• Bandai SH Figuarts action figure listings have leaked plot details for Spider-Man: Brand New Day, describing Peter Parker as living “alone, erased from everyone’s memory” and undergoing “uncontrollable transformations” — language widely interpreted as pointing toward a Man-Spider arc
• A separate figure listing confirms Savage Hulk (not Smart Hulk) will appear in the film; Mark Ruffalo’s presence as Bruce Banner was shown in the first trailer, but Marvel had not officially confirmed his green alter ego would appear
• The film is also bringing back organic web-shooting — a power Tobey Maguire’s Spider-Man had in Sam Raimi’s trilogy but that never carried over to Tom Holland’s MCU version, which uses mechanical web-shooters
• Kevin Feige told press the film is “focused on the classic elements of Spider-Man” — a significant reset from the cosmic and multiversal stakes of Holland’s previous three films
• Brand New Day, directed by Destin Daniel Cretton, is releasing this summer; the cast includes the Hulk, the Punisher, Tombstone, and Scorpion, alongside new images spotlighting Daredevil villain connections

Two months out from release, Spider-Man: Brand New Day is keeping most of its plot under wraps. That changed this week — not through an official Marvel announcement, but through toy listings.

Bandai’s SH Figuarts line of action figures, sourced via French retailer France-Figures, included product descriptions that are doing a lot of narrative heavy lifting. Per ComingSoon, the Peter Parker figure’s description reads: “Peter Parker lives alone, erased from everyone’s memory. In Brand New Day, he faces new threats in New York while undergoing uncontrollable transformations.” A separate listing for a Hulk figure confirms he appears in Savage form — the out-of-control green version, not the calm, articulate Smart Hulk seen in recent MCU entries.

The “uncontrollable transformations” language, combined with the teaser footage that showed Parker with black eyes and what appeared to be organic webbing growing from his wrists, has fed months of speculation that the film will feature a Man-Spider arc — a storyline from the comics in which Peter Parker’s spider-half begins to take over his human biology. Nothing has been officially confirmed, but the toy copy isn’t exactly subtle.

Back to Basics — With a Twist

Kevin Feige, speaking to press ahead of the film, framed Brand New Day as a deliberate course correction after three films that sent Spider-Man to space, into the multiverse, and up against Thanos. “Brand New Day is focused on the classic elements of Spider-Man,” Feige told Comic Book Movie. Peter Parker is back in New York, broke and anonymous, fighting street-level crime after the events of No Way Home wiped him from everyone’s memory.

Part of that classicism includes a notable callback: organic web-shooting is returning. In Sam Raimi’s trilogy, Tobey Maguire’s Spider-Man generated webs biologically, a controversial departure from the comics that many fans actually came to love. Holland’s MCU Spider-Man has always used mechanical web-shooters built by Tony Stark. The return of organic webbing — apparently tied to Peter’s physical changes in the film — reconnects the character to both the Raimi era and his comic origins simultaneously.

The full cast picture is still coming into focus. Images released this week spotlight connections to Daredevil’s villain world. Confirmed appearances include the Hulk (in Savage form, per the toy leak), the Punisher, Tombstone, and Scorpion. Destin Daniel Cretton, who directed Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, is at the helm. Spider-Man: Brand New Day arrives in theaters this summer.

The post Toy Leaks Just Revealed Major ‘Spider-Man: Brand New Day’ Plot Details — Savage Hulk, Organic Webs, and a Man-Spider Transformation appeared first on Cream.

• J.K. Simmons was caught on the Citi Field big screen Tuesday when he turned to find Spider-Man seated directly behind him, hiding his face behind a copy of the Daily Bugle
• Simmons went full J. Jonah Jameson — shaking his fist at the web-slinger, scowling at the camera, demanding he be removed — and the clip went immediately viral
• Simmons plays Jameson in both the original Tobey Maguire Spider-Man trilogy and in the current MCU, making the moment feel almost scripted
• The Mets lost 7-2 to the Reds; Simmons was sporting a Detroit Tigers shirt under his Mets jersey
• Also at the game: Bill Fagerbakke, the voice of Patrick Star from SpongeBob SquarePants, who threw out the ceremonial first pitch and announced the Mets’ lineup over the PA

J.K. Simmons was just trying to watch the Mets.

The Oscar winner was at Citi Field on Tuesday night for New York’s game against the Cincinnati Reds when the stadium cameras found him in the seats. Nothing unusual — except for the figure sitting directly behind him, face concealed behind a copy of the Daily Bugle.

Simmons turned around. Spider-Man looked back at him.

What happened next was, by all accounts, an Oscar-worthy performance. Simmons snapped into full J. Jonah Jameson mode — shaking his fist at the web-slinger, scowling at the camera, demanding that the costumed nuisance be removed from the premises. The crowd loved it. The clip was online within minutes and has since done what viral clips do.

The beauty of the moment is how perfectly calibrated it was. Spider-Man didn’t just show up in costume. He showed up holding the Daily Bugle — Jameson’s own newspaper, the one that’s been running anti-Spider-Man headlines for decades — which means someone put real thought into the bit. “He’s a menace!” is essentially Jameson’s catchphrase, and Simmons delivered it on cue without breaking character for a second.

