Over the past few years, it has become a rather rare treat when I end up genuinely, unequivocally enjoying the latest superhero film. Mostly I find them to be middling entertainment, sometimes a bit dull—and for The Eternals, nearly unwatchable—with the notable exception of 2024’s Deadpool & Wolverine and last year’s Thunderbolts*.

Add Spider-Man: Brand New Day to that list of exceptions. Tom Holland’s latest outing as the titular web-slinger reminds us that superhero movies can still be very, very good—as much about well-drawn characters with interesting developmental arcs and well-timed emotional beats as CGI-filled action extravaganzas. There’s plenty of the latter in Brand New Day, of course, but it’s the grounded humanity at its heart that makes director Destin Daniel Cretton’s film work so well.

(Spoilers below but no major reveals until after the gallery. We’ll give you a heads up when we get there)

Spider-Man: No Way Home ended on a pretty bleak note, with Peter Parker (Holland) asking Doctor Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch) to erase him from everyone’s memory to protect the multiverse and everyone in it, including his girlfriend MJ (Zendaya) and his BFF Ned (Jacob Batalon). Brand New Day finds an isolated Peter focusing on work to the exclusion of all else, while secretly following MJ and Ned on social media as they make their way through four years of MIT. He’s living rough in a NYC tenement, monitoring the city, and keeping his suit and web slingers in good repair with the help of a homemade “fabricator” (described as part sewing machine, part 3D printer).

His only friend is Det. Jean DeWolff (Liza Colon-Zayas), and even she is getting worried about Spider-Man working too hard. Even worse, when Peter does work up the nerve to attend a party incognito, he sees MJ kissing her new beau. The stress of it all triggers a disturbing mutation in his Spidey-self: His senses are ultra-heightened, he gets much more aggressive (and his eyes go black) when battling foes, and he develops organic web spinners (similar to the Tobey Maguire Spidey incarnation).

Even worse, he’s facing an entirely new threat: an invisible psionic villain who can hijack people’s minds and bodies and is targeting the Department of Damage Control (DODC). Peter seems to be the only one who is immune, which is why DODC chief Bill Metzger (Tramell Tillman) seeks his help in capturing the mysterious being.