10 Years Later, MCU Spider-Man Still Can’t Escape Iron Man

Warning: This article contains spoilers for Spider-Man: Brand New Day.

Spider-Man: Brand New Day has crafted a number of new notable ties and similarities between Spider-Man and Iron Man, ensuring that the story of Peter Parker is still in some ways inherently tied to his now-passed MCU mentor. Though audiences had a range of perspectives on how the MCU timeline handled having Iron Man be Spider-Man’s mentor in the early era of the franchise, it’s undeniable this story link has underpinned much of the franchise since.

Focus has increasingly been put on Spider-Man as an independent hero, but his connection to Iron Man has lived on long after Tony Stark sacrificed himself in Avengers: Endgame. Spider-Man: Far From Home revolved around Peter trying to deal with the loss of Iron Man, and Spider-Man: No Way Home also features nods to Iron Man, as can be seen in Doctor Strange’s semi-guilty decision to help Peter because he doesn’t have anyone else to turn to.

Spider-Man: Brand New Day is a celebration of its titular lead as a solo hero more so than any film before it, and marks a milestone for Peter in this regard. However, that doesn’t stop the release from still having its own fair share of connections to Iron Man, and from Spider-Man’s story within the film mirroring Iron Man’s own in a way that draws more threads between the two iconic Marvel heroes.

Spider-Man: Brand New Day Has Several Striking Connections To Iron Man Despite Avoiding The Subject

Credit: Sony Pictures Releasing

Spider-Man: Brand New Day largely avoids referencing Iron Man or his connection with Peter Parker, but the movie still has clear and striking connections to the character. First and foremost, the true villain of the story is partly able to have garnered the power he has because of Iron Man and Stark Industries, given Bill Metzger is the head of the Department of Damage Control, and the organization became a joint venture between the US government and Stark Industries around the time of Spider-Man: Homecoming.

Brand New Day also creates consistent parallels between Peter and Tony, especially when it’s compared to Iron Man 3, wherein the hero’s arc is effectively the same. Both heroes undergo changes that leave them isolating themselves and struggling to reintegrate into society – which for Peter is due to his overstimulation when going outside when his mutation hits, and for Tony is due to his development of panic attacks after the events of The Avengers.

Similarly, both heroes end up isolating themselves after things with their romantic interests go south, as Iron Man and Pepper Potts face difficulties due to Tony overcommitting himself to being a superhero, and Peter and MJ’s relationship has grown far more complex due to her losing her memories of her romantic relationship with Peter and their history together, meaning any new romance has to start from the ground up for her if it is to unfold in the MCU.

Combined with both heroes realizing their creations are dangerous – with Tony destroying his suit collection at the end of Iron Man 3, and Spider-Man realizing his inhibitor tech can be used maliciously when Jean Grey is tortured after it’s used to take her down – as well as both arcs having moral lessons about the importance of community and reaching out to others, and Spider-Man is still clearly taking pages out of Iron Man’s book, albeit in a different form this time around.

Spider-Man Becoming The MCU’s Iron Man Successor Ties Their Legacies Together In The Franchise

Spider-Man’s ties to Iron Man and the way the deceased MCU hero haunts the narrative of the franchise to this day may be a bugbear for those who want the webslinger’s story to be entirely separate from his former mentor. However, these narrative decisions work well to cement Spider-Man as Iron Man’s MCU successor, and show the ways in which Spider-Man’s story continues to build off one of the only bigger characters in the franchise than the beloved vigilante himself.

Spider-Man certainly learned a lot of positive things from his time under Iron Man’s wing, but he also appears to have internalized a lot of Tony’s bad habits and flaws as well, either through his initial idolization of the hero, or because the two are very similar when it comes to their wholehearted commitment to helping others, and their frequent inability to care for themselves they way they do those around them.

Seeing these characters grow – and seeing Iron Man’s story continue to play out in some sense through the protégé he came to care for – helps add to the MCU in many ways, even if it also means that in some ways, Spider-Man: Brand New Day locks Peter into his ties with Iron Man all the more, and sets this up to continue in upcoming MCU movies too.