Summary
In Episodes 1 & 2, Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man reworks some of the more familiar aspects of Peter Parker’s origins into an intriguing new composition.
It’s fair to say that every human on Earth knows that Peter Parker became Spider-Man after being bitten by a spider, so it’s a mercy that Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man consigns that part of his origin story to Episode 1’s cold open. But “Amazing Fantasy” isn’t just a redo of that classic starting point, which is further proved by Episode 2, “The Parker Luck”, which begins to more vividly reimagine some of the finer points of Spidey’s recent depictions – especially Tom Holland’s MCU trilogy – in pretty interesting ways.
Disney+ was smart to debut these two episodes together in a bumper premiere, since together they form a good example of what this show is – or at least hopes to be. With a cool art style evoking Marvel’s Golden Age but a contemporary sensibility in its casting, reimaginings, and references, Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man isn’t just messing with the MCU in the manner of What If…? but playing with a whole bunch of Spider-Man’s multimedia ephemera too.
Spider-Man’s Origin Story Gets Some Welcome Tweaks
In Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man Episode 1, Peter becomes Spider-Man in record time, but not the usual way. Sure, he’s just starting at Midtown High, which is pretty normal, and he does get bitten by a spider, which is typical for him. But the spider came through a portal along with an alien symbiote being chased by Dr. Strange, and if I were a betting man, I’d assume that Strange has something to do with the weird variances in Spidey’s typical origin, which includes the partial destruction of Midtown and the usual students all being transferred elsewhere.
The particulars remain very similar, though. Peter has a nerdy best friend, but in this show, it’s Nico Minoru, who’ll be familiar to viewers of Marvel’s Runaways. Typically, the daughter of two dark wizard supervillains from a clique called “The Pride”, she’s a kind of powerful blood mage, though to be fair none of this is brought up here. Yet.
Peter also meets Harry Osborn in his usual form, has a crush on one of his fellow students – in this case, Pearl Pangan, his former babysitter – and has multiple run-ins with the school’s star quarterback jock, Lonnie Lincoln.
Hey, I Know That Name…
Lonnie is an interesting choice for the role typically occupied by Flash Thompson. For one thing, he’s not a bully – he’s actually an extremely nice guy who’s also very smart and is doing his best to take care of his family. He befriends Peter in the earnest hope of learning from him and instantly makes him much more popular, which is an unusual tweak on the standard Spidey formula.
But Lonnie Lincoln is also the name of stalwart Spider-Man and Daredevil villain Tombstone, usually depicted as a super-strong albino with filed teeth. As with Nico, there’s zero indication right now that Lonnie has any kind of superpowered or villainous tendencies, but these names aren’t an accident.
Spider-Man/Peter Parker in Marvel Animation’s YOUR FRIENDLY NEIGHBORHOOD SPIDER-MAN | Image via Marvel Animation. © 2024 MARVEL.
Norman Osborn Is Fulfilling the Tony Stark Role
In both Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man Episode 1 and 2, certain scenes are directly meant to mirror Spidey’s MCU story. The bit where he stops a van hitting a bus is familiar, as is the framing – and even dialogue – of the scene where Peter returns home to be surprised by someone in the apartment. In this case, though, it isn’t Tony Stark but Norman Osborn, CEO of Oscorp Industries.
Norman offers Peter an internship at Oscorp, similar to how Tony offered him a chance to prove himself as an Avenger. Everyone else on the internship seems to be recognizable, too; Asha is a Wakandan who in the comics can manipulate light, Amadeus Cho is a Korean American genius who succeeds Bruce Banner as The Hulk, and Jean Foucault, otherwise known as Finesse, is a Taskmaster-style copycat.
The internship is overseen by Doctor Bentley Wittman, the name of the classic Fantastic Four villain the Wizard, and Peter is assigned to a team led by Dr. Carla Connors, a gender-swapped version of Curt Connors, aka the Lizard (she even has one arm.)
Peter’s Secret Identity Has Already Been Revealed
After a fight with B-tier second-stringer pyromaniac Butane in Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man Episode 2, Peter is summoned by Norman Osborne. Assuming he’s about to be dropped from the internship for poor timekeeping, Norman instead reveals that he caught Peter on CCTV changing into his Spider-Man outfit.
It’s surprising that the show has already committed to someone figuring out Spider-Man’s real identity, but with Norman in the Tony Stark role, I suppose it makes sense. However, Norman is historically Spider-Man’s greatest nemesis, so it’s incredibly unlikely that he’s going to remain a kindly, avuncular figure for long.
Either way, this all gives Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man a really intriguing starting point, feeling almost completely disconnected from other interpretations of the character and yet also deeply intertwined, especially given the early presence of Dr. Strange. It’s clear that Marvel is trying to situate this show in a slightly new canonical position, and it remains to be seen whether that will be effective. But for now, it does seem like this show can stand on its own two feet.
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