Marvel I’m Begging You
Marvel has the perfect opportunity to make the MCU's newest Iron Man replacement a villain in 2025 - but I'm hoping, despite it all, that they might not. The MCU timeline has featured a considerable number of characters who were only revealed later down the line to be a villain, with this trend having started all the way back in 2008 with Iron Man's initial twist reveal that Obadiah Stane had actually been plotting his downfall. Since then, characters like Eternals' Ikaris have ensured that this tradition stays alive, keeping audiences on their toes in different ways.
With that said, the MCU having pulled this off so consistently means that it's able to sometimes do the exact opposite for an equally exciting effect - with villains like Loki and Nebula becoming heroes to great effect in their respective on-screen arcs. With this backdrop in mind, there seems to be plenty of reasons to believe the MCU's newest Iron Man replacement in Marvel's first 2025 release could become the villain we may all be expecting them to become - but also plenty of reason for me to hope that they might end up surprising us in a different way instead.
Green Goblin Is Spider-Man's New Mentor In Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man
Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man's universe is shown to be very similar to the main MCU world, but one of its most notable changes is that Iron Man's presence in Peter Parker's life as a rich mentor figure who's able to help equip him with tech is taken over by Norman Osborn in this universe, with Tony Stark having seemingly never met Spider-Man in the MCU show's world. Norman works out Spider-Man's secret identity roughly as quickly as Tony did, and offers to help Peter in his endeavors to protect New York, showing respect for his efforts thus far.
While Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man episode 4 demonstrates that Norman is by no means a perfect mentor for Spider-Man - with the majority of his suit replacement ideas serving as more of a further problem for the hero to face than an active help, and his schedule much like Tony's being too packed for him to be around for Peter all the time - it's clear Osborn genuinely cares about giving Spider-Man support. His decision to get Harry in as Peter's point of call while Norman's away reinforces this further, underscoring his commitment to providing meaningful assistance to the young vigilante.
The only real issue with all of this is that Norman Osborn is, in almost every Marvel universe, one of Spider-Man's biggest villains: the Green Goblin. As an incredibly wealthy entrepreneur with some extremely high-grade technology - and an interest in superhero suits that could be used to build something very different down the line - the stage does already seem set for the Green Goblin to emerge. However, there is a chance we happen to be watching one of the very few Norman Osborn variants who doesn't go evil, and I'm starting to hope that's the case.
Why Norman Osborn Being Spider-Man's Mentor & Ally Works So Well For The Story
Giving Spider-Man Norman Osborn as a key ally makes Peter's hero journey all the more interesting because it has clear parallels with the main MCU Spider-Man's journey, but brings in some key differences that show a fascinating look at what could have been. Making Green Goblin this Peter's version of Iron Man adds an interesting dimension in terms of suggesting Spider-Man's different bond could lead him in a very different direction - both in terms of his character arc and things like his suits - and also raises major questions about what this Spider-Man's dynamic with the Avengers may look like.
That said, the fact we know Norman could go rogue any moment also makes the show's story better in terms of keeping a level of tension in even the most jovial of scenes. While Peter seems to trust Norman implicitly, we as the viewer don't because of our wider knowledge of what other versions of the character have been like, and this contrast between audience perception and character perception makes things like Peter trusting Norman with his secret identity and making a suit for him all the more gripping, and arguably more engaging than a conventional villain story would be.
I'm So Interested In Marvel's New Spider-Man Setup I Actually Don't Want To See Norman Osborn Become A Villain
As a villain who is often at moustache-twirling levels of evil, I think having a version of Norman Osborn who actively seems well-intentioned is a solid take on the character, that provides something that feels unpredictable in a good way for Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man. Since it's clear Norman doesn't totally get Spider-Man, having him as an ally who can be as much of an obstacle as he is a help looks like it could be a novel way to include the character in the story and explore him from a different perspective.
This idea also feels fitting for an alternate universe that's already made tweaks to things like Peter's origin story. In a world where other core Spider-Man lore details have been changed, it doesn't feel like it would be totally out of place to tweak whether some traditional villains become outright antagonists or not - especially when things are so early in this Spider-Man's story, and thus there's room to leave things like his mentor's villain story and simply imply that potentially a much older Peter will one day have to face the man who helped him become the hero he is.
Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man season 2 and 3 have already been greenlit, suggesting more long-form stories are possible for the show.
In many ways, this offers an opportunity to delve more into an idea that the main MCU set in place, as it mirrors the initial early dynamic between a well-meaning but somewhat egotistical and immensely busy Iron Man and a generally understanding but sometimes frustrated Spider-Man. In the original MCU, while this idea was touched on, the bond between Iron Man and Spider-Man was relatively smoothed out by the end of Spider-Man: Homecoming, meaning Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man can explore what this could have looked like in a more long-term format more - unless Norman becomes an all-out villain, of course.
- Created by
- Kevin Feige
- First Film
- Iron Man
- Upcoming Films
- Blade, Avengers: Doomsday (2026), Avengers: Secret Wars
- First TV Show
- Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.
- Upcoming TV Shows
- Marvel Zombies, Wonder Man, Vision Quest
- Cast
- Robert Downey Jr., Chris Evans, Scarlett Johansson, Samuel L. Jackson, Jeremy Renner, Chris Hemsworth, Mark Ruffalo, Edward Norton, Paul Rudd, Tom Holland, Tom Hiddleston, Anthony Mackie, Cobie Smulders, Brie Larson, Chadwick Boseman, Sebastian Stan, Chris Pratt, Dave Bautista, Zoe Saldana, Bradley Cooper, Vin Diesel, Pom Klementieff, Josh Brolin, Karen Gillan, Clark Gregg, Paul Bettany, Don Cheadle, Benedict Cumberbatch, Evangeline Lilly, Simu Liu, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Angelina Jolie, Kit Harington, Salma Hayek, Richard Madden, Barry Keoghan, Gemma Chan, Ma Dong-seok, Brian Tyree Henry, Kumail Nanjiani, Lauren Ridloff, Lia McHugh, Jonathan Majors
