Spidey is back in a brand-new show on Disney+, and I’m here to tell you that it’s totally worth the watch. Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man was released on Jan. 29, and new episodes come out weekly in groups of two or three, making it a perfect mix of binge and spaced-out releases. This show has everything — from high school shenanigans to superhero action, romance, drama, and all the feels.
With the rise of multiverse burnout, some, including myself, were suspicious of this new take on Spidey. Would it hold up? How would it compare to performances such as Tom Holland’s or the fantastic portrayal of Miles Morales in the Spider-Verse series? Amazingly, that’s how.
Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man follows Spider-Man through the early days of his web-swinging career. It’s a similar story to what you know, with a few major twists in the narrative.
Peter is in his freshman year of high school and has to navigate all that comes with it. Thankfully for him, he has a brand-new set of friends to watch his back.
Lonnie Lincoln is Peter’s lab partner and captain of the football team. He’s destined to go pro, but saves his brother from a bad situation that takes him down a grave path he can’t come back from.
Nico Minoru is Peter’s edgy best friend with her own magical struggles. She’s always there for Peter, whether that’s by teasing him or building him up after a disastrous social interaction. But is it platonic or something else entirely?
Drama
Before the show was released, many were quick to make assumptions based on the animation style. Some called it awkward, others completely immersive to the comic book space. To me, it looks like a living webcomic like WEBTOON.
You can pause at any moment while watching the show, and every frame is a piece of art. That’s a rarity amongst animated projects, especially coming from the House of Mouse. Not all art has to look the same, and the style won’t be for everyone, but I for one will always encourage experimentation when it comes to animation style. Between this and X-Men ’97, you can tell a great deal of work is going into creating artful shows with actual directing and unique ideas.
One of the biggest things that got people talking about the show before it was released was a very peculiar quote by Spider-Man’s voice actor Hudson Thames.
Thames said his, “biggest fear was that it was gonna be annoying and woke.” He also explained how much he enjoyed the writing. Sadly though, this drew more attention to the diverse cast of characters depicted in the show. The word “woke” has taken on negative connotations over the years through its continuous usage to describe certain types of media. Typically, when a show is called out for being “woke,” it’s because they threw in token stereotypes or race-swapped a character that didn’t impact anything in the story. It’s used as a box studios have to tick off.
This is not that kind of show.
Yes, there are people from different races and backgrounds in the show. Spider-Man lives in New York City, one of the world’s largest cultural melting pots, of course the cast is diverse. They even poke fun at it in the show when Asha, Peter’s new friend from his internship, mistakes the Lower East Side, Long Island, and Queens to be multiple countries because, in a city as big as New York, that’s exactly what it feels like.
Some characters like Norman and Harry Osborn have been race-swapped, but this was revealed to be an intentional decision by the showrunner. The intentional race-swap was a way to create a different perception of Norman and separate the character from Willem Dafoe’s iconic version.
“Woke” has become such an overused buzzword to rile up Twitter and Facebook keyboard warriors that it has lost its roots. There is nothing wrong with diversity in a show, especially when the characters are so compelling and well-written like Lonnie or Nico.
Truly YOUR Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man
Peter is the friendliest neighborhood superhero. This show perfectly captures the at-home community feel inspired by the comics. It has Spider-Man’s iconic comic book essence without relying on stories we’ve all seen a thousand times. He isn’t off in space with Iron Man or fighting drones in London. He’s just starting, and that means stopping purse snatchers and bike thieves, stopping car crashes, or even riding the bus back home after a long day of heroism.
When I fell in love
The moment when I knew I was hooked was a great scene where Spider-Man brings back money to a man whose store was robbed. He also talks to the girl who stole the money, who immediately breaks down crying about how she was so desperate she didn’t know what came over her.
Instead of throwing her in jail like Batman, Spider-Man talks the shopkeeper into being lenient since the money was returned. That is Spider-Man! He’s the people’s hero. He cares, and that’s why we love him and what makes him different. This show gets that and offers a fresh take on the classic.
Check out the Spider sensation, which is getting great reviews throughout the superhero nation. The show will be releasing 10 episodes until Feb. 19. The show has already been green-lit for three seasons, so get ahead and catch this Spider-Man revival like no other.
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