I Don’t Understand Why Spider-Man: Brand New Day Never Used The One Word Fans Wanted to Hear

Spider-Man: Brand New Day arguably takes advantage of the MCU’s shared universe concept more than any other project, with it pulling in characters from all corners of the franchise. Spider-Man stars alongside the Punisher, Hulk, and a variety of other preexisting characters from the various shows and movies. However, it does fail at this attempt in one minor way, with it completely avoiding a word from Marvel Comics that seemed obvious to use. WARNING: Contains spoilers for Spider-Man: Brand New Day.

In the lead-up to Brand New Day, one of the most speculated aspects of the film was Sadie Sink’s mystery character. We didn’t know who she was, or even if she was a hero or a villain. However, now that the film is out, we finally know that she is playing one of the most iconic X-Men: Jean Grey. She is the first of the mainline X-Men to be introduced to the MCU, setting up the future of mutantkind in the franchise.

Spider-Man: Brand New Day Never Uses The Word “Mutant” (Despite Having Jean Grey As The Villain)

Spider-Man: Brand New Day shares a lot in common thematically with some of the most popular X-Men stories. Much of the film revolves around Spidey’s attempts to forcefully subdue the more unsavory parts of his arachnid DNA, something he does with an inhibitor chip that he creates. In his discussions with Bruce Banner, they discuss the morality of attempting to suppress parts of nature, a thematic question that Peter will have to face head-on as he chooses sides in the battle between Jean Grey and the Department of Damage Control.

In exploring this story, Brand New Day introduces all kinds of major elements of the X-Men franchise, including Jean Grey, William Metzger, an oppressive government organization that hopes to experiment on mutants, and the technology that will undoubtedly turn into inhibitor collars. However, throughout all of this, Brand New Day never uses the X-Men franchise’s most important word: “mutant.”

Nearly every superhero in the X-Men franchise is a mutant, with the term describing characters who gain their powers through the activation of a rare “X-gene.” “Mutant” is one of the most-used words in the world of X-Men, as well as variations of the term like “mutantkind” and the various derogatory terms that derive from the word.

Brand New Day does discuss “mutations,” but it never carries over its discussion of the biological to a label that can be put on a person. The noun form that is used as a label is key to the series’ themes. For some, “mutant” is a term used to otherize special individuals, turning them into monsters in the public eye. However, to characters like Charles Xavier and Magneto, the term “mutant” is one that they wear with pride, even if they go about expressing their pride in different ways.

The Department of Damage Control does attempt to make Jean Grey seem scary, but it never goes so far as to label her a mutant. This is an incredibly odd choice, as this ideological divide will undoubtedly be key to the MCU’s X-Men saga. Now would have been the perfect time to introduce the broad audience of Spider-Man to what a mutant is, providing them with the framework to fully understand what X-Men is about, as well as the types of political and sociological themes that the upcoming movies will delve into.

Despite This, Brand New Day Is The Perfect Prequel To The MCU’s X-Men

Although the usage of the word “mutant” is the one major exception, everything else in Spider-Man: Brand New Day makes it the perfect prequel to the MCU’s X-Men. It establishes one of the key members of the team and gets potential new audience members hooked ahead of the X-Men movie’s release. It sets up that certain government organizations and villainous characters hope to abuse and exploit the powers of these types of heroes. Plus, it sets up the dark roads that a mutant can go down if they are oppressed by these organizations and the public.

Fans of Brand New Day can now fully know what to expect heading into an X-Men movie, with the next project to feature Jean Grey almost acting as a Spider-Man sequel. Rather than asking general audiences to dive into a new series without much context, Brand New Day brings back the appeal of the early days of Marvel’s shared universe, with the film showing fans why they should be excited for the future.

What do you think? Leave a comment below and join the conversation now in the ComicBook Forum!