Simmons has played J. Jonah Jameson in the original Sam Raimi trilogy starring Tobey Maguire, and reprised the role in the current MCU, most recently in Spider-Man: No Way Home. At this point, the character is as much his as any role he’s ever played — which makes the willingness to lean into a random stadium bit all the more charming. He was not there to do a bit. He just happened to be at a baseball game and went with it anyway.

For the record: the Mets lost, 7-2. Simmons was wearing a Detroit Tigers shirt under his Mets jersey, which the Detroit News was understandably delighted to note.

The night also featured Bill Fagerbakke — the voice of Patrick Star from SpongeBob SquarePants — throwing the ceremonial first pitch and announcing the Mets’ lineup over the Citi Field PA. Between Fagerbakke, Simmons, and a Spider-Man with a newspaper, it was a strange evening for celebrity sightings at a ballpark. The baseball was apparently secondary.

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• Alfred Molina confirmed in a new Variety interview that he would return as Doc Ock — “I would do it again”
• He revealed details about an original three-movie deal for the role that fans didn’t know about
• Molina currently stars in two Netflix projects: The Boroughs and Remarkably Bright Creatures
• His Doctor Octopus appeared in Spider-Man: No Way Home alongside his original Spider-Man 2 run
• Whether Marvel/Sony will actually call is a separate question

Alfred Molina is not closing any doors.

In a new interview with Variety, the actor confirmed what fans have long hoped: he’d be happy to return as Otto “Doc Ock” Octavius in another Spider-Man film. “I would do it again,” he told the outlet, adding that the conversation about coming back has never really gone away.

More surprising was what he revealed about his original deal: Molina disclosed there was a three-movie arrangement attached to the Doc Ock role from the beginning — a detail that reframes everything fans thought they knew about why the character returned so seamlessly in Spider-Man: No Way Home. The contractual groundwork, it seems, was laid back in the Sam Raimi era.

The Character’s Legacy

Molina’s Doc Ock in 2004’s Spider-Man 2 is still widely considered one of the best superhero film villains ever put on screen — tragic, intelligent, genuinely threatening. His return in No Way Home gave fans the reunion moment they’d been waiting for, and by most accounts, he delivered again.

Den of Geek argues he could return but perhaps shouldn’t — the concern being that over-revisiting legacy characters risks diluting what made them special in the first place. It’s a reasonable counterpoint. But Molina’s own enthusiasm, combined with the original deal structure he described, suggests this isn’t just wishful thinking from fan corners of the internet.

What He’s Up to Now

While the Marvel/Sony machinery decides what it wants to do, Molina has been busy. He’s currently on Netflix in The Boroughs, playing a retiree battling aliens, and in Remarkably Bright Creatures, voicing a giant Pacific octopus — which is either a coincidence or a very deliberate piece of casting symmetry.

Doc Ock or not, the man is not sitting still.

The post Alfred Molina Says He’d Play Doc Ock Again — and There’s Already Been a Conversation appeared first on Cream.

• Nicolas Cage reprises his Spider-Verse role in Spider-Noir, now a live-action series
• The show is set in a stylized 1933 New York and plays like a Humphrey Bogart detective story
• There are no multiverse references or connections to Miles Morales — this is a standalone noir
• Reviews are mixed, praising Cage’s commitment but questioning the show’s tonal consistency
• Spider-Noir streams on Amazon’s MGM+ with a PG-13 edge

Nicolas Cage in a fedora, fighting crime in 1930s New York, as a version of Spider-Man who operates more like Philip Marlowe than Peter Parker. On paper, Spider-Noir is one of the most interesting swings anyone’s taken with the Spider-Man IP in years. In execution, it’s complicated.

Cage reprises the role he voiced in Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, but this isn’t the same character — not exactly. The show has no references to Miles, Gwen, or any multiverse. There’s no web-slinging across dimensions. Instead, it’s a standalone noir thriller set in a stylized 1933 New York where Cage’s Spider, as he’s called here, wears a black mask under his hat and navigates a Depression-era world of corruption, violence, and moral ambiguity.

The PG-13 rating gives it more edge than the animated version — stronger language, more overt violence — but the show leans into atmosphere over action. It wants to be a detective story first and a superhero show second.

The Bogart of It All

The Humphrey Bogart comparisons are intentional and everywhere. Cage plays the role with the kind of laconic cool that suggests he’s studied The Maltese Falcon and The Big Sleep with the same care he once brought to Leaving Las Vegas. When the show trusts that energy — the slow burn, the shadows, the cynicism — it works.

When it doesn’t trust it, things get messier. Critics have noted that the tone can be inconsistent, bouncing between genuine noir atmosphere and the broader demands of a superhero property. The 1933 setting occasionally feels more like a costume than a commitment, with cultural references that don’t always track to the era.

But Cage is fully in it. He always is. And for viewers who’ve been waiting for Sony’s Spider-Man universe to try something genuinely different instead of another villain origin story, Spider-Noir at least has the courage of its weird, fedora-wearing convictions.

The series streams on Amazon’s MGM+.

The post Spider-Noir Turns Spider-Man Into a 1930s Detective Story appeared first on Cream.

