{"id":346678,"date":"2026-03-25T07:46:16","date_gmt":"2026-03-25T07:46:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/346678\/"},"modified":"2026-03-25T07:46:16","modified_gmt":"2026-03-25T07:46:16","slug":"spider-man-brand-new-day-shows-we-finally-have-an-mcu-full-of-villains-and-vigilantes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/346678\/","title":{"rendered":"Spider-Man: Brand New Day Shows We Finally Have an MCU Full of Villains and Vigilantes"},"content":{"rendered":"

Spider-Man: Brand New Day<\/a>\u2019s first trailer understandably broke the internet. The first look at the fourth MCU Spider-Man solo film set an unbelievable record<\/a> of 718 million trailer views in the first 24 hours, easily eclipsing the previous record holder, Grand Theft Auto VI\u2019s 455 million. The people yearn for Tom Holland\u2019s Peter Parker, it seems. Yet although there is much about the new film\u2019s plot and characters we don\u2019t yet know \u2013 get your final guesses as to who Sadie Sink is playing<\/a> in now, folks \u2013 one aspect of the trailer is reason to be optimistic not just about Brand New Day, but about the future of the MCU as a whole: just how many villains there seem to be running around.<\/p>\n

I don\u2019t mean that ironically. We get glimpses of Scorpion, Boomerang, Tarantula, and even some ninjas from the Hand. Plus, we also know Tombstone will be showing up and possibly even more characters depending on who winds up in the main antagonist role. Why is this a big deal? Isn\u2019t the prevailing wisdom that comic book movies with too many villains are bad? Well, this speaks to the MCU finally delivering on one of its outstanding promises when it comes to adapting the source material: faithfully portraying a world chock-full of villains and vigilantes. Let\u2019s take a look at how Brand New Day is changing the game for the MCU.<\/p>\n

Life, Death, and Villains in Comic Book Movies<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve been banging this drum<\/a> for quite a while, and I\u2019m doing it again: One of the MCU\u2019s biggest missteps has been killing off too many villains. Major foes who have been recurring threats in the comics like Obadiah Stane, Arnim Zola, Ronan the Accuser, Baron Strucker, Crossbones, Purple Man, Ulysses Klaw, Ego the Living Planet, Hela, Surtur, Batroc, the Supreme Intelligence, Mandarin, Mysterio, Muse, and Thanos have all been blown away. Others are in weird situations, like the Sacred Timeline\u2019s Loki being killed in Infinity War but an alternate Loki surviving via Endgame\u2019s time heist, Ultron being set to return over a decade after his debut in VisionQuest, and Kang the Conqueror having many living variants but seemingly being jettisoned from the series after Jonathan Majors\u2019 firing.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s hardly a problem exclusive to the MCU, having been part of comic book movies as far back as Tim Burton\u2019s first Batman film in 1989. Despite the Joker being Batman\u2019s archenemy who has been threatening Gotham for more than 80 years in the comics, Burton\u2019s film series kills him off at the end of the first entry. Why? For some momentary catharsis at the film\u2019s climax? Would putting him in jail or Arkham Asylum so he could theoretically be used again really have made the movie worse? Setting aside Batman\u2019s lethality<\/a> in that series as well as the DCEU, it shows a startling lack of foresight to take a hero\u2019s greatest enemies and put them in the ground after only one appearance. Not every movie where that happens does it poorly; Sam Raimi\u2019s Spider-Man 1 and 2 give tragic weight to the deaths of Green Goblin and Doctor Octopus. But in a world where superhero franchises are so commonplace, you\u2019d think someone in charge would clue in that keeping villains alive would be beneficial in the long term.<\/p>\n

The Amazing Spider-Man Newspaper Strip: Exclusive Preview Gallery\"Click<\/p>\n

The big gambit of the Marvel Cinematic Universe was to recreate the universe of Marvel comics on the big screen. It\u2019s kind of in the name, after all. But a huge part of the fun of that universe is that there are numerous heroes and villains running around who have lives outside of big battles. Sure, maybe it\u2019s slightly unrealistic for supervillain prisons to have revolving doors where menaces who can threaten global destruction keep evading their sentences, but it\u2019s also slightly unrealistic for a spider bite to give someone superpowers. The relationships that villains develop with their adversaries as well as their fellow villains can be some of the most interesting dramatic material in the comic books, and Brand New Day including so many threats indicates the filmmakers are aware of that.<\/p>\n

Let the Super Villains Live!<\/p>\n

One of the common refrains in comic book movie discourse leading into the rise of the MCU was that films in the genre with \u201ctoo many villains\u201d were worse than movies with a single threat. Such broad statements rarely hold up to scrutiny, but it\u2019s worth examining why that line of thought gained so much traction in the first place. To bring back the Raimi Spider-Man example, both 1 and 2 have one main villain each, and are generally regarded as great films. Spider-Man 3, meanwhile, has three big villains in Sandman, Venom, and Harry Osborn\u2019s New Goblin, and is typically referred to as the trilogy\u2019s weak link. But is the movie not as good because there are three antagonists, or because there\u2019s not much of a strong narrative thread between them? Spider-Man 3 is messy because it\u2019s trying to inelegantly juggle five or six plotlines at once, not necessarily because three bad guys from the comics show up.<\/p>\n

