A fast-paced montage shows Peter throwing himself entirely into his life as Spider-Man, all while keeping distant tabs on MJ and Ned's time at MIT. As Spider-Man, Peter battles various members of his rogues' gallery, including the Hand, Tombstone, and the Scorpion, alongside police detective Jean DeWolff. Though Peter keeps his secret identity hidden from Jean, she grows close enough to express concern, warning him that spending all his time as Spider-Man without taking a break is destroying his mental health.
Jean ends up being right, and Peter having zero social life starts to catch up to him. This isolation causes Peter to start going through changes, spider changes. these changes come in the form of enhances spider senses and strength, though Peter can't really control these new abilities and even lashes out on some of his villains. Peter spends most of the movie trying to run away from these new, enhanced abilities, seeking advice from Bruce Banner on if he can just suppress the bad parts of his abilities and keep the good parts. Bruce doesn't know Peter is talking about himself, but kind of figures and tells him that it is technically possible, but is also extremely dangerous. Throughout the movie, Peter remains torn between two central struggles: whether to fully embrace his new abilities, and whether to finally break his silence and restore MJ and Ned’s memories of their shared past.
The thing I really liked about Spider-Man: Brand New Day was how grounded it felt. Instead of focusing on a world-altering event like we have come to expect from the MCU, the movie centers around Peter’s isolation and the heavy mental toll of spending too much time as Spider-Man. This movie is fully about Peter being on his own for the first time in his life. He had to witness his life as Spider-Man cause the death of his aunt May who was his only family he had left. The death of his aunt makes Peter question if having MJ and Ned in his life is even worth the danger that it will bring to them. As Peter starts to struggle with the toll of being alone, he comes to realize the value of relying on allies, such as Frank Castle, the Punisher.
Ultimately, Spider-Man: Brand New Day feels like a classic Marvel comic book story line. From having Peter fight some of his rogues' gallery and teaming up with the Punisher to having Peter have to deal with real moral dilemmas that actually affect him throughout the entire movie. Even though Spider-Man 2 is still my favorite Spider-Man movie, I do think Brand New Day does a great job at stepping back from the massive scale of No Way Home in favor of a more grounded story.
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