Category: Comics

We’re back with Issue #2 of the Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man prequel comic! (Click Here if you missed the write-up for Issue #1!) Now we didn’t get as many reveals about this universe’s lore as we did in the first issue, but we got to see Spider-Man in action for more or less the first time. Without anymore delay, let’s get into it Brigadier!

We begin with the well known wrestling match between the new masked figure Spider-Man (in his OG wrestling outfit from Amazing Fantasy #15) and Crusher Hogan. But as we established last time, Uncle Ben is already dead and gone. So the placement of this historic match is definitely off course from the usual canon.

It’s being run by a rich kid named Trip in his parents’ backyard, who so aptly named it Trip’s Tournament of Titans. Peter reveals that he specifically wanted to be called Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man because people are scared of spiders, and he’s trying to be ‘approachable’ and ‘local’. Good to know they’re actually working the title into the plot as opposed to the fact that every other Spider-Man TV show and movie have taken all of the usual adjectives!

Peter mentions he’s fighting for back rent, remember last ish we established he’s dirt poor in this universe. After getting walloped by Crusher, Peter, determined to win the cash, decides to go all out and chucks the poor guy into the stratosphere.

Peter does catch Crusher, thankfully, and informs Trip to wire the winnings to an account he gave them, which is smart because that’s a problem Peter faced in the original books. Spider-Man once got a check he couldn’t cash because it was made out to Spider-Man, and the bank can’t do anything with that. After Crusher accuses the match of being rigged, Spider-Man deposits him into a trash can, and declares that until he figures out exactly how strong he is, it’s “Spider-Man no more”, leading to a clever little callback from the famous scene.

So after tossing around a couple of water heaters to test his strength and stick ’em powers, Peter brainstorms he needs a way to snag things out of reach, like Crusher was, and take down bad guys without hurting them. This of course leads him to developing the Web Shooters, with his chemistry nerd knowledge and a little left over cash from the match. First try is an explosive bust, which then gives him the idea for the self-dissolving agent…

… which he quickly discovers needs to dissolve faster than two hours because he hilariously ends up stuck to a criminal he takes down. I know it varies from iteration to iteration, but typically Spider-Man’s webs dissolve in one hour.

The next day Peter catches up with Nico at their new school. It’s called Rockford T. Bales High. Now I’m not sure if this is where he’s going to be in the show, but Midtown was destroyed in that mysterious battle, so if it isn’t repaired, this is where Pete and Nico are going to school. Peter already ends up on Trip’s bad side for no reason, he goes to the same school apparently. But Nico gets him to back off and the two agree that they’ll be unstoppable if they stick together. That was a sweet little moment solidifying their friendship, I think.

That night, Peter perfects the Web Shooters and hits the town, preventing a car accident and declaring himself officially Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man. Which doesn’t make Silvermane very happy at all. So he makes good on the threat from last issue and calls in the infamous classic Spidey villains: The Enforcers! They more or less resemble their comic counterparts, and they fit very well with the 60’s-inspired aesthetic they say the show is going for.

Peter switches up his outfit a bit to the hockey jersey we see in the show, no emblem yet but he’ll figure out something that ‘says Spider-Man’ later. He finds that the web tank’s a bit big, having trouble fitting through the window, so that’s probably why he eventually goes for the horizontal design on his lower back we’ve seen in the trailers.

While on patrol he happens upon The Enforcers shaking down a shopkeep, noting he’s got an instinct, maybe a sense (get it?), to find people in danger. He gets into it with Ox and Fancy Dan, and I really like this fight. He starts strong, but Fancy Dan easily registers Spider-Man’s Thwipping gesture as a ‘tell’, and gets the drop on him, while Ox joins the walloping.

But Spider-Man adapts mid-fight. As he says, they’re pros, but he can do things they can’t. He relies on his Spider-Sense. He adjusts the kind of web he uses to catch Fancy Dan. He packs a bit more of a punch to pummel Ox. It’s really great stuff that makes watching Spider-Man fight so amazing!

Unfortunately, Montana gets involved, severing Spider-Man’s web tubes and letting The Enforcers get the upper hand once again.

The issue ends with poor Spider-Man, defeated, in the middle of the street, surrounded by The Enforcers. An honest-to-goodness “To Be Continued!” if I’ve ever seen one!

And that’s all we’ve got for this one. Big takeaways are notably designing the webs, the wrestling match, and his new, maybe permanent school. I didn’t mention earlier, but Aunt May shows up a few times, who Peter is becoming uncomfortable with lying to, the ease of it bothering him more than anything. But that fight between a novice Spider-Man and The Enforcers was the highlight of the issue for me. It was such a good comic book battle that took me back to the old days of reading Spider-Man! More of that, please, in the comic and the show!

Next issue the fight obviously continues, as he’s featured on the cover taking on the three troublemakers. Solicits have it dropping February 19, which is well after the show’s January 29th premiere date.

I don’t know if this was planned and coordinated with the show’s release schedule to add context or if it’s still supposed to be filling in that time gap they mentioned this story takes place in. But either way, I’ll probably still do a write-up. For the show itself I plan on doing a Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man Aftershow on Thursdays, so stay tuned to Face Front’s YouTube channel for more info on that. I hope you guys are enjoying these, I can’t wait for the next issue, and of course the show! Until next time, Face Front True Believers, and I’ll see you in the Multiverse!

