Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man Shows How The Fantastic Four Might Connect to the MCU

Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man wasted no time distinguishing itself from the Marvel Cinematic Universe. In the very first episode, Doctor Strange and Venom arrive through a portal from another dimension, a battle that firmly establishes Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man‘s world as separate from any seen before.

But that doesn’t mean that this Spider-Man is completely disconnected from the MCU. After all, Spider-Man: No Way Home, Loki, and Deadpool & Wolverine securely placed the MCU within a multiverse, where the MCU’s mainline Earth-616 existed alongside countless other variations. In fact, The Fantastic Four: First Steps will take place in one of these alternate worlds, at least until the family makes their way to the mainline MCU.

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How will The Fantastic Four get onto Earth 616 in the MCU? A potential answer pops up in the final episode of Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man.

How Does the Multiverse Appear in Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man?

Befitting the title of the show, Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man mostly takes place in New York City. A still-new-to-the-superhero-game Peter Parker deals with small-time crooks, a grudge match between street gangs, and the personal problems of his best friends. Yet, the series begins and ends with multiversal events.

Technically, it’s the same multiversal event, just seen from different chronological perspectives. In the season finale, Norman Osborn reveals the true plan behind his gathering of supergeniuses in Oscorp. Beyond trying to replicate Spider-Man’s powers for his own ends, Osborn creates a gate to the multiverse, allowing him access to untold knowledge and (at least Norman hopes) untold power.

So great is Osborn’s desire that he doesn’t heed the warning of Doctor Strange, who arrives through the gate and demands it be shut down before something horrible comes through. And, of course, something horrible comes through. Specifically, what comes through is Kraven the Hunter with a Venom symbiote, as seen in the premiere. As Strange battles the Symbiote, he warps back around time to that very premiere, where the time portal allows a radioactive spider to bite Peter. In a bit of timey-wimey stuff that would be at home on Doctor Who, the spider who bites Peter is the one engineered by Osbron’s lab, based on Peter’s blood samples.

However, eagle-eyed comic book fans will notice something else familiar about the bout. The gate that Norman Osborn designs looks a lot like a similar invention from Marvel Comics, an invention created by none other than Reed Richards.

How Does the Multiverse Work in Fantastic Four Comics?

In Fantastic Four #570 from 2009, written by Jonathan Hickman and penciled by Dale Eaglesham, Reed Richards decides to solve everything — every single problem in the world. But as the most intelligent man in the universe, he knows that no one man can complete that task. And so he gets help from others — specifically, from other Reeds, consulting with variants of himself from across the Multiverse.

How does Reed communicate with these other versions? Via a machine called the Bridge. Initially designed during the aftermath of the Marvel Comics crossover Secret Invasion, in which Skrull shapeshifters infiltrated and disrupted Earth’s defenses, the Bridge allowed Reed to view other realities. It helped Reed gain perspective and find new ways of dealing with the threats facing his Earth.

Thanks to Reed’s interactions with his variants, a collection that calls themselves the Interdimensional Council of Reeds, the Bridge becomes a proper gateway to other worlds. Unsurprisingly, this has just as many problems as benefits, as some unfavorable things make their way onto the main Marvel Earth. Those invaders include Mad Celestials, godlike beings who arrive on Earth via the Bridge, requiring nothing less than Galactus to turn them away.

The Bridge becomes particularly useful during the event known as the Secret Wars, during which Marvel’s Multiverse begins to collapse in events called “Incursions.” Through the Bridge, Reed and his fellow heroes witness other attempts to deal with the Incursions and form a plan.

How Will the Bridge Affect the MCU?

As most MCU fans know, Secret Wars is on the way. After next year’s Avengers: Doomsday, Phase 6 of the MCU will close with Avengers: Secret Wars. Although Marvel Comics has a few different storylines called Secret Wars, it seems likely that Avengers: Secret Wars will adapt the 2015 comic book series by Hickman and artist Esad Ribić, the story that began with the Fantastic Four series that involved the Bridge.

Most MCU fans also know that The Fantastic Four: First Steps takes place in an alternate reality from the main MCU, in a 1960s where the team are international superstars. But Marvel boss Kevin Feige has also said that The Fantastic Four will appear in Doomsday and Secret Wars, which means that they’ll have to cross out of their universe. Given that the Bridge plays a key part in the Secret Wars story that will inspire the upcoming Avengers movie, it seems likely that Pedro Pascal’s Reed Richards will also create a Bridge in First Steps.

However, Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man‘s use of a Bridge suggests that it’s not just Marvel’s First Family that will arrive in the main MCU. Perhaps some of the show’s versions of Spider-Man characters will use Norman’s Bridge to come to the MCU. Given that Tom Holland’s Peter Parker currently has no Norman in his life (at least not since Willem Dafoe’s Osbron went back to his own universe at the end of No Way Home) nor does he have a best friend like Harry, transporting these characters might make sense.

What Will the Bridge Bring to the MCU?

Ever since the Infinity Saga closed out with Spider-Man: Far From Home and the end of Phase 3, the franchise has been in the Multiverse Saga. Although some of the entries have been hit-or-miss in quality, the Multiverse movies and shows have offered stories that would have been impossible if closed to one world.

Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man has benefited from the multiversal approach, getting to make its own version of established characters like Tombstone, the Scorpion, and even Peter Parker himself. The multiverse also gives The Fantastic Four: First Steps the freedom to make their own versions of the heroes, giving them space to breathe before having to measure up with the other Marvel heroes. When the time comes for The Fantastic Four to enter the mainline MCU, the Bridge will be there for them. Of course, it will also be there for Norman Osborn to once again wreak havoc in the life of Peter Parker.

Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man is now streaming on Disney+.