Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man

Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man
Cover art for Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man #1. Art by Mike Wieringo.
Publication information
Publisher	Marvel Comics
Schedule	Monthly
Format	Ongoing series
Publication date	October 2005 - October 2007
No. of issues	24, 1 annual
Main character(s)	Spider-Man
Creative team as of October 2005
Created by	Peter David Mike Wieringo
Written by	Peter David
Artist(s)	Todd Nauck

Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man was a comic book series published by Marvel Comics. The title is derived from a trademark self-referential comment often made by Spider-Man (as in "just another service provided by your friendly neighborhood Spider-Man!"), ironic in that Spider-Man is often falsely considered by the general public to be a dangerous vigilante and/or a criminal, and to many his perceived reputation is anything but "friendly". The series began in October 2005 and was primarily written by Peter David. Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man was canceled after issue #24, part 2 of J. Michael Straczynski and Joe Quesada's controversial "One More Day" storyline. Kurt Busiek has revealed that in 1995 he originally suggested "Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man" as the title of the series which was eventually published as Untold Tales of Spider-Man. He believes that this choice of title contributed, at least in part, to the relative market failure of Untold Tales.

The first story arc is the twelve-part crossover, "Spider-Man: The Other", one-third of which was told in Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man (the other two-thirds told in Marvel Knights Spider-Man and The Amazing Spider-Man).

"Web Log" was a one-issue storyline featuring a young woman, Vanna Smith, who is convinced Spider-Man has been stalking her since high school, because over the years, Spider-Man just happened to be around when Vanna was doing something. She later gets a restraining order against Spider-Man. The story then moves to approximately 50 years into the future. Mary Jane meets up with Vanna in an unidentified park. They talk, and Mary Jane shows Vanna Spider-Man's bloodied mask, thus proving her thoughts of him surviving were wrong. Mary Jane then walks away.

A storyline notable for its use of luchadores, lucha libre, and discussion of the meaning of being an icon. Spider-Man also struggles with the combination of both science and magic in his origin, and uses scientific means to take down a magic foe.