‘Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man’ Review: What We’ve Been Missing

Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man is the newest Marvel animated series revolving around Peter Parker in his early days as the crime-fighting superhero Spider-Man. Norman Osborn serves as Peter’s mentor in the series, a distinct branch of the story that we know from Captain America: Civil War, where Tony Stark recruits Peter to join his team. Read our full Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man review below.

This review was made possible by early access screeners courtesy of Disney+.

The synopsis reads as follows:

“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.

Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man Review

Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man is the animated series we’ve been missing for a very long time. The series shines in this diverse cast of heroes, villains and unlikely team-ups that takes me back to the good old days of Ultimate Spider-Man and Spider-Man amongst others.

To immediately get the main talking point out of the way, I found the artstyle quite enjoyable. You’d often hear the term “comic book come to life” and I’d agree, it also helps that over the past year I’ve fallen in love with cell-shading. However, there are moments where the animation doesn’t excel, particularly during one scene in Episode 1, as well as other conversations.

Starting from the opening credits I’ve instantly fallen in love with “Neighbor Like Me”, an updated version of Spider-Man’s iconic theme song. I couldn’t stop myself from sitting through the opening credits everytime and singing along, it’s just that catchy. During this sequence we get small snippets of Peter’s (Hudson Thames) life immediately after the spider bite. I was looking forward to experiencing these moments during the series however, they were unfortunately saved for a limited run of Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man prequel comics. The evolution of the title cards and outros was just the added touch that I needed. It gave me an even greater immersion on top of the character growth in the series.

What I especially enjoyed during the two-episode premiere was the love that the main cast shared with Peter. It was very heartwarming seeing Peter get along with everyone so easily and it makes the impact that his alter-ego has on those relationships hurt all the more. Speaking of Peter’s alter ego, Spider-Man, I just loved seeing his interactions with the regular thugs and villains. It’s not only limited to quips but also showcasing the kindness in Peter, whether it’s saving animals from a crazed villain or encouraging a shop owner to forgive someone who was just down on their luck.

I’m surprised with how well the typical Spider-Man story fits in with this new group of characters while also keeping some characters like Harry Osborn and Norman Osborn. Speaking of Norman, I can’t tell you how satisfying it feels hearing Peter say “Mr. Osborn”, while I’m not opposed to the Peter-Tony friendship in the MCU, this just feels right.

The comic-inspired designs for our heroes and some of the villains feel absolutely refreshing. With this being an alternate universe, you can also expect some surprise changes for some familiar names. The first season only scratches the surface on these characters but I expect Season 2 to really give us what we’re waiting for.

Lonnie Lincoln’s story was well done in this first season, tackling the heavy topics such as discrimination. I admittedly couldn’t remember much about the character prior to watching the series so seeing his character grow in real-time was a delight coupled with some shocking twists.

I’m left pretty impressed with the first season of Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man. While all my hopes weren’t fulfilled, I’m positive that the announcement of seasons two and three will succeed my expectations.

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. The series premieres with two episodes on Disney+ on January 29th.

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