How Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man Connects to Captain America: Civil War

Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man may take place in the multiverse, but that doesn’t mean events in Captain America: Civil War don’t play a major role in the animated series. Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man takes place in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, but it isn’t a part of the “sacred timeline” in which all movie and TV projects exist. The moment where the timelines split is when Norman Osborn is waiting in Aunt May’s apartment to meet Peter Parker instead of Tony Stark. Fans got to see this happen in Captain America: Civil War, which was also Spider-Man‘s MCU debut. While they may not be a part of the same timeline, Civil War still plays out in Marvel’s new Spider-Man animated series.

WARNING: Spoilers below for Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man Episode 4, titled “Hitting the Big Time”

Episode 4 of Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man continues to develop the working relationship between Spider-Man and Norman Osborn. This includes Norman having his Secret Projects Division of Oscorp create a new Spider-Man costume for Peter Parker. The topic of the Avengers comes up during Peter and Norman’s conversation, where we learn that the Sokovia Accords exist in Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man. But that isn’t the only connection between Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man and Captain America: Civil War.

Sokovia Accords Exist in Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man

The Sokovia Accords were introduced in Captain America: Civil War and were implemented to force superheroes to register with the United States government. Captain America famously opposed, bringing him into conflict with Iron Man, who was pro-Sokovia Accords. Once Captain America started assembling a team of heroes in opposition to the Accords, Iron Man took a trip to Queens to recruit Spider-Man. Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man recreated this iconic moment from the MCU with the surprising twist of replacing Tony Stark with Norman Osborn.

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MCU fans will remember that the Sokovia Accords are still active through Avengers: Infinity War. Thaddeus “Thunderbolt” Ross even brings them up when he tasks James “Rhodey” Rhodes with arresting Captain America when he returns to the Avengers compound. Of course, with Thanos invading Earth, it’s all hands on deck so the Accords are ignored.

More Events From Captain America: Civil War Referenced

The Sokovia Accords aren’t the only events from Captain America: Civil War to be mentioned in Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man. Later on in the episode, a newspaper is shown that reports on many of the things we saw play out in Civil War. For example, there’s the King of Wakanda (T’Chaka) being killed in the fallout of the United Nations bombing by Baron Zemo, the splintering of the Avengers, the many deaths caused by the Scarlet Witch in Lagos, the Avengers fighting at the airport, and Captain America and Bucky Barnes being fugitives.

So while Norman Osborn is now mentoring Peter Parker, deviating from the “sacred timeline,” the MCU is very much a part of Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man. King T’Chaka’s death leads to T’Challa stepping up as the new Black Panther of Wakanda. Black Panther is a part of Iron Man’s team that battles Captain America and his team during the iconic fight scene at the airport in Germany. The finale of Captain America: Civil War featured Steve Rogers rescuing Falcon, Ant-Man, Hawkeye, and Scarlet Witch from The Raft prison, with Cap and Winter Soldier being labeled as fugitives on the run.

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Spider-Man has to be aware of the Sokovia Accords since he is a vigilante fighting street criminals. Norman doesn’t bring up the topic of having Spider-Man register, which is a bit surprising. Norman Osborn is a public figure, though he’s helping Spider-Man from behind the scenes. It would be a big feather in his cap to be the person to convince Spider-Man to register with the Sokovia Accords, but for now, Norman seems content with making Spider-Man new costumes.

As Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man continues, we may see even more connections made to the larger Marvel Cinematic Universe. The Disney+ animated series runs parallel to Captain America: Civil War, but Black Widow takes place immediately after it as well. There’s another movie that can be referenced down the road. The possibilities are endless, which is all the better for Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man.