• Spider-Noir premieres on Prime Video on May 27, with Nicolas Cage starring as Ben Reilly — not Peter Parker
• The show will be available in both black-and-white and color versions, a decision Cage himself helped champion
• Cage referenced Humphrey Bogart, Peter Lorre, and even Bugs Bunny daily on set to shape his performance
• Co-showrunners Oren Uziel and Steve Lightfoot drew from noir classics like Casablanca, Chinatown, and L.A. Confidential
• Producers Phil Lord and Christopher Miller say they’re open to more seasons — the door is wide open

Nicolas Cage has been circling superhero mythology for decades — there was that legendary unmade Superman project, then his voice work in Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse. But nothing he’s done in the genre looks quite like Spider-Noir, the Prime Video series that drops May 27 and asks a question no one in the Spider-Verse has dared to ask before: What if we just made a Bogart movie?

“We’re really trying to make an old Bogart movie,” co-showrunner Oren Uziel said. “It’s just that Bogart happens to be Spider-Man.”

That single idea — deceptively simple, wildly ambitious — drove every creative decision the team made, from the casting to the color palette to the choice to set the whole thing in 1930s Depression-era New York. Uziel, who came in already a fan of both noir and Spider-Man, said he and Cage were aligned from the very beginning on what this show needed to be. “We didn’t want to make a version of Spider-Man that anyone had seen before,” he said. “Nic was never going to do that.”

Why Ben Reilly — and Not Peter Parker

The most immediate signal that this isn’t your standard Spider-Man story? The name on the door. Cage plays Ben Reilly, a seasoned, down-on-his-luck private investigator who is forced back into his life as the city’s one and only superhero following a deeply personal tragedy. Peter Parker doesn’t exist in this universe — at least not yet, with Uziel leaving the door deliberately open for future seasons.

The reasoning was straightforward. “Peter Parker is so synonymous to me with a young character and a coming-of-age story,” Uziel explained. That’s not the story they were telling. This Spider-Man is older, wearier, and has already been through the worst of it. “He is older, he is wiser, he is maybe a little less excited to do it all,” added co-showrunner Steve Lightfoot, who previously served as showrunner on Marvel’s The Punisher.

Lamorne Morris, who plays journalist and Reilly confidant Robbie Robertson, put it in terms that cut right to the heart of what Cage was building. “His whole thing is he is a spider trying to learn how to be a human. Whereas I think other characters are the reverse — they are humans playing the spider — and I think it’s a completely unique take on it.”

Cage pulled from an eclectic set of references to get there. Humphrey Bogart, Peter Lorre, Edward G. Robinson — and, yes, Bugs Bunny. “Nic is unlike any other actor you’ve ever seen,” Morris said. “He pulled from Bugs Bunny to play this character.”

Every Day on Set, a New Bogart Scene

Uziel’s own noir touchstones going into the show were considerable — The Third Man, Double Indemnity, The Thin Man, His Girl Friday, Miller’s Crossing, Casablanca, L.A. Confidential. But Cage arrived on set each day with his own specific homework done. “Every single day he’d come to set with a different reference: ‘This is Bogart from The Big Sleep, this is going to be Peter Lorre. This is going to be Edward G. Robinson,'” Uziel recalled.

That level of commitment had a gravitational pull on the rest of the cast. Brendan Gleeson, who plays lead antagonist and crime boss Silvermane, described working opposite Cage as an experience in creative generosity. “It was just a joy to be working with Nic because you toss it across and it comes back with twice a spin on it.”

Jack Huston, who plays Flint Marko — better known as Sandman — said the show’s characters take on a larger symbolic weight in the process. The heroes and villains “become a bit of their own metaphor and that’s a beautiful thing.” Lucas Shaw described the result as a new kind of “badass adult” version of Spider-Man, something the franchise simply hasn’t produced before.

For producers Phil Lord and Christopher Miller — the creative architects of the Spider-Verse film universe — the tonal blend was always the point. “It should be funny. Nic is a funny person. Spider-Man was always quippy. And some of our favorite noirs are really funny, but also emotional,” Miller said. “As the show gets weirder, you’re letting Nic be Nic.”

The Black-and-White Decision — and the Fight to Keep It

Shooting in black and white in 2026 is not a small ask. Cage knew that, and he knew the studio was nervous about it. So he came up with a solution himself.

“I could tell that some of the folks in the studio were nervous,” Cage said at Wednesday’s New York premiere, where he walked the carpet alongside Morris, Huston, Gleeson, Li Jun Li, Karen Rodriguez, Lukas Haas, and Abraham Popoola. “So I said, ‘You don’t only have to shoot it in black and white; you can also get teenagers, who might be watching, by shooting in color with almost a colorized feel. And maybe that’ll make them interested in watching it in black and white.'”

The creative team was fully on board. Miller said from the beginning they were committed to shooting “with intention for black and white” — not converting it as an afterthought. That single decision shaped everything: performances, music, cinematography. Executive producer Dan Shear clarified that when Amazon came to the production asking for a color version to accompany the black-and-white release, the team accepted it as a creative challenge rather than a compromise. “We accepted the challenge, worked out our plan for it and it was really seen as an efficient, effective production,” Shear said.

For Cage, the color version isn’t a sellout — it’s a gateway. “My dream is that [young viewers] will see the black and white after they do the color, and they’re going to want to look at the old movies, all that great wealth of American cinema that we have,” he said. “I also say, it doesn’t matter if a 13-year-old doesn’t know who Humphrey Bogart is. It works.”

