Spider-Man: Brand New Day: Who Are The Hand, And Why Are They In The Movie?

Warning: This article contains major spoilers for "Spider-Man: Brand New Day."

Ninjas? More like non-jas. By now, Tom Holland's Peter Parker has faced off against some of the biggest threats the galaxy has had to throw at him. Classic villains like Vulture and Mysterio? Piece of cake. The Mad Titan Thanos? Okay, that one was a little trickier, but our quippy wall-crawler managed to help get the job done in the end. Even a multiverse incursion featuring the biggest and baddest rogues from other "Spider-Man" movies proved to be no match. So, when the trailers for "Brand New Day" (which yours truly reviewed for /Film) first arrived and played up the idea of Spidey squaring off against what seemed like a boatload of problems (Michael Mando's Scorpion, Sadie Sink's mysterious character, and, you guessed it, the return of the ninja-assassin organization known as The Hand), it appeared as if Marvel's most popular superhero may have finally met his match.

Now that "Brand New Day" has roared into theaters, fans are seeing exactly how this sequel found time and space for each of these various threats ... though some inevitably came at the expense of others. While most will be focused on that reveal regarding a certain red-headed Marvel character, what about the other villain(s) dressed in red? The presence of The Hand earned plenty of headlines for the Marvel Cinematic Universe movies drawing tighter connections with Marvel's once-defunct Netflix universe, but who are they, what role do they play, and why are they even there in the first place?

The answers to those questions are fairly straightforward, but some may come away from "Brand New Day" with some hot takes about The Hand — and, specifically, how they're used in the story.

Is the House of Ideas finally learning its lesson? After years of Marvel turning its various Disney+ shows into required homework for legions of general audiences, the studio seems to have finally struck a perfect balance in "Spider-Man: Brand New Day." The blockbuster sequel is packed to the gills with references and connections with the wider world of Marvel. Indeed, the appearances of Mark Ruffalo's Bruce Banner and Jon Bernthal's Frank Castle would normally feel like cynical corporate nonsense. But, thanks to the direction of Destin Daniel Cretton and a fairly restrained script by co-writers Chris McKenna and Erik Sommers, this is as organic and natural as crossovers have ever felt in the MCU.

That applies to The Hand in particular. For casual viewers who may not have brushed up on their Netflix "Daredevil" lore, the presence of literal ninjas flying through the air and wreaking havoc on New York City should hardly raise an eyebrow. This is neatly established in the opening montage, which quickly introduces us to the idea of Peter spending the last few years since "Spider-Man: Far From Home" doing battle with one foe after another. When they pop up again later in the film as the newly-made security team for the Department of Damage Control, the explanation makes perfect sense. The only way to contain super-sized threats is to have some super-powered individuals on the payroll. For those of us who remember Charlie Cox's Matt Murdock tussling with The Hand, well, that knowledge is just the cherry on top of their fairly standalone roles here.

Yet, despite all that, we can't help but scratch our heads over how they're used specifically in "Brand New Day."

Look, we're huge fans of ninjas here at SlashFilm dot com — don't let anyone make you think differently. We may not have cared for their attempted takeover of Manhattan during the events of "The Defenders," but, well, can you blame us? Our enduring passion for these sword-wielding, back-flipping, death-defying divas is why we were so excited to see the grand return of The Hand in the months and weeks leading up to "Spider-Man: Brand New Day." And that's exactly why we're just a bit disappointed by how they ultimately factor into the plot of Peter Parker's latest adventure.

I mean, the best idea this movie could come up with was taking one of the coolest and silliest (complimentary) crime groups in all of Marvel and turning them into ... a security team for bureaucrats? And not just any bureaucrat, but a pencil-pushing liar like Tramell Tillman's Bill Metzger? It's just a bummer to see a group that once had its sights sets on the criminal underbelly of the greatest city in the world be relegated to working for the man like this, to say nothing of what happens late in "Brand New Day." Yes, they eventually get their moment to show off their fighting chops and put Peter Parker through the wringer. It's just too bad that even this moment of bad-assery was cruelly taken from them, as they only did so while under the telepathic control of Jean Grey (Sadie Sink).

At the end of the day, literally any group of superpowered fighters could've taken The Hand's place, and nothing about the actual movie would change. That's a letdown, no matter how you slice it. Us unabashed ninja supporters can likely agree: #JusticeForTheHand.