Sunshine and Olly

by Theo Blaustein

A lot of people dismiss Superhero movies.

Some argue they’re made for kids, and anyone who still watches is either a nerd, or childish. (I’m guilty of both.)

I would argue these movies are much more profound, and can be interpreted as art.

Which brings me to today’s subject, Spider-Man: Brand New Day.

Spider-Man is one of the most popular heroes for a reason. He’s a witty, High School kid from Queens, who swings around New York City saving people.

What’s not to like?

Yet this movie tackles some pretty serious themes.

In the beginning, everyone on Earth has forgotten Peter Parker existed. (Due to a spell cast by Doctor Strange in the last movie, Spider-Man: No Way Home.)

So instead of reaching out to people, Peter chooses to bear the burden alone, and focus solely on his job as Spider-Man.

Four years go by, and Peter is lonely.

Everyone at some point in their life feels lonesome. (I’m going through it right now, and this shit sucks.)

But, there’s light at the end of the tunnel.

One day, Peter stumbles across his (former) best friend Ned at the bodega, and follows him home to a house-warming party he and MJ are throwing. (MJ is Mary Jane, the love of Peter’s life, who’s also forgotten him.)

Peter then finds himself stammering after he sees MJ again for the first time. (He says his name is Maynard.)

Peter finds MJ has a boyfriend, and he’s crushed, but that’s life, not everything is perfect, nor should it be.

Right after, he swings through the city, headed home in tears, and ends up waking up in a web-cocoon days later. Reborn.

When he shakes free of the cocoon, and plummets towards the ground, Peter finds he has natural web shooters now, coming out of his wrist skin, instead of the mechanical ones he’d been using.

(He gags the first time he tries to use the new webs, and it’s pretty funny.)

According to his computer systems, these changes were due to a traumatic event and prolonged isolation.

I will say going through trauma does change a person, but if you’re willing to accept it and heal, it makes you stronger.

Peter was not yet willing to accept that fact. Instead, he invents a power inhibitor, to try to limit his arachnid DNA – aka not accept himself for who he is.

(With the help of MJ later in the movie, he gets the inhibitor up and running.)

In the midst of all of this, Jean Grey, the “villain,” is trying to break into the shady-seeming, government-run, Damage Control facility.

She burgles Peter’s apartment, and finds a note he wrote for MJ, explaining the forgetting-spell, and everything that happened to erase Peter Parker from the world.

She then communicates that through someone else, as Jean Gray’s superpower is that she can possess other people, and speak through them, as she can hop from person to person extremely fast.

(Which, in my opinion, is a symbol for mental health, because it is something that cannot be physically seen, and you can never outrun it.)

Anyway, Peter and Jean Gray race to MJ, and Peter eventually reaches the apartment, where he attempts to save her from being possessed by Jean.

Peter bursts through her window, and demands she come with him in order to save her from danger.

They end up on a rooftop; MJ says that she remembers Peter, and they kiss. (At the time it seems like a very sweet moment.)

But we soon find out it’s actually Jean Grey the whole time, who pretended to be MJ, intentionally, to mess with Peter.

She then jumps off of the building, as MJ, and Peter is barely able to save her.

(Again, reality is not perfect, and things are a lot more complicated than Hollywood tropes.)

From there, Peter takes MJ to the Punisher’s house, (another Marvel hero,) where they are met with an array of booby traps.

They eventually convince the Punisher to let them in, which he begrudgingly does.

For those of you who don’t know, the Punisher (aka Frank Castle) lost his family. Ever since, he has been living alone, with the mission of killing the bad guys, which Peter does not mess with. (Spider-Man is anti-violence.)

Throughout the movie, Peter hides behind his mask, even from MJ, because he’s scared of showing his true self.

When he was in the same room as MJ, working on the inhibitor, he hid behind a literal veil. They did, however, have a conversation, in which MJ points out that Peter is not a monster, and that he’s just changing.

Before he leaves to go stop Jean Grey, Frank points out that Peter is being a coward, hiding behind the mask, because if his family were still alive one more day, he would never be caught dead waiting around.

