Spider-Man: Brand New Day's Empire Cover Points to Mariko Yashida and a Gamma-Charged Hulk Fight

The new Empire magazine issue for Spider-Man: Brand New Day is not a trailer, but its cover goes a long way toward confirming a leak that surfaced last week. Between the green lights built into Peter Parker's web shooters and a toy listing describing a "Savage Hulk" figure, there is now a clearer picture forming of a gamma-charged fight brewing in this film.

The cover itself features Spider-Man in the middle with a member of the Hand standing behind him. I believe that figure is meant to be Mariko Yashida, the half-sister of Silver Samurai with ties to Wolverine who has already appeared in live-action movies before. It is not confirmed, but after her apparent first appearance in the recent ScreenX trailer, she now seems to be featured during what looks like a major action sequence in a prison. Since the rest of the Hand figures shown look like men and she has now turned up twice, I think there is a really good chance she is Mariko Yashida, though there is still a chance she ends up being an extra or some kind of double.

So many villains makes it hard to pick who leads the Hand in Brand New Day

As I have discussed before, this film has so many villains that it is hard to say who the main one actually is. Most of the focus has landed on Scorpion, especially with a whole montage showing him fighting other characters, possibly narrated by Tombstone, who may end up being a main antagonist across the next three movies. Given all that, there is a possibility Mariko Yashida ends up substituting as the film's main villain instead.

My thinking is that this is more likely a story about Spider-Man fighting against himself rather than a film that needs a Vulture or an Electro type figure as its central antagonist. Saying that out loud, I recognize that almost every Spider-Man movie ends up being framed as Spider-Man versus himself in some way, but that is also true to the character in the comics, so it tracks.

Green lights on the web shooters confirm gamma-charged webs built to fight the Hulk

The detail everyone zeroed in on from the cover is a set of green lights on the bottom of Peter's web shooters on his suit. Last week, a couple of industry insiders told us Peter would have exactly this kind of device, something built to shoot green, gamma-charged webs. We had also already seen the same detail on a light-up action figure released ahead of the film. Taken together, this confirms Peter Parker has some sort of gamma anti-web built specifically to fight the Hulk, backing up rumors of an epic fight scene between the two of them.

Where that fight actually happens is still uncertain. There is a scene showing Spider-Man being scanned by equipment, and there is a good chance that takes place at the facility where he has been captured, but there is also a chance it is equipment inside Bruce Banner's lab at the university where he is teaching, similar to the lab we saw during She-Hulk. My guess is that whatever experiments are being run to get to the bottom of the mutations in Spider-Man's DNA end up altering something in the Hulk as well. It is also possible Jean Grey is simply using mind control to bring the Hulk out of Bruce Banner.

A Savage Hulk toy listing suggests an inhibitor failing in the film

In an update about a possible second Spider-Man trailer coming in June, an international toy site had figures listed for Brand New Day, including a Savage Hulk figure with an official description referencing his inhibitor no longer working. Whether that failure comes from Jean Grey's mind control or literally from Bruce Banner's own genes reasserting themselves after being repressed or merged for so long, I think that detail is going to matter for the Hulk's story going forward.

At least in this movie, it looks like the Hulk rages out, possibly under Jean's mind control and possibly not, and attacks the prison. From what has been described, he fights Spider-Man to begin with in the same way he appears to fight Punisher, stopping Frank Castle from engaging with tanks before that turns around, with everyone eventually teaming up at the end of the film to take on the Hand and Mariko Yashida together. On that note, if Daredevil does not show up in this film while everyone at street level is fighting the Hand, I genuinely do not know what Marvel is doing.

A new still and an alternate cover add little beyond the Hand and a new suit

Empire's feature also included a still shot of Spider-Man holding up something big and made of metal. Given the green lighting visible on the walls behind him, I think there is a real chance this is set in the prison or its basement, which also looks like a huge action sequence in the second act. There is no other context here, no other characters visible, and you cannot even see his web shooters in the shot, but the new Spider-Man costume looks amazing regardless.

An alternate cover for the issue shows even less than the main one. It also features the Hand, which could be further confirmation that they are the main villains, but there is not a lot else to deduce from it beyond that.

Why an Empire feature does not automatically mean a trailer is close

For anyone assuming a new Empire magazine feature must mean a trailer is right around the corner, that is not necessarily how it works. Empire runs a feature for every single Marvel and Marvel/Sony movie, including every Spider-Man film, without exception, and it typically drops two or three months before the film comes out. One does not automatically imply the other; it is simply about timing.

That said, there are rumors of a new trailer. The Korea Media Rating Board posted something new for Spider-Man, and people have speculated it could be a TV spot built from recycled footage, though I am not so sure that is what it is. We are two months out from the film now, and based on how Sony has handled marketing in the past, once it kicks into gear it tends to be nonstop, with new clips or short pieces of related media essentially every day until release. So even if it takes another week or so, it looks like coverage is about to become Spider-Man all the time for the next 60 days.