A Sense of Doubt blog post #4187 - I watched Spider-Man - Brand New Day and the other THREE previous Spider-Man films with Tom Holland

A Sense of Doubt blog post #4187 - I watched Spider-Man - Brand New Day and the other THREE  previous Spider-Man films with Tom Holland

I like going to superhero movies in the summer. Last summer, I saw Superman and The Fantastic Four.

This summer was set for Supergirl and Spider-Man.

But I had a Spider-Man problem. I had not seen the previous three movies with Tom Holland and Zendaya.

Not because of lack of interest. I just have very limited options for viewing superhero movies. Over the last few years, I didn't feel I could get out to movies very easily or take precious home time to watch them. Granted, I watch a lot of sports, but I am almost always reading or doing some kind of work while sports are on.

And so I applied myself to this project to prepare for Spider-Man: Brand New Day. On Friday night, I watched a double feature of Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017) and Spider-Man: Far From Home (2019). Then on Sunday, I watched Spider-Man: No Way Home (2021), which was my favorite of the three and NOT just because it had Doctor Strange, who is one of my top five favorite Marvel heroes.

In my defense, Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017) was released on July 7th of that year. I think I wanted to get to the theatre, but I was PACKING TO MOVE OUT WEST. I didn't even manage to pack as much as I wished, so a movie break... well, it didn't happen.

The benefit of this catch up binge is that I did not have to wait FIVE YEARS between Spider-Man: No Way Home (2021) and Spider-Man: Brand New Day (2026). That was a big gap given that the other films all came out two years apart. No deals have been confirmed for Spider-Man: film five, but given the massive box office success of Brand New Day, it is very likely that the next film will be confirmed soon (possibly two more films).

Given how much I loved Spider-Man: No Way Home (2021), not sure yet if I can say whether or not I loved it more than Spider-Man: Brand New Day (2026).

However, all four films are excellent and well worth viewing for even the most casual of Spider fans.

This post is not technically a review of Spider-Man: Brand New Day (2026). I will say that I REALLY liked it and like last year's Superman movie and this year's Supergirl movie, I had a good cry. In fact, in the Spider-Man movie, I cried a lot.

I will also say that I didn't know much of anything about Spider-Man: Brand New Day (2026) except its source material, which is not closely followed at all.

I had seen some news items speculating about Sadie Sink's character, but since I quit watching Stranger Things, I didn't know who she was. I also avoided the speculation, so I was pleasantly surprised by who she turned out to be (and no spoilers here).

I am glad I could take the time to see Spider-Man: Brand New Day (2026).

I watched it at Portland's Living Room Theatre, which is nice. I'd go again.

Lastly, as for the article below about Spider-Man's "villain" problem, I call bullshit on it.

This idea of one key adversary is bogus. It doesn't even hold true for other heroes. Batman has a whole legion of "main" villains (Joker, Penguin, Riddler, Poison Ivy, Two-Face, Bane, etc.). The same is true for Superman, Wonder Woman, the Fantastic Four, Flash, and on and on. Like all of these heroes, Spider-Man has MANY "iconic" villains. Several were featured in the three previous films. The fact that this movie does not feature any iconic villains in the Spider-Man mythos really makes a specious argument against what comic books are and how they work. It's quite a stupid argument.

Spider-Man himself is iconic as are his problems. These have been well rendered on the screen in these four films.

That's all.

Go see Spider-Man: Brand New Day (2026).

It's very worth seeing on the big screen, even though I saw it on a slightly smaller than usual screen.

Spider-Man Fan Calls Out “Red Flag” for Tom Holland’s Universe

https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/movies/articles/spider-man-fan-calls-red-230000663.html

After only being in movie theaters globally for one weekend (it was released on July 31),Spider-Man: Brand New Day has already secured its place in history. It officially had the "biggest North American opening weekend with $360 million in ticket sales," surpassing a record set by Avengers: Endgame. On top of that big haul at the box office, it's Certified Fresh on Rotten Tomatoes with a Tomatometer score among critics of 90% and a Popcornmeter score among audiences of 98%. And while many will argue that Tom Holland's Spiderverse has been a successful collaboration between Sony and Marvel, punctuated by the latest film, there's one social media account that is raising a valid concern or "red flag." 

