Spider-Man or Man-Spider? What's Happening to Peter in Brand New Day, Explained
It looks like poor Peter Parker is being put through the wringer in Spider-Man: Brand New Day. But based on the trailer, there’s something else going on, too.
He’s blacking out, waking up in web cocoons, producing organic webs, and all in all, seems to have evolving powers. While organic webbing isn’t a new thing in the Spider-Verse (notably, Tobey Maguire’s Peter Parker had that ability), it’s definitely not normal for Tom Holland’s Peter. Nor is the whole waking up in a giant cocoon thing.
So, in the trailer, he goes to a famillar face for help: Dr Bruce Banner — who, as the Incredible Hulk, definitely knows a thing or two about unusual powers. He talks about the possibility of Peter’s DNA “mutating.” Another voice in the background starts banging on about spiders having three life cycles and going through a “rebirth” — and it’s this idea of “rebirth” that’s key to us, the audience, also figuring out what may be happening.
Could ‘The Other’ Storyline Be Coming To The MCU?
It can be argued that the changes Peter is experiencing in Brand New Day are inspired by a comic book storyline known as ‘The Other.’
Peter starts this arc with unusual symptoms, like blackouts and dizzy spells (just like in the trailer). He is later told that he has a radiation-based disease and is effectively dying. Some time later, Peter is brutally attacked by villain Morlun and is left on the brink of death. He is taken to the hospital, where Morlun returns to finish him off. Mary Jane, his wife in this comic, attempts to defend Peter, but Morlun tosses her across the room and breaks her arm. Peter, who was unconscious, then suddenly awakens as a more primal version of himself with stingers on his wrists and sharp teeth. He brutally kills Morlun, then appears to die.
Iron Man transports his body somewhere safe, but his body later breaks free, leaving just his skin behind. Later, a large web cocoon can be seen on the Brooklyn Bridge. After a trippy dream where Peter communicates with a mysterious voice, he agrees to embrace both parts of himself — the man and the spider — and emerges from the cocoon, reborn.
In what is a kind of gross development, spiders take over Peter’s shed skin and basically form their own body. This being is speculated to be Peter’s titular ‘Other.’ Peter chases the Other down, and it tells him about ‘The Great Weaver,’ a spider-god who decided it was too soon for him to die and resurrected him. However, other spider-gods apparently disagreed with this. Later, when rescuing people trapped under an exploded building, he discovers that he has other new powers, like night vision, feeling vibrations through his webbing, and sticking things on his back.
Could Tom Holland’s Peter encounter the same changes? Given that we see the giant cocoon, mysterious symptoms, and hints of new powers, there’s a pretty decent chance.
Brand New Day Could Be Setting Up Man-Spider
It’s also possible that what we’re seeing is an adaptation of a storyline from the 1990s animated series Spider-Man.
In the series, Dr Connors tests Peter’s DNA and discovers that his mutation didn’t stop at him gaining his powers — he had actually continued to slowly mutate the whole time. But now, that mutation was accelerating. When Peter sought out Dr Maria Crawford for help, she ended up making things worse and sped the mutation up further: Peter grew four new arms and two new legs.
He then mutated even more, becoming a creature called ‘Man-Spider.’ Along with Peter’s existing powers, Man-Spider could shoot webs out of every limb and acid out of his mouth. Obviously, he was a lot stronger, too.
Dr Crawford’s boyfriend, who is none other than Kraven the Hunter, ended up administering a cure for Peter. After that, Dr Conners had to keep administering cures, but they weren’t always successful. The problem was eventually solved when Peter used the Neogenic Recombinator.
The biggest clues pointing to Man-Spider making an appearance in Brand New Day include Bruce specifically talking about DNA mutating, and the mysterious voice talking about the three life cycles of a spider.
The most likely scenario, in my opinion, is that elements of both storylines will show up in this film. After all the trauma he’s been through, a rebirth could be exactly what this Peter Parker needs — but it was never going to be easy.
