Spider-Man: Brand New Day Fully Steals Two of the Best Things About Daredevil

Spider-Man: Brand New Day offered fans a lot of surprising moments, but several of them seemed to be pulled straight from the world of Daredevil. At the very top was the fact that the Punisher was in the movie, and before this, he had only appeared in the Daredevil-adjacent world of Marvel, first on Netflix and then when Daredevil pulled over most of the characters into his Disney+ Daredevil: Born Again series. Also appearing in a small role was Sheila Rivera (Zabryna Guevara), who gave Spider-Man the key to the city. She last appeared in Daredevil: Born Again Season 2.

However, there were two other things that Spider-Man stole directly from Daredevil in the new movie, and they were items that Daredevil is best known for.

Spider-Man Defeated The Hand

The Hand has always been connected with Daredevil above all other heroes in the Marvel Universe. Elektra has also fought them, but she is first and foremost a Daredevil supporting character. Wolverine has also dealt with them, but on a smaller level. However, while Daredevil is in prison, it seems that Spider-Man is the one who has been tasked with stopping these ninja assassins. In fact, one of the moments at the start of the movie traces the villains he beat, and one newscaster mentioned he took down the Hand.

This is surprising in several ways because Daredevil and the Defenders beat the Hand in their Netflix series. However, William Metzger said to Spider-Man that they were no longer under the control of a larger force (like Alexandra Reid in The Defenders or the Beast in Marvel lore). Instead, Metzger said that they were “kids” who needed a guiding hand like the Department of Damage Control. They became a security force and weapons for Metzger and his organization.

Unlike villains such as Boomerang, Tombstone, and Tarantula, the Hand played a major role in the movie. They were on hand to fight Spider-Man when he realized that Metzger was lying and was the real bad guy in this story. Spider-Man then did something that Daredevil even struggled with at times. He once again beat the Hand. Of course, this wasn’t the Hand with a powerful demon behind their actions, and Spider-Man did level up with his DNA mutating, but he beat one of Daredevil’s deadliest villain groups convincingly.

Spider-Man Gained Daredevil’s Sensory Overload Moment

The second big item that Spider-Man: Brand New Day took from Daredevil was something that the Man Without Fear is best known for. As a blind man, Matt Murdock’s powers are based on his heightened senses. Without eyesight, his hearing, smell, touch, and taste are all raised to superhuman levels. Daredevil can actually use what he calls his radar sense to “see” things when he needs to, and his hearing is so strong that he can actually hear a person’s heartbeat to know if they are lying.

However, this has caused problems more than once. When he first got his powers, he received sensory overload so strong it mentally paralyzed him until he was able to get control of those senses. There have also been moments in his career as Daredevil where something happened, and he got another sensory overload, which caused him to once again collapse under the pressure of hearing, smelling, and sensing everything around him on an almost unbearable level.

Spider-Man: Brand New Day did that exact thing after Spider-Man began to realize his DNA was mutating to a dangerous level. Peter Parker was working on a power inhibitor, which could either take powers away from someone or level them out when created specifically for a certain person’s powers. It was based on Bruce Banner’s inhibitor that kept him from turning into the Hulk, and Spider-Man wanted to make one to keep his new powers under control. This was because he experienced sensory overload, where he could hear and see everything around him on a level so intense that he collapsed to the ground.

This was shot in the same way that the Daredevil series showed it, with the up-close looks at the things he was seeing and hearing contrasted to an almost dizzying camera movement and edits. It was easily the same basic shot construction that was used in Daredevil, and it is something that has always been done with that character, even in the comics. At the end of the day, Spider-Man: Brand New Day borrowed heavily from Daredevil, and while it made the moments its own, it was still an interesting way to show these two city-level heroes and their connection.