Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man: Who is Bentley Wittman?

Now that Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man has officially debuted on Disney+, viewers have managed to see just how this animated show is staying faithful to the lore and the background of Peter Parker while making a few changes here and there. Since the show was first announced, Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man showrunners have promised that this isn’t just going to be another version of Spider-Man. They’ve promised that there are going to be different versions of the hero, his friends, and enemies. There’s also a different kind of animation style than what fans have seen in other MCU projects.

The shaking up of Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man heroes and villains means that there are characters in this show that might be changed up just a little bit. Or they may be changed up a lot. Certainly, there has been a change to the character of Norman Osborn, who is voiced by Coleman Domingo in the Disney+ series. While viewers will get to see the whole story in short order since the series is releasing multiple episodes every week, there are a few characters that look like their origin stories at the very least have been changed up a bit. One of these characters is Dr. Bentley Wittman. Wittman’s alter ego, The Wizard is well known to Marvel Comics fans, but it looks like there’s a shakeup to who he is or what he does in this version of the Spider-Man story.

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Who Is Bentley Wittman In Marvel Comics

In Marvel Comics, Bentley Wittman is one of the more dangerous villains out there, even if there are times when he doesn’t have a ton of superpowers. In fact, his biggest and most popular power was his intellect. Wittman grew up possessing near-superhuman levels of genius, and used these skills to great success in various fields, having been a chess champion, renowned escape artist, and become rich selling his advanced scientific inventions to the wealthy. The Marvel villain first took on the moniker of Wizard because he was in fact a stage wizard who used his advanced technologies to pull off his magic tricks.

Wittman eventually decided to use his technology in order to try and commit crimes and it’s here where he routinely ran afoul of super heroes. However, there is another twist when it comes to this character and his existence in Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man. While he did fight other heroes every now and then, he was more often than not, going up against the Fantastic Four.

He did face off against Spider-Man every now and then, when his base of operations was New York City. He also fancied himself as a leader of criminals as he started a group called the Frightful Four. This group was usually made up of Wizard, Klaw, Electro and Thundra. As is the case with most of these lesser villain groups, they were often defeated as their evil plots were unveiled. Wizard was one of those who was a genius, was had a leg up on the normal man, but used his advantages in a way that had him run afoul of the law and people like Spider-Man far too often.

Bentley Wittman In Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man

While his character might change as Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man goes on, at the moment, Bentley Wittman is more a mean man than anything else in the new show. He is introduced as a small man, who runs the lab for Norman Osborn.

Certainly Wittman in this show is genius level intellect but it doesn’t appear he’s taken on the mantle of Wizard just yet. Instead, he’s someone who has put Peter Parker together with other young interns and scientists including other versions of characters that have appeared in Marvel properties including a Dr. Connors. However, in Spider-Man comics, Connors is usually Curt Connors aka The Lizard. This time around she’s a woman who is still missing the arm that turns the character into a half human, half lizard.

The other members of the group are also people that are well known characters in the Marvel universe but different versions. It will be interesting to see if all of these people are going to turn into their comic book versions or whether some or all might be misdirects and name checks.

Wittman has eight more episodes where he could become the Wizard but for now, he’s just a scientist who seems to not particularly like the interns that are under his charge. He yells at Parker for disappearing during one period where he had to go off and fight crime. While not a particularly nice person, he hasn’t shown yet that he is going to turn to the life of crime that Wizard is known for during his other personas. As Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man goes on, the audience will see if Bentley Wittman turns into Wizard.

Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man

Release Date

January 29, 2025

Network

Disney+

Writers

Jeff Trammell

Cast

• 

  Hudson Thames

  Peter Parker / Spider-Man (voice)

• 

  Colman Domingo

  Norman Osborn (voice)

• 

  Kari Wahlgren

  May Parker (voice)

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