Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man S01E02 Review: Oscorp Rising

Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man, Season 1, Episode 2: Parker Luck

Another aspect of this show that doesn't come off particularly well how much it vomits out multiple characters at once. After the first episode introduces us to Peter's school friends, this episode has Norman Osborn offer Peter an internship, at which point we are introduced to a smattering of new, quirky characters -- fellow interns Amadeus Cho (a Hulk), Jeanne Foucault (Finesse), Asha (a Wakandan superheroine), as well as Peter's handlers in Oscorp, Dr. Bentley Wittman (The Wizard) and Dr. Carla Connors (a gender and race-flipped Lizard). Hindsight being 20-20, I now know that the entire Oscorp interns gang are just almost entirely fluff and foreshadowing for the next season, since none of them really ended up mattering in this season, but it still feels like an unnecessary overloading of characters... which honestly feels like it's just banking on some audience familiarity with 'oh, these guys are going to be superheores/supervillains'. It is admittedly a bit unnecessarily exhausting.  

One thing this episode does well is, at least, to explore the initial dynamics between Peter and Norman, which is perhaps the biggest draw for this alternate universe quasi-reboot. The point of comparison is the main MCU having the more benevolent Iron Man as Peter's mentor, and we all know what a villainous control freak Norman can be. YFNSM's Norman Osborn is shown to be friendly and stern, a more professional version of Tony, and I do feel like this dynamic is one thing that goes all the way to the end of the season well.

The majority of the episode is... it's something that is almost obligatory in a show formatted like this, but I just don't find it particularly interesting. Peter is juggling his internship work with his school social life (He's got a project with Lonnie! He's got a party with Nico!) and, oh, his superheroing as Spider-Man. I'm not going to be mean and say it's badly done, because I feel like the show does a great job at portraying the panicking teenage anxiety, but it's also the focus of the entire episode and I just felt like it could've been done better. At the very least, Peter should've been able to use his Oscorp internship as a way to dodge Nico, surely? But this time management thing is pretty baked into Spider-Man's DNA, so whether it's school/internship/superhero or Mary Jane/Daily Bugle/superhero, I feel I shouldn't be too harsh on it. 

The episode also gives us a villain of the week, Scorcher Butane, a dumbass arsonist who was tasked to burn down an empty building for insurance purposes, but ends up attacking the wrong building. It's mostly just a fluffy fight, given some extra flair because Peter needs to rescue some animals in the midst of fighting Butane, but it does give us some nice superheroing action. It's all ultimately a catalyst to the fact that Peter's amateurishness causes Norman Osborn to catch him in action as Spider-Man, which happens quite early into the show and is quite an interesting development. 

It's still a bit of a slower episode, which I think is going to be a common criticism for this show. Overall, though, I do find this show quite enjoyable and I feel like the series is interesting at least in terms of the Peter/Norman dynamic. 

Marvel Easter Eggs Corner:

• New characters:
• Amadeus Cho, also known as the 'Totally Awesome' Hulk, is a child prodigy and one of the smartest people in the world, who found his Hulk powers to be a gift and is able to retain his regular persona even in Hulk form. He has been a Hulk supporting character since his debut. 
• Jeanne Foucault in the comics is the daughter of the supervillain Taskmaster, inheriting her father's ability to copy any physical skills he has observed. Jeanne would become a superhero under the codename Finesse. 
• Asha in the comics is a superpowered Wakandan with the ability to absorb and reflect light energy. 
• Dr. Bentley Wittman is better known as the supervillain Wizard, a genius who uses superpowered tools like anti-gravity discs to lead the team called the Frightful Four. 
• Butane in the comics is a minor Excalibur supporting character with the power to control fire. The appearance of the show's version of Butane, a mechanically-augmented pyromaniac with twin flamethrowers, recalls traditional Spider-Man villain Scorcher much more closely. 
• Dr. Carla Connors is a gender-flipped and race-flipped version of Dr. Curt Connors, better known as the Lizard. She still is missing an arm, though!
• The security guard in Oscorps has the name "J. Gallo", seemingly identifying him as John Gallo/Ricochet, a mutant with heightened senses and an ability to sense danger.
• Coach Phil Grayfield is a very unexpected Marvel comics character, the indestructible football player called "NFL SuperPro", who headlined a series of comics as a tie-in with the sports association NFL.
• Nico name-drops Roxxon Oil as an even worse corporation than Oscorp. Roxxon is a notoriously corrupt and unethical megacorp in the Marvel universe, having had appearances in the MCU in all three Iron Man movies, Agents of SHIELD, Agent Carter, Daredevil, and most notably as antagonists in Cloak and Dagger. 
• Peter Parker's phone is cracked and broken, matching its appearance with his sacred timeline counterpart in Spider-Man: Homecoming.
• While Amadeus was flipping through the channels, it briefly shows a wrestling competition with "Crusher" Hogan. In the original comics, Peter Parker initially utilizes his Spider-Man powers to get money from a wrestling competition, fighting against Crusher Hogan. 
• A picture in Norman's corridors show him posing with Captain America.