Marvel premieres have become something of a tradition for me.

Whenever a new Marvel movie arrives, I almost always choose the earliest possible screening. Part of that is simply because I love these movies and genuinely can’t wait to see what Marvel has prepared next. The other reason is much more practical: spoilers are everywhere, and with a movie as heavily anticipated as Spider-Man: Brand New Day, avoiding the internet for several days simply wasn’t an option.

So, naturally, I was there on day one with a few friends.

And before even talking about the movie itself, Sony and Marvel deserve some credit for the way Brand New Day was promoted. There were collectible cups, popcorn buckets, posters, giveaways and plenty of Spider-Man merchandise surrounding the premiere. It genuinely felt like an event rather than simply another trip to the cinema.

Considering what happened at the box office afterward, that excitement clearly wasn’t limited to our theater.

Brand New Day became the biggest movie of 2026 within its first two weekends, reaching an incredible $1.67 billion worldwide in only ten days. Even more impressively, its $360 million North American opening surpassed the previous record held by Avengers: Endgame.

But numbers aren’t what made this movie special to me.

It’s Peter Parker himself.

This Is Perhaps the Most Relatable Peter Parker We’ve Seen

For all the multiversal insanity, superheroes and larger-than-life action surrounding Spider-Man, the character has always worked best when Peter Parker feels like a normal person underneath the mask.

Brand New Day understands that better than most.

After the events of No Way Home, Peter is completely alone.

Nobody remembers him. He has lost Aunt May. He has lost his friends. He has lost MJ. The people who were once his entire world are effectively gone.

And what does Peter do?

He does something I think a lot of men will immediately recognize.

He builds himself.

Instead of dealing with the pain, Peter throws himself into work. Except his job happens to involve swinging around New York and beating criminals senseless.

There is something surprisingly human underneath all of that.

People become lonely. Relationships end. Friendships disappear. People move to enormous cities surrounded by millions of other human beings and somehow still feel completely alone.

Then you establish a routine.

Home. Work. Sleep.

Repeat.

Peter’s version is just considerably more spectacular.

He’s trying to build himself into something stronger because, somewhere underneath it all, he’s still heartbroken.

And that’s where Brand New Day becomes much more interesting than simply another Spider-Man adventure.

Peter Parker Is Gone. Spider-Man Is All That’s Left.

For the first time in a while, it genuinely feels like we’re watching Spider-Man.

Not an Avenger who happens to be Spider-Man.

Not Tony Stark’s protégé.

Not one Spider-Man standing alongside two other Spider-Men.

Just Peter Parker and New York City.

Nobody knows who he is anymore, and Peter barely has a personal life to return to when the mask comes off.

So he dedicates himself almost completely to being Spider-Man.

He’s constantly moving around New York, stopping crimes, helping people and dealing with whatever the city throws at him.

Some of the opening sequences immediately reminded me of the modern Spider-Man video games.

The encounters involving vehicles, criminals and even the tank almost feel like watching somebody encounter one of those open-world side activities while swinging around New York.

And I loved that.

It might seem like a small detail, but it helps sell the idea that Spider-Man isn’t only appearing when an Avengers-level catastrophe happens.

He’s always there.

This is his city.

But You Can’t Run From Pain Forever

The most interesting part of Peter’s journey is that his obsession with becoming a better Spider-Man eventually begins to have consequences.

Peter hasn’t really healed.

He’s suppressed everything.

He has buried his loneliness, grief and heartbreak underneath Spider-Man.

And eventually something inside him begins to change.

Without getting too deeply into spoiler territory, Brand New Day plays with Spider-Man’s powers and the evolutionary nature of spiders in some genuinely interesting ways.

Peter starts changing.

What impressed me was how naturally the movie connects his emotional condition with what is happening physically.

The internal battle eventually becomes an external one.

That transition between a broken Peter Parker and an increasingly powerful Spider-Man is one of my favorite things about the movie.

