Brand New Day, Marvel’s Spider-Man 3 is a Curious Fork in the Road

Besides how many influences or loose adaptations may be connected between all comic book media, what one video game/movie/show/comic book does might not inspire something else to iterate on it. However, Spider-Man is one of countless comic book movie characters whose stories are retold or repurposed ad nauseam, either because his stories are so timeless or they present an opportunity for reflection and revelation when an ongoing story is beginning to sour. In the case of Tom Holland’s Spider-Man movies, the “Brand New Day” arc from The Amazing Spider-Man, no matter how much of it is adapted, is an excellent well to draw from.

Marvel’s Spider-Man, developed by Insomniac and bearing an original, blank canvas continuity, has its own fair share of inspirations, and its first installment was also an extremely loose adaptation of “Brand New Day” with Mister Negative being a primary villain before Dr. Otto Octavius decides to make his revenge plot against Norman Osborn public and unleash Devil’s Breath on New York City. Interestingly, both Spider-Man: Brand New Day and Marvel’s Spider-Man 3 are at crossroads regarding their respective storylines, and it may be in Insomniac’s best interests to lean across and copy Sony’s homework when it comes to the most spectacular reveal that the movie has made with filming now underway in Glasgow, Scotland: Spider-Man’s costume.

Spider-Man: Brand New Day is the Best Excuse for Another New Costume

Tom Holland’s Spider-Man has a fleeting yet bottomless catalog of costumes. Some costumes have only been featured in a single movie while others have spanned multiple, and they’ve all been disposed of for Peter Parker’s upcoming outing:

• Captain America: Civil War (Peter’s makeshift “onesie” costume and the default costume made for him by Tony Stark).
• Spider-Man: Homecoming (as above, the default costume integrated with Karen, or “Suit Lady,” and a tease of the nanotech Iron Spider costume that Tony makes for him).
• Avengers: Infinity War (the default costume, as well as the nanotech Iron Spider costume).
• Avengers: Endgame (the nanotech Iron Spider costume).
• Spider-Man: Far from Home (the nanotech Iron Spider costume, the default costume, a black stealth costume provided by Nick Fury and Maria Hill, and a red-and-black costume that Peter designs).
• Spider-Man: No Way Home (the nanotech Iron Spider costume, his red-and-black costume as well as a stylization of it where it’s turned inside out to feature a black aesthetic with exposed wiring, a gold-lined ‘Integrated’ nanotech costume, and a red-and-blue costume worn only in a final web-swinging sequence).
• Spider-Man: Brand New Day (an iteration of No Way Home’s final costume that is highly inspired by the costume Andrew Garfield’s Peter wears in The Amazing Spider-Man 2 and Spider-Man: No Way Home).

Spider-Man: Brand New Day’s costume was officially revealed with Tom Holland unmasked shortly before filming began, and set photographs have since depicted basically every angle of it imaginable. Besides undeniably being Spider-Man’s most comic-accurate live-action costume to date, it’s also a bold statement that the movie will hopefully not abscond from by ditching nanotech and revisiting hand-sewn threads: Peter is on his own, without mentor figures to guide or dress him.

Marvel’s Spider-Man Needs a Leash on Its Blistering Pace

Marvel’s Spider-Man, on the other hand, only treated players to the idea of a basic, friendly neighborhood Spider-Man in its opening tutorial with the NYPD’s assault on Fisk Tower. Peter Parker had been Spider-Man for eight years by then, to be fair, but he soon evolves into Marvel’s Spider-Man’s Advanced Suit and is suddenly designing elaborate gadgets.

Now, thanks to the third act of Marvel’s Spider-Man 2’s story, Peter possesses a curative symbiote. It may not be Insomniac’s plan to reel Peter back after having so much costume development thrust upon him, but Spider-Man: Brand New Day is proof that hopping back to basics is not a form of regression so much as it’s a means of instilling nostalgia and initiating a creative blank slate for the character.

Marvel’s Spider-Man 2

Systems

9/10

Released

October 20, 2023

ESRB

T For Teen Due To Blood, Drug Reference, Mild Language, Violence

Publisher(s)

Sony Interactive Entertainment

Engine

Insomniac Engine v.4.0