In a City Where No One Knows Me: Thoughts on 'Spider-Man: Brand New Day'
⚠️ This article contains spoilers. If you haven't seen the movie yet, please quietly close your browser.
The first thing I said right after watching it was, 'There's still more to come.' It didn't feel like the story had closed, but rather that it had ended with the next door intentionally left open.
The team-up with the Punisher was actually their 'first meeting'.
It had been bothering me the whole time I was watching. 'Haven't these two fought together before?'
But when I looked it up, Peter and Frank Castle had never actually faced each other directly in any film work before. Frank is a man who walked over from the Netflix version of 'Daredevil' and arrived here through a completely different alleyway. This is their true first team-up.
Yet, they look like 'old acquaintances' because their history in the original comics is so deep. The Punisher's first appearance was in 'The Amazing Spider-Man #129'. He was originally a character born from the world of Spider-Man. So, in a sense, this team-up is a return to the roots.
The man who captures and the man who ends it.
• Peter: 'You must not kill people.'
• Frank: 'I make sure they can never do it again.'
Chasing the same enemy while holding onto justices that will never intersect. This conflict is just fascinating.
But this time, the two had a quiet commonality. Both have lost loved ones and are fighting while carrying that loss. A hero known by no one and a man who doesn't want to be understood by anyone. Standing side by side, they look sadly similar. I had a premonition that Frank's shadow would fall upon Peter's future personality.
The cruelest part was MJ's memory.
This isn't a story about 'breaking up with a lover'.
Peter still has his entire life with MJ remaining inside him, but in MJ's mind, that life never existed in the first place. 'You don't know me. But I know you.'—this one-way street is just painful.
That is precisely why the sign from Ned at the end is so effective. It carries more meaning than just 'one person remembered,' and it offers the possibility that perhaps the erased memories are still lingering somewhere. If that's the case, something must remain inside MJ as well.
Jean Grey and Peter, who went to space.
She doesn't look like a character who will just exit the stage like this. The theme of 'how to use too much power' overlaps with Peter's own story. I think she is in a position where she could be both an ally and a threat.
And finally, space. He was supposed to have returned to being a lonely street-level hero, but he is about to be connected to a cosmic-scale story once again. High schooler → Avengers → Multiverse → Loneliness → ??? Honestly, I braced myself a little at the sheer scale of this shift.
Even so, if we can meet again.
Precisely because everything was reset once, the act of 'meeting again' becomes a story in itself.
When MJ finds Peter next time, I think we will probably cry. So for now, I want to look forward to the day that comes.
#MovieReview #SpiderMan #BrandNewDay #MCU #SpoilerReview #Punisher