#shathra

Characters:

One of the MOST important factors this show needed to get right was the characters and BOY DID THEY.

Let's start with the supporting cast.

Harry Osborn is the character with the least screen time so far (his only appearances being the 'Good Deed' clip in Amazing Fantasy and a shot of him on television in The Parker Luck) so there isn't much to say about him yet.

Next is Pearl Pangan, a character who hasn't shown up much outside of being Peter Parker's older crush who seems like a genuinely nice person. She also seems to be a less academically inclined version of Liz Allen-Toomes from Spider-Man: Homecoming (by which I mean that Liz was the captain of the Academic Decathlon and Pearl hasn't really had any scenes that show she has that level of intelligence). The similarities between the two characters are high so it might lead to people asking, 'Why not just reuse Liz?'.

The answer is, why not? Reusing Liz would have been fun but she doesn't add much to the story (at least yet) and the usage of Pearl has quite a few positives. One, it raises awareness about some lesser known Marvel characters (Pearl is a minor super hero and an Agent of Atlas called Wave) and it allows for different stories to be potentially told in the future. This is the same reason they used Nico Minoru rather than a character like MJ or Gwen, both of which he met in College btw not High School - pretty much all Spider-Man media since the first Ultimate Spider-Man comics have decided his ENTIRE supporting cast should be in high school with him. Personally the easiest way to rectify that imo is to just make an adaptation where he's in college or got a job already (adapt the JMS run marvel I dare you) but one can hope.

The characters in the Oscorp Internship where also a fun nod to characters in comics (looking at you Amadeus Cho aka Totally Awesome Hulk/Iron Spider depending on the adaptation) and Carla Conners was a fun addition (also I better not see anyone hating on her for being a genderswapped and raceswapped version of Curt Conners - there is no part of Dr Conners character that is negatively affected by these changes - its still the same character)

May seems to be very similar by the MCU version (which makes sense) so nothing much to say there yet.

Norman is a character we haven't seen yet in MCU media outside of Willem Dafoe reprising his role from the Raimi movies and I am LOVING it. Colman Domingo is FANTASTIC in the voice role, bringing just the right amount of menace and authority to his voice. All I need now is for him to be able to play crazy and we can get a potentially amazing Green Goblin when the time comes (also his design is just *chefs kiss*)

Next is the character that might actually interest me the most.

Lonnie Lincoln.

Anyone who has seen The Spectacular Spider-Man (or read my screenplay on ao3 - sorry for the promo but I don't get many chances to advertise it) will know who he is. Tombstone, a vicious gangster and mob boss and in this show, he's... an American football player.

And I love it.

Saying that he's been just put into the 'nice jock' category, while accurate, does not think to scratch the potential of this character. There is a scene where he's walking home and it's revealed he lives in a rough neighbourhood. In that same scene, we see that he is helping his family out in quite a few ways (for example the part where he offers to help his little brother with homework) but the part that stuck with me was with his mother when he said that he'd talked to someone about fixing their car and how to get a cheaper price for it.

Money problems.

What I'm thinking they're doing is they aren't showing Tombstone as a mob boss. No. They're showing his descent from upstanding citizen and star American football player to gang violence. We already see that they've planted the seeds and we know they're going for the long haul with this show (It's been greenlit all the way up to season 3 already) so I'm incredibly excited to see Lonnie's arc play out, especially if we're going to get Tombstone by the end of it.

"Cold as Ice. Hard as marble. What else would you call a Tombstone?"

Next, we have the main character himself. Peter Parker. The Amazing Spider-Man.

This might be their best achievement yet in the show. They have Peter's dorky attitude and nerdy demeanour down to a T and it's so fun to watch. He's also a genuinely good person, just how Peter should be. A scene that stands out is the scene where he's caught a shoplifter who's broken down and crying in his eyes and he looks at them and he doesn't see a criminal. No. He sees someone who was down on their luck and asks the shop owner to give them a second chance if they give back the money they stole. It's beautiful and it's so very... Spider-Man. This is the exact kind of thing Spider-Man should be. A friendly guy who's just in the neighbourhood. It's a scene that's very reminiscent of Tom Taylor's Friendly Neighbourhood Spider-Man in all the best ways. (also the shop that was stolen from is called Pizza Time and that's already the best thing ever)

Animation:

Okay so some people have been saying the animation of this show isn't very good which I can say is not an unfounded concern. The effort the show has taken to emulate the original Ditko comics have had a slightly detrimental effect to some of the series.

