Your Buddy Neighborhood Spider-Man, Disney Plus’ new Spider-Man animated sequence, takes lots of artistic liberties with Peter Parker’s backstory. For one, his spider powers got here from a mysterious interdimensional spider that appeared from a portal seemingly conjured by Physician Unusual. For one more, his highschool BFF is none apart from goth queen Nico Minoru. And although this model of Peter Park is barely MCU adjoining, in that Peter has a brilliant wealthy mentor determine to assist finance his spider-activities, as an alternative of Tony Stark, it’s Norman Osborn.
With all these tweaks to Peter’s story, there’s chance for something, actually, and I’ve one large concept which may simply shake the foundations of the Spider-Man story: I don’t assume Uncle Ben is lifeless.
Hear me out! In contrast to within the typical model of Peter’s story from the comics and varied film variations, Uncle Ben is absent earlier than Peter will get bitten by the spider. Additionally, within the first two episodes, nobody truly says Uncle Ben is lifeless. Could and Peter simply kinda discuss how he’s “not round.” Which leads me to consider that there’s a selected motive that the showrunners have determined to not explicitly say he’s lifeless.
We’ve seen Uncle Ben die many, many, many occasions in films and TV reveals and it’s all the time particularly in order that Peter can sensible up and understand he wants to make use of his powers for good. We don’t essentially must see that story play out once more, however it’s jarring that he’s already out of Could and Peter’s lives earlier than the spider. It’s even extra jarring when everybody’s kinda speaking round what occurred to him. I get that perhaps it will be clunky for Peter to go “Man, when Uncle Ben acquired shot by that mugger final yr, issues have been tough for me and my aunt,” but additionally, each point out of Ben appears to be intentionally ambiguous.
So what occurred to Ben? Did he go away Could? Does he have a secret household within the New Jersey suburbs that he determined to dwell with full time? Or did he get kidnapped or disappear in some kind of super-powered incident? Has he been recruited by SHIELD to go deep undercover? Or is he in jail? Or did he get a job that relocated him to a unique borough and now he can’t make the commute to see his spouse and nephew, as a result of rattling, have you learnt how annoying it’s to get from Brooklyn to Queens by way of public transport?
We’re solely two episodes into the present, however I’m side-eying the vagueness round Uncle Ben and can maintain an eye fixed out for any additional Ben mentions that affirm or deny my concept.
Your Pleasant Neighborhood Spider-Man’s first two episodes are actually streaming on Disney Plus. New episodes drop each Wednesday.