{"id":421702,"date":"2026-05-11T04:01:10","date_gmt":"2026-05-11T04:01:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/421702\/"},"modified":"2026-05-11T04:01:10","modified_gmt":"2026-05-11T04:01:10","slug":"10-years-after-spider-mans-mcu-debut-marvel-has-officially-completed-his-iron-man-jr-arc","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/421702\/","title":{"rendered":"10 Years After Spider-Man’s MCU Debut, Marvel Has Officially Completed His “Iron Man Jr.” Arc"},"content":{"rendered":"

From the beginning, a core aspect of the Marvel Cinematic Universe\u2019s version of Peter Parker has been his relationship with Tony Stark. In Captain America: Civil War, Iron Man took Spider-Man under his wing, launching an entertaining dynamic that was very prevalent during the latter stages of the Infinity Saga. With the MCU bypassing the traditional Uncle Ben origin story<\/a>, Tony Stark filled a similar role, becoming a mentor figure to the young Peter. As great as it was to see Robert Downey Jr. and Tom Holland play off each other, this didn\u2019t always sit well with Marvel fans. Rather than being a scrappy, DIY superhero who gets by on his own, the MCU\u2019s Spider-Man was mockingly called \u201cIron Man Jr.\u201d since he greatly benefitted from Stark Industries tech.<\/p>\n

A decade after Holland made his MCU debut, that appears to be changing. One of the main selling points of Spider-Man: Brand New Day<\/a> is that it\u2019s aiming to tell more of a street-level story, a refreshing change of pace from the multiversal shenanigans and alien invasions Peter has had to deal with in the past. Other than scaling down the scope, there have been some key shifts in Peter\u2019s character \u2014 ones that complete that \u201cIron Man Jr.\u201d arc in a way that should be very satisfying.<\/p>\n

The MCU\u2019s Peter Parker Is More Like Tony Stark Than Ever Before<\/p>\n

\"PeterImage Courtesy of Marvel Studios<\/p>\n

As Spider-Man: Brand New Day picks up, Peter Parker is not in the best place emotionally. He continues to struggle with the ramifications of Doctor Strange\u2019s spell at the end of Spider-Man: No Way Home; while Peter keeps tabs on his old friends through social media, they are blissfully making their way through life, entirely unaware of who he is. Because of that spell, the entire world forgot who Peter Parker is, which means he is completely alone for the first time in his life. The first few pages of the Brand New Day script<\/a> shed some light on Peter\u2019s extremely isolated existence, with director Destin Daniel Cretton\u2019s annotations specifically calling the hero out for unhealthy routines.<\/p>\n

The script also details Spider-Man\u2019s new setup, including some of the tech he now has at his disposal. One of the pages contains a note from Cretton underscoring the importance of having all of that tech made by Peter, returning the hero to his DIY roots. One of the consequences of Doctor Strange\u2019s spell is that Peter no longer has access to the vast Stark Industry resources he once had (Happy Hogan doesn\u2019t recognize him at the end of No Way Home), so \u2014 much like his older variants Peter 2 and Peter 3 \u2014 Peter 1 is now doing all of this on his own. And his penchant for developing gadgets like a homemade fabricator or an AI assistant harkens back to the very first days of the MCU.<\/p>\n

Peter doing what he can to just get by in Brand New Day is reminiscent of the original Iron Man, when Tony Stark famously built his first Iron Man armor in a cave with a box of scraps. It was one of the MCU\u2019s earliest illustrations of Stark\u2019s genius-level intellect, demonstrating that he didn\u2019t always need billions of dollars and state-of-the-art technology to gain the upper hand on his adversaries. His mind was his greatest weapon and could always give him an edge regardless of the situation. Sometimes, that big brain could get Stark into trouble (like when he built Ultron to be a suit of armor for the world), but was typically a great asset.<\/p>\n

From this perspective, Brand New Day is bringing the Peter\/Stark dynamic full circle. It takes us back to the days of Captain America: Civil War, when Spider-Man was only a handful of months into his crime-fighting career. It was clear Stark saw something in the kid\u2019s potential and wanted to give him an upgrade; Brand New Day shows whatever faith Tony had in Peter wasn\u2019t misguided. He probably considered Peter a bit of a kindred spirit, and Peter having the ability to design a new Spider-Man costume<\/a> and build his own tech proves that he too doesn\u2019t need all the money in the world to keep his city safe.<\/p>\n

Brand New Day Is the Perfect Way to Honor Tony Stark\u2019s Legacy<\/p>\n

\"Spider-Man<\/p>\n

In Spider-Man: Far From Home, Peter Parker is mourning Tony Stark\u2019s death. During a rather emotional conversation with Happy Hogan, it\u2019s implied Peter is struggling with the idea that he\u2019s supposed to be \u201cthe next Iron Man,\u201d becoming the answer to the question all the media outlets are asking. Though the main plot of Far From Home is about Spider-Man stopping Mysterio, honoring Tony Stark\u2019s legacy is an equally pertinent aspect of the film. A key part of Peter\u2019s arc is realizing he doesn\u2019t need to be \u201cthe next Iron Man.\u201d Nobody can be Iron Man. Peter can just follow in Stark\u2019s footsteps in his own way, keeping the lessons he learned in mind.<\/p>\n

In that respect, Brand New Day is the perfect way to conclude the \u201cIron Man Jr.\u201d arc. From the little information that can be gleaned from the script pages, it can be inferred that Peter is channeling his inner Tony Stark that was always there, making the most of what he has to get the job done. He\u2019s embodying his mentor\u2019s best qualities, putting his mind and skills to great use as he designs tools to help him become a better hero. One has to imagine that if Tony could see his protege now, he\u2019d have a great sense of pride. Peter clearly isn\u2019t the next Tony Stark in terms of wealth and riches, but in terms of mental makeup and dedication, he\u2019s Tony\u2019s spitting image.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s great to see the MCU embrace the \u201cIron Man Jr.\u201d angle in this way because it\u2019s much closer to what Spider-Man has always been about. One of the main reasons why Spider-Man has remained such a popular superhero for decades is his everyman status. He feels relatable because he has to deal with problems and overcome adversity that\u2019s common to regular people. As entertaining as it was to watch Holland on screen with Robert Downey Jr., the MCU\u2019s Spider-Man was arguably stripped of some of these \u201ceveryman\u201d qualities. He always had the Stark tech to fall back on, but now he basically has to start over from scratch.<\/p>\n

When Stark takes away Peter\u2019s advanced suit as punishment in Spider-Man: Homecoming, he tells the youngster, \u201cIf you\u2019re nothing without this suit, then you shouldn\u2019t have it.\u201d Brand New Day serves as the ultimate payoff to that line. Through his actions and choices, Peter has lost everything \u2014 his friends, his access to state-of-the-art technology \u2014 but he\u2019s still carrying out his responsibility of being a protector. He has grown to the point where he no longer feels like he needs Stark Industries gadgets as a lifeline to do his job. That is what Tony was trying to imbue in Peter when he recruited him, so Brand New Day is the ideal blend of honoring Stark while also staying true to the source material.<\/p>\n

What do you think? Leave a comment below and join the conversation now in the\u00a0ComicBook Forum<\/a>!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"From the beginning, a core aspect of the Marvel Cinematic Universe\u2019s version of Peter Parker has been his…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":421703,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[156,3993,409,111,139,69,11013,4634],"class_list":["post-421702","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-movies","tag-entertainment","tag-marvel-cinematic-universe","tag-movies","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-regular-feature","tag-spider-man-brand-new-day"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/421702","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=421702"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/421702\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/421703"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=421702"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=421702"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=421702"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}