The show was also retitled from simply Noir to Spider-Noir ahead of release. Shear explained the thinking: “It’s really a merging of two genres. We’re telling a noir, but we’re also telling a Spider-Verse show and the title represents the intersection of those genres, which kind of creates a third new thing that we hadn’t seen before.”

Built to Run for Seasons

The eight-episode first season expands on the Spider-Man Noir character who first appeared in animated form in Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse in 2018 — though the creative team is clear this is its own, broader story. “They’re connected for sure. There’s inspiration being taken there,” Uziel said. “But when you’re making an eight-episode television series, you’re going to really expand it and broaden it. In live action, you get to see so much more of Nic’s performance and you can really fully realize New York in the ’30s.”

Lightfoot was equally firm that despite the period setting, the show needed to feel alive right now. “We wanted to be truthful to the period, but we never wanted it to feel like a pastiche. We wanted it to be its own thing, and if you’re writing a show now, it’s hopefully going to speak to now.”

As for what comes next, Lord and Miller aren’t playing coy. “We are television producers. We’re not gonna say no,” Lord said. Miller added that he “would be happy to do more.”

And Uziel made the case for why this world could sustain as many stories as anyone wants to tell. “One of the magical things about any private detective story is, if you want another story, all it takes is another client to knock on that door, and then comes a new set of cases, a new set of problems and a new adventure to go on.”

Spider-Noir hits Prime Video on May 27 in both black-and-white and color.

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• Matt Murdock publicly revealed himself as Daredevil in the Born Again Season 2 finale, trading his anonymity to strip Mayor Fisk of leverage.
• The move leaves him facing a public trial and a prison sentence — and sets up a “Devil in Cell Block D” arc for Season 3.
• Only five MCU heroes still operate behind the protection of a secret identity.
• Spider-Man, Moon Knight, Ms. Marvel, White Tiger, and Scarlet Scarab are the last holdouts in a franchise that has largely gone public.
• Spider-Man: Brand New Day opens July 31, 2026, and will be the first solo film to fully explore Peter Parker’s magically wiped identity.

When Tony Stark walked up to that podium in 2008 and told the world “I am Iron Man,” he didn’t just change his own story — he set the tone for an entire franchise. The MCU has always been a universe where heroes largely operate in the open: press conferences, congressional hearings, government registries. Anonymity was never really the point. But a handful of characters kept holding the line on that classic comic book tradition, and none held it longer or more stubbornly than Matt Murdock.

That changed in the Daredevil: Born Again Season 2 finale. In a climactic courtroom confrontation, Matt (Charlie Cox) stripped off the mask — figuratively speaking — and outed himself as Daredevil, choosing to destroy Mayor Wilson Fisk’s (Vincent D’Onofrio) leverage over him rather than protect his own anonymity. It’s a decision that lands him in a prison cell by the end of the episode, sharing space with the surviving members of the Anti-Vigilante Task Force he spent the season fighting. Season 3 is already in production and filming, with that “Devil in Cell Block D” setup clearly driving where the story goes next.

But Matt’s public outing reshuffles something larger across the MCU. With Daredevil now known to the world, only a small group of heroes still relies on the safety of anonymity. Here’s who’s left — and how secure their secrets really are.

5. Scarlet Scarab (Layla El-Faouly)

Layla El-Faouly (May Calamawy) didn’t exactly plan to become a superhero. Her transformation into the Scarlet Scarab happened in the chaos of Moon Knight‘s final battle, when she channeled the power of the Egyptian goddess Taweret to help Marc Spector (Oscar Isaac) defeat Arthur Harrow (Ethan Hawke). There were civilians present. But in the middle of a supernatural battle, the odds that anyone clocked her face — let alone her name — are pretty slim.

Layla’s background actually works in her favor here. Her history as an archaeological artifact smuggler operating under falsified documents means she already knows how to keep her real identity off any official record. We haven’t seen her or the Scarlet Scarab mantle since Moon Knight wrapped, but her secret appears intact. For now.

4. White Tiger (Angela Del Toro)

One of the most exciting introductions in Born Again Season 2 was Angela Del Toro (Camila Rodriguez), who stepped into the White Tiger mantle after the murder of her uncle Hector Ayala (Kamar de los Reyes) — himself a vigilante whose amulet grants superhuman speed, strength, and agility. Angela assembled a homemade costume from her late uncle’s gear and threw herself into Daredevil’s resistance movement, fighting alongside him through to the final courthouse battle against Fisk’s corrupt Anti-Vigilante Task Force.

She’s a fan-favorite character from the comics, and Born Again is clearly just the beginning of her story. The people closest to the resistance know who she is, but the broader public — and the authorities — don’t. Her identity is still protected, at least for now, though the more active she becomes, the harder that will be to maintain.

3. Ms. Marvel (Kamala Khan)

Kamala Khan (Iman Vellani) has been juggling high school homework and a secret identity since her Disney+ debut in 2022, and she’s gotten remarkably good at both. Her mutant physiology and cosmic hard-light abilities put her in the Department of Damage Control’s crosshairs almost immediately, which is a big part of why she guards her identity so fiercely. Her family and close friends know — and have her back — but Kamala keeps the wider world in the dark specifically to protect her community from DODC scrutiny.

