REVIEW -- Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man -- Episodes 3, 4, and 5

Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man, the newest animated series based on the Marvel Comics character Spider-Man, premiered with the first two episodes on Disney+ on Januaray 29, 2025. On Wednesday, February 5, 2025, three more episodes were made available for streaming on Disney+ with the remaining episodes being released in groups until February 19th. 

I'm going to continue reviewing these groups of episodes until the season's completion. 

Episode Summaries:

*** SPOILER WARNING ***

Episode 3: "Secret Identity Crisis"

Norman invites Peter to a private dinner where he reveals that he previously suspected Peter of being connected to Spider-Man after tracking him down following Harry's rescue. Peter initially declines Norman's offer of a partnership but agrees to continue his internship at Oscorp to help May pay her bills. Meanwhile, Lonnie's younger brother joins a local gang known as the 110th Street Gang. Lonnie goes into the gang's headquarters to retrieve his younger brother but Big Donovan forces him to join the gang in return for allowing his younger brother to leave. Local criminals Maria Vasquez and James Sanders obtain high-tech gloves and boots from a mysterious benefactor and rob a jewelry shop. Spider-Man fights Maria and James but is quickly outmanuevered by the couple. With the help of Norman, Spider-Man manages to defeat the two criminals, and notices the same logo from Butane's equipment on James' boots. Recognizing that he needs help, Peter accepts Norman's partnership offer.

Episode 4: "Hitting the Big Time"

With the Avengers fractured over the Sokovia Accords,[a] Norman believes he and Peter must step up to become the protectors of New York and has Peter try on various suits and identities that Oscorp has developed for him to expand his arsenal. However, most of the suits yielded mixed results. Meanwhile, Big Donovan has Lonnie go out to get the 110th Street Gang some food, during which he is threatened and chased by a rival gang known as the Scorpions, led by Mac Gargan. Donovan uses the Scorpions' knowledge of him as leverage to keep him in the gang and protect his family. Norman realizes Peter should have something closer to what he's familiar with and grants him an enhanced, white version of the Spider-Man suit, which helps him rescue bystanders who were caught in the crossfire of an escape attempt by a group of Russian criminals. When he returns to Norman's office, he accidentally reveals his identity to Harry. While most of the Russian criminals are captured, Mila Masaryk escapes and brings the money they stole to the benefactor granting criminals their high-tech gear: Otto Octavius.

Episode 5: "The Unicorn Unleashed!"

Otto gives Mila a helmet with the ability to shoot lasers from her forehead and analyze her opponent's moves, and plans to use the wealth he's been gaining from criminals and the tech he's developed to make a name for himself. Norman decides it's best for Harry to be involved in his partnership with Spider-Man to fill in for him when he's busy. Mila, calling herself Unicorn, helps her cohorts escape prison and battles Spider-Man. She nearly manages to kill Spider-Man, but is stopped by her accomplice Mikhail Sytsevich after she used him as bait in their fight, allowing Spider-Man to apprehend them. Despite Spider-Man saving his life, Mikhail vows revenge for his imprisonment. Peter joins Nico at the movies and invites Harry to join them, upsetting Nico. Meanwhile, Lonnie is forced to leave football practice yet again to help the 110th Street Gang in a turf war against the Scorpions. After saving Big Donovan from Gargan, he is respected by the gang and earns the moniker "Tombstone".

Episode Three picks up immediately following Norman confronting Peter about being Spider-Man. In an ironic twist of what we have come to know from the MCU version of Peter Parker/Spider-Man, Norman Osborn offers a partnership in the same vein as what Tony Stark/Ironman did in that canonical universe to aid Peter's crime-fighting efforts. Peter declines at first glance, but ends up warming up to the idea once Norman hacks his radio that is wired into his mask and essentially becomes his "man in the chair" to aid him in his battle against Maria Vasquez (Tarantula) and James Sanders (Speed Demon).

Spider-Man was on the losing end of this battle against two common criminals who was armed with augmentations and high-tech weaponry in the same manner as Butane in the previous episode (provided by a mysterious benefactor), but Norman's assistance allowed him to assess the situation differently and more effectively to take the duo down. I thoroughly enjoyed this spin on Norman and Peter's relationship as it turns their relationship into one similar to Barry Allen and Harrison Wells' relationship in the CW's The Flash television show that was found in the first season. Wells provides the technology and vast intellect to serve as a mentor to Barry's crime-fighting efforts and turns out to be not just a powerful ally in Barry's support system that lays out the backbone of his crime-fighting endeavors in that show, but Wells simultaneously serves as his greatest foe just waiting to strike. I could easily see Norman doing the same down the road, but having him at the core of Peter's support system since he is always down on his luck and struggling to make ends meet works in this continuity, especially in one where he doesn't have Tony Stark paying for his upgrades in his technology and costume. 

