'Spider-Man: Brand New Day' Teased A Forgotten Villain (And No One Noticed)
One thing Spider-Man: Brand New Day (2026) did that not many fans have talked about is how well it made the Marvel Cinematic Universe feel lived in between its superheroes and villains operating around ordinary people. This allowed us to have both an incredible montage to catch us up on Spider-Man's antics over the years and also other villains he's faced since.
One villain, however, was name-dropped early on but never made a full appearance. He's not a major enemy like the Green Goblin, Electro, or Doc Ock, but he's someone who is tied to the earliest issues of The Amazing Spider-Man: The Big Man.
When Does Peter Parker Mention The Big Man In 'Spider-Man: Brand New Day'?
Following the fun montage of Peter spending his time as Spider-Man fighting bad guys day in and day out, he finally takes a break and talks to his partner in the NYPD, Detective Jean DeWolff. He's inquiring about a criminal named Foswell and if there are any leads on what he's been up to and if he can help.
While DeWolff tells him it's under control and Peter insists he can help, longtime fans probably recognize Foswell as one of the many crime lords who tried to run New York before the Kingpin was introduced in the Marvel Universe. Considering we already saw Tombstone in the film, it begs the question of how many more criminals exist in the MCU trying to be the next Kingpin.
Hearing the Big Man mentioned in passing was something that many fans might've never expected. Still, it leans into past subtle Easter eggs such as the Tinkerer in Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017) or even the Shocker. It's a vast world we only get to peek into.
What's The Comic History Of The Big Man?
In Marvel Comics, the Big Man had a short-lived tenure in the Marvel Universe but also a complete arc that's rare in an ongoing series. Frederick Foswell was a reporter working for the Daily Bugle and a seemingly unsuspecting man who led a dark double life.
With the Enforcers as his muscle, Foswell was also the Big Man, a crime boss who wore a metal mask and was thwarted by Spider-Man in his first appearance in The Amazing Spider-Man #10 by Stan Lee and Steve Ditko. After being beaten, he was sent to jail and seemed to change his ways. In reality, though he helped Spider-Man as an informant, Foswell still wanted power and tried to take it from the Kingpin. But when J. Jonah Jameson's life was in danger, he threw himself in the way of a bullet and died, marking the end of Frederick Foswell and the Big Man.
That said, he was resurrected in the Dead No More event, but that was short-lived, too, as those clones weren't designed to last long. Nevertheless, he's still remembered as one of the earliest crime bosses Spider-Man ever fought.
The Big Man's Tease Proves There Are More MCU Villains Spidey Has Probably Faced
The Big Man name-drop isn't so much about teasing a new villain who will appear in future MCU movies, but showing that many more bad guys are roaming the streets than we get to see. The Big Man might even confirm the Enforcers, which is made up of Ox, Montana, and Fancy Dan, who also appeared alongside the Crime Boss.
Since the film borrows heavily from the '70s era of Spider-Man, Hammerhead, Rhino, and many others may exist in this world, but just haven't appeared in any of the movies yet. That alone is incredibly exciting, considering this Spider-Man film already has the most on-screen villains.
Spider-Man: Brand New Day showed that not all superhero movies have to focus on one or two enemies to be good. As long as a world feels rich and lived-in, we can infer that there are countless foes out there and feel excited at the chance to see them rather than knowing what we saw was wasted time. Boomerang, Tarantula, Tombstone, and Ramrod all prove that a story where Spidey faces the Sinister Six, for example, could actually work, and if we can name-drop Foswell, we could name-drop even more bad guys in the future.
