The MCU’s Newest Spider-Man Origin Story Is Everything I Didn’t Know I Wanted
The MCU's new Spider-Man origin story is a far more unhinged version of events than I was expecting - but it's actually made me appreciate this rendition of a classic Marvel story even more. The MCU timeline features many iconic moments from the comics, albeit usually changed to fit its universe better. However - due to both the immense collection of comics that hold important places in Marvel's history, and how many are currently at least a little impossible - a huge number of major Marvel comic stories have been totally absent from the MCU.
A prime example of this has been that of Spider-Man's origin story. While we obviously know the newest live-action Spider-Man also gained superpowers - and the traditional story of how he got them is incredibly famous at this point in history - the franchise hasn't shown us exactly how this came to pass for Tom Holland's hero. Instead, 2025 has provided us a look at an alternate universe version of this story - and while I could have never predicted the directions it goes in, I can't help but appreciate the way it starts Peter's hero journey in spectacular fashion.
The MCU's New Spider-Man Show Features A Truly Wild Version Of The Hero's Origin Story
A not inconsiderable draw for Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man was the opportunity to see a new version of the web-slinging hero's origins - with it first seeming the show would provide us with a version of the main MCU Spider-Man's origin story. While it was later revealed that would not be the case - and the series would center on an alternate universe version of the MCU Spider-Man - Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man's premiere does indeed still contain a new version of how Peter got his powers and became a superhero.
While I was expecting this from the series, what I was not expecting - and indeed arguably couldn't have for the most part - was how the show's origin story would change Spider-Man's conventional beginnings into something very different. Rather than simply retelling the usual tale of how Peter's life leads to him being bitten by a radioactive spider that changes the young hero's life forever, Your Friendly Neighbor Spider-Man adds some truly major changes to this part of Peter's story in ways that are impossible to not notice immediately upon watching.
Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man episode 1 kicks off by having Peter head to Midtown High School, only for a mysterious symbiote-like monster to appear through a portal while locked in combat with Doctor Strange. The somewhat taken aback Doctor Strange continues to fight against the creature, only for a spider that also came through the portal with it to bite Peter - giving him his powers - before scuttling off to do who knows what else. All in all, Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man adds a healthy dose of sheer chaos to this part of proceedings, and I can't help but appreciate that.
Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man's Hero Origin Story Is So Unhinged I Can't Help But Love It
Bringing in a symbiote-like monster, Doctor Strange, and mysterious portals is an absolutely wild new combo to add to Spider-Man's origin story. Funnily enough, it's the scale of these changes that make Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man's origin story uniquely compelling - as rather than trying to stick close to either the conventional comic versions of events or otherwise giving what the MCU versions of events could have been, the series goes in guns blazing on making it as clear as possible that this universe is very different in a lot of ways to both.
Rather than play it safe, Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man episode 1 immediately doubles down on making its story different and distinctive and soon as it can, changing the core aspects of its version of Spider-Man at the same time. In doing so, this also sets up more than one mystery for the show to potentially address in its later chapters, since the entire scenario opens up major questions about where the spider that bit Peter originated from, and how Strange's conflict ended up at Midtown High School of all places.
Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man is set to release 7 more episodes after its two-episode premiere, and season 2 and 3 are confirmed to already be greenlit.
It's definitely a riskier move than keeping things simple, but hopefully it's one that pays off in the long run, as I can't help but appreciate the show's willingness to go all in on making stuff so much weirder and wilder than you would instinctively expect this portion of events to be. This is doubly true given how it enhances the main MCU Spider-Man's story as well, by underlining the differences between the live-action and animated version of the hero, and how these both work due to the different circumstances surrounding both of the characters.
I'm Glad The MCU Cut Showing Us Tom Holland's Spider-Man Origin Story, But I'm Also Glad Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man Shows Its Version
Ultimately, though I think the MCU could find an effective point to show the origin story of Tom Holland's Spider-Man today, I think the franchise did the right thing by cutting it from Peter's initial movie appearances. While it could work now with so much more time between it and the other live-action movie versions of Spider-Man's origin story, doing it then would've arguably risked making Holland's story feel too similar to what came before - or at least meant the narrative wouldn't have had the natural advantage story wise and time wise that cutting the origin story gains the MCU.
Similarly, putting it in either Captain America: Civil War or Spider-Man: Homecoming would've taken up time that it didn't need to in order to tell a story that everyone essentially already knows, even if the specific details of the MCU version aren't full clear since it wasn't shown. With that said, I also think Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man was as right to feature the origin story in its first episode as the main MCU timeline was to cut it.
Viewers watching the show have Tom Holland's Spider-Man as the most recent - and most prominent - reference point, and so adjustments like having the show Peter's unhinged origin story work to make him the opposite of the main MCU hero in many ways. Since we don't need another identical Spider-Man - especially in an alternate universe where some of the point is supposed to be that things aren't exactly the same as the main world we've seen in the MCU - this approach effectively serves to make both versions of Spider-Man more interesting, because of the ways they contrast one another.
- Created by
- Kevin Feige
- First Film
- Iron Man
- Upcoming Films
- Blade, Avengers: Doomsday (2026), Avengers: Secret Wars
- First TV Show
- Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.
- Upcoming TV Shows
- Marvel Zombies, Wonder Man, Vision Quest
- Cast
- Robert Downey Jr., Chris Evans, Scarlett Johansson, Samuel L. Jackson, Jeremy Renner, Chris Hemsworth, Mark Ruffalo, Edward Norton, Paul Rudd, Tom Holland, Tom Hiddleston, Anthony Mackie, Cobie Smulders, Brie Larson, Chadwick Boseman, Sebastian Stan, Chris Pratt, Dave Bautista, Zoe Saldana, Bradley Cooper, Vin Diesel, Pom Klementieff, Josh Brolin, Karen Gillan, Clark Gregg, Paul Bettany, Don Cheadle, Benedict Cumberbatch, Evangeline Lilly, Simu Liu, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Angelina Jolie, Kit Harington, Salma Hayek, Richard Madden, Barry Keoghan, Gemma Chan, Ma Dong-seok, Brian Tyree Henry, Kumail Nanjiani, Lauren Ridloff, Lia McHugh, Jonathan Majors