Even after teaming up with Carol Danvers (Brie Larson) and Monica Rambeau (Teyonah Parris) during The Marvels, she came home committed to preserving her anonymity. Right now she’s working on recruiting other young enhanced individuals, building what looks like the MCU’s next generation of heroes — and doing it quietly, from the shadows. The secret identity isn’t just personal for Kamala. It’s structural to everything she’s building.

2. Moon Knight (Marc Spector)

No one in the MCU has a more complicated relationship with identity than Marc Spector — and that’s before you factor in the divine servitude to an ancient moon god. Marc (Oscar Isaac) and his alternate personality Steven Grant share a body while operating almost entirely off the global intelligence grid, using Khonshu’s magic and Marc’s mercenary skills to carry out their missions. The violent nature of what they do demands absolute secrecy; exposure would mean prosecution from international authorities.

And then there’s the third personality, Jake Lockley — a wrinkle that keeps even Marc and Steven unaware of their own total body count. Moon Knight’s whole existence is built around operating in the shadows, as far from a superhero press conference as you can get. His secret identity isn’t just intact — it’s practically baked into the mythology of the character.

1. Spider-Man (Peter Parker)

Peter Parker (Tom Holland) already lived through the nightmare of a public outing. When Mysterio (Jake Gyllenhaal) broadcast his name to the world at the end of Far From Home, it cost Peter everything — his college prospects, his friends’ safety, his sense of a normal life. The fix was extraordinary: a universe-wide memory spell cast by Doctor Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch) at the end of Spider-Man: No Way Home that wiped Peter Parker from the mind of every living person on Earth.

It worked. Completely. Peter now operates in genuine isolation — hand-sewing his own suit, monitoring police scanners from a rundown apartment, with no Stark Industries backing and no one who remembers who he is. It’s the most thorough secret identity reset in MCU history, and it cost him everyone he loved.

Spider-Man: Brand New Day, opening July 31, 2026, will be the first solo film to fully explore what that blank slate actually looks like — and whether Peter can build a life from nothing while still being Spider-Man. Interestingly, the film is also expected to feature Frank Castle’s Punisher, and may include the MCU’s first proper look at The Hand, the ninja death cult that looms large in Daredevil lore and could factor heavily into Born Again Season 3.

That’s the thread connecting all of this. Matt Murdock gave up his secret to take down Fisk, and now he’s sitting in a prison cell while the world he protected keeps spinning. Spider-Man gave up everyone he knew just to get his secret back. The cost of anonymity in the MCU has never been clearer — and the few heroes still holding onto it are doing so knowing exactly what’s at stake if they lose it.

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• Marvel Comics is launching the Midnight Universe, a horror-themed publishing line debuting in August 2025.
• Three launch titles will reimagine Spider-Man, the X-Men, and the Fantastic Four in dark, terrifying new ways.
• Jonathan Hickman, Benjamin Percy, and Phillip Kennedy Johnson are among the superstar creators attached.
• Midnight Spider-Man’s mutation storyline runs parallel to what’s being teased in the MCU’s Spider-Man: Brand New Day.
• The line is Marvel’s most ambitious creator-driven horror push since the original New Universe.

Marvel Comics is going to a very dark place — and it’s bringing Spider-Man, the X-Men, and the Fantastic Four with it.

The publisher has officially unveiled the Midnight Universe, a bold new horror-themed publishing line launching this August with three titles that take some of the most beloved characters in comics history and drag them somewhere they’ve never quite been before. The tagline says it all: “The Light Had Its Turn.”

The three launch titles are Midnight X-Men by Jonathan Hickman and artist Matteo Della Fonte, Midnight Fantastic Four by Benjamin Percy and Kev Walker, and Midnight Spider-Man by Phillip Kennedy Johnson alongside artist Scie Tronc — making his Marvel Comics debut. More titles are expected to be announced in the months ahead.

What the Midnight Universe Actually Is

Marvel Editor in Chief C.B. Cebulski framed the Midnight Universe as the next chapter in the publisher’s long tradition of bold alternate-world storytelling. “From the original New Universe to two Ultimate Universes, Marvel has a long history of creating and inspiring bold worlds filled with unforgettable characters and fresh ideas that feel new yet recognizable at the same time,” he said. “With the new Midnight line, we’ve given some of our most outstanding creators the opportunity to delve into the darkest corners of their imaginations and birth some of the creepiest, most terrifying takes on the Marvel Universe you’ve ever seen.”

The official description doesn’t pull punches: “The X-Men no longer fight for acceptance, they hunger for blood. The Fantastic Four venture into the unknown not to save the world — but to unleash terror upon it. And Spider-Man discovers that with great power… comes something monstrous.”

The line is described as interconnected through rich lore-building, with creators given free rein to push the stories wherever they want — “boundary-less, creator-driven storytelling” that Marvel says will keep readers on edge issue after issue. It’s being positioned as Marvel’s answer to DC’s wildly popular Absolute line, which has done enormous business by reimagining iconic heroes through a darker, more ambitious lens.

Breaking Down Each Title

In Midnight X-Men, the shadows of New York City are stalked by vampires and what Marvel calls the “mutant empyres.” A fragile peace between two species is on the verge of collapse, and an all-out war is coming — with the unturned caught in the middle. Hickman, who previously redefined mutantkind with House of X and more recently launched the acclaimed Ultimate Spider-Man, sounds genuinely lit up about this one. “I’m so enthusiastic about this project — it’s the most excited I’ve been in years,” he said. “The conceit of Midnight X-Men aligns perfectly with the kind of stories I like to tell. It has a rich, open-ended mythology that equally mixes old and new ideas into something that feels both familiar and original.”

