Spider-Man's New TV Show Broke Homecoming's Most Surprising Rule In Its Second Episode
Spider-Man's image in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) has been carefully crafted over years, but a new animated show from Marvel Animation has hastily broken some unspoken rules. Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man is a brand new animated Spider-Man story, following Peter Parker in the immediate years after getting his powers. As such, Peter is still coming to terms with what it means to be a hero, and trying to get a handle on his abilities.
However, while the MCU version of the hero, played by Tom Holland, has been slowly and meticulously built-up over the course of three solo movies and numerous other crossovers, YFNSM is breaking new ground and going into detail about events in the new hero's journey. But already, there appears to be several clear distinctions between the animated hero and his live-action counterpart, including how they handle threats.
Tom Holland's Peter Parker Avoids Punching In Spider-Man: Homecoming
Spider-Man Chooses To Fight Defensively In His MCU Debut
In Peter Parker's MCU debut, Captain America: Civil War, the only action the hero sees is playing defense against heroes like Captain America, Bucky Barnes, and others who were against the Sokovia Accords. However, in his second outing, Spider-Man: Homecoming, Spidey gets some threats to deal with all on his own, including thieves, and Vulture. And it's interesting that no matter what happens, Spidey is not throwing punches, or fighting offensively.
The thing is, Peter Parker is just a teenage boy. He likely wasn't involved in fights before getting powers, so it would be weird for him to immediately begin brawling once he has enough strength to win any fight. However, both Captain America: Civil War and Spider-Man: Homecoming do a good job of showing how strong Peter is through his defensive maneuvers. And avoiding Peter acting more aggressively helped to establish him as a more reserved, thoughtful hero, rather than another hero that can just hit harder than the guy they are fighting.
Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man's Peter Throws Punches In Episode 2
The New Spider-Man Is Less Inclined To Hold Back In A Fight
In YFNSM episode 1, Peter again follows this trend, but by the second episode, the young hero is thrown into some challenging situations where he fights back. Both with a group of bullies, and with a villain like Butane, Spider-Man opts to use his prowess, speed, and power to gain an advantage. And being the super enhanced human that he is, he manages to get the upper hand very quickly. In addition, he appears to have a much more offensive and forward combat style, leaning into attacks that render his opponents unconscious, which is similar to a lot of street level heroes in various Marvel projects.
All of this leads to a very different style of Spider-Man, which suits the animated format a little better.
Peter is willing to use his surroundings, web up his enemies, and he also appears to have a slight cocky streak, calling the police ahead of dropping in on criminals, assuming that he will be able to capture them and neatly secure them ahead of the police's arrival. All of this leads to a very different style of Spider-Man, which suits the animated format a little better. Meanwhile, Tom Holland's Peter Parker comes off as an incredible hero with a lot of restraint in the MCU, despite his young age.
Why The MCU's New Spider-Man Punches When Tom Holland's Doesn't
The MCU Is Exploring The Multiverse
In terms of why these differences exist, these are technically two different characters. Aside from their obvious physical differences, their preferred clothing, and even their Spidey suits, these characters appear to be very different takes on the same old Spider-Man. Tom Holland's backstory has not been explored in any great detail in the MCU, but YFNSM's Spider-Man is currently on that early journey. So, where Holland's Parker chooses to hold back and play defense, YFNSM's chooses to throw a punch and knock out his enemies.
To be clear, neither is wrong for the character, and both have precedence in different comics, but the style of combat employed in YFNSM is also much more suitable to an animated show. For instance, he hits a teenage bully over the head with a brick, which in animation is effective, and likely to leave the character perfectly OK when they wake up, but in live-action, that would look very different. Both projects are making bold choices in how they define Peter Parker and his alter-ego, Spider-Man, and so far, both continue to do things that work for their projects, making the live-action movies and Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man solid portrayals of the hero, despite surface level changes.
Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man
- Release Date
- January 29, 2025
- Network
- Disney+
- Writers
- Charlie Neuner
- Franchise(s)
- Spider-Man
Cast
Hudson ThamesPeter Parker / Spider-Man (voice)
May Parker (voice)
- Creator(s)
- Jeff Trammell
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