Spider-Man: Brand New Day Just Gave Peter Parker The One Thing the MCU Has Done For No Other Hero And It’s Exactly What We Needed to See
The Marvel Cinematic Universe has never just been superhero movies and television series. While the ever-expanding franchise certainly features superheroes and takes its cues from the pages of Marvel Comics, the stories told on the big and small screens are actually much larger. In a very real way, the MCU is an exploration of grief and trauma. It’s something I’ve written about extensively over the years, outlining out Phase Four in particular followed the seven stages of grief as well as dug into why Wanda Maximoff is as much a victim as a villain. But even with the MCU telling complex tales of trauma and loss for its various heroes, most of those stories resolve in surprisingly similar ways. It’s a pattern for the franchise, with the heroes carrying the things they’ve experienced story to story in ways that often adversely impact them as people. However, with Spider-Man: Brand New Day now in theaters we’re finally seeing the MCU do something different: they let Peter Parker heal.
While Peter Parker’s story in the MCU has perhaps been one where the bulk of his actual trauma was confined to the events of Spider-Man: Far From Home where his identity is exposed to the world and Spider-Man: No Way Home where he had to deal with the fallout of that as well as the death of Aunt May and having to make the gut-wrenching choice to have his identity erased from everyone’s memory in order to save the multiverse, Brand New Day showed just how deeply those experiences impacted Peter. In fact, Peter’s emotional state is a key element of the film but instead of using it as a way to hurt the hero further or, we finally see him grow and live to fight another day.
Most MCU Stories of Healing End In Character Death
Now, you might be saying to yourself that we’ve seen heroes heal from their trauma or at least come to terms with their journey and you would absolutely be right. Tony Stark/Iron Man, for example notably came to a place of understanding with his own experiences and journey just before his big sacrifice in Avengers: Endgame. The same can be said for Natasha Romanoff/Black Widow, who also came to a place of personal acceptance before sacrificing herself to get the Soul Stone. Even Wanda Maximoff/Scarlet Witch came to a place of acceptance with her own trauma as well as a place of remorse for the pain and suffering she caused and ended up sacrificing herself in the process when she brought Mount Wundagore down on top of herself to destroy the Darkhold. Those are all definitely stories of reconciling one’s past and trauma, but they also have something else in common: the hero dies at the end. Right as Tony, Natasha, and even Wanda reach a place of acceptance and growth, they die and their story ends.
There’s an unintentional message there, that healing is terminal, and even Brand New Day flirts with that idea. After he embraces the changes he’s going through and his own pain and suffering in order to evolve and be able to help Jean, Peter damn near dies. He gets shot and survives only because of Jean’s assistance that allows him to get the medical attention he desperately needs. It would have been so very easy for the MCU to end Peter’s arc there with the acceptance of his own journey and evolution and a noble sacrifice in the process. It would have even potentially have worked, narratively, opening the door for Marvel to introduce a new Spider-Man by way of Miles Morales somehow. But instead, the movie let Peter live another day and, most importantly, truly live. The movie ends not with mourning but with Spider-Man being celebrated and Peter making tentative steps to start living his life once again.
Peter Parker is Moving Forward and Will Be a Better Hero For It
The idea that we finally have a hero in the MCU that is healing from his trauma and surviving without some enduring sacrifice is huge. It sends a positive message to viewers that there is a future beyond the suffering and that you can, indeed move forward. What makes this especially meaningful is that Brand New Day doesn’t take any shortcuts to get Peter — or the audience — to that message. We are actually shown how painful and sad Peter’s life is. In fact, that’s a huge bulk of the movie. We see Peter who has fully isolated himself. The world may not have any memories of Peter Parker, but Peter Parker has also made no effort to establish a new version of himself. He is practically a recluse when he’s not operating as Spider-Man and operating as Spider-Man is all he does. Even Jean DeWolff calls him out for this while Yelena points out just how sad he is. Because we see how hard Peter has taken the losses in his life, we also get to walk alongside him as the real cost of that suffering starts to make itself apparent. It makes his evolution, both as a hero and as a young man, all the more earned. When Peter is brave and goes to introduce himself to Ned at the end of the movie, we as viewers share in his joy at the hope that Ned remembers. It makes the journey more personal for the viewer: if Peter can get through what he’s been through, maybe, just maybe we can face our own pain.
The timing of Peter Parker’s journey is also very important. While we don’t know if and when we’ll see him again, seeing Peter finally moving forward from all of his pain and loss (and truly getting the “brand new day” the film’s title promised) means that when Spider-Man does return, we’ll be getting a more mature and more emotionally grounded hero. Spider-Man in Brand New Day continued his heroic efforts part out of distraction from his own suffering and part out of obligation — with great power comes great responsibility and all that. Going forward, we’ll get a Spider-Man whose heroics come from a different place. He won’t be the kid who developed superpowers and became a vigilante only to be drafted to superhero-dom by Tony Stark in Civil War. He won’t be the hero trying to balance being a teenager with the adult responsibilities of a hero. He won’t be a solo vigilante trying to avoid his own isolation. He’ll be a hero who understands the suffering of some of the very people he fights to protect and strives to be an example for because he will have made his way through to the other side. It will give him a deeper level of empathy, which might just be the greatest power of them all.
Spider-Man: Brand New Day is in theaters now.
