Warning: This article contains spoilers for Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man episode 1, “Amazing Fantasy.”
After the premiere ofYour Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man, I’m even more upset that Tom Holland’s Peter Parker has never explored his origin story as Spider-Man in theMCU.What If…?voice actor Hudson Thames returned to the MCU to portray a new variant of Peter Parker inYour Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man, and we have already seen him be part of a huge storyline that Tom Holland’s Spider-Man has never been given. Even nine years after his debut in the MCU, I still want to seeSpider-Man’s origin story in live-action.
Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Manfinally gave us a glimpse at Spider-Man’s MCU origin story, though this focused on a variant of the wall-crawler, rather than Tom Holland’s beloved iteration. AfterYour Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man’spremiere, however,I think Marvel’s reasoning for not showing Spider-Man’s origin story in the MCU has been discredited, and the events of his live-actionSpider-Mantrilogy support my belief. This makes me hopeful Marvel might finally show usPeter Parker’s transformation into Spider-Man, a massive story that has otherwise been omitted from the MCU.
Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man Explored A Brand-New Origin Story For Peter Parker
We Have Finally Seen Peter Parker Get Bitten By A Spider, But It Wasn’t Tom Holland
In Marvel Comics’Amazing Fantasy #15from 1962,Peter Parker was originally bitten by a radioactive spider while attending a demonstration on radioactivity at General Techtronics Laboratories East. In more modern stories, including 2000’sUltimate Spider-Man #1in Marvel Comics, and the live action movies2002’sSpider-Manand 2012’sThe Amazing Spider-Man, it’s a genetically-modified spider housed inside the Oscorp Industries building that enhances Peter Parker.Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man, however, tells a wildly different story.
InYour Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Manepisode 1, “Amazing Fantasy,” we saw Peter Parker’s first day at Midtown High School interrupted byDoctor Strange coming through a portal while fighting a Symbiote.Through that same portal came a sinister-looking spider that bit Parker and gifted him his abilities. This story is drastically different from any previous Spider-Man origin story, which I loved, but this just made me more curious about why Marvel Studios couldn’t have come up with a new origin story for Tom Holland’s Spider-Man back in 2017.
Marvel’s New Spider-Man Series Challenges The Reasoning Behind The Hero Never Showing The MCU Hero’s Origin Story
Marvel Could Find A New Way To Tell Spider-Man’s Origin Story
Prior to the release of 2017’sSpider-Man: Homecoming, Kevin Feige revealed toComicBookthat the MCU’s first soloSpider-Manmovie would not be exploring the titular wall-crawler’s origin story.The reasoning was that Spider-Man’s origin story had been explored on-screen already too many times, and in quick succession, as both Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield’s Peter Parkers got this honor. However, I no longer think this reasoning holds up, asYour Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Manexplored a very different origin story, so the MCU could have done the same.
[Spider-Man: Homecoming] will not be an origin story. But, with great power comes great responsibility. It is inherent to who [Peter Parker’s] character is. But we want to reveal it in different ways and spend much more time focusing on this young high school kid in the MCU dealing with his powers. There is a young kid [already] running around New York City in a homemade version of the Spider-Man costume in the MCU, you just don’t know it yet.
Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Manwas originally planned as a prequel series for Tom Holland’s Spider-Man, which would have explored his version of Peter Parker being bitten and becoming a superhero. This was soon changed, however, which means we still haven’t seenhow Tom Holland’s Peter Parker became Spider-Man. Marvel could have taken huge creative liberties with this origin story, and didn’t have to connect Peter Parker to Oscorp or even have him bitten at a science demonstration. I consider this a massive missed opportunity to tell a much-wanted and unseen MCU story.
1 Huge Missing Piece Of Spider-Man’s MCU Story Would Make His Origin Story Completely Different
Tom Holland’s Peter Parker Became Spider-Man Under Very Different Circumstances To His Predecessors
Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Mancould have easily seen Peter Parker bitten by a genetically-modified spider at Oscorp, especially since MCU newcomer Colman Domingo has now made his voice debut asOscorp’s founder, Norman Osborn. Marvel made the choice to go in a different direction, however, and I thought this was brilliant. Even so,it left me wondering why Marvel didn’t go in a different direction for Tom Holland’s Peter Parker, especially after 2021’sSpider-Man: No Way Homeconfirmed a very important detail about the MCU’s Oscorp.
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Hudson Thames (Voice)
That is, it doesn’t exist. Willem Dafoe’s Norman Osborn was pulled to Earth-616 from Tobey Maguire’s timeline inNo Way Homeand revealed that theMCU’s Oscorp has not been established. This means thatMarvel Studios wouldn’t have been able to tell the same origin story for Spider-Man as previous live-action adaptations anyway, so the reasoning that the story shouldn’t be repeated is practically nullified. Oscorp’s absence would have forced Marvel to come up with a brand-new origin story for Spider-Man, and I just can’t figure out why this opportunity wasn’t taken.
I Still Think Tom Holland’s Spider-Man Can Reveal His Origin Story
It’s Not Too Late For Marvel To Explore Spider-Man’s Origin Story In Live-Action
Tom Holland is expected to return as Peter Parker’s Spider-Man in 2026’sAvengers: DoomsdayandSpider-Man 4, with the latter kicking off a new trilogyof soloSpider-Manmovies for the MCU. This will make the wall-crawler one of the MCU’s most consistent and long-running characters, which makes me hopeful that more of his backstory might also be explored.It wouldn’t take much for Tom Holland to be made to look a decade younger, which means my dream of seeing how Peter Parker became Spider-Man in the MCU could become a reality.
Spider-Man: Brand New Day: Cast, Story, & Everything We Know
After Spider-Man: No Way Home, Marvel and Sony have an even bigger task to make Spider-Man 4, but will Tom Holland return and would it be in the MCU?
I’m surprised that Marvel’s newest Spider-Man got bitten on-screen before the more-beloved version played by Tom Holland, so afterYour Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man, I really want the live-action Spidey to also get this honor. Whilethe new animated series did show Parker getting bitten by a spider, him learning about his new powers and his original decision to become Spider-Man were still ignored. This gives me hope that this portion ofTom Holland’s Spider-Man’s storycould be explored to fill in even more of these gaps.
