‘Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man’ Breakdown & Episode 1 & 2 Recap

Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man is an animated series that follows Peter Parker on his way to becoming a hero, with a journey unlike we’ve ever seen and a style that celebrates the character’s early comic book roots. Read our Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man episode 1 and 2 breakdown below

The synopsis reads as follows:

The animated series follows Peter Parker on his way to becoming Spider-Man in the MCU, starting with his freshman year of high school, of course. Peter’s journey in the series will be unlike we’ve ever seen and a style that celebrates the character’s early comic book roots.

‘Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man’ Breakdown

Episode 1 “Amazing Fantasy”

The first episode begins with the Marvel Animation logo featuring snippets from Spider-Man, Fantastic Four  and What If…?. We open in Queens, Peter wakes up and realizes he’s late for his orientation at Midtown High. He gets ready as quickly as he can, grabs his breakfast and runs out the door.

He bumps into a lot of people and misses the bus. The camera zooms in as Peter opens his backpack, an inspirational score plays to trick the viewer into thinking we’ll see the Spider-Man suit but instead it’s Peter’s breakfast. He sighs and a car is heard in the background, it’s Aunt May here to carry Peter to school. Aunt May also has an Iron Man keychain hung on the mirror.

Peter and May talk about orientation. Peter reveals that he’s excited about the robotics program to which May responds in a joking manner “Here I thought you were excited about learning, turns out you just want to play with robots all day.” Peter talks about Midtown being a good distraction from everything that’s been going on, we see light shimmering on May’s wedding ring indicating that he’s referencing Uncle Ben’s death.

Peter arrives at Midtown, he shows his gratitude to May and she reciprocates. As Peter steps out of the car we witness various shots of Midtown High and its Track field. Peter says “how bad could this possibly go?” and immediately we see a portal conjured by Doctor Strange appear, the other side of the portal is hidden by a green cloud. A symbiote monster is thrown out of the portal and begins attacking the students before Doctor Strange holds it back. Peter excitedly says “Oh my gosh, it’s some kind of magical wizard guy?” Implying that he’s not familiar with Doctor Strange.

Strange and the symbiote monster continue to fight causing damage to Midtown, we also see a spider coming out of the portal. The battle continues on, Strange displays a variety of different spells during the sequence even using the Time Stone. The symbiote continues to cause a rampage, choosing Nico Minoru as its next victim. Peter steps in by throwing a brick, providing the perfect distraction for Strange to capture the monster. As Strange leaves, the spider falls out of the portal and lands on Peter’s neck.

Peter and Nico introduce themselves but the spider bites Peter and he begins to faint. Nico and May rush in to check if he’s alright. Nico jokes about Peter not liking her name before passing out. The spider crawls onto someone’s backpack to escape. We then cut to the opening credits which features a remix of the classic Spider-Man theme song named “Neighbor Like Me”. It begins with the spider bite followed by a montage of Peter creating his gear, fighting off bad guys, web swinging, climbing up walls and more, most of which were highlighted in the prequel comic series. The first title card is a parody of the Amazing Fantasy #15 cover. This time Peter is swinging in his homemade suit while carrying Harry Osborn.

“A few months later…” appears on screen and yet again Peter is late to school, the sequence plays out the same but now Peter utilizes a lot of his superpowers. Peter also gets hit by a cab before missing the bus yet again. This time he opens his backpack and he suits up on a rooftop. After turning on a gas tank of sorts, Peter swings through the city until someone shouts for help. Harry is being chased by a few thugs and almost gets hit by a truck, luckily Spider-Man saves him. The thugs reach the alley and Peter fends them off, saving Harry for the second time. Harry thanks Spider-Man and Peter heads off once he realizes he’s late for school. 

Due to the destruction at Midtown High, Peter and the other students are transferred to Rockford Bales High School. Peter sneaks into class but the teacher catches him in the act. At the lockers he runs into his best friend, Nico and bumps into his crush Pearl Pangan. Nico teases Peter about his nickname, Petey and he talks about the “history” he and Pearl have. It’s revealed she was his babysitter, Nico continues to tease him until she gives him some advice about asking Pearl now. Peter hesitates and we cut to another class where Peter is drawing his classic suit. 

Peter notices a crime happening and asks to go to the bathroom. It’s a high speed chase that Peter tries to stop after making some quick calculations. The driver is unconscious and it’s up to Peter to stop the truck from hitting a school bus, Peter jumps in between the two vehicles and manages to stop the crash. The bystanders all cheer and take pictures of the hero, Peter gains a boost of confidence and he’s ready to ask Pearl on a date. Nico stops him and reveals that someone else asked her out, Lonnie Lincoln. A week later in science class, Peter is still complaining about Lonnie. The students are asked to find lab partners, Peter hopes to ask Pearl but Lonnie asks the teacher to work with him. Peter begins to talk about scientific jargon but to his surprise, Lonnie is very smart. He comments on Peter stereotyping him as the dumb jock. 

