Spider-Man’s last few decades of comics continuity has been overshadowed by one controversial decision, and this has had the side effect of underrating an era which I think could be invaluable for Spidey’s next MCU phase. Every cloud has a silver lining, and this era was Spidey’s, playing with the story and format of Spider-Man in ways that still bare talking about almost two decades later.

The erasure of Spider-Man’s marriage is a constant sore spot for fans, and one unfortunate consequence of that is that the following Brand New Day era is criminally underrated. This era followed on from 2007’s Spider-Man: One More Day, which saw Spider-Man and Mary Jane Watson’s marriage literally erased from the timeline thanks to Peter making a deal with Mephisto. Fans were… not happy to say the least. The problem was that this fan ire, most commonly lobbed then-Marvel editor-in-chief (and One More Day artist) Joe Quesada, meant that Brand New Day never got a fair shake in my opinion.

Spider-Man's Brand New Day Era Remains Underrated, and Could be a Model for future MCU Stories

But what was it exactly?

Beginning with 2008’s Amazing Spider-Man #546, Brand New Day shook everything up for Spider-Man, both in-universe and behind the scenes. Every ongoing Spider-Man book besides ASM concluded, and ASM began to be published 3 times a month with a rotating ‘brain trust’ of writers (and artists) at the helm. Spidey still appeared in books like writer Brian Michael Bendis’ New Avengers, but he wasn’t overexposed in the same way that so many gigantic characters can be. The challenge was convincing understandably jaded fans to give this new book the chance it deserved.

In-universe, the status quo heralded major changes and resets in Peter’s life. Not only was he not married to MJ, but he was also single and living with Aunt May again. Harry Osborn, who’d been dead over a decade was back, resetting other characters in his orbit like only a few years earlier in Civil War (by writer Mark Millar and artist Steve McNiven, who also drew the first full arc of BND) was now secret again.

Why does Brand New Day work for Spider-Man?

(The middle word is the important one)

If the era was just a reversion to some version of a classic status quo, however, I wouldn’t be talking about nearly as positively. Brand New Day also brought a ton of new ideas and characters to the franchise. From villains like Mr Negative and Menace, to love interests like Carlie Cooper. Brand New Day was relentless in throwing new stuff at the wall, and while not all of it stuck (like in every era there are absolutely some stinkers), as a whole it was a really exciting prospect in an industry that finds it hard to change.

It also did something that’s often lost in Spidey stories, which is limit the scope. For the first time in years, Spider-Man truly felt street level again. He wasn’t working under Tony Stark like in the Civil War era. He didn’t have a fortune, or even a real job. His threats were mobsters and individual smaller-scale villains. Hell, one of his biggest problems was a guy who used a Spider-Man mask to mug people (the aptly named Spider-Mugger). These limitations forced both Peter and his writers to think on their feet, and the era is all the better for it.

Brand New Day also managed to do the rare thing that all Marvel resets are, in some ways, aiming for, which is to attract a new reader… me. As a very young reader at the time, I wasn’t buying weekly comics, but around 2010 I picked up a few trade paperbacks of Brand New Day at my local public library, and it was this era that got me into Spider-Man. I didn’t need to know decades of history because so much of the story was brand new and being introduced to everyone.

Brand New Day's Structure was a Risky Experiment for Spider-Man comics that paid off

Sometimes less is more

Another thing I love about Brand New Day is its real-world structure. Fans complain endlessly about how bloated modern comics lines feel. It can be a drain on both the wallet and your attention spans to pick up say… 10 different X-Men titles. What BND did was strip back the Spider-Man line. Amazing Spider-Man became the only ongoing Spidey book, but its schedule meant that fans didn’t have to wait long for more stories. It almost felt like an anthology book at times, but was grounded in place by Peter Parker’s day-to-day worries and struggles.

What’s even better is the rotating ‘Brain Trust’ of writers who ensured the book came out tri-weekly. This format likely introduced many readers to writers who’d become bigger deals in the Spider-Verse soon enough like Dan Slott and Zeb Wells (this is not an invitation to complain about Well’s current run in the comments btw) It also meant that if a reader didn’t love the work that any individual writer was doing, they weren’t stuck with them every issue. This format also helped frequent art shifts feel less jarring, providing a proving ground for art superstars like Marcos Martín.

The MCU Could Learn from Brand New Day (seriously)

Keep it Simple, Stupid

It might sound like heresy, but the MCU’s Spider-Man could learn a lot from Brand New Day. It’s not like there’s no precedent. Spider-Man: No Way Home already used the broad plot structure of One More Day in its identity-hiding, timeline-altering shenanigans. In an era of superhero properties defined by these often-exhausting multiversal crossovers, it’d be a breath of fresh air to see Spidey sent back to some semblance of basics. This doesn’t mean scrapping everything that came before, One More Day is still a cautionary tale, just that sometimes simpler is better.

If the MCU wants to continue its cultural relevance and recoup some of the losses in status its arguably suffered in the last several years, then Spider-Man has to be rock solid. You can’t go back to the mine of prior adaptations forever, especially with Sony’s Spider-Verse films already being nigh-impeccable for their version of a Spider-verse. So go the opposite direction. Introduce new weird street-level characters, get rid of Peter’s reliance on Stark-Tech. Have Spider-Man be the friendly neighborhood web-swinger that he was in Brand New Day.