Less than some arbitrary number of villainous characters, what matters is narrative purpose and thematic clarity.\u201c<\/p>\n

Many good-to-great comic book movies have several villains and work out fine. Batman Begins has Scarecrow, Ra\u2019s al Ghul, and Carmine Falcone. Both Spider-Verse movies feature tons of antagonists from across the multiverse. And regarding MCU Spider-Man, No Way Home<\/a> featured several villains from previous Spidey movies and still had a coherent story. Less than some arbitrary number of villainous characters, what matters is narrative purpose and thematic clarity. It\u2019s too early to say if Brand New Day will have those things, but that the trailer is highlighting many B- and C-level Spider-Man villains from the comics hints that they\u2019re going to be used to establish Spidey\u2019s new status quo, letting us in on what he\u2019s been up to since Doctor Strange wiped the world\u2019s memory of Peter Parker at the end of No Way Home.<\/p>\n

This also relates to other goings-on in the MCU, specifically Daredevil: Born Again Season 2<\/a>. A major storyline of both seasons is Mayor Fisk cracking down on vigilante activity<\/a> in New York with his Anti-Vigilante Task Force. Born Again sets up that there are many such characters running around the city doing their own thing. Not just Daredevil, but also Swordsman, White Tiger, Jessica Jones, and Punisher<\/a> (who is set to appear in Brand New Day, mind you!). We doubt the show will have a Spidey appearance, but it\u2019s worth noting that both the film and show are creating a new structure to the MCU\u2019s world where many superpowered heroes and villains are existing simultaneously, and not all of them are associated with a centralized big team like the Avengers or the overall saga arc. It\u2019s a better system than big villains showing up and getting permanently defeated one at a time, and also hints at some particular comics the MCU may be set to draw from.<\/p>\n

Is Spider-Man: Brand New Day Setting Up the Sinister Six?<\/p>\n

Any Spider-Man fan worth their salt knows that the Sinister Six is the premiere team of Spider-Man villains who join forces to take down the Wall-Crawler. While the original incarnation founded by Doctor Octopus is the most iconic, the roster has been remarkably malleable, with the lineup including all kinds of different enemies over the years. So many villains being part of Brand New Day has us wondering if some of them will wind up being part of a Sinister Six in this or a future movie. Especially since Spider-Man: Homecoming\u2019s post-credits scene<\/a> indicates Michael Mando\u2019s Scorpion has some friends who also hate Spidey, is Scorpion in Brand New Day (sporting a new armored suit, no less) putting together a team to take out Spider-Man? Too bad Michael Keaton\u2019s Vulture is trapped in the Morbius universe<\/a>!<\/p>\n

Sony has wanted to adapt the Sinister Six into live action for some time, with a long-gestating spin-off about the team crumbling to dust<\/a> after the Sony hack in 2014. However, Brand New Day putting so much focus on Spidey\u2019s lower-tier enemies has us thinking that the film may be drawing from the recurring \u201cFoes\u201d comics, those being Deadly Foes of Spider-Man, Lethal Foes of Spider-Man, and the more recent Superior Foes of Spider-Man. All three series involve teams of Spidey\u2019s more obscure enemies and their misshapen plans, including oddball picks like Speed Demon, the Answer, and Stegron the Dinosaur Man. Fred Myers, aka Boomerang, who is seen in the Brand New Day trailer, is a major character in Superior Foes, and that\u2019s not even getting into Bokeem Woodbine\u2019s Shocker still being alive and Janice Lincoln, aka the Beetle, being Tombstone\u2019s daughter. Perhaps the MCU\u2019s Sinister Six will be similar to the team in that comic, where it\u2019s not Spidey\u2019s all-time greatest enemies, but a bunch of B-level threats.<\/p>\n

Either way, what the trailer hints about Brand New Day\u2019s approach to villains seems like a welcome change. Even if many of the characters from the trailer only wind up being part of a montage, it still helps create a setting that feels more akin to the source material than the MCU has attempted in the past. Between Brand New Day and Daredevil: Born Again, the MCU finally feels like the sort of place where you could bump into all kinds of superpowered characters while just walking the street. It took too long, but better late than never, right?<\/p>\n

Also, if anyone at Marvel Studios is reading this: It\u2019s not too late to say that Mysterio faked his death in Far From Home! He would totally do that!<\/p>\n

Carlos Morales writes novels, articles, and Mass Effect essays. You can follow his fixations on Twitter<\/a>.\n<\/p>\n