Since the beginning, I’ve been a big fan of Tom Holland’s Spider-Man movies. Spider-Man: Homecoming, with its teen movie vibes, was the best-ever cinematic depiction of Spider-Man in high school. Spider-Man: Far From Home was a fun romp with Mysterio (Jake Gyllenhaal). And it was truly exciting to see Tom Holland, Tobey Maguire, and Andrew Garfield in the same movie for Spider-Man: No Way Home.

That said, I think all of those movies lacked a very important part of Spider-Man’s iconography. Spider-Man is a New Yorker, yet this critical aspect of his character hasn’t really been a focus of Spidey’s previous outings in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Finally, in Spider-Man: Brand New Day, director Destin Daniel Cretton (Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, Wonder Man) and longtime Spidey screenwriters Chris McKenna and Erik Sommers give us a proper “Spider-Man in New York City” story with all of the imagery that goes with it. On top of that, it gives us the first-ever depiction of what it feels like to live in Marvel’s New York City, which is especially unique.

Warning: Spoilers ahead for Spider-Man: Brand New Day

Few superheroes are as intrinsically tied to their city as much as Spider-Man is to New York. Superman, for example, is obviously identified with Metropolis, but Superman can be Superman anywhere (provided there’s a yellow sun nearby). The same is true of the Fantastic Four. While they are New Yorkers just like Spidey, their power sets are fun to watch in a variety of settings, which is why they have so many good stories set in outer space.

But Spider-Man’s abilities — particularly wall-crawling and web-slinging — are particularly suited to adventures amid the high-rises of New York City. He’s also at a particular disadvantage elsewhere, as Spider-Man can’t really pull off his best moves in outer space or rural Kansas. Other heroes are like this too — Batman isn’t Batman without Gotham — but Spider-Man is a top-tier match for superheroes and their cities.

That’s why it’s been kind of annoying to me that this has never before been a focus for the MCU’s Spider-Man. Rather than take full advantage of the city, they’ve generally taken the cookie-cutter MCU approach of setting big action sequences in various, globetrotting locations. Far From Home’s European setting is obviously the most guilty of this, but even Homecoming places a sizable amount of the action outside of New York City. I’m aware that No Way Home is set in New York, but with all the multiversal business going on, it’s hardly a focal point. That movie gets points for a final fight at the Statue of Liberty, but that’s it.

Brand New Day, however, takes place entirely in New York City and features Spider-Man doing very New York things. He’s popping into bodegas, hanging off scaffolding, and tying crooks to street lights. Best of all, the movie brings back Sam Raimi-style web-slinging, where the camera follows Spider-Man’s point of view as he web-slings. The three previous MCU movies, all directed by Jon Watts, didn't do this, which meant missing out on one of the most exciting things about seeing a Spider-Man movie: being along for the ride.

Best of all, Brand New Day doesn’t just depict New York City, it depicts Marvel’s New York City, which is something we haven’t seen before in quite the same way on the big screen.

Perhaps because, until very recently, Marvel Comics was based in New York City, and because its two most formative voices, Stan Lee and Jack Kirby, were born in Manhattan, New York City is home to a lot of Marvel heroes. Along with Spider-Man, there’s Daredevil, the Fantastic Four, Captain America, Doctor Strange, Luke Cage, Iron Fist, and Jessica Jones, just to name a few. In Brand New Day, Spider-Man interacts with the Hulk (Mark Ruffalo), the Punisher (Jon Bernthal), and Black Widow/Yelena Belova (Florence Pugh). And their interactions are much different from what we’ve seen in Avengers movies.

In the big team-up movies that depict alien invasions and the like, we understand that all the major heroes are going to team up and save the day. But in Brand New Day, the crossovers are more natural and “everyday.” Spider-Man just bumps into the Punisher at first, and he seeks a bit of intel from Bruce Banner and Yelena Belova. This isn’t a big team-up movie; these characters just happen to live in the same city and, naturally, their paths are going to cross. With the relatively low, non-world-ending stakes of Brand New Day, you get the first real taste of what it feels like to live in Marvel’s New York, instead of just being present for its potential destruction.

This also solves the “where is so-and-so” problem that bugs me in a lot of Marvel's other movies and TV shows. When the world is seemingly about to end in Far From Home, why doesn’t Nick Fury (even if he is a Skrull) call Sam Wilson, Bucky Barnes, and all the other non-dead Avengers to help Spider-Man out? And why didn’t Spider-Man help out Daredevil when Kingpin was becoming a tyrant as the Mayor of New York? (Honestly, it’s a little weird that Brand New Day didn’t even mention Mayor Kingpin, but I guess I can’t have everything.)

Anyway, in Brand New Day, you never wonder where the heroes are because Spider-Man is regularly interacting with them. And because the stakes are smaller, Spider-Man doesn’t really need much help (Punisher is more of a liability than anything else). Yelena even gives a funny explanation for this in her scenes, where she explains that Spider-Man handles the “small potatoes,” while her New Avengers handle the big stuff.

Those “small potatoes” are key to why Spider-Man: Brand New Day is so good and why it's able to be Spider-Man’s most “New York” movie in the MCU. The stakes for Spider-Man and the central villain are all personal and emotional. Paradoxically, this feels bigger to the audience because we can relate to them more than a story where the Earth is going to explode or the multiverse is going to collapse. And because the story doesn't require wall-to-wall plot development, it leaves room for more character development, not just for Spider-Man, his friends, and his enemies, but for the city he lives in. Because, when it comes to Marvel, New York City really is a huge character.

Spider-Man: Brand New Day is in theaters now.