Why Spider-Man Is Immune to the Superhero Swoon

The conceit of Spider-Man: Brand New Day is that no one knows or cares about Peter Parker. Thanks to some misadventures in the mystic arts, the man behind the spider mask has been wiped from the world’s memory. He lives alone in a silk retreat of solitude (a.k.a. a cluttered Queens apartment) where he illicitly surveils the city, experiments on his own DNA, and instructs delivery guys to drop off pizzas at the door. He’s unloved and lonely, living vicariously through his former friends’ vertical videos because he has no one to talk to except a police detective, a homicidal, traumatized vigilante, and his latest AI assistant.