Midnight Fantastic Four reimagines Marvel’s first family as something far more sinister: an obsessive scientist who pushes too far into the secrets of the universe, leaving himself and three others warped in horrible ways. Benjamin Percy, whose credits include Wolverine and Punisher, is writing it — and his description of signing on is peak horror-writer energy. “If you’ve read my work, you know that I see the world through a dark, disturbed lens. To me, it’s always midnight,” Percy said. “When Hickman called me, it was from a landline in the basement of an abandoned house with the wires cut. Blood poured from the receiver into my ear. I said yes.”

And then there’s Midnight Spider-Man. A young Peter Parker is transformed into a hideous spider hybrid by the ruthless Oscorp Corporation, which is hunting for the secret to eternal life. When Oscorp starts using the secrets unlocked by his mutation to create more human-animal hybrids, Peter embraces his grotesque new form to stop them. It’s a body-horror reimagining of one of the most familiar origin stories in pop culture — and Phillip Kennedy Johnson, fresh off Infernal Hulk, is writing it alongside debut Marvel artist Scie Tronc.

The Eerie Parallel to Spider-Man: Brand New Day

Here’s where things get genuinely interesting. The mutation angle in Midnight Spider-Man isn’t just a comics-only idea right now — it’s running parallel to what Marvel Studios is teasing for the MCU’s Spider-Man: Brand New Day. In the film’s first trailer, Bruce Banner warns Peter that if his “DNA is mutating, it would be enormously dangerous.” Organic web-shooters appear to be coming too.

Spider-Man mutation isn’t new territory — Spider-Man: The Animated Series famously turned Peter into Man-Spider during its “Six Arms Saga” adaptation, and the comics storyline “The Other” saw him reborn from a cocoon with terrifying new abilities. But the fact that both the comics and the movies are leaning into this idea at roughly the same time feels like more than coincidence. It speaks to something Marvel clearly believes: that pushing Peter Parker to his most monstrous extreme is the freshest direction left to take him. After the massive success of the 2024 Ultimate Spider-Man series, Marvel has proven it can reinvent its flagship hero without losing what makes him matter.

The “Cloaked Covers” and What Comes Next

Marvel has already revealed the main cover for Midnight X-Men #1 by artist Dike Ruan — and it comes with a genuinely clever gimmick. The Midnight titles will feature “Cloaked Covers,” partially obscured artwork that only fully reveals itself when you turn the page. After the debut issues, that full artwork will remain hidden in shadow for subsequent covers, only giving itself up to readers brave enough to actually pick them up off the stands.

The full Midnight Universe line is set to roll out through Summer and Fall 2026, with more titles expected to be announced. Marvel has promised that characters like Blade and Werewolf by Night will also have a place in this world — so the three launch titles are just the beginning of whatever nightmare they’re building here.

“For over 80 years, Marvel heroes have inspired hope,” the publisher declared. “This August, that hope dies.”

The post Marvel’s Midnight Universe: Horror Versions of Spider-Man, X-Men & Fantastic Four appeared first on Cream.

• The Russo Brothers confirmed in a new interview that MCU Peter Parker was not responsible for Uncle Ben’s death
• Joe Russo said making Holland’s Spider-Man carry that guilt would have created “a more intense interpretation of the character”
• The comments came as part of a CBR interview marking Captain America: Civil War’s 10th anniversary
• Fans have pushed back online, calling the change a fundamental misread of the character’s entire origin
• Spider-Man: Brand New Day, due July 31, 2026, may finally address Uncle Ben more directly in the MCU

Ten years after Tom Holland swung into the MCU in Captain America: Civil War, Joe Russo has confirmed something fans have long suspected — and many have long debated: in the Russo Brothers’ minds, Peter Parker had absolutely nothing to do with Uncle Ben’s death.

In a new interview with CBR marking Civil War‘s 10th anniversary, Joe Russo laid out the thinking behind one of the most quietly controversial creative decisions in the MCU’s history.

“Spider-Man was one of my favorite characters growing up, if not my favorite,” Russo said. “And what I related to was this idea of a kid with incredible responsibility, right? And I think you could manifest that responsibility through accidental death, right? And feeling the pressure, and the sense of loss in your life in a way that would keep the spirit that we wanted. [But] what Tom Holland is as an actor, if he blamed himself for his Uncle Ben’s death, I think he becomes a very different character. So in our minds, no, he wasn’t responsible for Uncle Ben’s death. That would have been a different interpretation. A more intense interpretation of the character.”

For casual Marvel moviegoers, this might not register as a big deal. But for anyone who knows Spider-Man — really knows him — it’s a significant admission. The entire bedrock of Peter Parker’s heroism isn’t just that he lost someone he loved. It’s that he could have prevented it. A thief he chose not to stop, because stopping criminals wasn’t his problem yet, ended up killing his uncle. That selfish moment of inaction is what transforms a kid with superpowers into a superhero. It’s the guilt, the lesson, the reason the phrase “with great power comes great responsibility” hits as hard as it does. Stripping that away doesn’t just simplify the origin — it changes the whole equation.

