FIRST IMPRESSIONS - Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man

Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man is an American animated television series created by Jeff Trammell for the streaming service Disney+, based on the Marvel Comics character Spider-Man. It is the 12th television series in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) from Marvel Studios and is produced by Marvel Studios Animation. The series explores Peter Parker's origin story and early days as Spider-Man, and is set in an alternate timeline from the main films and television series of the MCU where Norman Osborn becomes Peter's mentor instead of Tony Stark. Trammell serves as head writer with Mel Zwyer as supervising director.

Hudson Thames voices Peter Parker / Spider-Man, reprising the role from the Marvel Studios animated series What If...? (2021–2024), with Kari Wahlgren, Grace Song, Eugene Byrd, Zeno Robinson, and Colman Domingo also starring. Disney+ announced the series as Spider-Man: Freshman Year in November 2021, with Trammell attached. It was originally intended to be set in the main MCU continuity but the creative team found this too restrictive and decided to move it to an alternate timeline, allowing the series to explore familiar ideas and characters in new ways. It was retitled Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man by December 2023. The 3D cel-shaded animation pays homage to the art style of early The Amazing Spider-Man comic books by Steve Ditko and John Romita Sr., with animation provided by Polygon Pictures and CGCG, Inc..

The first season of Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man premiered with its first two episodes on Disney+ on January 29, 2025, with the remaining episodes being released in groups until February 19, as part of Phase Five of the MCU. A second and third season are in development.

Premise

Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man explores Peter Parker's origin story and early days using the Spider-Man persona. The series is set in an alternate timeline within the multiverse where Norman Osborn becomes Peter's mentor instead of Tony Stark, as happens in the Marvel Cinematic Universe's (MCU) main timeline.

Episode Summaries

*** SPOILER WARNING ***

Episode 1: "Amazing Fantasy"

Air Date: January 29, 2025

On his first day at Midtown High School, freshman Peter Parker witnesses sorcerer Stephen Strange battle a symbiotic alien, causing destruction to the school in the process. Peter assists Strange with capturing the alien, but is later bitten by a spider that emerged from a portal that Strange created during the fight. Several months later, Peter has developed spider-like abilities and is secretly operating as the vigilante Spider-Man. Due to the destruction at Midtown High, he now attends Rockford T. Bales High School where he befriends several students, including his best friend Nico Minoru, childhood crush Pearl Pangan, and the football team captain Lonnie Lincoln. While on the way to school, Peter saves Harry Osborn from a group of thugs. Later, he manages to stop two criminals on the run from the police, and receives public attention. After school, Peter returns to his apartment and encounters businessman Norman Osborn.

Episode 2: "The Parker Luck"

Air Date: January 29, 2025

Norman offers Peter an exclusive internship at his company, Oscorp, which he accepts. The next day, Peter goes to Oscorp after school and is assigned to work with scientist Carla Connors. During a break period, Peter sees a news report about a building on fire, and goes to investigate as Spider-Man. There, he encounters the arsonist Butane, who attacks him using high-tech weaponry. Peter defeats him, but notices a familiar logo on his equipment. Later, Peter returns to Oscorp, where he is summoned to Norman's office. Norman then shows Peter security footage of the latter putting on his Spider-Man suit.

First Impressions

I wasn't expecting that twist right off the bat at all, especially not to see Venom this early on and in the first episode no less. It makes me wonder if this Doctor Strange is the traditional one from the 616 (mainstream MCU universe) or another multiverse variant. I suppose that question will be answered down the road, but the most interesting thing to come out of the battle was the mysterious spider that dropped down from the multiverse portal and bit Peter Parker to grant him his powers. Right off the bat, they gave this version of Peter Parker a unique distinction, much like Miles Morales in the Spiderverse animated films, where Spider-Man has obtained his powers via an augmented spider that did not originate from this universe.

