Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man Is Just The Reset The MCU Needs
The animated series gives fans the origin story they’ve been craving.
Spider-Man cuts a complicated figure in Marvel’s Cinematic Universe. The franchise delivered an uber-successful trilogy of films, and a new take on the hero that was undeniably easy to root for. Tom Holland’s Spider-Man fit well into the MCU, holding his own against established heavy hitters like Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr.) and Captain America (Chris Evans). But Marvel also had to make a few sacrifices for that narrative cohesion: what began as an interesting update for a classic hero ultimately spiraled into someone comic fans don’t even recognize.
The MCU’s Spidey rarely gets the chance to stand on his own — in each of his solo outings, he’s sharing the spotlight with older, more seasoned heroes or villains. His supporting role gets even more frustrating without the presence of his rogue’s gallery: Spider-Man has the greatest and most iconic villain roster in the Marvel Universe, but Marvel’s obligation to Sony Pictures (who own the rights to the whole Spider-Franchise) has kept each of them frustratingly on the sidelines. Without the familiar landmarks of his lore, or any legacy characters to support him, Spider-Man has never truly felt like Spider-Man in the MCU.
The latest live-action film, No Way Home, might have finally brought the hero back to his homegrown roots, but can the franchise course-correct without completely rebooting Spider-Man? It may be too late to re-do Spidey’s origins the “right” way, but Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man just found a surprising, potentially crowd-pleasing alternative.
Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man is not a do-over in the traditional sense. It’s just one of many universes where Peter Parker (voiced by Hudson Thames) was bitten by a radioactive spider and became New York’s latest crime fighter — and it’s entirely aware of its relationship to Marvel’s multiverse. Not unlike Sony’s animated Spider-Verse films, the 10-episode series is in direct conversation with the Spidey stories that have come before. It’s well aware of the legacy the hero occupies throughout the universe, the lines and motifs that have been baked into Spider-Man lore, and fans’ familiarity with it all. It fuses all this together to tell a slightly more traditional origin story, splicing the classic Spider-Man comics with his adventures in the MCU.
The references to classic Spidey begin with Spider-Man’s unique animation style: The series uses a blend of 2D and 3D to achieve a “moving comic” look. It’s not as successful as Into the Spider-Verse — in fact, it’s downright distracting at the outset — but once the adventure truly begins, it’s a gimmick that eventually fades into the background.
It helps that its actual story is enough to distract from such a divisive art style. Spider-Man cherry picks from MCU projects like Captain America: Civil War and Spider-Man: No Way Home, retracing Peter’s fateful run-in with that aforementioned spider and his early days as Spider-Man. It doesn’t shy away from the idea that Marvel’s mightiest heroes — from Doctor Strange to Iron Man — are out there somewhere, saving the world. Cap’s falling out with Iron Man and the ratification of the Sokovia Accords still affect this alternate universe. Crucially, though, those heroes play minor roles in Peter’s story, allowing Spider-Man’s most infamous villains to take up space in the narrative.
Spider-Man balances the two halves of Peter with aplomb, juggling his personal life with his alter ego.
Doctor Otto Octavius (Hugh Dancy) is a major player on the black market, selling bleeding-edge weapons to petty criminals. His tech creates new origin stories for characters like Rhino and Scorpion, each of whom tests the limits of Spider-Man’s compassion. But not every villain starts on a dark path: Spider-Man also reintroduces the Lizard as Dr. Carla Connors, a guiding light for Peter as he begins an internship at Oscorp. The series’ take on Harry Osborn (Zeno Robinson) is similarly refreshing — sure, he’s a nepo baby with little social awareness, but his friendships with Peter and Runaways alum Nico Minoru (Grace Song) bring out the best in a character we know may eventually be doomed.
Spider-Man’s greatest addition comes with its reworking of Tombstone. Lonnie Lincoln (Eugene Byrd) is introduced as a classmate of Peter’s, an easygoing football star who already understands plenty about power and responsibility. He’s a flawless foil for Peter, as he seems to have no problem juggling his expectations at school with his duties at home. But when that sense of duty forces him to make an impossible choice to help his family, he becomes the personification of commitment gone too far.
In the end, though, it’s all about Norman Osborn. Colman Domingo embodies the character with easy, gravelly charm, and his Norman is the perfect guide for this new Spider-Man — at least initially. He occupies the role that Tony Stark filled in Spider-Man: Homecoming, taking the concept of “tough love” to a subtly sinister bent.
Norman Osborn’s return is phenomenal, layered, and long overdue.
Norman’s relationship with Peter is a tool to subvert so many aspects of the Spider-Man ethos — remixing everything from Peter’s introduction in Civil War to his iconic “with great power...” philosophy. It also forces Peter to confront the kind of hero he truly wants to be. Spider-Man is meta almost to a fault, but it understands the ethos of the character better than most. To be Spider-Man is to be a perpetual spinner of plates, always striving to keep a fraught balance between real life, an alter ego, and everything in between. Audiences familiar with the hero know that some of those plates will inevitably shatter, but watching a new Spider-Man grapple with the fear of disappointing his loved ones, failing to protect his city, or even taking his power too far, is endlessly refreshing.
Spider-Man resets the board in a way that doesn’t stray too far from the MCU, but it brings the title hero back to basics in a way that’s sure to please longtime fans. Peter’s interpersonal, intimate relationships provide an impeccable foundation for the adventures to come, and the series weaves an intricate web of action and intrigue that involves the entire cast. It’s every bit the Spider-Man story that Marvel’s always needed; it’s just a shame it’s taken so long for the franchise to reconcile such a classic character with the new world it’s built.
