Spider-Man, finally human: when vulnerability becomes a superpower

Spider-Man returns to the big screen by embracing one of the most human directions superhero films have taken in years. In 2025, Thunderbolts and Superman (yes, I know, Superman is DC and Spider-Man is Marvel) had already shown us that our favourite heroes have a vulnerable side. But here is the difference: weakness is no longer something to be ashamed of or hidden. It becomes a source of strength.

A few years have passed since No Way Home, and Peter Parker no longer exists in anyone’s memory. A spell made everyone forget he ever existed.

Peter is now a loner. He lives alone, avoids social interaction, speaks only to artificial intelligence, and has almost no human connection beyond the police commissioner, whom he now talks to every day — and not only for work.

As the days pass, the strain of forced isolation begins to alter Peter’s powers. His spider-sense becomes overwhelming, almost intoxicating, while the mysterious enemy attacking New York appears to be growing stronger.

People across the city, along with some familiar enemies, seem to be possessed and controlled by an unknown entity, and Spider-Man genuinely does not know how to handle it. What he does know is that his beloved MJ is in danger, and helping her will be complicated by the fact that she has no idea who Peter is.

As the mission develops, however, we discover that the mysterious entity is none other than Jean Grey. Using her telepathic powers, she has made Peter believe that MJ remembers him.

From this point the film accelerates: the major effects and CGI arrive, and at last we discover who Sadie Sink is playing.

There is one drawback. The character’s writing, and several scenes, echo the kind of performance Sadie had already given in Stranger Things. Yet her emotional force and her ability to disappear into a role are strong enough to overcome that weakness.

For viewers who know cinema and care about comic-book continuity, though, the writing choice leaves an unpleasant aftertaste of Hollywood laziness.

In Marvel comics, Jean Grey’s origins and trauma have nothing to do with a “Max Mayfield formula”. Her childhood trauma begins with the telepathic connection she experiences with her dying friend Annie Richardson, while her older sister Sara is an adult, protective figure — not a super-powered teenager used as a laboratory test subject.

Marvel instead chooses to ignore the character’s true editorial identity and apply an almost algorithmic logic, reshaping Jean’s story to fit the dramatic territory in which Sink is already known to excel.

The film settles for something familiar in order to play safely with a mainstream audience, sacrificing the character’s original psychological complexity for an immediate emotional shortcut.

Thankfully, Sink is phenomenal. Her extraordinary expressive power pushes against the narrow rails of a script that sometimes feels written on autopilot, elevating a character who, in the hands of a less charismatic performer, might have collapsed under the weight of the clichés.

Jean Grey, however, is not the film’s true villain: she and her sister have been used by the Department of Damage Control.

Peter understands this and, because they share similar histories shaped by trauma and loneliness, the two are able to “win” and free New York from danger.

Peter turns Jean’s powers back on her and transforms words once spoken to protect him into a positive trigger for our new heroine.

We are special and we are loved regardless of whether we are unique or incomparable. We are loved as whole people, for every part of who we are, and we do not have to fight the world while refusing every offer of help.

The Punisher and the police also play an important role, because it is worth remembering that we can still be strong while accepting that sometimes it takes a village to make it all the way through.

I will stop here because this is a film that deserves to be experienced and loved, and I may already have said too much. But as someone who is not usually a fan of the superhero genre, I fell in love with this film.

And I hope this trend of humanising superheroes continues, because perhaps it is precisely when they stop appearing invincible that they finally manage to speak to us.