Wednesday, June 04, 2025

Friendly Advice

In my recent talk about season two of Andor, I complained about the way it was released on Disney+: multiple episodes dropping every week, forcing you to binge to stay ahead of spoilers. But earlier in the year, Disney+ released another series in exactly the same manner... and I was very glad not to have played their bingeing game.

Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man is an animated series about... well, it's right there in the title. With the "Spider-verse" movies and the MCU's current multiverse efforts setting ample precedent for alternate universes in general and alternate Spider-mans (Spider-men?) in particular, this series was free to uncouple from all the backstory baggage and tell a simpler story.

It tells that story using a fun animation style. (The Spider-verse set the precedent for changing that up too.) It's made to look like a comic book in motion, with characters drawn in the style of the earliest appearances of the character in the 1960s. Bringing that style into 3D is a tightrope act that could go wrong at any moment, but it really looks great here.

The 10 episodes of season one do a great job covering young Peter Parker's efforts at learning how to be a hero without getting bogged down too long in "yet another origin story" that no one really needs to see. But even more impressive to me is the writing of the characters around Peter. In particular, there's an entire subplot about high school football captain Lonnie Lincoln that really shouldn't work for how long it takes to connect to the larger narrative. It's an unexpectedly earnest look at peer pressure, gang violence, privilege, and more -- and kind of turns out to be one of the best aspects of the season.

The show has a great cast. If you're a fan of another Marvel animated show, What If...?, they've brought over Hudson Thames to continue voicing Spider-man here. Then they surround him with cartoon voice-over royalty (Kari Wahlgren as Aunt May), outstanding actors with distinct voices (Colman Domingo as Norman Osborn), actors who would normally be on camera adopting unrecognizable mannerisms (Hugh Dancy as Otto Octavius), and more. There are some fun guest stars too.

Because I didn't feel compelled to watch Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man as fast as they were releasing it, I enjoyed the fast-paced half-hour episodes much more. Overall, I'd give the first season a B+. Word is that season two is on the way next year, and a season three is in development, and I'll certainly be looking forward to it.

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