While all of this is going on, Lonnie London is dealing with making a different partnership. Lonnie finds himself joining the 110th Street Gang (led by Big Donovan) to allow his younger brother to leave in his place for membership. I was taken back a little on how sudden this series threw Lonnie down the path of joining one of these gangs to begin his life of crime when it looked like he had a positive path laid out for him both in terms of his education and possibly being scouted for a future in college football. I guess that removes all doubt in my mind on whether or not that he's going to become the Tombstone that I'm well aware of from other mediums and iterations.

Episode Four starts with another meeting between Norman and Peter where they discuss the Sokovia Accords that splintered the Avengers in the same manner as the canonical 616 universe. I was amused by Norman's remark that the Accords are Ironman and Captain America's mess to clean up as I wouldn't be surprised if that's the same reaction that a ton of writers said when Captain America: Civil War dropped and that wasn't explicitly referenced nor enforced in a ton of Marvel Studios projects until AFTER Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame hit theaters, outside of a reference in Jessica Jones Season Two concerning Alisa Jones' case in an attempt to clear her name. It wasn't until the events of She-Hulk: Attorney at Law that it was stated that the Accords were no longer active. So yeah, it was amusing to me that this series was just as dismissive of that concept as almost everything else in the MCU - got to give them credit for consistency in that regard. In all seriousness though, I was always under the impression that the Accords were specifically tailored to handcuff the Avengers by the world governments from acting independently and not really concerned with street-level heroes in any capacity. Mind you, the events that sparked the Sokovia Accords were caused by the Avengers, not some aspiring reality television stars posing as superheroes that sparked the Superhuman Registration Act in Marvel Comics' Civil War event. That's why the focus in the MCU was more on putting pressure on the Avengers more than street level heroes from the start. If we can stop kidding ourselves, the Accords were merely a plot device that was only introduced without any foresight just to split up the Avengers in terms of having them at a weakened state when Thanos showed up looking for the Infinity Stones. There weren't any concrete plans to seriously enforce this past Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame when it went out of the window the second Thanos' forces showed up. All of that being said, I'm glad that it was insequential to this series' plot. 

Norman and Peter's partnership started off with Norman providing Peter with new suits to improve his image and hopefully optimize his ability to protect New York. These new suits are comically bad to various results, but they finally find a winner with a new and improved Spider-Man suit that looks painfully similar to his Future Foundation suit found in Marvel Comics. Sadly, most of this episode is spent with Peter mostly striking out as he's testing out the various Oscorp-made suits until he struck gold with forementioned suit. Unfortunately, we don't have a villain of the day in this episode, despite the reveal at the end of this episode of the identity of the benefactor who has been providing Butane, Speed Demon, and Tarantula their high-tech upgrades - Otto Octavius. That being said, I do appreciate the effort to highlight Spider-Man's heroic efforts outside of just beating up bad guys as he does some trivial things such as grabbing balloons for kids stuck in a tree, tying up some pickpocketers, or saving civilians from a car crash and/or multiple car pile-ups. I thought it was poetic that Peter has to allow the group of Russian criminals to escape for he could have significant time to rescue the bystanders who were caught in the crossfire of the criminals escape. Fortunately, the police were able to catch up to the criminals, with Mila Masaryk (a genderbent variant of Milos Masaryk AKA the villain known as Unicorn in Marvel Comics) fleeing on her own while the others were captured to take their stolen money to the elusive benefactor (Otto Octavius) who has been providing the criminals with high-tech gear. 

The subplot with Lonnie London joining the 110th Street Gang continued with Big Don tasking him to pick up some food, only to cross into the territory of the rival gang, called the Scorpions. The Scorpions are led by Mac Gargan in this continuity, ironically the name of the villain who is traditionally a popular recurring foe of Spider-Man in Marvel Comics. One of his lieutenants is Camilla Black, another individual who was known as the Scorpion in Marvel Comics. I'm enjoying these clever reimaginings of Spider-Man lore in this series to keep things fresh and interesting. In terms of Lonnie's situation, the task to pick-up food is essentially a setup to blackmail Lonnie into requiring the 110 Street Gang as protection since the Scorpions have seen his face and can track him back to his family, thus leaving him no choice but to rely on the gang to have his back. Lonnie is shoved into deep waters with this gang with little to no means to escape this life, like so many young men, as he finds himself being weighed down to rely on the 110 Street Gang if he wishes to continue protecting the ones he loves the most. It's a scary parallel to reality where there are so many young men like Lonnie who have their lives ahead of them in terms of excelling in academics and/or athletics, but just one run-in with these gangs change their lives forever and they find themselves trapped and in-debt to them for the rest of their lives. 

This episode ends with Peter accidentally revealing his identity to Harry Osborn once he returns to Oscorp to thank Norman for the suit(s).

