Commentary — ‘Spider-Man: Brand New Day’s Villain Stretches The Definition Of Adaptation

Of course, no adaptation is going to be perfect. There needs to be changes made to every character in order to fit the storyline, the medium, or even the audience. Sometimes, these changes go so far the fan audience must question whether or not it is the same character they love on the screen or a character in name only. For Spider-Man: Brand New Day,  Sadie Sink‘s mystery character had a lot of changes that positioned her as the film’s villain and seemingly rendered her unrecognizable from her comic book counterpart.

The story begins as a new, mysterious threat terrorizes New York. At the height of his independent superhero career, Spider-Man (Tom Holland) encounters a force that can seemingly jump from body to body. After a little investigating, he discovers the culprit to be Jean Grey (Sink), a teenager with telepathic powers on the warpath against the governmental agency Damage Control. It’s discovered that she’s actually after her sister, another telepath, who was abducted by Damage Control for experimentation. After facing off against Spidey, Jean  finds herself captive and also the subject of experiments, forcing Peter to realize his mistake and free her.

Jean Grey is undoubtedly a hero in the comics. She has a strict moral code of protecting the innocents and fighting for her rights as a mutant. This code is only broken after being possessed by the evil entity known as the Phoenix. However, she is the antagonist of Brand New Day. She puts countless lives at risk by forcing them to jump off buildings and step into traffic. She does this with no remorse, which is completely contrary to her comic counterpart. It’s certainly possible that Jean will become more of a hero in future films, but for now, her Marvel Cinematic Universe character is far removed from the stories most fans know.

Spider-Man: Brand New Day is now in theaters.