You’re Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man Season One Review

The MCU has been suffering a lot lately. Deadpool and Wolverine did well for the studio, making over $1 billion dollars at the worldwide box office but other than that, it seems like many of their series and feature films have failed to engage in the way they used to. This reason for this is undoubtedly the rising feeling of superhero fatigue. Audiences are simply growing tired of the same old song and dance and it’s not because they are turning on superheroes per se, they simply want fresh and original stories – and it seemed like for a while that it was possible to factory manufacture content and make it successful. The market no longer believes in this type of thing and Marvel now has to figure out what will make audiences come back to their content again.

In response, the easiest option is to turn to more Spider-Man content. People love Spider-Man. He is one of the most popular characters in pop culture history because of his widespread appeal. Turing back the clock and making him a kid again, struggling while coming-of-age in high school with blossoming superpowers is a formula that is sure to make him appealing and relatable to all ages. Going from the original masterful Sam Rami trilogy, the recent well-regarded MCU trilogy, or the amazing Spider-Verse films – Spider-Man has been adapted countless times in countless properties,  and has been adapted well in the past. To stand out from the rest of the pack as a Spider-Man adaptation, it has to fine a different approach.

The original pitch for You’re Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man was to make an animated prequel, showing the origins of the MCU’s Peter Parker/Spider-Man. What seemed like a solid idea for a hit at least on paper, but finding itself in production hell for four years certainly did not help its case. As a result, the original premise of the series was changed in favor of a Spider-Man series set outside of the cinematic universe. Normally a welcome change, seeing that cinematic universes are tired and played out, a piece of media should exist on its own merits rather than try to set up or be connected to others. While cinematic universes can be a lot of fun, they should always come second to telling a good story.

However, after choosing to be independent from the cinematic universe it was once meant to be a part of, the writers and showrunners should have a good enough reason to justify its existence outside ot it, especially compared to the really good Spider-Man content that already exists today (the recently discontinued Sony Spider-Man universe film excluded). With all of that being said, You’re Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man, sadly, can’t quite stand out from the shadow of its contemporaries.

Ultimately, when it comes to describing this series, the first word that comes to mind is competent. The series stars Hudson Thames as Peter Parker as he gets bitten by a radioactive spider, develops powers and on top of that, has to balance his school life, including his internship at Norman Osbourn’s (Coleman Domingo) Ozcorp and his superhero side quests. For those wondering if this sounds exactly like every other Spider-Man origin story out there, it is as the series doesn’t do nearly enough to distinguish itself from everything audiences have seen before.

While there is talent behind this series and the series is perfectly entertaining, You’re Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man adds nothing new to the aura of Spider-Man. In terms of the animation, it is okay, with most of it feeling like cutscenes from a video game. However, the animation simply lacks the kind of fluidity to make it stand out. Similarly, the characters and writing are decent, but not particularly memorable. Ideas explored later on in the series are fun, but again, the failure to justify its existence relegates it to yet another IP for Marvel to leverage, thinking it to be an easy sell. That being said, it is one that will still resonate with some audiences, especially big Marvel heads. Otherwise, the series is merely a pleasant distraction and not much more.

still courtesy of Marvel

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Brett Schutt

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