Because underneath all the spectacle, it still comes back to Peter.

You can make yourself stronger.

You can work constantly.

You can distract yourself.

But eventually you have to confront whatever you’re trying not to feel.

The Action Just Keeps Escalating

Of course, this is still a Spider-Man movie.

And Brand New Day absolutely delivers when it comes to action.

The Punisher is a fantastic addition.

Hulk is here.

Spider-Man is dealing with increasingly ridiculous situations.

And somehow the movie keeps escalating.

There was genuinely a point around the Hulk section where I thought, Okay, this must be the big finale.

Nope.

The movie keeps going.

Peter’s situation continues evolving, the stakes continue increasing and there is still considerably more waiting afterward.

Yet despite everything happening, the pacing works.

That’s important because Brand New Day packs a lot into its runtime. With this many characters and ideas, it could easily have become another superhero movie overwhelmed by its own ambitions.

For me, it never reached that point.

The runtime felt right, the action remained entertaining and there was always something pushing the story forward.

Punisher and Hulk don’t simply feel like names thrown onto a poster either. Their presence helps make this corner of the MCU feel larger without taking away the fact that this remains Peter’s story.

And then there’s one character we need to discuss.

SPOILER WARNING

The following section contains a major Spider-Man: Brand New Day spoiler.

Sadie Sink Is Jean Grey

Yes.

Jean Grey.

After all the speculation surrounding Sadie Sink’s mysterious MCU character, Brand New Day finally provides the answer, and the reveal has since been publicly confirmed: Sink is playing Jean Grey.

This might end up being one of the most important elements of the entire movie when we eventually look back at it.

Jean’s presence immediately creates a bridge between Spider-Man’s corner of the MCU and the X-Men.

And I’m extremely interested to see where Marvel takes that.

Whether Spider-Man remains directly involved with her story or Brand New Day simply serves as Jean’s introduction before Marvel expands its mutant storyline, this feels like groundwork for something considerably bigger.

Most importantly, I liked that the movie didn’t immediately give everything away.

You don’t truly understand who she is and what her presence means until very late in the story.

For Marvel fans, that’s exactly the kind of reveal that makes seeing these movies before getting spoiled worthwhile.

This Is the Direction I Want From Spider-Man

After everything Spider-Man has experienced in the MCU, Brand New Day feels appropriately named.

This really does feel like a new beginning.

The character has essentially been stripped back to his foundations.

Peter Parker.

New York.

The suit.

The responsibility.

The loneliness that comes with being Spider-Man.

Then Marvel builds outward from there with Punisher, Hulk, Jean Grey and the wider MCU.

That’s the right balance for me.

I don’t need every Spider-Man movie to involve the multiverse or three generations of Spider-Men.

No Way Home was special precisely because it was an event.

Trying to recreate that every time would eventually make it meaningless.

Instead, Brand New Day gives Tom Holland’s Spider-Man room to finally exist on his own.

And ironically, by making his world smaller at the beginning, Marvel has created an opportunity for it to become much bigger later.

Spider-Man: Brand New Day gets a 9/10 from me.

The action is excellent. The pacing works. The new characters are exciting. Punisher and Hulk are great additions, and the movie contains some genuinely exciting implications for the future of the MCU.

But the biggest reason it worked for me wasn’t Hulk.

It wasn’t Punisher.

It wasn’t even Jean Grey.

It was Peter Parker.

Seeing Peter completely alone, throwing himself into being Spider-Man because that’s the only thing he has left, made this version of the character feel more human than he has in years.

There is something painfully relatable about watching someone try to improve himself while simultaneously using that improvement to avoid dealing with why he’s hurting in the first place.

That’s Peter Parker.

That’s Spider-Man.

And underneath all the massive battles, surprises and Marvel spectacle, Brand New Day remembered that distinction.

For the first time in quite a while, Peter Parker truly feels like Peter Parker again.

And Spider-Man finally feels like Spider-Man.