Book Review - Spider-Man: Brand New Day - The Art of the Movie
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- 8 min read
July 10th 2026
Spider-Man’s latest movie is out now it’s unsurprisingly sticking the superhero landing with fans. Brand New Day not only sees the return of Tom Holland as the wallcrawler, but also puts him alongside Punisher, Hulk, and interesting new characters. All of this makes swinging into the concept art very exciting, which can be done in the new artbook, Spider-Man: Brand New Day - The Art of the Movie.
The book is being published by Marvel on August 18th, less than a few weeks after the movie premiered, which is the shortest wait time since before Avengers: Endgame, timing it perfectly for fans that have just seen the movie. A copy has arrived a little early, so you can read my spoiler-free thoughts on the book here, mentioning only what has been seen in the trailers, but prepare yourself, it’s an odd one.
Build Quality
The look at the movie comes as a 29cm x 24.5cm hardcover book, reverting back to the earlier format without a slipcase. While the slipcases were well-made, the price increase that came with them didn’t justify it, so this is a good move. What it did retain though, is the tight binding that prevents the pages laying flat without force, which could damage the book over time. It does use thinner paper than most artbooks, but it still doesn’t give enough flexibility to compensate for this. The page count has also reduced to 208, unlike the standard 224, which isn’t ideal as you will soon see.
The print quality inside is excellent, colours are vibrant and none of the images are too dark, avoiding a problem that has come up in the series before. The cover art from Ryan Meinerding is incredible too, you can’t ask for much more from a cover than Spidey mid-swing, with some enemies found on the back too.
Content
So, this is where things get interesting and it’s hard not to start with the elephant in the room. Without spoiling the movie, Sadie Sink’s character is not in the book. Not only this, but that means any scene that she is central to is also not included, and she is only vaguely referenced a couple of times. If you’ve seen the movie, you’ll know how frankly ridiculous this is, because she is not only a big character, but she is the driving force behind the main plot and focus of the third act. It does also mean that artists that worked on the character are either not in the book, or not as prominent as they should be.
I’ve often said that the wait times between the movies and artbooks is too long, but in a ‘careful what you wish for’ turn of events, releasing the book within a few weeks of the movie’s premier likely had Marvel taking her out to avoid spoilers. Anything after the appearance of Hulk in the movies is not either, as well as another character and their 'office'. The 16 pages that would take the book to 224 like the others should have been showcasing Sadie's concept art, so I can’t help but feel like this is an incomplete book. This is a huge negative for me and across the hundreds of artbooks for movies, shows, and games, I’ve never seen anything like this.
Spider-Man: Brand New Day - The Art of the Movie does start with the only person that can’t be ignored, Peter Parker himself. The red and blue looks as good as ever, although don’t expect the variety found in previous books, his suit doesn’t change in the movie, but it is nice to see the classic-style costume get the final touches. There is also a look at his eyes and web-shooters, plus a spread of sketches which is unusual, but a most welcome sight.
Here and throughout the rest of the chapters, the artwork is exceptional. This is of course no surprise, the (now former) Visual Development team and the other contributing artists Marvel uses have always been some of the best in the world. The Ryan Meinerding led team that also includes Wesley Burt, Ian Joyner, Bob Cheshire, Christian Cordella, Josh Nizzi, and more, created amazing concepts across many styles, setting Brand New Day’s visual foundation. The inclusion of black and white pieces, sketches, 3D concepts, and more also adds to the variety found here.
A lot of space is reserved for New York, with artists depicting busy streets that feel grounded and full of life. These were made to help visualise a huge set for the film and if shared in a gallery for the home of Spider-Man, would fit right in. Views high up in the city also grabs the eye with unique perspectives and angles. Concepts for Peter and Frank’s hideouts are also featured, making the world of the movie feel very lived in.
Punisher gets his long overdue appearance in an artbook, with a focus on his costume and skull logo that did leave me wishing he had the trench coat that is one of the concepts. Hulk gets the most spreads of all the characters with key frames and his design, including many for the much-rumoured Gray Hulk look. He’s bigger than ever in the movie and it’s nice to see the artists get to play with this version of the character in this volume, making it my favourite chapter.
