Review: Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man “Duel with the Devil; Scorpion Rising; Tangled Web”

OVERVIEW (SPOILERS)

Peter faces his first great challenge as Spider-Man, Nico and Harry get closer, Lonnie decides his path, and Norman’s priorities become clear.

OUR TAKE

Time sure flies when you’re having fun, or when a streaming service is rushing out handfuls of episodes at strange rates, because we’re now at week three of four for Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man! Maybe this is just my viewing preferences clashing with the ever changing models of streaming show release schedules, but I really would have preferred this show be released on a one or two episode a week model, if only to better savor certain plot developments or character progressions. Two weeks ago, we were beginning to get to know this new Spider-Man show, and next week it’s over for the year. Space it out a bit, guys! At least next week we’ll only be dealing with two, but wow, this really went by so fast. Anyway, this week was mainly build up to the finale, with more things becoming clear about Norman’s real plans for how to use Peter, Lonnie digging himself deeper in with the 110th Street Gang, Peter getting his first big loss against Scorpion, and the biggest surprise: Nico and Harry possibly showing signs of romance! Oh, and a bunch of cameos from other non-Spider Marvel characters such as Secretary (typically General) Ross, Iron Man, and Daredevil, the latter of whom being played by his live action actor Charlie Cox. And what do ya know, two of those characters are going to be in upcoming live-action MCU releases this and next month!

But these cameos are not simply fan-service for general Marvel fans…I mean, they definitely ARE that, but they are ALSO a way of showing how lived in this show’s world is, with Peter’s encounter with Daredevil being his first time (since becoming Spider-Man) that he has met with another hero, even if he wasn’t aware of it at the time. This was pretty neat, and Cox did fine in his brief appearance, but the main things to keep track of in this batch are how Peter’s commitment to being a hero has both strengthened and hurt his support network, mainly because of the secrets he keeps for various reasons. So, basically your usual Spider-Man problems, but handled better than the past couple shows have done it. Meanwhile, Lonnie is basically on the path to becoming his comic self, which we’ll likely see happen in the finale. A shame that the Doc Ock stuff was dealt with so quickly but I have little doubt that he’ll be back in some capacity. Also not sure how to feel about Nico and Harry, but I guess I’ll just see how it plays out. Now we wait for the finale!