Commentary: ‘Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man’ Hijacks MCU Canon
by Frank Martin
Canon is extremely important to building a story. It’s used as a foundation for which various plots and character arcs can be built. Typically, stories have to build their own canon from scratch. This is how sequels can eventually lead to spin-offs as more and more material is brought into the canon. But Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man did something unique: it essentially used the canon of another universe as a jumping-off point to tell an original story. In this way, the show can get all of the benefits of an existing canon without needing to build it up itself.
In this universe, Peter Parker (Hudson Thames) is bitten by a spider that comes out of the portal while Doctor Strange is fighting what appears to be a symbiote monster. After using his powers in a makeshift suit, his identity is uncovered by Norman Osborn (Colman Domingo), who takes Peter under his wing and tries to mentor into a better hero. Ultimately, Peter ends up splitting from Osborn when he realizes the man is more dangerous than he appears to be.
This story plays out over the backdrop of Captain America: Civil War. In the live-action version of that film, Spider-Man (played there by Tom Holland) is recruited by Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) and is involved in the big airport fight scene. That doesn’t happen in the animated series, so it’s obviously a separate universe. But the fracturing of the Avengers and the Sokovia Accords are firm canon within the show as they are referenced several times. Using the Marvel Cinematic Universe as a jumping off point for the show is immensely helpful. It allows the plot to hit the ground running as it has a canon already built in from the MCU films the viewers are familiar with. So instead of wasting time building backstory, the show can just get to the good stuff.
Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man is now streaming on Disney+.
