Another Spider-man on the screen? Sure, it’s not a movie, but we’ve already had three in the last two and half decades (Tobey Maguire, Andrew Garfield, Tom Holland) on the big screen and we even have Miles Morales in the two brilliant, animated films ‘Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse’ and ‘Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse.’ There are probably even more on streaming networks for series that I’m not aware of. But with Disney+ spending quite a bit on the marketing of their latest release, ‘Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man’, there was something about the animation style and the innocence of the trailer that got to me.

Luckily, I was able to catch the first 6 episodes of the first season and I was very much charmed by the whole alternate timeline. 

Not set in the “sacred timeline” of the MCU, ‘Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man’ shares a different origin story for Peter Parker and how he becomes the web-slinger. As young high school freshman, the show really emphasizes his youth and innocence. The relationships he builds in school and the way that he juggles classes, his internship at Oscorp, and crime-fighting are what makes Peter such an interesting character. Oftentimes, you could get annoyed at how someone so young could put so much unto his plate, but you forget that that is power of youth: the idealism and hope that pervades into their every being. This Peter is the epitome of that.

But all versions of Spider-Man reflect different approaches to this idealism and explores different ways by which Peter Parker is a hero. What is refreshing in this presentation is how Peter Parker is not suffering alone, not completely. As the episodes unfold, we see a surprising number of people who figures out his identity early on – and they are really surprising bunch – and all of sudden, Peter Parker has the support that he needs; something he never really got from the different versions of the story except Tom Holland’s. But while Holland’s support and mentor comes from Iron Man himself, this iteration has him mentored by someone whose story is being rewritten by this alternate timeline. It’s just as complex as Tony Stark but adds a new layer and sheen to the show.

Also, the support cast is quite engaging: from his best friend Nico Minoru and his crush Pearl Pangan (yes, she’s Filipina!) to his surprisingly refreshing jock-lab partner Lonnie Lincoln. The Osborns are definitely in the show – both Harry and Norman – but the way their characters are written here are completely out of type (or so it appears). 

The whole DNA of Spider-Man, at least when I was collecting comics back in the 80s and 90s, was that Spider-Man was always the hero who had to support himself. He worked at a job that despised his alter ego (J Jonah Jameson of The Daily Bugle) and he always had to juggle work and surviving while being so powerful and funny and carefree as the Spider-Man. Some of that changed with the MCU version, with Tom Holland’s Spider-Man being given support from Iron Man. But here, seeing the support that Peter Parker gets from his friends and the people who end up knowing about him is quite a different variation that feels more aligned with the times.

The world is so crazy now and the younger generation seem more adaptable to change and to strangeness. The way that Spider-Man seems to interact with this world feels so at pace with where things are now on a social spectrum. Before, Spider-Man was easily defamed by J Jonah Jameson. Here, Jameson is nowhere in sight and Spider-Man seems loved by the people. Again, this feels right up this world’s alley.

I’m excited to see how all of this unfolds, especially knowing how some of these characters are going to be in the future. From their names alone, you know who they are going to end up, if you are savvy with the comic book world. I was expecting to question why the need for another Spider-Man show or movie but this one, much like Miles Morales in the ‘Into the Spider-verse’ Spider-Man, justifies its own existence by showing us what it is that this character can be representative of. That young man who wants to do so much to fix the world that really isn’t his problem to fix.

My Rating:

Swing into action! Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man is now streaming on Disney+.