Everything You Missed From 'Spider-Man: Brand New Day'

In the movie's opening montage, we see Spidey fighting local criminals in New York City. One of them is Tombstone, played by Marvin Jones III, who voiced Tombstone in 2018’s Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse. In the comics, Tombstone is a crime boss with superhuman strength.

Created by legendary comic book writer Frank Miller, The Hand is a group of ninjas who fight Daredevil and the X-Men in the comics. A cool bit of trivia: the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles originated as a parody comic, and The Hand was parodied by Eastman and Laird as The Foot Clan.

If you squint, you can see that Ned's Instagram account is @thegratefulned42. There are a couple of references here. The first part of the name is a reference to the rock band The Grateful Dead. The number 42 is a reference to the Alchemax 42 spider that bites Miles Morales in Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse. That, in turn, was a reference to Brooklyn Dodgers Hall of Famer Jackie Robinson, who was the first black man to play Major League Baseball in 1947.

In the comics, Officer DeWolff is a police detective allied with Spider-Man. She debuted in 1976 and died in 1985 during a multi-issue arc, with Spider-Man subsequently investigating her murder.

We can hear the tour bus guide discussing the Battle of New York, a reference to the climactic fight at the end of The Avengers (2012). In Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017), Adrian Toomes (The Vulture) salvaged Chitauri weaponry from the post-battle wreckage, becoming a black-market weapons dealer.

This is not the only reference to the Insomniac video game franchise. Several of the action scenes pay homage to the gameplay, including Spidey’s cinematic finishing moves, the tank chase, and rooftop battles against swarms of bad guys.

Confirming months of rumors and speculation (and Steve Lacy’s red carpet slip-up), we learn that the film's main antagonist is Jean Grey, played by Sadie Sink. Jean Grey is part of the original X-Men comic book team from 1963. Her mutant powers are telekinesis and telepathy, which we see on full display in Brand New Day.

We see news reports of Spider-Man taking down the Manfredi Family. The Manfredis are a mob family that operates out of New York. They debuted in Season 2 of Agent Carter and appeared in deleted scenes of Spider-Man: Far From Home.

Metzger is the Director of the DODC. In the comics, Metzger is an anti-mutant extremist and enemy of the X-Men who heads the Anti-Mutant Militia. No doubt, we haven't seen the last of him, especially with the Mutant Saga on the horizon. More on that later.

Even though she has forgotten who Peter Parker is, MJ still wears the broken Black Dahlia necklace Peter gave her in Spider-Man: Far From Home.

The two people on Ned's board, listed as possible suspects in Spider-Man’s identity, are Flash Thompson and Mr. Harrington. Both characters appeared in the Home trilogy as Peter's bullying classmate and Peter's high school teacher, respectively.

Ned loves Star Wars, and he's watching The Empire Strikes Back in his and MJ's shared apartment. Specifically, he's watching the scene where the Rebel Alliance takes down the AT-AT Walkers on Hoth, which Peter referenced before defeating Ant-Man during Captain America: Civil War (2016).

E.V. makes her debut as Peter's self-designed artificial intelligence assistant. Her vocal actress is Oscar-nominated actress Naomi Watts (Mulholland Drive, King Kong, The Ring, All's Fair).

Peter Parker's spider abilities begin mutating beyond his control, and he gains the ability to produce webs on his own instead of relying on his homemade web shooters. This is the same ability that Tobey Maguire's Spider-Man had in the Sam Raimi trilogy. In fact, when Peter is learning to use the webs in Brand New Day, the filmmakers use the same angles and framing that Raimi used in Spider-Man (2002) to show Peter doing the same thing.

Several times during this movie, Jean Grey becomes a one-woman wrecking crew, brainwashing others to do her bidding and break into government facilities at will. In the comics, she is classified as an Omega-level mutant—the highest classification—meaning that the upper limits of her abilities are unproven and undefinable. As powerful as she is in this movie, she's likely to become even more powerful in future appearances.

Peter wears a Delmar's Deli shirt. In Homecoming, Delmar's was where Peter bought his lunch before patrolling the streets as Spider-Man. Bank robbers later destroy the deli using Chitauri-augmented weapons and tech.

In the movie, Sara Grey is a mentor for her younger sister Jean. In the comics, Sara opted for a normal civilian life instead of exploring her potential mutant powers. She is killed by anti-mutant extremists, leaving behind a husband and children

It's revealed, in a shocking twist, that Jean Grey hijacked MJ's consciousness to torment Peter. But there were some suspicious red flags prior to the reveal. Most notably, MJ wasn't afraid to swing with Peter, whereas in prior films she was absolutely terrified to do so.

Jean Grey is wearing green and yellow-colored clothes, which are the predominant colors on her classic superhero costume.

Apparently, Spider-Man saved Punisher's life during an incident on Staten Island, but we only hear about the aftermath; we never see it firsthand. This setup is similar to the running joke that Hawkeye and Black Widow shared about Budapest during the Infinity Saga.

Hulk uses his trademark Thunderclap to generate a shockwave that sends Spidey flying. This is the first time that we've seen Hulk in his out-of-control, full-strength form since Thor: Ragnarok (2017).

Ned and Spidey build a LEGO X-Wing (Set #75301) together. Building LEGO is how Peter and Ned bonded in high school; Ned came over to Peter's house to build the Death Star in Homecoming, and that's how he accidentally discovered Peter's secret identity.

Ned and Spidey trade quotes from Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings during their brief time together, beginning with the meme phrase "All right then, keep your secrets!"

When The Punisher busts into the hospital carrying a dying Spidey in his arms, it's a recreation of a famous panel from Civil War #5, published in 2007.

It seems that after completing his secret handshake with Peter, Ned remembers who Peter is. The filmmakers do not explain how Ned remembers. But we also know, based on the events in No Way Home, that Ned has some latent magical ability. So perhaps he managed to retain some memories that nobody else did.

The end-credits scene shows Ned's Spidey Tracker, which detects that Spider-Man is no longer on the planet Earth. This seems like clear foreshadowing for Avengers: Doomsday (December 18, 2026) and Avengers: Secret Wars (December 17, 2027), which will feature the sort of intergalactic, reality-bending stakes that would require a trip to space.