Above art by Adam Ross & Wesley Burt
As for the villains, well it goes downhill all over again. Scorpion is a highlight, as he gets 5 spreads with a nice variety of looks for the suit. However, the others don’t have such luck despite the fact they should have breathing room without Sadie Sink’s appearance. Tombstone and Ramrod get just one spread, while Boomerang, Tarantula, and The Hand get two. I was particularly let by down with The Hand, because one spread was a comic cover and a screenshot, but their big moment in the movie is left out and they get little costume exploration. I like what they included for these characters though, the 2D and 3D concepts are great, but it also leaves you thinking about what wasn’t included, which should never be the case. The extra pages would have really been beneficial here, because the villains are just as important as the heroes.
The text throughout adds details about the art itself, the characters, and the making of the movie. There are a lot of interviews as seen before, including with Director Destin Daniel Cretton, producer Amy Pascal, Head of Visual Development Ryan Meinerding, multiple artists, costume designers, and more. There’s not a huge amount to read, but the Marvel artbooks have always been good at giving engaging insights without taking the focus away from the art.
For me with the content, the book feels incomplete. In cutting out a major character, and therefore moments and locations as a result, this becomes ‘Spider-Man: Brand New Day - The Art of the Trailer’. There is nothing here that someone who has seen the trailer but not the movie will be surprised by, and that’s not what people expect from any form of movie companion, especially one that should be showing the early and unused designs for one of the biggest releases of all time.
Credits
As expected, Marvel does a fantastic job at giving credit to the artists for every image you find in the book. This is a long running tradition for the publisher, giving the surnames on the page and a list of full names in the back of the book, each alongside the page numbers they are featured on. You can’t really do much better than this, but that’s business as usual for the series.
Use of Space
Also in keeping with the more than 50 books in the series, Spider-Man: Brand New Day: The Art of the Movie makes great use of the page space throughout, arranging the artwork and text neatly to maximise the use of the spreads. With only 208 pages to play with, I’m happy the design team has managed to make the most of what they had.
The binding does play a factor though and there is image loss in the centre fold on double page spreads. Ordinarily the placement of the text wouldn’t have been an issue either, but because of this, it is being pulled into the fold, so readers will have to pin the pages back to read it. It’s a shame this impacts the great work of the designers.
Value
This is a big part of the release for me, because the last artbook from Marvel was $150, a price that was outrageous to say the least. By removing the slipcase the publisher is selling the book with an RRP of $50 in the US, or £42.99 in the UK, the lowest the price has been for the series in a long time. It’s now at a competitive price with other artbooks, which is fantastic news given that Spider-Man is a household name and this should be more affordable. However, as established, this does come with knowing that there are major parts from the movie not included, but is at least at a more justifiable price.
For bargain hunters, discounts are already available a week ahead of its release. Using Amazon for consistency, it’s currently 6% off in the US and a huge 26% off in the UK. The UK is often like this, but it might be to counter the fact that it’s more expensive at full price when converted to dollars. Discounts come and go though, but I think if you like what you see, then $40 or £32 and below is a fantastic deal.
Verdict
The artwork included in Spider-Man: Brand New Day - The Art of the Movie is as spectacular as the web-slinger and movie, showing once again that the artists behind the MCU have superb talent. Sadly, after reducing the wait time and price, giving me hope they had finally gotten out of their own way, Marvel found a way to trip up again with one of the most baffling decisions I’ve seen from a movie artbook. Waiting isn’t fun, but it would have been preferred if it meant getting a look at a pivotal character and moments of the film.
As a huge fan of the Marvel movies and owner of all the artbooks, I’m left wondering what happened with this series post-Endgame. The artists, book designers, and insights are always fantastic and there have been some standout books since then, but this shows again that something is going wrong elsewhere. I keep hoping that they will turn it around, but this one let me down. Spider-Man fans will find a lot to love as I did and the art is undeniably good, it’s just a shame the execution and choice to hold stuff back makes it harder to recommend.
If you don’t mind the missing content and want some Spider-Man, Hulk, and Punisher on your shelf, you can order Spider-Man: Brand New Day - The Art of the Movie ahead of its August 18th release here;
Please read: Apologies for the watermarks on the images, this is an independent and solo run website, but very often with Marvel in particular, large outlets and social media accounts will use my photos for their own posts and articles without crediting me as the source. I aim to make my articles and reviews the most informative one can find and that takes work, so I sadly have to do this in an attempt to not get buried by those with higher volumes of traffic benefiting from my coverage. If you are one of these sites or people reading this, kindly link people to the review, it makes a huge difference.
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