The Best Episodes In Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man Season 1

Summary

• Stunning animation and a fresh take on familiar characters make Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man a must-watch for fans and newcomers.
• Marvel Animated delivers pure web-slinging entertainment with diverse villains and rich storylines.
• The series starts as family-friendly but gradually evolves to have darker tones, with Scorpion being a surprisingly scary main villain.

There are ten episodes in the first season of Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man for newcomers and longtime fans to get acquainted with a new universe starring the iconic web-slinger. With its stunning animation, compelling storylines, and fresh take on familiar characters, Marvel Animated delivered a collection of episodes filled with pure web-slinging entertainment.

From showing the origin of Peter Parker becoming Spider-Man to the introduction of many atypical villains, the show embraces its style rather than just rehashing what came before. As a result, some episodes stand out more than others, with some immediately winning over the hearts of those who doubted the show.

10

Amazing Fantasy

Familiar But Fresh Origin Story For 2025

Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man kicks off with Doctor Strange battling a Venom creature, causing chaos at Midtown High and accidentally bringing the spider that bites Peter Parker. It’s a different origin but still has many of the Spider-Man staples expected in a Spider-Man animated series, including the relationship between Peter and Aunt May, teenage struggles, and Peter starting with a less-than-perfect homemade suit.

The first episode also borrows heavily from the Marvel Cinematic Universe, with Peter Parker being an inexperienced hero who is taken on by a rich tech magnate. In this version, instead of Tony Stark, it is Norman Osborn. The common theme at the start is that it mixes plenty of new and familiar elements to help it stand out and give viewers a good taste of the characters and potential stories.

9

The Parker Luck

First Impressions And First Villains

Living the life of Peter Parker and Spider-Man is a challenging one, which is a common trope for this character. Not only is Peter finding it difficult to be a part of the new internship program at OsCorp Industries, but he encounters his first true supervillain in the form of Butane, beginning the pattern of focusing on more unfamiliar villains to make the series’ character roster more diverse.

For the most part, the second episode is a standard affair for a Spider-Man adventure, but that’s not a bad thing. These are the regular things that most people expect to see whenever Spider-Man is rebooted. This episode even features familiar characters portrayed in new ways, such as Carla Connors and Harry Osborn. The ending, however, adds a nice surprise, with Norman Osborn learning that Peter is Spider-Man.

8

Secret Identity Crisis

Lonnie’s Perfect Life Begins To Fall Apart

Lonnie Lincoln steals the show, essentially becoming the star of the B-plot throughout the series. It’s easy to feel sorry for the character, who is trying his hardest to lead his best life, but fate keeps pulling him toward the life of a gangster to protect his family. He has to abandon his football star status and join the 110th Street Gang, even though he has a good heart and mind.

Peter Parker’s perspective is highlighted as he grapples with the fact that Norman Osborn knows he is Spider-Man. Additionally, he faces off against two technologically advanced supervillains, Speed Demon and Tarantula. These lesser-known adversaries provide Spider-Man with unique battles, allowing him to learn how to exploit their weaknesses and flaws.

7

The Unicorn Unleashed!

Upgrades For The Hero And The Villain

Another episode where an atypical villain gets to shine; this time, it’s the Unicorn. Part of what makes the villains in Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man so interesting, aside from their obscurity, is their powers. The Unicorn mixes her already impressive strength and fighting skills with lasers that shoot from her helmet, which is revealed to have been developed by Otto Octavius.

Spider-Man continues to shine in the white and black OsCorp suit inspired by Future Foundation. However, he is still having trouble maintaining a balance between his two lives, such as befriending Nico and Harry while also trying to be the newest superhero on the block.

6

Hitting The Big Time

Finding The Right Suit Requires Trial And Error

Sometimes a simple episode is all that is needed, and the fourth episode is just that. Peter Parker and Norman Osborn trial test various suits for Spider-Man, with all of them being disasters. The result is a lot of comedy combined with references for fans to get a kick out of. Some suits could also be teases for future villains, such as Beetle and Boomerang.

Episode four also lays the groundwork for future events, including Lonnie’s encounter with the Scorpions gang, which hints at the introduction of Mac Gargan as the villain Scorpion. Although the episode has a filler quality to it, it never feels like it wastes the viewer’s time.

5

Duel With The Devil

The Beginnings Of A Beautiful Hero Friendship

With Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man taking place in a universe where other superheroes exist, fans can enjoy Spider-Man meeting iconic Marvel characters. Episode six features Spider-Man having a memorable first encounter with Daredevil, who is voiced by Charlie Cox, reprising the role from the live-action series, but playing the character in a more lighthearted manner akin to the comics.

The secondary plot isn’t bad either, as Harry Osborn and Nico Minoru are given more development. Harry is shown to be more than an internet star; he’s a lonely person because he was homeschooled, and not even by his own father, so he has difficulty making friends.

4

Scorpion Rising

This Episode Pushed The Lines For A Marvel Animated Series

The title is fitting because the already evil and twisted Mac Gargan fully evolves into Scorpion in the seventh episode and becomes the highlight. Not only is it arguably the best adaptation of the Scorpion character, but he showcases that Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man is not afraid to get dark; Gargan murders characters on screen and brutalizes Spider-Man himself.

Thanks to it being on Disney+, there is even blood shown when Spider-Man is impaled by Scorpion’s stinger. Combined with Norman Osborn showcasing his darker side and Lonnie continuing to become an integral part of the 110th, Episode 7 deserves praise for raising the stakes and the tension in this animated series to feel like the darkest Spider-Man comics or movies.

3

Hero Or Menace

Peter And Lonnie’s Stories Come Full Circle

After so much build-up, the ninth episode introduces Spider-Man in the suit that fans are most familiar with. Red and blue with reactive lenses for his eyes, illustrating that Peter Parker knows who and what he is now: New York’s Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man. It’s a grand reveal that feels like the ultimate payoff with all the plotlines converging into one.

The true rise of Spider-Man shines the most when the rematch with Scorpion continues Peter’s growth as he shows his dark side, pushing him to nearly kill Scorpion. However, thanks to Lonnie, Spider-Man remembers that he is not a dark vigilante. Lonnie also shines throughout the episode, showing his loyalty to the 110th Street Gang without turning evil, all while beginning his transformation into Tombstone.

2

Tangled Web

Showcasing The Man Behind The Spider

As much as fans love to see action and superpowers at work, the eighth episode focuses on Peter Parker as a person. He’s dealing with his first great loss against a villain, healing his wounds physically and emotionally. He is also trying to fix his personal life, which is also strained because he’s taken on so much responsibility.

Spider-Man’s humanity is what makes the character so relatable. He can swing across the city and stop three-thousand-pound vehicles with his bare hands, but he also makes mistakes and falls. However, he always has his friends and allies to give him that push to improve. It’s a nice character-focused episode that slows the pace down but builds anticipation for the season’s climax.

1

If This Be My Destiny…

The Season Ends With An Epic Team-Up

Marvel Animation saved the best for last, not only by continuing to show Spider-Man in action but also by revealing Norman Osborn’s endgame: intergalactic travel. He uses the OsCorp interns, including Peter, to create a gateway across the cosmos, which unleashes the Venom symbiote onto Earth and causes the arrival of Doctor Strange.

Like many season finales, Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man features several surprises and teases for what’s to come. For example, the Doctor Strange and Venom battle creates a closed loop which shows how they came to be fighting in the first episode and how the spider that bit Peter arrived to bite him via time travel.