Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man Season Review
‘Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man’ is a new cartoon aimed at younger viewers as Marvel Studios seek to both reinvent the hero for older audiences while introducing the seminal hero for new audiences. And while it’s nothing that while below anyone’s socks off, this is a pleasant show for those stick with it out. It shows a reimagining of the classic Spider-Man story across ten concise episodes, with some basic animation but amazing characters.
Animation is a space where Spider-Man has excelled, with many different styles across the ages. ‘Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man’ homages to its comic book roots with transitions and moments that have the comic book borders around them, a nice touch whenever something like this comes up. But outside of this, the style of the show is quite bland, it doesn’t feel like it’s a bold style and is lacking somewhat. It’s no ‘X-Men ‘97’. That said, Spider-Man’s white suit looks brilliant, the blue Spider perfectly complementing the rest.
The show seeks to reinvent the classic story of the webbed hero. It deals with a hero who’s still learning how to be Spider-Man, not just in the fact that Parker only recently has got his powers. Key characters like Norman and Harry Osborn, Otto Octavious, Lonnie Lincoln and more are present, and the show treads the line of reinventing aspects about them. While keeping them just close enough to their classic characters. Here, this does shine through, meaning that both classic Spidey fans and new Spidey fans will get a story to enjoy.
Where Spider-Man shines is his character, and that’s no different in ‘Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man’. Peter Parker is the classic Peter Parker, driven by responsibility to others, always struggling to balance his alter ego with his everyday life. There’s a well-realized journey that Peter goes on throughout the show, teaching him how to better integrate his superhero antics with his main life. Trust. Voiced solidly by Hudson Thames, Peter Parker is a standout. The same goes for his friend throughout the series, a younger version of Nico Minoru voiced by Grace Song. She also goes on her own journey of acceptance throughout the show and cements herself as an intriguing character to watch going forward. There are heartfelt moments throughout the show, offset by moments of humor.
Spider-Man boasts the biggest rogue’s gallery in all of superheroes, and it’s something that this show uses to full advantage. There’s the tragic story of Tombstone, greed of Osborn, tech induced megalomania of Octavious and more. All of this play out simultaneously, some more well than others. Some lurk more in the shadows, and most have a connection to Spider-Man, even Peter Parker, the way all great Spider-Man villains should. That said, some are definitely a tease for what audiences can expect for the future of the show, which looks to be even more expansive. A standout is Colman Domingo’s Norman Osborne, who has all the formal, outwardly facing good-hearted nature of someone in his position, but something that has a sinister undertone to it.
An advantage of being created by Marvel is that this is a series that can make use of well-known characters in Marvel’s stable, and it definitely does that. But the show doesn’t let any of these big personalities dominate Spider-Man’s story, they’re cleverly utilized to allow for building out of the world. It’s always pleasurable when a character swoops in, or a moment is called back, it lets Spider-Man exist as a smaller part of the bigger picture. Linking to this is of course references. They’re used sparingly and don’t suffocate the show and again builds into a broader universe.
‘Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man’ remixes the classic Spider-Man story, giving audiences both new and old to enjoy. It’s pleasant to watch, but the style never feels simple and safe, in an area Marvel can excel in. It’s the characters that will have audiences coming back, with voice acting that sells the characters as young heroes coming into their own. Its small-scale story is something that helps to ground the hero in his larger-than-life world, even if the second season will surely ramp things up.