Episode Five starts off with Otto Octivus introducing himself to Mila Masaryk and providing her with a high-tech helmet that fires lasers and analyzes her opponents' movements. After she leaves, he reveals to his assistant that he plans on using the wealth that he's been getting from the criminals to make a name for himself. I would guess that he is looking to challenge Oscorp in that regard with his advanced technology. I have to admit that I'm surprised that Doctor Octopus or rather his alter ego would be introduced this early on in this series as I had the benefactor pegged to be Bentley Wittman since he came off as a completely unlikeable character at the start of Episode Two. His demeanor and attitude fit the bill that he was urging the interns to develop the same technology that he could be footing to the criminals in the last few episodes. Then Norman's involvement and urgency to investigate and identify the weaknesses in the technology would have backed up that assessment, but I'm glad to be wrong. Otto Octavius makes for a better foil and reminds me of his role as the "Master Planner" in the second season of Spectacular Spider-Man. And here I thought that Octavius would end up being Peter's next mentor in a similar role that he had in the PlayStation Spider-Man video games. There's room for that in the future, but I think it hinges on whether or not his involvement in supplying these criminals with their technology is exposed first. 

Norman decides that it would be more beneficial for Peter if Harry took on being his "man in the chair" given his vast responsibilities running Oscorp that wouldn't allow him to be able to advise and guide Peter whenever the need arises. Harry Osborn has a slightly different role in this series as he is essentially a celebrity influencer given his status as an heir to Oscorp. He is home-schooled instead of being one of Peter's classmates, but they still manage to spark a friendship due to not just Peter saving his life as Spider-Man but due to similar interests and approaches to his crime-fighting. Peter's newfound friendship with Harry seems to be a potential threat to his relationship with his best friend Nico Minoru, which seems strained at best right now. Let's not forget that Peter pretty much flaked out on her when it came to the party they were invited to by the popular kids at Midtown High in favor of his exploits at Oscorp. So it wouldn't be far-fetched to imagine that Nico could be holding some resentment over that ordeal. Her reaction to seeing Peter inviting Harry along for their movie night is telling, despite Peter's inability to see that she was clearly upset and wanted to just spend time with him alone.

I wonder how are they going to portray Nico's sexuality in this series. She was clearly bisexual in both her live-action depiction in Marvel's Runaways and over her character history in Marvel Comics. We have seen hints of this already in this series with her clearly crushing over being with Pearl Pangan at the football game when Peter was called away for his Oscorp internship. I know that I normally don't get hung up on a character's sexuality as a defining trait as I find that to be lazy writing, but Nico has a history of seeking physical comfort in times of stress as a coping mechanism that proves to be her one of her main negative character flaws throughout her comic book history as one of the Runaways. She seeks out partners to serve as a temporary band-aid to her nagging psychological issues and trauma. In that regard, I'm intrigued to see where they take her in terms of the relationships she develops in this series. 

Nico does have an interesting remark in this episode that goes completely over Peter's head early in this episode where she ponders the possibilities of both of them developing powers and becoming costumed heroes who would have to deal with the dilemma facing Ironman and Captain America in the face of the Sokovia Accords. I have to give this show props for pitching that idea and line in there as it shows that this show is asking more questions about the Accords than the main 616 universe did about it. It makes me curious if this is going to be a serious point of contention in this continuity given the fact that it was brought up altogether in these past two episodes. 

I got a little ahead of myself in terms of Harry and Peter's friendship in this episode but it seems like they hit it off faster and had more chemistry in terms of working together in the field with Peter's crime-fighting over Norman's assistance/coaching while in the chair. 

Mila Masaryk, now calling herself Unicorn, busts out her Russian cohorts out of prison and engages in a fight with Spider-Man. I found it hilarious that she was expertly using Octavius' device despite trashing the instructions he gave her upon leaving his laboratory. She single-handedly gave both the police and Spider-Man a run for their money with this advanced headgear. She nearly kills Spider-Man after using her accomplice Mikhail Sytsevich as bait to lure him into the line of fire to protect him after getting privy of his need (read: weakness) to ensure the safetey of bystanders. Sytsevich snatches off her helmet in response, allowing Spider-Man to web her up for the authorities. Mikhail considers them "even" for Spider-Man saving his life yet vows revenge for his imprisonment. I'm guessing that pretty much sets him up to become the Rhino down the road like his Marvel Comics counterpart. 

Lonnie's dealings with the 110th Street Gang sink to a new low when he is forced to abandon his football practice to join with the rest of the gang in a turf war against the Scorpions. I couldn't help but laugh at this scene as it played out just like the gangs at odds during the first episode of Static Shock that led to the birth of "Bang Babies" (i.e. the term for all of the superpowered individuals in Dakota that Static dealt with). A part of me was half-expecting to something to go down where Lonnie and the two Scorpions would obtain superpowers like their comic book counterparts, but I was pleasantly surprised that this series didn't go that route when it was so easy to go there. Instead, this moment laid the groundwork for Lonnie to prove his "loyalty" to the gang by saving Big Donovan from being stabbed by Gargan and earning the nickname of "Tombstone" from the rest of the gang who was referring to him as "Superstar" up to this point. Up to this point, I'm loving these eerie parallels for Peter and Lonnie's journeys. Peter is traveling down the road as a better hero while Lonnie is becoming an aspiring criminal with neither aware to the trials that the other is going through.