In the previous three Spider-Man movies within the Marvel Cinematic Universe, we’ve seen a whole host of the wallcrawler’s many villains. Vulture, Shocker, Tinkerer, Scorpion, and Darter in Homecoming. Mysterio and the illusion of Hydro-Man in Far From Home. And alt-universe versions of Green Goblin, Doctor Octopus, Sandman, Lizard, and Electro in No Way Home. That is a lot of baddies in just three movies. But if you’ve read Spider-Man comics for any real period of time, you’ll know Manhattan has about 19,000 more. And while almost none of them play significant roles, we do get to see several villains in the newest film, Brand New Day.
So, which villains do appear in Spider-Man: Brand New Day? Beware spoilers below!
For the most part, this movie blows through most of its villains in a really fun montage near the beginning. We see several scenes of Spider-Man kicking the collective butts of some largely b-tier, street level villains from comics past. A lot of these are just thugs, which I don’t really need to shout out, except to say that Spider-Man swings with one besuited bad guy, copying the cover of the character’s first appearance in Amazing Fantasy #15.
Boomerang
The first costumed bad guy we see is Boomerang. The tableau of this fight mimics the cover of The Amazing Spider-Man #345 by legendary artist Erik Larsen. Frederick Meyers was born in Australia but moved to the U.S. as a small child. He excelled at baseball and went pro as a pitcher. After the league caught him accepting bribes, Meyers went to work for the criminal organization Secret Empire. Because he was from Australia and could throw things real good, they made him a Boomerang-themed guy. This is a real thing.
At first, Boomerang was a Hulk villain, then fought against the likes of Iron Fist, the Defenders, and Shang-Chi before joining the Sinister Syndicate alongside other baddies Rhino, Hydro-Man, Beetle, and Speed Demon. Years more as an all-purpose bad guy and occasional reluctant ally of Spider-Man and others, Boomerang eventually bonded with a symbiote (because of course he did) and became the blue-and-red Vemon-like, Comeback.
Tarantula
The next cover the montage mimics is The Amazing Spider-Man #134, which features the Web Head on a steam ship in New York Harbor fighting against the international terrorist Anton Miguel Rodriguez, aka Tarantula. Tarantula in the comics wears a red and black costume with a spider on it and a black or blue mask not unlike Zorro’s.
Tarantula has a lot fewer appearances in the comics than Boomerang, and only ever going up against Spider-Man or his allies.
Ramrod
One of the most obscure, deepest-cut villains we see, even compared to the two above, is Ramrod. Ramrod is a cyborg who—go figure—rams things with his metal head. He looks basically like a skinny Juggernaut. The moment in the film replicates the cover of The Amazing Spider-Man #221, which has Spidey jumping out of the way as Ramrod plows into the side of a building.
Ramrod is only in four issues of Daredevil, three issues of The Amazing Spider-Man, one Fantastic Four, one Captain America, and as a joke cameo in an issue of X-Men from 2012. He is, however, the only villain in the movie who actually appears in the “Brand New Day” comic book arc, so that’s fun.
Tombstone
The villain I was hoping would be more prominent in the movie, but alas is only a glorified cameo at the end of the montage, is Lonnie Lincoln, aka Tombstone, the gangster with a complete lack of skin pigmentation played by Marvin Jones III. Ostracized as a youth for his physical difference and raspy voice, Lincoln would eventually lean fully into people’s fear of him by filing down his teeth into sharp points and basically looking like a vampire or something.
Tombstone has done a lot of things over the years in the comics since his first appearance in Web of Spider-Man #36. He’s even gone toe-to-toe with Kingpin for control of the New York criminal underworld and came out on top for a time.
Scorpion
Though Mac Gargan appeared in Homecoming, he never donned the famous robot suit with a long stinging tail in that movie. Here, Michael Mando plays a much larger role and has two pretty awesome fight scenes against Spider-Man. The first at the beginning of the movie is your standard fight, whereas the second later on sees Scorpion under mind control and Spider-Man losing himself to his unstable spider genes. I both cases, pretty rad.
The Hand
The red-clad, vaguely mystically powered ninjas called the Hand appear in Spider-Man: Brand New Day throughout. Early in the movie, we see him fighting them as part of the montage of Spidey fighting. Then we learn Bill Metzger has “rehabilitated” them and made them part of Damage Control. Spidey then fights them again at the end of the movie when trying to stop the threat to New York.
Throwing another spoiler warning up juuuuust in case you still don’t want to know the big twist of the movie.
Jean Grey
The most formidable opponent for Spider-Man in the movie is actually Jean Grey (Sadie Sink) who attempts to break into Damage Control throughout the movie. She inhabits various people’s minds and makes them do things. She gets inside of Bruce Banner’s head and makes him Hulk out for the first time in years, effectively breaking his mind in the process. Jean also, perhaps most cruelly, secretly inhabits MJ’s mind and makes Peter believe she actually remembers him. The reveal of the truth being the biggest gut-punch of the entire film.
Even though Jean does some pretty horrendous things in the movie, we learn that, of course, she’s not the really real villain. In fact, her wanting to get inside Damage Control has nothing to do with stealing anything. She wants to find and free her sister Sara Grey, another powerful telepath whom Bill Metzger at DODC kidnapped and tortured in an attempt to replicate her powers. Sara died during this ordeal.
Which means, the real-real villain of the movie is…
Bill Metzger
Metzger (Tramell Tillman) is a duplicitous, knowledge-hungry man who abducts special people in order to steal their tech or abilities to augment Damage Control’s arsenal. Despite pretending like he trusts and appreciates Spider-Man, we learn at the end of the movie that Metzger had his scientists make anti-Spider-Man weapons that would thwart his own tech and powers.
He also straight up tortures and exploits Sara Grey leading to her death. He intends to do the same to Jean before her powers accelerate and she’s able to go from merely inhabiting minds to full-on telekinesis. If not or Spider-Man, Metzger would have died at her hands along with probably half of New York.
Metzger gets away at the end of the movie, presumably to show up once again as the anti-mutant activist he is in the comics.
Kyle Anderson is the Senior Editor for Nerdist. He hosts the weekly pop culture deep-dive podcast Laser Focus. You can find his film and TV reviews here. Follow him on Letterboxd.