Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-man (S1)

Watch on Disney+

Episodes: 10 twenty nine to thirty three minute Episodes

Rated TV-PG

A new take on Peter Parker and Spider-Man that has art that looks like a motion comic. (Spoiler Alert) In this world, some of the major events from the MCU happen, but Spider-Man isn’t part of any of them.

Themes:

Growing up, loss (Uncle Ben), high school, bad luck, magic, forgiveness, mercy, football, mentors, internships, great power, great responsibility, criminals, gangs, family, science, sacrifice, technology, growth, heroism, relationships, control, anger, respect, secrets, cover-ups, hero registration, lies, trust, everything happens for a reason, mystic arts, time travel, and super heroes.

Language:

A*s - 7 (one is written out in a text) D*mn - 12 Hell - 16 Religious Exclamations - 5

One of the curse words happens twice because of recaps at the beginning of each episode.

Crap, heck, oh my gosh, and sucks are all used multiple times throughout the series.

Stuff to be aware of:

Alcohol - In episode two, Aunt May is drinking what looks like a glass of wine. There is a party after a football game, and teens are seen drinking from red solo cups. In episode three, Norman Osborn drinks a glass of wine as he eats dinner with Peter. One character mentions that “he must have got hammered.”

LGBTQ+ - If you aren’t listening, you’ll miss this, but in episode one, Nico (a female friend of Peter’s) points out that a girl named Pearl has a boyfriend. After Peter is shocked and disappointed, he says, “It happened so fast.” Nico responds with, “Trust me, I was really hoping it was going to be one of us.” She also seems to have a crush on Peter at times, maybe she is bisexual in the show? In the live-action show The Runaways, Nico is bisexual.

Scary - There is a large feminine symbiote-looking creature in episodes one and ten. One character overheats a suit of armor he is using, and it burns/melts into his body. You can see scars from this.

Sexual - Peter’s silhouette is seen behind a shower curtain in a couple of episodes as he gets ready for school. He is also seen in his boxers, trying to get dressed.

A boyfriend and girlfriend share a kiss. Peter has a crush on a girl who is 2.5 years older than him and used to babysit him. A joke about skinny dipping is made.

Violence - There is lots of normal animated superhero fighting. However, I will list the more extreme scenes. One guy gets hit in the head by a brick. (Spoiler alert) In episode seven, during a fight, a gang member gets impaled by Scorpion’s stinger. There is no blood, but you see a limp body hanging from his tail. Later in the episode, one character gets stabbed by Scorpion and clobbered multiple times. There is blood in this scene. Blood can be seen on Scorpion’s tail and the person who gets stabbed in multiple places. He is very beat up, bruised, and bleeding.

There are multiple knife fights in this series, but most do not show stabbings or blood, except for one. This scene is when one gang leader stabs a member of an opposing gang. You see him stab the boy and his knife has blood on it.

Other - One character reads tarot cards. The cards are seen in one episode, and then she reads them for someone in a later episode.

Overall:

Seeing It With Your Family

This animated series pushes its TV-PG rating. I was surprised by how many curse words are in it. Are the words a*s and hell not considered curse words anymore? I think the rating should be higher on this one. There is more violence and blood than in previous Spider-Man cartoons.

What I Thought

First, my complaints…

It seems like an odd move to give Peter a very old-school (original) comic look (and using the original theme song and remixing it), but then change his story and supporting cast so much. Lonnie Lincoln is majorly changed and kind of takes the place of a Flash Thompson tyle character, but unlike Flash, he is nice and smart instead of the “dumb jock” bully type, until he joins a gang and is given his traditional villain name. Some characters are race and/or gender swapped. There isn’t a needed reason to do this in the show outside of diversity. Some longtime comic fans may be upset with this. Gwen, MJ, Flash, Betty Bryant, J. Jonah Jameson, and other Spidey mainstays are non-existent. Harry Osborn, though, is present and a good friend to Peter. I miss Harry in the MCU.

Another complaint I have about everything Spider-Man in the last ten years is that he is never on his own doing the superhero thing. He always has other super friends, a guy in the chair, or a mentor. One thing I love about the pre-MCU and pre-Spiderverse days is that Spider-Man always worked on his own and had to figure out how to beat villains on his own while dealing with life. It always made the stakes feel higher and showed us how well Peter could adapt and how smart he was. There is nothing wrong with the mentor or team-type aspects of modern Spider-Man stories, but I miss the solo aspect of the 90s Spider-Man cartoon and even Spectacular Spider-Man. Norman quickly turns from mentor to bossy boss and Spider-Man kind of becomes a security man for Oscorp. I am sure this will bring about issues in future seasons.

Last thing, a male character steals MJ’s line, “Go get them, tiger.” I cringed when he said it. It is bad and I hope there isn’t anything flirty behind it.

Okay, here is what I liked…

They did some genius things with some of Spider-Man’s rogue gallery. One villain, in particular, is used in a very creative way and becomes more of a match for Spidey than he ever has been. I feared for Spider-Man’s life in multiple fight scenes with this character, which I have not done in a while. One of my favorite villains also looks like his original comic book self but gets a cool personality upgrade. The change of the famous line, “with great power comes great responsibility,” by Norman Osborn is powerful and does reflect the the interesting idea of Norman being Peter’s mentor. I didn’t

I found it neat that the writers brought in some lesser-known Marvel characters from other comics into the show. However, I would have liked more of Peter’s original friends.

The writers did great at making Peter a relatable, nerdy, lovable guy. He feels a lot like the Tom Holland Peter Parker. This may be because this was originally an origin story connected to the MCU. Speaking of the MCU, there are several events and characters in this show that seem to come right out of the MCU (for example, the Sokovia Accords and Secretary Ross), but it doesn’t take place in the “sacred timeline.” This could be confusing to some viewers, but know this is not the “sacred timeline.”

There are some very well-written twists in this show that make the story very entraining. The writers took a very familiar story and did some very different and interesting things with it. I am still bitter about The Spectacular Spider-Man being canceled and when I learned this show wouldn’t connect to the larger MCU sacred timeline, I went in with a bad attitude. I didn’t want to like it.

But…

I liked it. It is very well done and proves that there are still a lot of creative, albeit different than the original, things that Marvel can do with the old web-head. I might even say this one is almost as good as the 90s version. Maybe my nostalgia is getting the better of me?