There’s a certain sense that Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man is playing the long game when it comes to offering up a new take on the mythos of one of comicdom’s most endearing characters. After all, while the first episode gave us a thorough introduction of Peter Parker’s new playmates, his fateful spider bite and a brief time skip to show him doing his spider-thang in a prototype super suit, there’s a feeling that the showrunners are painstakingly building up this new normal in order to wait for the optimal moment to tear it all down.
We were left on a cliffhanger when the first episode introduced us to Colman Domingo’s Norman Osborn in a revised version of Peter Parker’s entrance into the MCU in Captain America: Civil War; but instead of following up this epic twist by leaning fully into it, we actually get some more introductions as Peter starts his potentially disastrous internship at Oscorp. If all this wold building pays off, we could have the most expansive playing field Spider-Man has ever enjoyed, but is the show neglecting the tree for the forrest?
After regaining his composure at the sight of the obscenely successful captain of industry, Norman Osborn, standing in his living room, Peter Oarker is further stunned by the fact that Norman has been keeping an eye on his scholarly progress and hope to headhunt him for the internship project at his world famous company. Ever the science nerd, Peter naturally agrees but soon finds that his time is rapidly getting filled up with conflicting schedules. For a start, the internship is extracurricular in nature, so hanging out with best friend Nico or taking advantage of the friendly nature of his lab partner/football star Lonnie Lincoln is immediately going to be compromised. But more awkwardly still, he now has a whole new cast of characters entering his life thanks to his spot at Oscorp which include fellow interns the frosty Jeanne Foucault, friendl Wakandan Asha and the egocentric Amadeus Cho; and scientists Carla Connors and Bentley Wittman.
Of course, there’s that third thing that takes up a sizable chunk of Peter Parker’s time and that’s climbing into a skin tight onesie and using his spider powers to swing across the city fighting crime and with three, completely separate entities taking up all of his time, there’s bound to be some overlap. In fact, after ducking out during a fifteen minute break to brawl with an armoured arsonist calling himself Butane, Pete finds that old Parker luck getting him in trouble with workmates and friends already.
However, all of this pales into insignificance when he’s called up to Osborn’s office for a meeting and while Parker is expecting to get chewed out for his tardiness, Norman shocks him with something far more devastating.
While it may seem that the three star reviews I’ve given the first two episodes of Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man so fact is an indication that I’m not enjoying the show, I can assure you that I am – very much so, in fact – however, I just can’t shake the feeling that we’re only being shown a glimpse of the power the show has stored up in its irradiated muscles. Much like Spidey himself, holding back punching a pickpocket with all of his might in fear of taking his head clean off, the show feels like its building some kinetic energy to release it at the opportune time. As a result, the show is taking us through the standard, basic, Peter Parker protocols in order to lay out his entire supporting cast before taking the stabilisers off. As a result, “The Parker Luck” is essentially a second set up episode that does for the interns at Oscorp what the first episode did for his friends at high school. I may be mistaken, but in only two episodes, we may be on track for the most expansive supporting cast for a Spider-Man project that I’ve ever experienced and we having even started including more established supervillains into the mix yet – however, much like having characters present who have seismic fates in common spider-lore (Lonnie and Norman possibly becoming Tombstone and the Green Goblin, for example), we have a whole other clutch of characters who might have possible super entanglements lurking around the corner. Carla Connors may be a gender swapped Curt Connors, but that doesn’t mean she isn’t turning into the lizard any times soon; similarly, Amadeus Cho may potentially have a date with some gamma rays to become an alternate Hulk and abrasive scientist Bentley Wittman seems to destined to become the Wizard. It’s this pre-existing knowledge of the long histories of some of these characters that often makes YFNS-M some much fun and hints at all that future potential, but thankfully, those not infused with nerd-level pre-knowlege are granted a perky, well rounded episode that moves like lightning.
Hudson James still manages to may Parker his eager-to-please, eager self and we get a taster of what Colman Domingo is going to bring as Norman Osborn’s arc gradually ramps up but all that pre-knowledge I was mentioning earlier pays off in spades whenever he’s on screen. It still seems like the show is trying to play Peter’s MCU Iron Man arc from Spider-Man: Homecoming but withba far darker twist and even though we still get minimal Osborn, the fact that a potentially horrible shoe could drop at any minute is what’s keeping me hooked right now as the show continues to lay down its sizable status quo.
In fact, a particularly juicy item of footwear plummets at the end of the episode when Norman reveals that he’s figured out Peter’s secret identity thanks to some CCTV footage and the headstrong youth choosing to pull a costume change in an Oscorp stairwell and I truly hope we get a full on conversation here instead of the rather chirpy chat they have at the beginning of the episode.
Of course, not all of the episode is devoted to establishing the wealth of supporting players and we take some time out from the endless introductions for Spidey to have himself a good old super-brawl with a costumed arsonist calling himself Butane. While the villain seems like a primitive cross between Iron Man’s Mark I suit and that flamethrower dude from the opening of Lethal Weapon 4, the fight proves to be the exact type of witty, inventive action sequence that the character needs. Not only is Peter desperately trying to save the animals in a nearby pet shop roasting in the fire – yes, even the fish – but we find that the appropriately hotheaded Butane has set fire to the wrong building, meaning that he was hired to do so. The plot thickens. Or burns. Or something.
All this stuff will no doubt unravel soon enough and once again I can’t wait for it to do so, because I believe that when it does, there’s the high possibility that the show will become absolutely amazing – or spectacular, or whatever Spidey-centric adjective you choose to apply. But while the show is still stacking up the building blocks of this world (we haven’t even introduced the Daily Bugle yet) it’s unable to truly cut loose with the full power of its responsibility.
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