Back in 2008, Dan Slott and a team of other creators had the unenviable task of following up one of the most vilified story arcs in Spider-Man’s history – One More Day.
That infamously controversial story arc followed events in the first Civil War, where Peter Parker took a risk by unmasking on live television in order to show support for Tony Stark’s Superhuman Registration Act.
The unveiling of his secret identity also painted a target on Peter’s back, as well as his loved ones, and it eventually led to Aunt May being fatally shot by an assassin hired by the Kingpin.
This incident is the starting point for One More Day, which saw Peter making a deal with Mephisto to save Aunt May’s life, at the cost of completely erasing his marriage to Mary Jane Watson.
Unknown to him, MJ added another condition to the deal – she makes Mephisto promise to restore Spider-Man’s secret identity, and to put Peter’s life back the way it was.
Yes, Brand New Day is also the title of the latest Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) movie starring Tom Holland, which dropped its trailer last week.
Based on the clip, the film directed by Destin Daniel Cretton (Shang-Chi And The Legend Of the Ten Rings) seems to follow some of the beats of the original comic book story, but also leads Spidey in a new direction at the same time.
While we await Spidey’s latest adventures in the MCU (the movie is due in July), let’s recap the first few issues of Brand New Day, the comic book.
While there is no doubt that MJ had Peter’s best interests at heart when she asked Mephisto to “put his life back the way it was”, she probably didn’t know how bad the “Parker Luck” curse was.
Brand New Day starts off with Peter being far from happy – jobless, penniless, living in Aunt May’s house, and not appearing as Spider-Man for 100 days.
Since Spidey is not registered with the Superhuman Registration Act, he is considered an illegal vigilante, and some “low life” is mugging people wearing a Spider-Man mask.
To make things worse, Peter himself gets mugged by that imposter, who takes one of his web-shooters.
After the events of One More Day, Spider-Man’s secret identity has been forgotten by everyone, even the superheroes he used to hang out with, such as Daredevil, the Fantastic Four, and the Avengers.
It is also established that people actually remember that Spider-Man unmasked himself, but for some reason, no one can recall his face. (How that worked when the whole thing was caught on tape is a mystery, though.)
Obviously, Aunt May is alive and well in Brand New Day (she was the reason for the Mephisto deal after all), and she is now working at a shelter for the homeless, under a certain philanthropist named Martin Li (more on him in the next section).
Before One More Day, Harry Osborn had been assumed dead, having died from the effects of a Goblin Formula. However, Brand New Day brings Harry back, revealing that he had been in rehab in Europe all this while, and is now back in town, running a cafe and dating a girl named Lily Hollister.
If you’ve played the Marvel’s Spider-Man videogames, you would know that Martin Li is actually the “positive” side to the crime boss Mr Negative, who can control manipulating Darkforce and Lightforce energies, and even corrupt people into doing his bidding.
Brand New Day’s first arc sees Spidey going up against the supervillain and foiling his plan to takeover the Karnelli crime family, but not before Martin extorts a vial of Spidey’s blood in the process.
Another early villain in Brand New Day is Menace, a new “Goblin” who terrorises the city, and whose secret identity is none other than Harry’s new girlfriend, Lily.
Speaking of new girlfriends, Peter also gets a new love interest in Brand New Day – Carlie Cooper, a forensics expert in the New York City Police Department, who is also a lifelong friend of Lily’s.
Carlie would go on to not only date Peter, but also play a major role in other events, including Spider-Island, and that whole “Superior Spider-Man” mess with Doctor Octopus.
Another new ally is introduced here as well – a superhero named Jackpot, whom Spidey crosses paths with while on the trail of Menace.
Fun fact: In 2023, MJ became the third character to take on the mantle of Jackpot.
With new movies, come new tie-in comic books. One major consequence of Brand New Day was that it marked the beginning of Slott’s reign as one of the greatest writers of Spider-Man ever.
So, it seems apt that Slott (who left Marvel in 2025 to write the Superman Unlimited series over at DC Comics) would return to pen a ... er ... brand new Brand New Day to tie-in with the upcoming movie.
Spectacular Spider-Man: Brand New Day will be written by Slott and drawn by artist Marcus To, with covers by Phil Jimenez, and special backup stories by Marcos Martin, all of whom also worked on the original series back in 2008.
In the upcoming new series to be released in May, Spider-Man discovers one of Kingpin’s most valuable possessions – The Lexicon, a directory of the Kingpin’s entire criminal enterprise.
With it, Spider-Man hopes to destroy Kingpin’s entire crime network, but also has to contend with Mr Negative and The Punisher, who both want the Lexicon for their own reasons, of course.