What the MCU Actually Did With Uncle Ben

To be fair to the Russos, the decision to skip Spider-Man’s origin story entirely when Holland debuted in 2016 wasn’t unreasonable on its face. Tobey Maguire had told it in 2002. Andrew Garfield told it again in 2012. Nobody needed a third radioactive spider bite. The problem isn’t that they skipped the origin — it’s what they quietly replaced it with.

Uncle Ben barely exists in the MCU. There’s a throwaway reference in Spider-Man: Homecoming when Peter tells Ned he can’t reveal his identity after “everything they’ve been through,” and a suitcase monogrammed with the initials BFP — Benjamin Franklin Parker — appears in Far From Home. That’s essentially the full extent of it. The man himself, and the weight of what his death is supposed to mean, never really lands.

Instead, the MCU transferred Peter’s defining grief to Aunt May. In Spider-Man: No Way Home, it’s Marisa Tomei’s May who dies at the hands of Willem Dafoe’s Green Goblin — and who delivers the iconic line just before she goes: “with great power, there must also come great responsibility.” It’s a genuinely moving scene. But it changes something fundamental. May dies because Peter tried to do the right thing — helping the multiversal villains rather than sending them back to face their fates. That’s an act of heroism punished, not a moment of selfishness corrected. The moral is inverted.

When the other Spider-Men in that film reference their Uncle Bens upon hearing that line, Holland’s Peter doesn’t visibly react to the name. Because why would he? In this version, Ben is a ghost — present enough to be implied, absent enough to mean nothing.

Fans Aren’t Having It

The reaction online was swift. “This is so backwards,” one user wrote on X. “Him not being responsible for his uncle’s death is the different interpretation. Him being responsible for his Uncle’s Death is the ENTIRE POINT of his origin.” Another drew a pointed comparison: “James Gunn says that Bruce Wayne’s family died in a car accident, not by being shot in Crime Alley.”

The frustration makes sense. Framing the traditional origin — the one told in virtually every comics run, animated series, and previous film adaptation — as simply “a more intense interpretation” is a strange way to describe what is, for most people, the definitive version of the character.

It’s also worth noting that this is specifically the Russos’ interpretation, built around how they saw Holland’s particular energy as an actor. It doesn’t necessarily reflect Marvel Studios’ official position, and director Jon Watts, who helmed the Homecoming trilogy, may have had a different internal read. The MCU has always been somewhat deliberately vague on the subject, leaving the door open.

The Deal That Almost Didn’t Happen

Anthony Russo also reflected in the interview on just how close the whole thing came to falling apart. Bringing Spider-Man into the MCU required a historic agreement between Disney and Sony, and the negotiations were nerve-wracking right up to the last moment.

“Not only did the idea of Civil War scare parts of Marvel, because we were turning Tony Stark, their most popular character in the MCU, into an antagonist in the film,” Anthony said. “The introducing Spider-Man within this movie was very controversial because Sony had the rights to that character.”

Joe added that the deal wasn’t locked until almost the moment cameras rolled. “If I remember correctly, Sony and Disney didn’t sign the deal officially until like a day before [Holland] was on camera, or something crazy like that. There was a reason that we couldn’t talk about it, because it still could have blown up at the last second!”

The Russos also revealed there were weeks during development when they simply stopped coming into work because the Spider-Man question was unresolved — and they couldn’t figure out how to move forward without him.

What Brand New Day Could Change

All of this lands at an interesting moment. Spider-Man: Brand New Day, directed by Destin Daniel Cretton and set for release on July 31, 2026, is shaping up to be the most consequential Spider-Man film in the MCU since No Way Home. After the events of that film — Peter’s identity erased from the world, May dead, his connection to Tony Stark severed — this version of the character is finally starting from something closer to scratch.

Whether Cretton and writers Chris McKenna and Erik Sommers choose to bring Uncle Ben into the picture more directly remains to be seen. The setup is there: a Peter Parker defined by grief and isolation, carrying the weight of choices made and losses suffered, trying to figure out what kind of hero he wants to be. That’s not so far from the kid who let a thief walk by and paid the price for it.

It took seven MCU films, but Peter Parker might finally be catching up to his own origin story.

The post Russos Confirm MCU’s Spider-Man Wasn’t Responsible for Uncle Ben’s Death appeared first on Cream.

• Joe Russo confirms that in his and Anthony’s vision, MCU Peter Parker was NOT responsible for Uncle Ben’s death
• The revelation comes during a CBR interview marking Captain America: Civil War’s 10th anniversary
• Russo says Tom Holland’s personality as an actor drove the decision — guilt would have made him “a very different character”
• The MCU shifted Peter’s defining trauma to Aunt May’s death in Spider-Man: No Way Home instead
• Spider-Man: Brand New Day hits theaters July 31, 2026, with the Uncle Ben mystery still unresolved

Ten years after Tom Holland first swung into the MCU in Captain America: Civil War, Joe Russo has confirmed what many fans long suspected but never had spelled out: the MCU’s version of Peter Parker was never responsible for Uncle Ben’s death. Not negligence. Not a criminal he let walk. Just loss — clean, accidental, and guilt-free.

Speaking with CBR as part of a retrospective interview marking Civil War’s 10th anniversary, Joe Russo explained the thinking behind what is arguably the biggest single change ever made to Spider-Man’s mythology on screen.

