One of the most interesting character developments for Tom Holland’s web-slinging wall-crawler in Spider-Man: Brand New Day is that he’s depicted as an exhausted, lonely hero who’s approaching the point of burn out. While Spider-Man has lost none of his trademark charm on the surface, the now-forgotten Peter Parker is undeniably at a low point, completely consumed by his superhero life. The action picks up roughly four years after the events of Spider-Man: No Way Home, and director Daniel Destin Cretton smartly provides a glimpse at why Spider-Man is so worn down.
Over the movie’s runtime we get to see Spider-Man battle his way through a gallery of foes (and in the case of Savage Hulk and Frank Castle, friends). Spider-Man: Brand New Day brings the hero back home to the streets of New York City after a decade of cosmic and mystic adventures, and as a result we get to see some of the ground-level enemies that are iconic in Spider-Man’s extensive and complex comic history. Some only appear for a few moments, but they all help illustrate just how well-established Spider-Man is in the MCU’s version of New York City.
Why You Should Trust Me: As a writer with Screen Rant and MovieWeb, I’ve had the privilege of covering the movies and TV shows for the last few years in a professional capacity. My knowledge of and love for the Marvel Universe predates the MCU, and are based in the comics and the discourse surrounding them. I’ve seen everything related to the beloved comic book characters that fill the interconnected Marvel universe, most importantly the incomparable Spider-Man.
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The Hand
Spider-Man tangles with the seemingly-reformed order of ninjas.
The Hand is most frequently associated with Daredevil, as the evil order of ninjas has been a well-established danger in New York City. As a result, they’ve tangled with many of the NYC-based superheroes in their 45-year comic history, including Spider-Man. Their first appearance in the MCU came in Netflix’s Daredevil series, and they were every bit as evil as their comic counterparts in that instance. Spider-Man: Brand New Day reintroduces a cluster of the ninjas as assets for the Department of Damage Control, which claims to have morphed their skills as assassins into a functional security for the organization.
As Brand New Day reveals, the Hand is actually under the thumb of corrupt DODC director Bill Metzger, and acts as his personal security force/team of mercenaries. That leads to a pitched battle between a newly-powered up Spider-Man and the Hand in prison wing within the DODC, which winds up being one of the movie’s most spectacular action sequences. Spider-Man handles the ninjas with his newfound organic arachnid powers, but it seems all but certain we will continue to see the Hand pop up in the MCU.
5
Ramrod
Spidey previously had a brush with the superhumanly strong cyborg.
One of the smartest moves Daniel Destin Cretton pulls off in Brand New Day is a montage of Spider-Man battling his way through some of his lower-level villains, each instance of which replicates an iconic comic book cover or panel. One of the briefest is a shot of Ramrod, a cyborg who boasts a steel skeleton and superhuman strength, which he uses to bash his way through opponents and obstacles. In Brand New Day, we see him doing a JV Juggernaut impression attempting to run Spider-Man throuhg a brick wall, but Spidey easily leaps over him. This is probably the beginning and the end of the minor villain in the MCU, as is the case with most of the villains in the early montage.
4
Tarantula
The ultra-agile villain uses poison blades to execute his missions.
Just as Ramrod appeared for only a few frames, we get no more than a glimpse at Spider-Man battling the Tarantula. The Tarantula has one of the more interesting backstories for a minor Spider-Man villain, as he was initially an enforcer for the fictional South American country of Delvadia (a stand-in for smaller countries like Chile). As the Delvadian version of Captain America, the Tarantula is a highly agile and effective hand-to-hand combatant who uses retractable blades on his arms and feet to battle enemies. Given his title, it should come as no shock that those blades are traditionally tipped with poison. He’s almost surely another one-and-done for the MCU.
3
Boomerang
The athlete-turned-villain weaponizes his specialized boomerangs and precision aim.
Boomerang is another of the briefly-appearing montage villains, and like the Tarantula he actually has an interesting backstory. A former aspiring major league pitcher, Boomerang’s skills for pinpoint throwing accuracy and arm strength attracted a criminal organization that outfitted him with a specialty suit and a new arsenal of weapons: boomerangs with various capabilities. As a peak-human assassin, Boomerang has been employed by and associated with some of the most iconic lower-level villainous and anti-heroic organizations in Marvel history, including the Sinister Syndicate, the Thunderbolts, and the Assassins Guild, among others. Once again, this is probably all we’ll ever see of him.
2
Tombstone
The notorious crime boss files his teeth as an intimidation tactic.
Tombstone at least gets a bit more time to shine in Brand New Day, and Marvin Jones III perfectly embodes the massive, albino-skinned crime boss. Modern movie fans will recognize Tombstone as one of the allies of Kingpin in Sony’s animated masterpiece Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, who was in fact voiced by Marvin Jones III. The comics version of the character is a New York City supervillain who, like Kingpin, was naturally large, fast, and strong.
Unlike Kingpin, Tombstone eventually gained powers after an experimental gas altered his DNA, resulting in an extremely durable and strong body that could even withstand high-caliber bullets. The version we see in Brand New Day appears to simply be the human version of the character, but a comics-matching power-up could see him return for future Spider-Man movies.
1
Scorpion
Michael Mando reprises his role with a new cybernetic tail and armor.
Michael Mando’s Scorpion gets the most screentime of any Spider-Man villain in Brand New Day, although interestingly it isn’t actually Mac Gargan swinging the tail at Spidey for their most significant fight. Scorpion is temporarily controlled by Jean Grey in that instance, although the early montage establishes that he and Spider-Man had an established history before that. In the comics, Scorpion has acted as a Venom symbiote host and even as a Spider-Man stand-in in the supervillain/anti-hero team the Dark Avengers.
In the comics, Mac Gargan gains arachnid powers (including speed and strength akin to Spider-Man, but no web-slinging) and his scorpion-themed armor via unsafe experimentation. Althought not one of the original Sinister Six, Scorpion was in many later iterations of the supervillain team, and as he is still alive at the end of Spider-Man: Brand New Day, it wouldn’t be surprising to see him reappear down the road in the MCU.
- Release Date
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July 29, 2026
- Runtime
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145 minutes
- Director
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Destin Daniel Cretton
- Writers
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Chris McKenna, Erik Sommers
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