Lonnie and Peter talk some more about his smarts and he’s surprised to hear that Pearl put in a good word. After school, Peter is telling Nico about how great Lonnie is. He sees Pearl and Lonnie kiss and feels disappointed, he talks to Lonnie for a bit before heading home. We swap to a montage of Lonnie heading home, witnessing the discrimination he faces along the way. He arrives home, greets his family and we get to witness how many responsibilities he has.

We then cut to Spider-Man returning money to the owner of a pizza parlor, a sign reads “Pizza Time”. He gives the culprit a chance to apologize and Peter pleads with the owner to forgive them. Peter gets free pizza and later a free DVD player declaring that it’s the best day ever. He spots a fancy car outside, he takes a picture and heads home. He tells May about his day, he learns that the owner of the car is none other than Norman Osborn.

Episode 2 “The Parker Luck”

We start with a “Previously On” segment, we then transition into the opening credits. This time the title card is inspired by the Amazing Spider-Man Annual #1 cover and depicts Peter in his homemade suit with the Oscorp building in the background.

The episode opens at the end of episode 1, Peter is in awe but also feels as though May is embarrassing him because she doesn’t know who Norman is. Norman compliments Peter on his smarts and offers him an internship at Oscorp which Peter excitedly accepts. Norman tells Peter to ask the staff to send him right to his office. Peter and May cheer before a neighbor tells them to shut up. We cut to the next day, we see various scenes of civilians before we see Peter stopping another bad guy. 

Peter keeps swinging until he’s back at school, he sees the football team celebrating in the hallway. Lonnie introduces him to everyone and tells him about the big game. Peter tells Lonnie about his internship, Lonnie gives him the trophy to rub for good luck. Peter has the time of his life until the teacher puts an end to his moment. Nico expresses her disgust towards Oscorp, Peter defends the company and they end up laughing about it in the end. Pearl stops by to congratulate Peter and he tells both her and Nico that he has to go. Nico stops him for a bit and he gets to witness the team score a touchdown.

Peter says goodbye and Nico forgets all about him the moment Pearl sits next to her. The receptionist tells Peter that he’s late, explaining that he had to be there fifteen minutes early for his ID photo. He tries to meet Norman in his office but gets sent to Floor seventeen. Peter meets his first co-intern Jeanne followed by Asha and Amadeus Cho, he also introduces himself. Amadeus tricks Peter into thinking he’s the head scientist before the real one, Dr. Wittman appears. Wittman assigns each intern to a different task, Peter is tasked with looking at a slide under a microscope. Asha is sent to aerospace technologies, Jeanne is sent to the quantum computation think tank, Amadeus is sent to robotics and Peter is sent to the energy research divisions. He’s introduced to Carla Connors whose study is focused on creating a new self-sustaining battery.

The two become friends and they begin working on the project. Making new discoveries and laughing along the way. Peter gets to take a break and Nico tells him about a party that they’ve been invited to, Lonnie calls Peter his new good luck charm. The interns are all talking about their days, Jeanne turns the TV on and we hear the name Crusher Hogan, followed by Harry Osborn and eventually the report of a fire in an abandoned building. Peter asks Jeanne not to change it and when asked why he talks about liking fires and watching it burn. Peter is given weird looks and Asha suggests hiding the matches. When Peter hears the location of the burning building he makes an excuse and heads to the stairwell where he suits up.

Upon arrival he encounters the villain Butane, they converse for a bit and Peter points out that he’s burning the wrong building. They begin to fight, he manages to knock Butane into a pet store across the street and the fight continues. Peter manages to get all the animals to safety and stops Butane, he spots an odd logo on his gauntlet before Dr. Connor calls. Connors covers for him but Peter manages to expose the lie, the receptionist tells Peter that he’s needed in Norman’s office. He’s disappointed because he and his fellow interns think Peter is going to be fired. Nico is alone at the party and feels awkward, so she decides to leave. We cut back to Peter approaching Norman’s office, Peter apologizes and Norman shows him footage of him suiting up as Spider-Man in the stairwell from earlier. Norman says “So… You’re Spider-Man” as the episode ends.

Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man, written by Jeff Trammell, stars Hudson Thames as Peter Parker / Spider-Man, Colman Domingo as Norman Osborn, Charlie Cox as Matt Murdock / Daredevil, and more. All 10 episodes are now streaming on Disney+.

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