Home Blog Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man: “Amazing Fantasy” & “The Parker Luck” Episode Recaps

Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man: “Amazing Fantasy” & “The Parker Luck” Episode Recaps

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Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man is the newest animated series featuring Marvel’s web-slinging hero, which debuted this week on Disney+. Focusing on Peter Parker/Spider-Man’s earliest days of crime fighting, albeit in a “what if…?” kind of scenario (considering some of the changes made to his classic origin, as well as to his supporting cast of characters). An African-American Norman Osborn who acts more like a mentor (instead of a tormentor) for Peter? Or Nico Minoru of the Runaways as Pete’s best friend? Some of these random additions feel a bit weird but overall, the show does a fairly good job at presenting them in a pretty natural way. This week, we’ll discuss the two episode series premiere, which consists of the episodes titled “Amazing Fantasy” and “The Parker Luck”.

“Amazing Fantasy” features yet another version of Spider-Man’s origin, this time with the spider responsible for his powers arriving from an alternate world, due to Doctor Strange (voiced by Robin Atkin Downes) fighting a symbiote. Thus, this whole series technically takes place in an alternate world, but then again, you could consider each animated series as taking place in different continuities. So far, the actual origin of this spider (who seemingly survived to bite others as it sneaks into another kid’s backpack) wasn’t touched on. Neither was Doctor Strange’s random appearance, in a world where no one seems to know who he actually is. Though other characters like Iron Man and Captain America already seem to exist. It remains to be seen if there will be any kind of follow up on these events in future episodes. But as you’d expect, Spider-Man’s origin is the focus here. There are other changes, like Uncle Ben already dead before the spider bite, and while some stuff has been expanded on in the tie-in prequel comics, I’ll only cover the events shown in the cartoon at this point (although I will add allusions and trivia from the classic comics, when needed).

A few months later, Peter is now wearing a home-made Spider-Man costume and tries helping out wherever he is needed, and still fails to get to school on time. On one occasion, he saves a young Harry Osborn (voiced by Zeno Robinson) from some live-streaming bullies, and then takes part in a high speed car chase (without a car). On another, he catches a thief who stole some money from a pizza place; he returns the money but learning the thief’s crying confession that she only took the money because she was down on her luck, he suggests to owner to not press any charges. You get the feeling Spidey tries using his powers to help out in the neighborhood without asking for a reward (though a free pizza is always welcome!), and also has some morals and principles.

Peter’s highschool life is similarly complex. Despite his awkwardness, he gets along well enough with his friend Nico Minoru (voiced by Grace Song), who has a pretty sarcastic attitude, but I personally enjoyed her portrayal here. Pete also has a crush on Pearl Pangan (Cathy Ang), who used to babysit him although she was only a couple of years older than him. Just when he gets the courage to ask her out and convince her he’s a grown-up, he learns Pearl is already in a relationship with the school’s star football player, Lonnie Lincoln (Eugene Byrd). Peter is also teamed up with Lonnie for a school project and as a result learns that he’s actually a pretty cool and friendly guy. Though what Peter doesn’t see is how hard Lonnie’s life seems to be.

As some viewers might realize, all of these are characters from the comics… Nico is from the Runaways, Pearl could become Wave, and most notably Lonnie is Tombstone, although it remains to be seen just how or if he will end up like his comic book counterpart on this show. As long as I’m covering comic books allusions, I’ll also mention I like how the episode title, “Amazing Fantasy” comes from the comic where the first Spidey story was published, back in 1962.

The episode ends with Peter coming home and meeting Norman Osborn (voiced by Colman Domingo), in a scene reminiscent of him meeting Tony Stark in Captain America: Civil War. It’s a pretty ominous way to end the story, but it works. The show was initially supposed to be set in the mainstream Marvel Cinematic Universe, highlighting Spider-Man’s first few adventures prior to him meeting with Iron Man and the others. But with time the show developed into an alternate continuity, with only some influences of the MCU persisting. I personally think this is for the better, as setting it in specific time periods of the MCU would have limited the things they could have done on the show.

“The Parker Luck” continues where the previous episode left off, with Norman offering Peter an internship at OsCorp, realizing his potential. It could be that Norman has some ulterior motive here as well, considering the show is supposed to stay somewhat true to the characters’ background in the comics, but it remains to be seen. Peter gladly accepts and is eager to start the next day, although he still has to foil someone’s attempt at a robbery, and attends the start of Lonnie’s football game at school along the way.