Fan Claims MCU/Sony's Spider-Man Doesn't Have "Iconic Spider-Man Villain"

Searching through social media, there are plenty of opinions on Spider-Man: Brand New Day. The following post from Marvel Mania on X (formerly Twitter) is gaining traction for its thoughtful critique of the movie and the overall Marvel/Sony cinematic collaboration. The account stated: 

"Marvel accidentally created the biggest problem for Tom Holland's Spider-Man.

"Four solo movies later, and he still doesn't have a single iconic Spider-Man villain that's actually his.

"Vulture's conflict was because of Tony Stark. Mysterio wanted revenge on Iron Man. No Way Home brought back Green Goblin, Doc Ock, Electro, Lizard and Sandman but they all belonged to other universes, not the MCU's Peter Parker.

"Then Brand New Day doubled down on the problem by making the main threats mutant/X-Men characters instead of classic Spider-Man villains. Even if the movie works, it's another film where Peter isn't building rivalries with his own rogues gallery."

Does Tom Holland's Spider-Man Have a Villain Problem?

The answer to this question is largely subjective. As such is the case, I'll only offer my take. Personally speaking, I'd say the critique offered in the social media post was correct in terms of a villain. Across the four solo movies where Holland starred as Spider-Man, there hasn't been an iconic version of a Spider-Man villain that stands out. There's an argument to be made that Michael Keaton's Vulture in Spider-Man: Homecoming was an exceptional antagonist, but as mentioned above, Vulture had a deep gripe with Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr.). There was no real issue between Iron Man and Spider-Man other than the latter trying to prevent the former from wreaking havoc in general. 

Additionally, as much as I'm a fan of Sadie Sink portraying Jean Grey, a de facto villain in Spider-Man: Brand New Day, Jean Grey has so much history as an X-Men, and there's so much anticipation for the rebooted live-action film for that franchise, it's hard to see her as an iconic villain for Holland's Spider-Man. 

All that being said, while the social media post is astute in its assessment of villains, I don't think this is a big problem for Marvel or Sony. I appreciate not seeing the Green Goblin and Doctor Octopus in every movie, and think it was smart not to have the characters so incorporated in this newer user universe so they can't constantly be compared with those of the Toby Maguire era. 

It's also worth noting that Holland has done such a remarkable job with his portrayal of Spider-Man that sometimes it's hard to see him as anything else. Even though he did a great job in Odyssey, there were even times when I was watching where I was just waiting for him to fling a web or two. 

But hey, these are just my thoughts. What do you think?

This story was originally published by Men's Journal on Aug 3, 2026, where it first appeared in the News section.

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- Bloggery committed by chris tower - 2608.04 - 10:10

- Days ago: MOM = 4051 days ago & DAD = 705 days ago

- New note - On 1807.06, I ceased daily transmission of my Hey Mom feature after three years of daily conversations. I post Hey Mom blog entries on special occasions. I post the days since ("Days Ago") count on my blog each day, and now I have a second count for Days since my Dad died on August 28, 2024. I am now in the same time zone as Google! So, when I post at 10:10 a.m. PDT to coincide with the time of Mom's death, I am now actually posting late, so it's really 1:10 p.m. EDT. But I will continue to use the time stamp of 10:10 a.m. to remember the time of her death and sometimes 13:40 EDT for the time of Dad's death. The blog entry numbering in the title has changed to reflect total Sense of Doubt posts since I began the blog on 0705.04, which include Hey Mom posts, Daily Bowie posts, and Sense of Doubt posts. Hey Mom posts will still be numbered sequentially. New Hey Mom posts will use the same format as all the other Hey Mom posts; all other posts will feature this format seen here.