This article contains so many spoilers from Spider-Man: Brand New Day.In Spider-Man: Brand New Day, your friendly neighborhood Spider-Man finds himself with a bit of a conundrum. He’s heard about something called V-Max, something that a mysterious body-jumper is attacking the Department of Damage Control to find. Even with an AI-driven 3D-printer at his disposal, Spidey lacks the top-secret access to learn about V-Max. So what does he do? He goes to check in with fellow superhero Yelena Belova, aka the new Black Widow.For some, Florence Pugh‘s brief appearance in a tub and on a zoom screen is everything wrong with modern blockbuster movies, a key-jangly use of a fan-favorite character to distract from loose plotting. But in fact Black Widow’s appearance—along with the appearances of Bruce Banner, Punisher, Jean Grey, and even the Hand Ninjas—are all realistic and reasonable ways to tell a Spider-Man story in a shared universe filled with heroes.cnx.cmd.push(function() {cnx({playerId: "106e33c0-3911-473c-b599-b1426db57530",}).render("0270c398a82f44f49c23c16122516796");});Without question, Brand New Day is stuffed with ancillary characters. The most obvious example is the chief antagonist Jean Grey. Most people know Jean Grey as a flagship member of the X-Men, the central figure in the famous Dark Phoenix Saga. The arrival of Jean into the MCU raises huge questions about the status of mutants in the universe and the future of the X-Men. But here’s the thing: Brand New Day answers none of those queries! It doesn’t even gesture toward the answers. Instead it treats Jean as a reflection of Peter’s story, as the latter finds himself mutating with his arachnid DNA overtakes his human DNA. He fears it will make him something monstrous, and as a mutants Jean and her sister Sara get treated like monsters all the time. So her actions show Peter one path he can take.And yet, he doesn’t go that way, even as Peter comes to empathize with the young woman who opens his eyes about the moral compromise of aligning with Damage Control.Brand New Day is a story about characters, chiefly Peter; it’s not a bunch of nods to X-Men lore, nor does it reveal Professor X in a post-credit sequence where the kindly benefactor offers Jean admission to his School for Gifted Youngsters. Why? Because this is a story about Spider-Man. Not Jean.To be sure, some would prefer that Xavier appear in a post-credit scene. In the early days of the MCU, teasers for upcoming stories heightened the sense of a shared universe and an ongoing narrative. So when Captain America: The Winter Soldier ends with a glimpse at Baron von Strucker holding the Maximoff Twins, few people felt teased or cheated. But at this point, the novelty has long worn off and even the post-credit scene we do get in Brand New Day—which is Spidey-related, but may very well refer to someone other than Tom Holland appearing in Avengers: Doomsday—distracts from the story we just saw.You know what doesn’t distract? The Hulk, the Hand, or the Punisher. Yes, all of these characters come into the movie with their own agendas and baggage, but none of that matters for Brand New Day‘s overall story. Hulk shows up because Peter needs some advice on genetics and he happens to know an expert, and his presence opens the door for Jean to mind-control him to increase her attack. The Hand are there to show how far Damage Control has gone to expand their reach into super-humans. Even the Punisher shows up to demonstrate how far Peter has ignored his human side, sinking to a point where Frank Castle of all people is his only ally, an ally who warns him against continuing to walk an isolated road.Sure, all of these roles could have been filled by other types of characters. We could have had Peter visit Curt Connors to discuss genetics, Damage Control could have used the Lobo Brothers as enforcers, and Peter could have brought MJ to the Prowler’s lair to hide out. All of those characters have more history with Spider-Man in the comics, but they haven’t appeared in the Holland movies and thus would have required more exposition. The shared universe allowed Brand New Day to pull in characters that audiences already knew and save time telling their story.And how does Brand New Day use that time? By focusing on Spider-Man. Whether he’s talking to Jean Grey and fighting the Hulk or reuniting with MJ and Ned, Spider-Man is at the center of the story. It’s good storytelling, made more efficient and effective because of the shared universe.Spider-Man: Brand New Day is now in theaters.The post Spider-Man: Brand New Day Shows How to Do a Shared Universe Right appeared first on Den of Geek.