This article containsmassive spoilersfor “Spider-Man: Brand New Day.”
There was a scene towards the end of “Spider-Man: Brand New Day” where I thought, “Are they really going to do it?” By that I mean, I wondered if Marvel and Sony were going to kill off Tom Holland’s Peter Parker.
As many fans guessed, Sadie Sink’s mystery character is the MCU’s Jean Grey, but this is before Jean ever became an X-Man. When she’s captured by superhuman oversight agency Damage Control and learns they already killed her sister Sara (Olivia Booth-Ford), Jean snaps. She uses her telepathy to hold whole blocks of New York City frozen in place. As Spider-Man tries and eventually succeeds in talking her down, Frank Castle/The Punisher (Jon Bernthal) takes matters into his own hands. He sets up a sniper rifle from a rooftop to shoot Jean. Peter, thanks to his Spider-Sense, senses the bullet coming, so he pushes Jean out of the way and takes the shot himself.
Now, “Brand New Day” ultimately doesn’t go through with this. It wants you to think Peter may die, but he narrowly comes through, with some assistance from Jean’s powers. But my own Spider-Sense went off because I knew that, in Brian Michael Bendis’ “Ultimate Spider-Man,” this basic situation is how Peter really did die.
For reasons not worth getting into here, in “Ultimate Comics: Spider-Man” #157 (by Bendis and Mark Bagley), the Punisher is about to shoot Captain America with a sniper rifle. Spider-Man pushes Cap out of the way and gets shot himself. Peter probably could’ve lived, if he hadn’t gotten separated from Cap, and then learned that the Green Goblin was leading several super-villains to Aunt May’s house to kill all of Peter’s loved ones. Peter thus forced himself to go battle his greatest enemies while already critically wounded, and thus “Ultimate Spider-Man” #160 concluded “The Death of Spider-Man.”
In Ultimate Marvel’s Death of Spider-Man, Punisher shooting Spider-Man was fatal
“The Death of Spider-Man” is what led to the introduction of Miles Morales in a relaunched “Ultimate Comics: Spider-Man,” with him explicitly stepping up as a new Spider-Man to take the absent Peter’s place. You might recall from Miles’ film debut, 2018’s “Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse,” that’s also how it happened (loosely): The Peter Parker of Miles’ universe (Chris Pine) died, and Miles (Shameik Moore) became a new Spider-Man.
Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige has indicated (via Deadline) there are plans to bring Miles Morales into Marvel Cinematic Universe. If you know that, and have read the “Death of Spider-Man” like I have, then Punisher shooting Spider-Man in “Brand New Day” is genuinely nail-biting. But the aftermath of the shooting is reworked to help Peter live. For one, he doesn’t immediately have to go fight more super-villains. Frank rushes him to a hospital, and Jean (from afar) uses her psychic powers to keep Peter from slipping away.
“Spider-Man: Brand New Day” may have some possible set-up for Miles Morales, but for now Holland’s Peter Parker is still our Spider-Man. Plus, from a cynical business perspective, lots of Marvel fans would probably never forgive Frank or Jean if they played a role in Peter’s actual death (and Jean is about to be a main character in Marvel Studios’ next saga starring the X-Men).
“The Death of Spider-Man” came after a decade of “Ultimate Spider-Man” comics redefining the webhead. Brian Michael Bendis & Mark Bagley wanted to end their Spider-Man’s story definitively while opening the door for an all-new hero. Tom Holland has been with Peter Parker a decade too, but it’s clear he’s not ready to say goodbye just yet.
“Spider-Man: Brand New Day” is playing in theaters.
