Spoiler alert! This article contains spoilers for Spider-Man: Brand New Day.

Spider-Man: Brand New Day opens with a slightly perplexing discussion of the crime bosses Spider-Man has apprehended but offers little explanation on precisely who these are. While the scene depicts some legacy Spider-Man villains, comic readers will know that these cannot be who the movie is referencing, leaving a minor Marvel mystery in the wake of Peter Parker’s thrilling return in Spider-Man: Brand New Day.

One of the biggest surprises in Spider-Man: Brand New Day is that it is not about Spider-Man taking down New York’s biggest crime boss. Before the film’s release, many predicted that Wilson Fisk would be waiting in the wings as the movie’s street-level villain. Fisk’s rise and fall had become a major part of the MCU timeline’s street-level storytelling, particularly following the events of Daredevil: Born Again.

However, Fisk is absent from the story, having been exiled at the end of Daredevil: Born Again. Instead, Brand New Day opens with a montage showing that Spider-Man has spent the last few years systematically dismantling New York City’s underworld.

The sequence is packed with familiar Marvel names, featuring Spider-Man battling villains ranging from Scorpion to the Hand. However, many of the villains shown are criminals, assassins, or supervillains rather than organized crime leaders. Taking down Scorpion is impressive, but it is not the same thing as dismantling a criminal empire. Fortunately, Brand New Day provides a handful of clues.

Brand New Day Confirmed Spider-Man Has Brought Down Several Crime Bosses

The opening montage in Spider-Man: Brand New Day serves as a quick recap of Spider-Man’s unseen adventures since audiences last caught up with him. During the sequence, viewers see him facing Tombstone, Boomerang, Scorpion, Ramrod, Tarantula, and members of the Hand while a newsreader discusses his impact on organized crime throughout New York City.

The key detail is the report’s claim that Spider-Man has taken down every major crime boss operating across the city’s five boroughs, which doesn’t align with the villains depicted. Scorpion has traditionally been a hired enforcer rather than a criminal kingpin. Boomerang is usually depicted as a mercenary and career crook. Tarantula is more commonly associated with assassination and espionage than running a criminal empire. Even the Hand, despite functioning as a powerful criminal organization, is not a single crime boss in the traditional sense.

That leaves Tombstone as the most obvious candidate among the villains featured in the montage. In Marvel Comics, Lonnie Lincoln controls a significant criminal operation and has frequently competed with figures such as Kingpin and Hammerhead for influence over New York’s underworld. If the newsreader is speaking literally, Tombstone almost certainly counts as one of the major crime bosses Spider-Man has already removed from the board. The rest of the answer appears elsewhere in the movie.

So Which Crime Bosses Did Spider-Man Take Down In The MCU?

The clearest additional clue arrives during a subsequent news broadcast while Peter is buying flowers. The report states that Spider-Man brought down the Manfredi gang the previous day, suggesting that possibly the criminals he webs up on a rooftop earlier in Brand New Day are connected to that organization. One gang member’s fall from the building even recreates the iconic cover of Amazing Fantasy #15, making the sequence especially memorable for longtime Spider-Man fans.

In Marvel Comics, the Manfredi crime family is most closely associated with Silvermane, one of Spider-Man’s oldest organized-crime adversaries. If the MCU’s Manfredi gang follows a similar structure, Silvermane was likely one of the major crime bosses referenced by the opening narration.

Another clue emerges during a conversation involving Jean DeWolff. During a phone call, DeWolff discusses Foswell. Comic readers will immediately recognize the name as a reference to Frederick Foswell, better known as Big Man, one of Spider-Man’s earliest criminal masterminds. However, the dialogue specifically notes that Foswell’s crew remains active.

That wording suggests Foswell himself has not recently been taken down by Spider-Man and is therefore unlikely to be one of the crime bosses mentioned in the montage. Based on the evidence currently available, Tombstone and Silverman appear to be the strongest candidates mentioned in Spider-Man: Brand New Day.

Release Date

July 31, 2026

Runtime

145 Minutes

Producers

Amy Pascal, Kevin Feige, Rachel O’Connor, Avi Arad