Friendly Neighborhood Spiderman

The MCU has announced quite a few projects that are to be released in the next couple of years, the first of which being the Friendly Neighborhood Spiderman animated series. I have high hopes for this series as it cast completely new actors, not using Tom Holland allows the world to continue to build and it keeps the audience from getting too attached to the existence of just him as Spiderman. Considering that he is now engaged, we will all have to cope with the very real possibility that he might be done with Spiderman all together. I don’t think this is a project people were particularly excited about, in fact I think most people forgot it was happening. So let’s see if it meets the fact that I have no expectations.

I refused to watch the trailer because the title images looked so good. I want so desperately for the series to look like a moving comic book and to have 90s cartoon vibes as far as story goes. And I didn’t want to ruin that hope for myself.

It does in fact look like just a moving comic. OH WE EVEN HAVE ACTUAL PANELS. Oh that makes me so happy. It's so Spider-Man at its very inception and I love that so much.

The little Iron Man car mirror thing is a very nice and subtle connection to the MCU’s version of Spiderman. And that is all we need.

Damn…Doctor Strange appears within the first 30 seconds and we’ve already done the multiverse thing. It's just tired and played out already. The show is literally called Friendly Neighborhood Spiderman. Why couldn’t you let it just be that. And this sequence just goes on for so long. This was a bad move story wise. I don’t think they thought this through. And as a diehard MCU fan I can say with confidence that this is not what we wanted. That was a long way to go for the radioactive spider. He goes to a school for geniuses, that could have happened 100,000 different ways. The only reason I am coping with this is because the visuals are everything that I wanted them to be.

I do appreciate getting the actual origin. I just wish it was done better. And then the time jump, I think the appeal of Toby McGuire’s Spiderman was watching him figure out his powers. Watching how he had to learn to navigate superhero life and his personal life. That’s what makes Spiderman charming and I don’t understand how it's possible for the powers that be to not know that by now.

The visuals are the saving grace of this show right now. Honestly if they made every animated series look like a moving comic book I will watch every episode whether I like the story or not.

Love the inclusion of Harry Osbourn. I also love that a few girls have been introduced and none of them are MJ. Sometimes those storylines get really repetitive. Though taking something back to its roots like this means that she should pop up at some point.

They straight up build a scene around the clip of Peter on Youtube that Tony showed him trying to get him to come fight in Civil War.

Okay so Lonny is the sweetest angel of all time.

The inclusion of Left Hand Free brings me great joy.

Overall the first episode is good. Like I said I will come and stay for the visuals regardless of the story. That said the story is a little meh. It could absolutely be better and it's kind of a bummer that it's subpar. I also have to say that I don’t love the new theme song but I’m a 90s baby so I am very picky about my cartoon theme songs.