How Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man Changes the MCU for the Better

One of the big questions leading up to the premiere of Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man was its connections to the Marvel Cinematic Universe. The animated series was originally titled Spider-Man: Freshman Year and was intended to explore Spider-Man‘s origin story before he was recruited to fight in Captain America: Civil War. Something else that made Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man unique is it’s the first Spider-Man animated series developed by Marvel Studios. Any project with a fleeting connection to the MCU warrants attention, and even more so with Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man when you factor in how it deviates from the MCU timeline. WARNING: The following article contains spoilers for Episode 1 of Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man.

There is a clear point where Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man splinters away from the MCU timeline that fans have watched on the big and small screen. What makes things interesting is some characters remain the same, while all-new characters are introduced that have never appeared in the MCU before. This not only helps Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man stand out from the MCU, but also helps open the doorway to fresh storytelling. This is all for the best because the changes Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man makes to the MCU is the shot in the arm Spider-Man needs.

[RELATED: Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man: Everything to Know About the Marvel Studios Series]

Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man gets a visit from Doctor Strange

Peter Parker’s first day at Midtown High School goes south when its attacked by a large, dark creature. Keep in mind Peter doesn’t have his Spider-Man abilities yet, so all he can do is stand by and watch helplessly as this massive creature tries to wreck havok. Thankfully, Doctor Strange comes to the rescue via a portal. In the main MCU timeline, Spider-Man didn’t meet Doctor Strange until Avengers: Infinity War. But in Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man, Doctor Strange’s fight with an extraterrestrial brings him to Spider-Man’s doorstep.

The fight between Doctor Strange and what we learn is a “symbiotic alien” from the closed captioning completely wrecks Midtown High. Instead of being voiced by Benedict Cumberbatch, Robin Atkins Downes voices the Sorcerer Supreme. This fight serves as the “Nexus Event” that splits Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man from the MCU timeline, but it isn’t the only instance where things take a detour.

Norman Osborn replaces Tony Stark as Spider-Man’s mentor

Captain America: Civil War features Iron Man recruiting Spider-Man to fight alongside him against Captain America and the other Avengers who are breaking the Sokovia Accords. Tony Stark pays a visit to Queens and shows up inside Peter Parker’s apartment, sitting next to his Aunt May on the couch. Similar events play out in Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man, right up to Peter Parker finding a VCR player in a trash bin on the street. Peter begins relaying this story to Aunt May as he enters the apartment, only to be surprised to be greeted by Norman Osborn.

Norman Osborn is a name that Spider-Man fans have been waiting to see in the MCU. Willem Dafoe reprised his role as Norman Osborn for Spider-Man: No Way Home, but Dafoe’s Green Goblin came from a different universe. We’ve yet to meet the MCU Norman Osborn. And while Colman Domingo voices the legendary Spider-Man villain, we’ve already established that Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man is not an official part of the MCU. We’ll have to see where the first season takes the journey of Peter Parker and Norman Osborn.

Iron Man had a hands-off approach to his mentorship of Spider-Man, but that doesn’t mean Norman Osborn will do the same. While they’ve always had an adversarial relationship in the comics, recent developments have brought Norman and Spider-Man together on the same side. Of course, we all know this working relationship won’t last, but it serves as a new point-of-view for Spider-Man’s origin story.

Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man’s MCU changes are for the best

Not having Spider-Man be tied to Iron Man has been one of the biggest changes to differentiate Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man from its MCU counterparts. One of the big complaints to come out of Spider-Man’s time in the MCU was how dependent he was on Iron Man, not only for his suits but also to prove his worth and be worthy of joining the Avengers. Spider-Man only recently joined the Avengers in the comics over the last couple of decades, when before that he was always known as being a loner. The MCU changed that, and while it was popular to the majority of fans, there was also a segment that longed for the days of old.

Not being part of the MCU also allows the creative team behind Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man the freedom to tell stories without having to run anything by the powers-that-be at Marvel Studios. They can include Norman Osborn without worrying about what actor will play the live-action version, or how Sony Pictures and Marvel Studios plan on taking Spider-Man’s story next. The winner ends up being the fans, as Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man charts a whole new era for the wall-crawler.