Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man shouldn’t have been this good. I went into this show not really knowing what it was, and I didn’t like the animation. I said so, clearly, on this channel. The art style is just not for me right now. But it came through, and I don’t know what to make of that. It turned out really good.

For me it’s the story. If you follow this channel in any way, shape or form, you’ve heard me talk about story. It was the primary reason I thought The Acolyte sucked, even though I liked elements in it. Other people were saying it’s not Star Wars, this and that, and I couldn’t even get there with them, because the story was so catty-wampus. Or horsey, as we like to call it in the industry, meaning that for some crazy reason it just felt off.

MCU Adjacent, and Getting Away With It

This show had a lot of things going against it. It’s MCU adjacent, which means it’s going to have touch points, and in this final run of episodes they were touching things constantly. The Sokovia Accords are in it. It talks about the Chitauri and everybody making the gateways. Doctor Strange has the Time Stone.

None of that is bad. In fact it’s all really good. I like everything that’s being explored and I like the way they’re looking at it. But who knew this was going to be even remotely good?

It turns out Norman Osborn was dirty. Did anybody else see that coming? I mean, aside from the fact that he’s Norman Osborn. I was hoping it wasn’t going to be the case, but it did turn out that way. The short version is that the interns were all coming up with a way to create an Einstein-Rosen bridge. Which is a Stargate. Literally, that’s what they came up with. They came up with the Stargate. That’s when they open the thing and you see the Venom, not Venom, symbiote thing come through.

The Animation Is Still Clunky

I still wasn’t a huge fan. It’s very stiff and tube-like when everyone walks. The only thing that looks really amazing is when he’s being Spider-Man and flying around doing stuff. The web shooters look amazing.

The show’s worth watching. If you haven’t seen it, get past the first two episodes, and I think the story will suck you in the way it did for me. The story is amazing.

A lot of people have questions about who Nico is, and I think clearly Nico is from the Runaways. If you haven’t read that, it’s a cool book and it’s a cool group, and I think she’s going to do a good job being that character.

With Great Power Comes Great Respect

Back to Norman wanting to do things. Call him dirty if you want, but what he really is here is not safe.

I feel like we were waiting for that other shoe to drop. Peter was going to be dealing with a bad guy, and Norman was going to be the one saying go ahead, Peter, kill him, do the thing. What we got instead was Norman telling him, last time, listen, I need you at a certain level, you’ve got to figure something out. Peter starts stressing out about it. And when Peter goes to see him to apologize, Norman says to him, “With great power comes great respect.”

Which is not the line. But I think it’s interesting that they’re moving in that direction.

I had a conversation with Salty on the show the other day about what the deal is with Peter, and what he’s ultimately going to end up doing or not doing. I feel like this could very well be the universe from Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. He and America Chavez are going through the different dimensions, and at one point he becomes animated. I have a feeling that was this world. I could be wrong, and I’m just sitting here connecting dots, but I don’t see why it wouldn’t have been.

The Suit, Doc, and Iron Man

I know they’re setting up a season two, and I think that’s good. We finally get the Spider-Man suit, the actual suit, and I loved it. It looked great. It’s one of the reasons I got this shirt out. Yes, the shirt is Tom Holland’s Spider-Man, but this suit is about as close to a Tom Holland Spider-Man as you can get.

The voice actor playing Doctor Strange is still doing an amazing job conveying Doctor Strange. And we got to see Iron Man.

Oh my God, I loved the scene when Doc is walking out past all the special forces people and the police, and he’s got his octopus arms, which aren’t attached yet, doing stuff. Then we get the callback to that at the end as well.

We got a really good impression of William Hurt playing General Ross. Then we get Tony Stark in the Iron Man suit, and they leaned into it. There’s kind of a little rock riff, he lands, and the guy’s doing an impression. I think it might even be the voice actor who plays Tony in the What If series.

How many of you saw the old Ultimate Avengers cartoon? I really dug that version of Tony Stark. He just had a regular mustache. That guy isn’t trying to do an actual Tony Stark impression. What he does have is the cockiness and the smarminess, and it really works in that context of being Tony Stark. I thought that was great.

Peter Is His Own Self-Fulfilling Prophecy

At the very end he’s talking to Doctor Strange, and you find out what happened when Strange was fighting the Venom creature that Norman let in from the other side of the galaxy. The creature attacks Strange as he’s using the Time Stone, and that opens the green portal in the floor. The creature goes through, and we end up back in episode 1. The spider comes out from there, and that’s the spider that ends up biting Peter.

So Peter is his own self-fulfilling prophecy.

I don’t know that I like that. The biggest part of this has always been that Peter Parker’s bit by a radioactive spider. Cut and dry enough. When you start adding to people’s origin stories, you begin to change the character in small ways. I don’t know that that’s the right direction.

Where Aunt May Has Been Going

Then at the very, very end you find out about Aunt May. All those times we see her, it’s I’ve got to run to the store, I’ve got to run here, I’ve got to run there. Most of the time you’re thinking to yourself, well, clearly May is just an absentee guardian.

She’s not. She’s visiting Peter’s father. “May, how’s my son doing?”

The interesting part is the Ultimate Spider-Man comic book. They put together a very elaborate story in that book about Peter’s family and his parents, and you don’t know his parents are alive.

I wouldn’t be surprised if they introduced Miles Morales next season, even if he’s just a kid on the side. I know Sony has sort of got the market cornered on Miles Morales with Into the Spider-Verse. But I feel like there’s a world where you can bring Miles in, make him part of this greater storyline, and then have Peter hand it off. It doesn’t fit the Steve Ditko look or any of that, but I think it works.

And there’s the other possibility I’d love to see. When they finally do get to Beyond the Spider-Verse, maybe we end up getting this Peter Parker joining them as part of the whole spider thing.

There you go. Now you know. And if knowing is half the battle, you’re halfway to being a know-it-all yourself.

The Verdict

Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man is a solid 8 and a half out of 10 on the Know-It-All Index for the series.

Overall, the series landed for me. It started out slow, but it worked in a lot of ways.

What did you think of the series? What did you think of the characters and the characterizations? Put your own Know-It-All Index in the comments on the video above. I’d love to have this conversation with you.