“Spider-Man was one of my favorite characters growing up, if not my favorite,” Russo said. “And what I related to was this idea of a kid with incredible responsibility, right? And I think you could manifest that responsibility through accidental death, right? And feeling the pressure, and the sense of loss in your life in a way that would keep the spirit that we wanted. [But] what Tom Holland is as an actor, if he blamed himself for his Uncle Ben’s death, I think he becomes a very different character. So in our minds, no, he wasn’t responsible for Uncle Ben’s death. That would have been a different interpretation. A more intense interpretation of the character.”

It’s a candid admission — and a fascinating one. For a decade, the assumption was that the MCU had simply skipped the origin story everyone already knew. Turned out the Russos weren’t skipping it so much as quietly rewriting it.

The Most Important Line in Spider-Man History — and What It Means Here

In the comics, and in both previous film series, the death of Uncle Ben is the cornerstone of Peter Parker’s entire identity. Ben is murdered by a criminal Peter could have stopped but chose not to. That guilt — the weight of inaction — is what turns a kid with superpowers into a superhero. It’s the reason “with great power comes great responsibility” hits as hard as it does. Tobey Maguire’s Peter lived with that guilt. So did Andrew Garfield’s.

Holland’s Peter, apparently, does not.

The MCU has been deliberately vague about Uncle Ben since the beginning. We know he’s dead before Civil War begins. There’s a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it reference in Spider-Man: Homecoming when Peter tells Ned he can’t reveal his secret identity after “everything they’ve been through,” and Far From Home showed Peter’s luggage monogrammed with “BFR” — the initials of Benjamin Franklin Parker. But the character has never been named on screen in a live-action MCU film, and the iconic line was never connected to him. The only times “Uncle Ben” has actually been spoken in the MCU were by Tobey Maguire’s Spider-Man in No Way Home, and in the animated What If…? Marvel Zombies episode featuring a variant of Holland’s Peter.

What’s interesting is that Civil War itself seemed to tease the traditional origin. During Peter’s first meeting with Tony Stark, he says: “When you can do the things that I can, but you don’t, and then the bad things happen, they happen because of you.” That line felt like a direct nod to Ben’s death. Apparently, the script left it deliberately ambiguous — and now we know why.

How the MCU Replaced Uncle Ben With Aunt May

Rather than leave Peter without a defining loss, the MCU built toward one slowly — and then delivered it in Spider-Man: No Way Home. It was Aunt May (Marisa Tomei) who died at the hands of Willem Dafoe’s Green Goblin. And it was May who, in her final moments, delivered the line: “With great power comes great responsibility.” The MCU transferred the emotional weight of Uncle Ben’s death onto her entirely, and it worked — even if it’s a very different kind of grief. Peter didn’t fail to stop a criminal. He watched someone he loved die in a fight he brought to her door.

That guilt, combined with the spell that erased Peter from everyone’s memory, is what sets the stage for Spider-Man: Brand New Day, arriving July 31, 2026. Director Destin Daniel Cretton is taking over from Jon Watts, and Peter is entering this chapter more isolated and more burdened than ever. Whether Cretton’s vision aligns with the Russos’ interpretation of Uncle Ben — or whether a future MCU project finally addresses what actually happened to him — remains one of the more intriguing loose threads in the franchise.

It’s worth remembering that the Russos’ take is their own creative interpretation, not an official Marvel Studios mandate. Joe and Anthony directed Peter’s introduction in Civil War, but they didn’t helm the Homecoming trilogy. Whether Jon Watts or Cretton have ever thought about Ben’s fate differently, we don’t know. The MCU has simply never committed either way on screen.

The Behind-the-Scenes Drama That Almost Kept Spider-Man Out of the MCU

The Civil War anniversary interview also surfaced another remarkable detail: just how close the whole thing came to never happening at all.

Anthony Russo recalled the tension of building a movie around a character they weren’t sure they’d be allowed to use. “Not only did the idea of Civil War scare parts of Marvel, because we were turning Tony Stark, their most popular character in the MCU, into an antagonist in the film. The introducing Spider-Man within this movie was very controversial because Sony had the rights to that character.”

“When we started to execute it creatively with writers Markus and McFeely, there was no business agreement that we could use Spider-Man,” Anthony continued. “So that became a bit of a process where we really had to hold out for that character. In fact, there were a couple of weeks where we didn’t even come in to work on the movie because that issue hadn’t been resolved yet.”

Joe added a detail that makes the whole thing feel almost absurdly close to the wire: “If I remember correctly, Sony and Disney didn’t sign the deal officially until like a day before [Holland] was on camera, or something crazy like that. There was a reason that we couldn’t talk about it, because it still could have blown up at the last second!”

A deal signed the day before filming. A superhero origin quietly rewritten. Ten years later, we’re still unpacking the decisions made in those rooms.

As Brand New Day approaches — bringing with it the Punisher, The Hand, a new mayor of New York, and a Peter Parker who has lost nearly everything — the question of Uncle Ben feels more relevant than ever. The MCU has carried this mystery for a decade. Whether they finally answer it, or let it stay buried, might tell us everything about who this version of Spider-Man is really meant to be.

The post Russo Brothers Finally Confirm MCU Changed Spider-Man’s Origin appeared first on Cream.