Full season 1 review: ‘Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man’ starts out slow, but pays off in the end (mild spoilers)
Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man — the new animated series on Disney+ — isn’t groundbreaking, but it’s still a great adaptation. We got to see all of season 1 ahead of the show’s Jan. 29 debut.
This review contains mild spoilers.
Classic 1960s-style Spider-Man
Spider-Man’s story is so iconic and has been done in so many different ways, you may be thinking, “Why are we doing this again?”
While “Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man” certainly isn’t doing anything groundbreaking, it’s still a great adaptation. Its unique art style brings the classic 1960s style of “Amazing Fantasy” and the original Spider-Man comics to life. But that doesn’t mean the show itself takes place in the ’60s. The show’s universe is set in a modern day that features both new takes on events we’ve seen played out in the MCU, and characters and storylines from Marvel Comics that we may have not seen adapted yet.
‘Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man’ differences and similarities to previous Peter Parker stories
“Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man” takes a much different approach to the characters prominently featured in Peter Parker’s life than we’ve seen before. While he still lives with Aunt May and becomes friends with Harry Osborn, we also see the addition of Nico Minoru (of “The Runaways” fame in other universes) as his best friend, Pearl Pangan (aka Wave in the comics) as a potential love interest, and Amadeus Cho (the Totally Awesome Hulk) as a coworker at Oscorp. Of course these aren’t the only examples throughout season 1, but there are too many to recount here. Notably there is no Gwen Stacy or Mary Jane to be seen just yet. (Unless you count a sketch of Peter seemingly flirting with a redhead that may be MJ during the credits of each episode?)
Interestingly enough, the first season of “Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man” is almost as much about Lonnie Lincoln as it is about Peter Parker. Their plot lines are almost completely separated for quite some time, and there’s a ton of build-up that, if you ask me, takes just a bit too long to pay off. (We don’t even see Spidey in his iconic suit ’til the penultimate episode.)
The second half of the season progresses much faster and features exciting tie-ins and more action that makes me excited for a potential season 2. Just like the stories you’d see in the comics, the first few issues, or episodes in this case, seem to be setting up things to come.
“Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man” can be surprisingly brutal, about on the same level as “X-Men ’97” — not in scale per se, but in terms of the blood and violence actually seen on screen.
(For those Disney Parks fans out there, look out for a prominent Avengers Campus tie-in in the latter half of season 1, with hopefully more to come in season 2 of “Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man”!)
When do new episodes of ‘Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man’ release?
Episodes 1 and 2 of “Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man” are out now on Disney+, with the next three coming out Feb. 5, three more on Feb. 12, and the final two episodes of the season on Feb. 19.
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