What the new ‘Spider-Man’ teaches us about starting anew

I’ve been waiting for Peter Parker to grow up for decades.Maybe it’s just how his story has been written, with anecdotes such as “with great power comes great responsibility.” It’s a tagline born out of tragedy and the inexperience of youth, and that’s how various incarnations of Spider-Man have often played out. It doesn’t matter if the web-head is portrayed with the boyish looks of a Tom Holland or Andrew Garfield, or the more mature persona of Tobey Maguire; it always appears as though our hero can’t get out of his own way.I’ve often wondered why the protagonist was never truly allowed to experience that great responsibility. He always felt hampered by his relationships, unable to balance the challenges of being Peter Parker and Spidey. Why We Wrote This “Spider-Man: Brand New Day” offers more than web-entangled action about battling crime. It also asks what it really means to grow up or to make fresh starts – for Peter Parker, and for us. For instance, how does this intrepid photographer remain under the thumb of an unrelenting newspaper editor and publisher – the classic dynamic between Parker and his boss at The Daily Bugle? Of course it’s allegorical, but I don’t think the late, great Stan Lee ever meant for Spider-Man to become a modern-day Sisyphus, even if memes jokingly suggest otherwise.The latest chapter, “Spider-Man: Brand New Day,” hailed as the biggest-ever domestic launch after raking in $360 million this past weekend, arrives at a solution that feels like adulthood, or in a sense, starting over. Lean into your career. Forget about your family and friends, or work so hard that they’ll forget about you. Lock in. The full-time focus on being Spider-Man leads to a wave of crime prevention unseen during his tenure – and the eventual need for work-life balance.“You need to rebalance,” Parker’s colleague tells him in the film. “I don’t have time,” he replies.It’s an innocent enough conversation, but it foreshadows what happens when we live without reflection and rest. What results is a darker Spider-Man – not the brooding or grim sense of a Batman movie, but displaying the gravity that comes with the burden of responsibility. It’s implied in the iconic tagline, but we see it play out in this movie in a way that feels heavy.As someone in my 40s, firmly entrenched in the “sandwich generation” – taking care of my kids and looking after my older father – I found Spider-Man’s plight hit close to home. Zendaya, left, and Tom Holland in a scene from "Spider-Man: Brand New Day." The breathtaking shots of the hero web-slinging and sprinting through New York City felt like my own attempts at being everywhere at once. “Life comes at you fast,” goes the familiar saying, and the trailer shot that goes beyond Spider-Man’s mask and looks into his eyes – no, his soul – peers into a reality where there are no easy answers.Starting over, or beginning at all, is a challenge in these modern times. A New York Times article from June detailed the gloomy economic future facing college graduates. One line from an economist quoted in the piece jumped out at me: “During recessions, good employers stop hiring.” If our best and brightest are struggling to get into the workforce, what shot do folks have who are losing their jobs to artificial intelligence or getting caught up in layoffs?The previous Spidey film in this series, “No Way Home,” gave us a lot of fan service. All three of the aforementioned actors showed up to battle a rogues’ gallery of series villains. But the film ultimately centered on a kid trying to find his way.That movie ended with Mr. Holland’s Spider-Man and his plea to famed sorcerer Dr. Strange – cast a spell to make the world forget his alter ego. In hindsight, it is a request that empowers Spider-Man’s ability to make tough decisions, including the one that would also separate him from the love of his life, Mary Jane, and his best friend, Ned.In the new film, some poignant help comes from the memories of his Aunt May, long a doting figure for Peter. Her words, much like those of her husband, Uncle Ben, matter more than her physical presence. Appearances by the unrelenting (and scene-stealing) Frank Castle, the vigilante known as the Punisher, also demand a more accountable hero. Castle calls him a “kid,” but he and Spider-Man are peers by the time this movie is over.As the dust settles, and with some big-time secrets revealed, this movie has raked in epic opening-weekend revenue, especially including tickets outside the U.S. But there’s a lot more richness here than what Marvel might highlight through its popular Spider-Man franchise. The way this movie ends harks back to the end of the Dark Knight trilogy, in which Christian Bale’s Bruce Wayne and Michael Caine’s Alfred Pennyworth nod at one another in unspoken agreement. It’s a gentle acknowledgment that no matter what happens, there’s always time to start anew.It’s a kind of motivation that we can all embrace.