Hey there True Believers! While we impatiently await Marvel Animation’s Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man, coming to Disney+ January 29, Marvel has so graciously decided to satiate us with a prequel comic series (by Christos Gage), of which I’ve read the first issue! What makes this special is that this is the first glimpse into the world of this new version of Peter Parker! I learned quite a bit from this issue, and there seem to be quite a few differences in the Spider-Man lore we all know. So, let’s break it all down.

We open with poor Peter getting tossed off a building by a man I immediately clocked as Man Mountain Marko (I was right, by the way, but I’ll get back to that). Pete’s in his Mk1 Spidey suit we’ve seen in promos and on the cover of this very comic. But before he meets his doom, we flash back…

… To Midtown High. Which has been destroyed. (This is probably the result of a battle between Dr. Strange and -maybe- Shathra, as described in the D23 footage.) The comic doesn’t tell us because the scene is clearly going to be in the show, we’re told as much in an author’s note. But in the aftermath, Peter meets Nico Minoru (from the Runaways), gets bitten by a spider, then passes out for a second.

Now here’s what caught my attention. Peter doesn’t want to go to the ER for money concerns (he’s broke, broke in this universe) and because he and May “spent enough time in hospitals”. After which May insinuates Ben is already dead (before Peter was bitten!), and that he would be upset if he was the reason Peter couldn’t take care of himself.

Not only this, but Peter later confides in Nico that at his old school, before High School (remember, the show was once called Freshman Year) he came to be known as “the poor kid whose uncle died”. So I’m guessing that Uncle Ben wasn’t murdered. I think he got sick, was hospitalized for a long time, costing the Parkers a lot of money, then died.

This is obviously a major departure from your standard Peter Parker Spider-Man fare, so I’m quite curious to see how this shakes out in forming his identity as a hero. Moving on, Peter and Nico decide to investigate the explosion at Midtown, which they discover happened after the chaos that brought the spider bite, and deduce it was likely caused by Silvio Manfredi (aka Silvermane), who’s been trying to buy up Midtown’s land.

I’m not sure if Silvermane’s going to carry over to the show, or be dealt with in the comic, but it’s good to see him included in some new Spidey media. After that, some cleanup guys show up to get rid of all traces to Manfredi, and end up chasing after Peter. He’d used his Spider-Sense and reflexes earlier to save a cat and catch Nico sneaking up on him, but now he really gets to use his powers.

First of all, I love how Silvermane’s guys are like, unabashed mobsters. Like, “shuddup” and “so long, sucker” mobsters. And second, Peter kind of fumbling through the fight but handing it to Silvermane’s guys was a good sequence. I can’t explain it, but Peter Spider-Manning in civilian clothes is always something I love to see.

After a narrow escape, he and Nico decide to keep quiet about Manfredi as not to endanger their families. Nico has a foster mom because I’m guessing she’s already run away (she mentions LA a lot) and the whole ‘Mom is a supervillain with the Staff of One’ is a lot of baggage to bring into what is ultimately Peter’s story.

So Peter decides that if he wants to pursue Silvermane, he’s got to be someone else… Spider-Man? Perhaps? The symbolic mask on the floor beneath Pete there seems to indicate so.

Meanwhile at Silvermane Hair Products for Men Inc. (which is a hilariously perfect front for Silvermane’s operation) Silvermane is appalled at the idea of a superhero in Queens. He mentions the Avengers stick to, essentially, Avenger-level threats, meaning they exist in this universe already (Peter is shown to be fond of Captain America). Then he mentions that he doesn’t want what’s happened in Hell’s Kitchen to happen on his turf. We know Charlie Cox is back and voicing Daredevil for the show, so not only is his reputation already up and running, but he’s become a problem for criminals by this point as well.

Silvermane then tells the man, the size of a mountain, named Marko (told you) that he needs Peter dealt with in a very public “send a message” kind of way. And he orders him to summon The Enforcers. The lasso wielding Montana, the dapper Fancy Dan, and the brutish Ox, for the uninitiated. So I’m pretty excited to see what they’re like in this new Spider-Man universe!

That’s where the issue ends, and we get a tease for the next issue of Peter in his wrestling outfit reminiscent of the one worn in Amazing Fantasy #15, fighting against presumably Crusher Hogan, but so many things have changed I don’t want to assume anything!

Uncle Ben dead before the spider bite. He’s best friends with Nico Minouru. He may not be going to Midtown (if Silvermane isn’t stopped and they can’t rebuild). So much to wrap my head around! Not having context for a lot of this made the story a little jarring, but this isn’t strictly a prequel. Christos Gage said on Twitter that they’re filling in a time jump that takes place in episode 1 of the show.

Word is Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man #1 will get a second printing! Thanks to everyone who picked it up yesterday! Eric Gapstur, Jim Campbell, Joe Caramagna and I had a blast doing it. BTW it’s not entirely a prequel…there’s a time jump in episode 1, and we fill it in. https://t.co/qDyAhKCK7F

— Christos Gage (@Christosgage) December 12, 2024

As our first little glimpse into this new Spider-Man world, I definitely have a lot of questions and am very curious to see the story they’re telling. I’ll let you guys know what I find out in issue #2 when it drops, and I can’t wait to watch the show when it comes out! Until then, Face Front True Believers, and I’ll see you in the Multiverse!