This moment is pivotal, in solidifying the mask as a metaphor for hiding your true self.

Another major character in this movie is the Hulk, (aka Bruce Banner.)

Bruce has invented his own power inhibitor to try and silence the Hulk.

He works at a local university, and Peter visits him in the midst of his journey to invent his own inhibitor.

In the end, Peter gets the answers he’s looking for, and Bruce warns Peter.

He says, “What if you are trying to silence something that needs to be expressed?”

Which is true.

A lot of us put limits on ourselves because it’s scary to look within, and it’s hard to work on yourself.

But in the end, it’s the only way to move forward.

Anyway, later in the movie, Jean Grey gets access to Bruce Banner, and makes him turn into the Hulk to try and break into Damage Control.

Spider-Man shows up to try and stop her. So there’s an amazing action sequence with the Punisher, Hulk, and Spider-Man.

Jean eventually loses her grip on Hulk’s mind, and he overpowers Bruce Banner.

In the last shot before the Hulk plummets to the ground, he is being pulled down by an array of skyscraper fragments tethered to him by Spider-Man’s webs.

The weight is eventually too heavy to bear, and he is pulled off the building.

In this I find another message.

You can never truly bury your feelings, or the darkness within you. That weight is too much to carry, and you’re fighting a losing battle.

In the final major scene, after a conversation with MJ, Peter figures out that Damage Control had been lying to him the whole time, and with the help of Black Widow, he discovers that Jean Grey had a sister who was kidnapped by Damage Control to be experimented on.

So, he rushes over to try and save her.

But by the time he gets there, Jean has discovered that her sister was killed by the government entity, and Jean’s powers become accelerated by her emotions.

She has every person within a kilometer of where she is completely frozen. (Tens of thousands of people, including Ned and MJ.)

By the time Spiderman arrives, Jean has already saved herself. (Women do not need a man to save them guys, it’s 2026.)

Spider-Man gets beat up by The Hand, this group of Ninjas that Jean mind controls.

He’s taking physical abuse, while Jean goes on a monologue about how inherently bad people are, and that they shouldn’t be trusted.

By the end of her speech, Spider-Man is on the ground, bleeding in front of her, and she asks a crucial question, “Are you Spider-Man, or are you Peter Parker?”

Peter removes his inhibitor, and his mask.

He catches a blade coming directly for his face, and calmly says, “I’m both.”

(Pretty bad ass, I know.)

Spider-Man eventually reaches Jean, who’s holding part of the city hostage, in an attempt to try and talk her down.

She has glass shards pointed directly at the head of Damage Control, so it’s a tense stand-off.

In an attempt to make peace, Peter lets Jean into his mind for the first time in the movie.

In there, his late Aunt May sits on the bed in his childhood room.

She talks to Jean about how quickly things can change. How sometimes people will do awful things. But at the end of the day, there are people who love her, and she is special.

Peter then comes into frame, and talks about how no one can go through these struggles alone, and we all need someone to lean on in times of hardship.

Jean comments that she has no one, and Peter quickly replies, “you have me.”

(Very sweet, I know.)

While all of this is happening, the Punisher is on a rooftop with a long rifle, waiting to snipe Jean Grey, and he attempts to do so.

Luckily, Peter uses his Spidey-Sense, hears the bullet, and shields Jean from being shot.

He takes a literal bullet for her.

In the end, Peter wakes up in the hospital, and the Punisher is waiting at his bedside.

With tears in his eyes, he apologizes to Peter for shooting him.

Peter giggles at him for crying, and all is resolved.

Outside the hospital, a crowd of people is anxiously waiting for a sign from Spider-Man.

As Peter leaves the hospital, Frank stands in the hospital room window, wearing the Spider-Man mask, (as a distraction,) and begins waving to the crowd.

Peter maneuvers his way through throngs, anonymous, and sees how many people truly love Spider-Man.

Which is what I want to leave you with.

Everyone at some point in their lives is going to face adversity, or a challenge that seems insurmountable.

But just know, no one can do it alone.

Reach out to your support system, don’t be afraid of your feelings, and never let someone else define you.

You are beautiful, you are smart, and you are important.

Theo B out.