At OsCorp, he meets other, brilliant youngsters such as Aisha from Wakanda, Jeanne Foucault, and of course Amadeus Cho (voiced by Aleks Le). Similar to the previous episode, these are all characters from the comics, with Jeanne being known as Finesse, and Amadeus known as “Mastermind Excello” (and later becoming the Totally Awesome Hulk). Co-incidentally, this is about the third Spider-Man animated series in a row where Amadeus appears. He was on Ultimate Spider-Man (where he became the Iron Spider), and the 2017 Marvel’s Spider-Man cartoon, as Hulk. Technically, the pattern was interrupted by the Spidey & His Amazing Friends series aimed at preschoolers, but as far as “all ages” (or whatever you want to call them cartoons go), the trend continues. Their supervisor is the grumpy Bentley Wittman, who is the Wizard from the comics and a foe of the Fantastic Four, usually depicted as the leader of the villainous Frightful Four. Peter is then assigned to Doctor Connors… Carla Connors that is, a black, one-armed, gender-bent version of the classic character who could become the Lizard any moment now.

Peter’s day gets even more complicated when he misses out on joining his school mates at a victory party (they won the football game… and Lonnie considers Pete was his good luck charm), and has to rush out of OsCorp as Spider-Man to stop someone from burning down a building. The villain in question is Butane (voiced by Jake Green), who is a pretty dangerous opponent. He was being paid by a land developer to burn down the block so it can be bought back cheap, and also made sure the place was empty before starting so that no one will get hurt. The only problem was, he got the wrong address. Their fight ends inside a pet store, of all places. There Spidey also has to protect pets from the flames but as you can imagine, he comes out victorious. It should also be noted that he notices an OsCorp logo on Butane’s weapon, hinting that Norman might be up to no good. Nico did try and warn him that no one could get that rich without making some shady stuff along the way.

Things aren’t over yet though as Peter’s absence started a sort of panic back at OsCorp. Once he’s back, he is called right into Norman’s office, where he pleads that he knows that he messed up, but vows to do better if given another chance. Norman simply makes him aware that he now knows he’s Spider-Man. He was caught on a security camera when he changed his costume inside the building. Another ominous ending. It might become a recurring theme on the show, for each one to end like this, though not all of them might feature Norman.

Overall, I think the show leaves off a pretty good first impression. The animation could be better; it’s decent and there are some cool action scenes spread throughout (like Doctor Strange’s debut, or Spidey’s fight with Butane), but other times it’s less than stellar and the static people in the background get a bit annoying. I did kind of like the comic book panels animation used a few times. The character designs look good enough, I don’t really have a lot to comment on that aspect. The show is going for a more simplified look, somewhat similar to what Spectacular Spider-Man and the 2017 animated series tried out before, but still different enough so you can tell them apart. It’s also going for a “retro” look most of the time, including the opening credits which likewise feature comic cover art for the title screen, and the opening song is a remixed version of the song from the original, 1967 animated series. Spider-Man’s initial costume looks a bit weird but that is done on purpose, more or less. He’s supposed to try out multiple Spidey suits over the course of the show, so there’s that. The writing is pretty good; these first two episodes did well in balancing the plots and setting up the future ones. The humor worked for the most part, for example I liked Nico’s attitude, the bullies making fun of Spidey’s costume, or Butane’s goof.

Although the main thing that’s missing, is Uncle Ben. It would have probably been too much to ask for him to still be alive, but what I mean is one of the most important things about Spider-Man is that he was indirectly responsible for his uncle’s death, and had to learn the true meaning of having great responsibilities once you have great powers. Granted the MCU didn’t exactly show us this either, but I think the live-action movies still handled it a bit better. It’s a weird thing to try and remove from Spidey’s origin. Other than that, Spidey is still true to his comic book roots so far, but is kind of missing the same motivation that lead him to try and help wherever he is needed that he had in the original stories. Another omission is Mary-Jane Watson, or even a character based on the “MJ” from the MCU. Peter’s love problems have been addressed though, so it’s a start. I don’t really even mind the highschool setting; while it would be nice to see a more mature Peter in animation, the school supporting cast seems a pretty well rounded group and I presume they will be developed more throughout the show’s run.

Voice acting is solid. Hudson Thames sounds good as Peter Parker/Spider-Man, a role he previously played on the What If…? animated series. Colman Domingo is a nice choice to play Norman Osborn, and he does a fine job with the few lines of dialogue he had at this point. It’s a role he could easily also play in live-action. The ensemble cast works and their interactions are entertaining enough. It’s another, more serialized show so it remains to be seen (and heard) how things will progress… especially if some of Peter’s present pals could become his enemies down the line. As for pals, Nico is a stand out. This is her animation debut, though she did appear in live-action previously on the Runaways series Marvel had on Hulu a few years back. Aunt May is voiced by Kari Wahlgren, who usually does well with voice acting; this May is similarly inspired by the MCU version and is a much younger aunt than you would normally expect.

We’re only two episodes into the show (well, and 2 issues of the tie-in comic), but I think this new continuity is off to a pretty good start. Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man is now streaming on Disney+ with new episodes premiering on Wednesdays.

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