Summary

  • Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man will delve into Peter Parker's origins, though Norman Osborn being his mentor in the show risks repeating the MCU's Spider-Man mentor story.
  • Marvel's new animated Spider-Man project is still set to involve Iron Man in some capacity based on concept art.
  • The series will explore Peter's growth as a hero, hopefully creating a new and fresh feeling storyline.

past Spider-Man films. The studio ultimately decided not to make a Spider-Man origin story and instead focus on Peter’s growth under the mask. A good chunk of Peter’s MCU character development has revolved around Iron Man’s presence in his life, making Tony Stark a crucial part of the MCU Spider-Man’s story.

D23 2024: The Ultimate Disney Fan Event. The presentation, where Screen Rant was in attendance, teased visuals from Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man. This included concept art of the characters that will be in the series, in which Iron Man is notably one of the heroes featured. Although the series isn’t going to have Iron Man as a mentor to Peter as he was in the MCU, the character is all but confirmed to make an appearance in some way.

Related
Marvel's 10 Biggest Reveals From D23 From Daredevil To Ironheart

D23 offered another chance for Marvel Studios to show off its slate, bringing lots of reveals for Ironheart, Daredevil, and movies.

2

Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man Puts A Spin On The MCU's Peter Parker Story

Spider-Man No Way Home's Willem Dafoe as Green Goblin smiling

While the MCU’s Spider-Man story didn’t feature his origins, Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man will. The Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man teaser footage that screened at the Marvel Animation D23 showed Doctor Strange being the catalyst for Spider-Man’s superhero origin. When a monster shows up through a portal, Doctor Strange arrives to save Peter and send the monster back through. However, a spider that manages to escape ends up biting Peter, which is how he will get his powers. The young hero will once again need a Marvel mentor to help him harness his new abilities, but it won’t be Iron Man this time.

Marvel revealed at D23 that the premise of Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man will feature a situation similar to a What If...? episode. The series will explore a world where Norman Osborn becomes Peter’s mentor instead of Tony. Norman is known notoriously as the villain Green Goblin, so his teaching methods will undoubtedly be more questionable than Tony’s. Iron Man will still play some sort of role in the show based off of the D23’s presentation, though considering that other Marvel heroes were also featured in the series concept art, it could just be a minor appearance.

Marvel's Spider-Man Stories Are Still Clinging Too Much To Iron Man

One of the biggest MCU Spider-Man criticisms is that his story relies on Iron Man too much. Their relationship worked in the early days of Spider-Man’s MCU story, as past iterations of Peter hadn’t had a mentor like that before. However, the MCU’s Spider-Man started becoming Iron Man’s sidekick rather than his own hero. While Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man has Norman as the mentor instead, it doesn’t make it much different than the MCU. Switching out the mentor for another character doesn’t automatically make it a good Spider-Man story, as Peter’s development still hinges on another person.

Related
Iron Man's Death Can Finally Make Spider-Man A Real Avenger, 8 Years After His MCU Debut

Iron Man's death can actually be beneficial to Spider-Man, as he can finally become a real Avenger and interact with other team .

Bringing Spider-Man into the animation world should bring a wholly new story with it, not a revamped version of the MCU’s current iteration. Even without Iron Man being Peter’s mentor in the series, it feels as if Marvel is still clinging to a story of the past. Spider-Man: Far From Home forced Peter to step up as a hero without Tony’s guidance after the latter’s Avengers: Endgame sacrifice, showing that he’s capable of carrying a story alone. Alongside his mentorship with Norman, Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man will hopefully show Peter’s independence as Spider-Man too.

03180212_poster_w780.jpg

Your Rating

Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man
Release Date
January 29, 2025
Network
Disney+
Writers
Charlie Neuner
  • Headshot Of Hudson Thames
    Hudson Thames
    Peter Parker / Spider-Man (voice)
  • Headshot Of Kari  Wahlgren
    May Parker (voice)

WHERE TO WATCH

Streaming

Seasons
1
Streaming Service(s)
Disney+

MCU Movies