Peter intervenes to stop a potential mugging on a fleeing Harry Osborn by yanking him out of the way of being run over by an incoming vehicle. The thugs make chase and corner Spider-Man and Harry only for Spider-Man to defeat them with ease in this first outing with the thugs foolishly live streaming their beating for the masses on social media.  

I have to wonder whether or not Peter killed that one thug with the brick. If he's not dead then he's definitely got internal bleeding, a concussion, or severe brain damage from that type of impact. Regardless of that fact, I thought that was a fun skirmish between Spider-Man and Harry Osborn's attackers/stalkers. This scene accomplished two things: it gave viewers a brief display of Spider-Man's powers and an excuse to introduce Harry while simultaneously having the two characters cross paths. 

This episode introduces two more supporting characters and classmates for Peter Parker:

The first being, Pearl Pangan, who Nico describes as Peter's biggest crush and urges him to ask out on a date until they both find out that she's dating Lonnie Lincoln. Nico makes a regular habit of teasing Peter about their age difference since Pearl is at least 2 and half years older than them since she was being paid to be his babysitter when Peter would bring up that they used to "hang out" together when she lived in the same apartment building. 

In Marvel Comics, she is the Cebuano superheroine known as Wave who was created by writer Greg Pak and artist Leinil Francis Yu. This water-based superhero made her first appearance in War of the Realms, New Agents of Atlas (May 2019). She doesn't have any powers yet in this series, so it would be a safe bet to bank on her getting powers down the road. 

Who is Lonnie Lincoln though? He's a football player at Rockford T. Bales High School quickly becomes friends with Peter, despite Peter's crush on Pangan. 

In Marvel Comics, I think viewers would recognize him more as the villain Tombstone. I'm anxious to see how this series will set him down the road of crime by the time this series is done and over with, especially given Lonnie and Peter's quick friendship. 

This episode does a lot in its thirty minute runtime and none of it feels wasted. They established this Spider-Man variant’s origin and his typical life dynamics after the fact, so the viewers get a great layout of the major players and supporting cast to keep things interesting. 

We even get treated to that moment where Peter manages to sneak out of class to stop a high speed robbery and even stop the rampaging van with his spider strength, showing that even Peter is still surprising himself at what he is capable of with these newfound powers. So he’s not at a point where he has mastered his powers but still has room to allow the viewers to watch him grow with them as well. 

Episode One ends in a similar manner as the start of the scene in Captain America: Civil War where Peter Parker makes his first appearance in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Everything is going on seemingly better than usual in terms of the infamous "rotten Parker luck", ending with a very stylish, expensive sports car parked outside of Aunt May's apartment. Peter thinks nothing much of it, only to come home and see that Aunt May has been visited by not Tony Stark in their home, but NORMAN OSBORN. 

Color me impressed. They weren't wasting any time here to get the ball rolling and I love the pacing. 

Episode Two - "The Parker Luck"

Episode Two picks up immediately where the previous episode left off with Norman presenting an internship opportunity for Peter at OsCorp, in which Peter excitedly agrees to. It's interesting to see Norman being the one who presents the mentorship role to Peter in this continuity instead of Tony Stark as I actually pondered that possibility from the start. To be honest, it would have made for a fun Marvel's What If...? episode, but alas, too little too late. 

This episode moves at a rapid pace as Peter moves throughout his usual day in high school while anxiously awaiting to start his internship that afternoon. 

I will give people some slack in regard of not being into the Steve Ditko-era inspired art style and visuals, but it works to give this show its own unique charm just like Spectacular Spider-Man did at the time. I personally hated Spectacular's animation and visuals at first glance but warmed up to it as it went on. I feel like more people will feel the same by the time this is over. Or I could be completely wrong about that as I wouldn't be surprised that people were spoiled by the visuals that this same studio put out in X-Men '97 last year in comparison. You have people out here thinking that everything that Marvel Studios puts out in animation should be in that level of quality and have completely written off this series without really giving it a fair chance and that's just sad. 

