Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man Episodes 3, 4, & 5 Review
‘Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man’ is already halfway through its first season and is busy spinning up a lot of plots. Surprisingly, it’s able to make each feel developed and are given enough time to shine, especially as Spider-Man and his friends go through a lot of changes in these three episodes. While nothing happens that will make audiences be shocked, they do get a better look at how this world develops the web head differently to other incarnations. Fight scenes are improved on the first two episodes, and character conflicts start to make themselves much clearer.
Looking at Spider-Man over the course of the three episodes, he goes through some serious changes. Despite initial trepidations, May’s struggling position convinces him that he needs to pursue the Oscorp internship, and work with Norman more closely. This begins to pay off, as in an enjoyable fight sequence between two criminals that have been powered up with tech, Norman offers useful advice. However, Norman does start to take over, insisting Peter needs a suit upgrade, and refuses to listen to Peter’s input. It leads to a hilarious montage as Peter tries out Norman’s terrible ideas, even one that makes him into Fly-Man. Norman finally relents and gives Peter a white and blue suit, which does look good, but also represents the fact it’s designed by a corporation with its minimalist colour scheme and clinical nature. The swings through the city with it are a highlight, with fluid camera movement and moments of close ups and wide pans.
Peter accidentally reveals his identity to Harry, who Osborn then drafts into being Peter’s new guy in the chair. Peter isn’t happy about this at first, and it’s clear that Osborn is doing it solely to protect Peter, demonstrating he doesn’t care about his son by forgetting his age. But Peter and Harry do bond, something that begins to drive a wedge between Peter and Nico, again highlighting the balance Peter is trying (and failing) to strike in his life. While it’s clear that there are no romantic feelings between Peter and Nico (which makes a welcome change), she’s worried that she’ll get left behind for new people. Peter shows his trademark awkwardness by not realising this, despite how obvious Nico is making it.
Harry himself is a new, more modern take on the character. Being the son of a rich CEO, he’s had many opportunities, like travelling the world and meeting famous people. He’s a social media icon, with even the social activist Nico following him. But Harry does show off some complexity, explaining to Peter that he doesn’t really have any friends because of this life, and Peter, as a naturally nice person, extends his friendship out to him. Peter’s good nature is reinforced constantly throughout the show, something core to his character.
Audiences also get an idea of the villainous forces at play. Low level robbers, enhanced by technology provided by Otto Octavious, start creating havoc, with creative designs and gimmicks. One is a duo with speed enhancing boots and gauntlets, the other is a robber who gets a laser beam firing helmet. These fights are a step up from earlier in the season, feeling bigger without feeling too big. Peter also has moments of saving citizens, helping him connect with people. Octavious isn’t concerned about doing this to get at Spider-Man, instead this version is intent on getting at the other rich and clever people in the world, Tony Stark, Bruce Banner and more. This Otto is frustrated at them.
The other thread tied in with his is Lonnie’s descent. On the outside, he seems like he has it all, but he doesn’t, running out of lunch money, and then falling into the 110 gang to stop his brother from making a bad decision. He’s quickly pulled deeper into it too, skipping school and sport practice to appease the gang’s don. Pearl isn’t allowed to know the full story. It culminates in him fighting the Scorpion gang with the other 110 members, and when Lonnie protects the don from the Scorpion’s leader Mac Gargan, Lonnie finally accepts his place and takes on the nickname Tombstone, a more tragic Spider-Man villain.
Finally, these episodes do have many references, including to continue to reference ‘Captain America: Civil War’ The Sokovia Accords are name dropped, and so is the airport fight from the film, causing Peter to worry. Osborn says he’ll handle how they will affect Peter, teasing what will likely be an interesting and complex topic to come and again showing Osborn’s desire to take over. It shows how these things can be more than just references.
These three middle episodes ramp up the show, introducing bigger villains and hinting at where character arcs will go by the end of the season. Peter’s character and those around him are kept core to who they are in other media, but other facets about them are changed to keep things fresh. The story is moving along at a pleasant pace, and the fights have seen improvements in how they’re shown to audiences from the first two episodes. ‘Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man’ is proving an enjoyable and low stakes palate cleanser for Marvel fans.