There aren't as many background extras used in an attempt to mimic the original comics and lots of the shots don't use typically cinematic shading, opting instead to use brighter and slightly less rendered shots to emulate the older style. In some ways, this is actually really cool if you can appreciate the attempt to mimic the 60s style but it can be quite off putting for some people which I can respect.

There are also some issues with the 3d models. The characters mouths don't always move directly in sync and sometimes, for when they do use background extras, they are just 2d images in the back which can be quite unsettling when standing in the same shot as 3d models (there is one scene at a party where Nico is on the phone with Peter and in the background there's a completely unmoving 2d person who's eyes just seem to follow Nico and its quite unsettling).

HOWEVER, there are some incredibly beautiful shots too. Some shots are a direct mimic of older MCU shots from Peter's first introduction in CA:CW like the opening shot and final scene of the first episode which stand out as incredibly well done.

The best part of the animation is easily the web swinging which is so well done and one of my favourite parts of this version of Spider-Man so far. His movement is rough and unrefined as it should be for a Year One: Spider-Man but it is very reminiscent of the Insomniac Games style swinging (which in my personal opinion has the best web swinging in Spider-Man media since The Amazing Spider-Man 2) and it is INCREDIBLY fun to watch when it occurs. They actually focus some time on the web swinging too unlike some other adaptations which see him shoot a web and then THWIP out of the camera frame so we get to really see the extent of this web swinging.

Story:

This is the one where I probably have the least to say, mainly because we're only 1/5 of the way into the season so far and we haven't actually gotten much of the story revealed yet. However, it definitely has a LOT of potential.

Episode 1 establishes that the Spider that bit Peter came from a portal (alongside this universes version of Doctor Strange who is fighting a demon looking creature which is credited as Symbiotic Alien - Klyntar easter egg?????) which might be slightly different to some people but to me this gives me a heavy JMS vibes.

JMS wrote for Spider-Man from 2001 to 2007 and created what became the foundation of the Spider-Verse by introducing the Spider-Totems to the Marvel mythology. He said that the powers that Peter received did not come from the radiation, but the spider itself. The radiation is just what killed the spider. It was never even stated that Peter was the intended recipient of the powers and was hinted that maybe he was just in the right place at the right time when the spider died, which really hammers home the idea that anyone can be behind the mask.

The spider coming from a portal which also brings a symbiotic alien that looks hauntingly similar to Shathra (also a character introduced by JMS that returned to the Spider-Verse in Dan Slott's End of Spider-Verse story line) hints that maybe YFNSM is taking a similar approach to JMS , which is always a good thing. I mean that man wrote Back In Black. (OMD and Sins Past were editorial and should not be credited to JMS despite it being his run people)

Now in terms of the rest of the story, we haven't gotten many hints yet but there is a scene where Spider-Man fights Butane and sees a symbol on his gauntlet that looks hauntingly similar to the number 8. You know what has 8 limbs?

An octopus. Specifically, Doctor Octopus.

We already know Doc Ock is in this show. My theory is that Butane's gauntlets were made by him but my main piece of evidence that tells me that he's the final villain?

The final episode of the season is called 'If This Be My Destiny...'

ITBMD is one of the most famous Spider-Man comics of all time and the panel where Spider-Man lifts the heavy machinery of his body has become legendary. It was used in multiple adaptations of Spider-Man, including Spectacular and Homecoming. Doctor Octopus is also the main villain of that storyline.

Norman Osborn seems to be a character that they're setting up as a main villain for the complete show but not the main season just yet, similar to how the insomniac games treat him. They seem to be putting Doc Ock as the first big villain and then following up with Norman later down the line, maybe around Season 3.