Peter defeats Butane and returns to Oscorp, only to be summoned to Norman Osborn's office, where Norman shows him the captured surveillance footage of him donning his Spider-Man costume. That's one hell of a cliffhanger to end on two episodes into this series and I love it. They definitely got me hooked and I'm anxious to see where they go with this from multiple angles - not just with Peter and Norman's relationship but where this series plans to do with Peter's supporting cast. 

Closing Thoughts & Concerns Going Forward

I wasn't aware of this until I started reading comments online about these first two episodes. Hudson Thames, the voice of Peter Parker/Spider-Man in this series and previously of the same character that appears in Marvel's What If...?, stated in an interview that "he was glad that this show wasn't annoying and woke". I personally have to laugh at this statement when the literal first episode shows Lonnie Lincoln getting racially profiled on the train and when the police cruiser tailed him on his walk home. That is the first definition of woke, recognizing injustice (especially police injustice) based on race. 

It just goes to show you how many people, especially those who have completely written off this show without even giving it a chance before it even premiered, have no one understanding of what "woke" means. That inconsistency in terms of a coherent meaning across the board is part of the problem of the confusion of that term when one side believes that "wokeness" is a proper label to slap onto anything and everything that is not full of white people. Meanwhile, the other side uses it as a means of dismissing companies and projects that only insert these subjects (often concerning race and other sensitive themes/subjects) without any real substance for "correctness" points. These points are commonly understood to be taking away/removing focus from the plot and belittling other characters and/or the audience for being ignorant about these issues. 

Here's the news flash for a lot of people who aren't aware or too ignorant to the fact that Spider-Man's comics have always dealt with real world issues in his personal life and with the other characters that inhabit his world. Sure, those classic stories dealt with primarily white characters during his point of origin in Marvel Comics but there is absolutely no harm in tailoring these stories to reimagine them with a multiracial cast to ground this series in even more realism for viewers of all ages could identify with it. Spider-Man's stories, at their core, were always about seeing ourselves in Peter Parker and his supporting cast and their daily struggles to try to make it in this crazy journey we call life. If this show can continue capturing that essence like it has so far, then I'm all for this. 

If you have a problem with this show race-swapping and gender-swapping a few characters to differentiate itself from the other established Spider-Man stories and traditional mythos, then that's your loss and personal gripe. It comes off as silly to completely write off this show for that reason alone and use it as a justification for tossing around the "woke" label carelessly just because that one thing doesn't sit well with you. Mind you, both Harry and Norman Osborn have had hair styles that have been characteristics of African-American/black men for decades now to the point that it became a hot topic meme over the Internet. That doesn't bother me at all to see them portrayed as black men. It is as meaningless of a change to me as Michael Clarke Duncan playing Wilson Fisk/The Kingpin in the live-action Daredevil film back in 2003. 

The subject of the quality of the animation and visuals in this series are going to be a constant point of contention for detractors and for people looking for reasons to completely write off this series before even watching it at all. I feel like the trailers and previews of this series don't do this series justice AT ALL until you see it in motion. The animation looks a lot more crisp and fluid on Disney+'s streaming platform instead of just watching a minute clip or so off YouTube or social media. It's by NO means perfect, but it's better than my first impressions of it when I saw the first trailer and one of the opening clips from this episode on my social media a few days ago. After watching these premiere two episodes, I'm sold on this homage to the Steve Ditko-era of Spider-Man comics even more than I was when this series was first announced. Sure, it's not perfect, but it works for the most part. This series has already been renewed up to Season 3, so they have more than enough time to iron out the kinks out, especially how static backgrounds look odd next to these 2D/3D models in motion at times. 

The only thing I'm not really keen on at this point is the costume, but at this point, I'm well aware that Peter's Spider-Man costume is a starter outfit that he patched together with his limited resources. So I know it's nothing permanent. The trailers alone have shown that he gets at least one new costume in this season, so that's something to look forward to.

It seems like Disney+ plans on rolling out the episodes in batches each week until the first season wraps up mid-February, so I don't mind covering these week to week if you guys don't mind.