A 44-Year-Old Marvel Story Reveals The Perfect X-Men Character Spider-Man Should Fight Next

Warning: Spoilers for Spider-Man: Brand New Day

Spider-Man: Brand New Day doesn’t have to be the last time the MCU’s Peter Parker faces off against a major X-Men character. Like most of the principal characters in X-Men comics, Jean Grey has had her fair share of run-ins with Spider-Man, but is hardly someone with strong ties to the web-slinger. And yet, the fan-favorite X-Men heroine played a pivotal role in Spider-Man’s fourth solo MCU outing.

Spider-Man: Brand New Day was absolutely an interesting place to debut the MCU’s take on Jean Grey, but the idea worked extremely well for the movie, as evidenced by its record-breaking box office haul and positive audience reviews. Jean’s mind-hopping powers facilitated an intriguing mystery to solve, and one that culminated in Peter and Jean forming a poignant and emotional connection at the end of the movie.

While the Vulture, Mysterio, and Sony’s Spider-Man villains were all memorable adversaries for Peter, Sadie Sink’s role as Jean Grey in Spider-Man: Brand New Day goes to show that Spider-Man movies don’t have to work solely within Spidey’s own rogues’ gallery to deliver standout stories for the character.

Spider-Man’s next movie could return to a more traditional formula, with the hero fighting a character with deeper connections to his world, whether it’s a new Norman Osborn, Hobgoblin, or someone else entirely. Alternatively, Spider-Man: Brand New Day could turn out to be just Spider-Man’s first battle with an incredibly powerful Marvel Comics mutant. The next Spider-Man film could benefit greatly from including the Juggernaut.

Spider-Man’s Feud With The Juggernaut In Marvel Comics Explained

Spider-Man fights the Juggernaut in Marvel Comics.

Spider-Man found himself punching far above his weight class in The Amazing Spider-Man #229, which saw the web-crawler go up against the Juggernaut a.k.a. Cain Marko. Their showdown was the result of a plot schemed up by Juggernaut’s main partner-in-crime in Marvel Comics, a mutant supervillain named Black Tom Cassidy. Black Tom Cassidy had taken an interest in the future-seeing abilities of psychic Spider-Man ally Madame Web, and subsequently sent the Juggernaut after her.

Naturally, Madame Web summoned Spider-Man for help, thus setting the stage for one of Spider-Man’s most famous one-on-one battles in the source material. Spider-Man knew he was out of his league fighting someone with Juggernaut’s power, but much to his chagrin, the X-Men, the Fantastic Four, and the Avengers were all unavailable.

Typically, Spider-Man’s ingenuity and resourcefulness allows him to find him a solution to even the toughest problems, but even he came up short against the Juggernaut. Upset with what had happened, Spider-Man relentlessly tracked down the Juggernaut, culminating in a fight that ended with Juggernaut stuck in wet cement. The outcome is now remembered as one of Spider-Man’s greatest victories.

It wasn’t forgotten by the Juggernaut either, who enjoyed several rematches with Spider-Man in the years that followed. Due to its fame, other forms of Spider-Man media have offered their own adaptations of the 1982 Marvel Comics storyline.

Why Juggernaut Would Be A Great Opponent For The MCU’s Spider-Man

Spider-Man tries to dodge Juggernaut's attacks — Spider-Man tries to dodge Juggernaut’s attacks

When it comes to physical strength, Juggernaut belongs in the highest tier, alongside names like Hulk, Hercules, The Thing, Thor, and Sentry. And that notion was on full display in the comic, where it was made clear that Spider-Man didn’t have the firepower to defeat him fairly, hence his efforts to acquire help from other heroes arguably better qualified for dealing with such a massive threat. With Juggernaut as a villain, an MCU Spider-Man movie wouldn’t struggle to build a thrilling, underdog-style narrative, an area in which Peter Parker has always thrived.

Of course, Spider-Man has fought and defeated enemies with greater strength than his own before, including Scorpion and Rhino, but Juggernaut is a different animal altogether, given that he greatly outclasses every member of Spider-Man’s rogue’ gallery in the strength department. Spider-Man was out of his element fighting the Juggernaut, a fact that the next MCU Spider-Man movie could really lean into while crafting its action sequences.

Peter was admittedly in a similar situation in Brand New Day with the Hulk, but a key difference here is that there will be no reasoning with this opponent. Spider-Man will have to actually defeat the Juggernaut, which is a tall task, especially if the MCU honors the comics and forces him to pull this off without help from any of Earth’s superhero teams. If handled properly, Marvel has an opportunity to make it one of Spider-Man’s best and most intense MCU battles.

How A Spider-Man Vs. Juggernaut Battle Could Work In The MCU

As for a Spider-Man vs. Juggernaut story might work, it’s important to note that while beating Cain Marko might be the ultimate challenge the movie hands to Peter, he most likely wouldn’t be the main villain, which is not unlike the approach taken to Jean Grey. Juggernaut is often utilized as a pawn or a partner in someone else’s schemes. In the classic comics, including the one where he fought Spider-Man, the real mastermind was Black Tom Cassidy, and the same could theoretically be the case in the MCU.

Yet another MCU movie that sees Spider-Man take on a prominent character in X-Men comics would actually make a great deal of sense for Peter Parker’s future, especially in the context of what comes next. The era that will follow the Multiverse Saga’s conclusion in Avengers: Secret Wars has been referred to as “the Mutant Saga” by Marvel Studios head Kevin Feige. That may not be its unofficial name, but it does signal the level of impact X-Men characters will have on Marvel’s next few projects after Secret Wars.

If the existence of mutants becomes a recurring theme in the same vein as the multiverse and the Infinity Stones were in the last two sagas, it’s not hard to imagine Marvel selecting one or two X-Men favorites when it puts together the story for Spider-Man’s next MCU adventure. With that in mind, Juggernaut could very well be on hand in Spider-Man: Brand New Day’s sequel – and that’s regardless of whether Juggernaut appears in its X-Men reboot.