The Marvel Characters Banned From Appearing In Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man

This post contains spoilers for season 1 of "Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man."

The title "Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man" suggests a small-time superhero, but the series' 10-episode debut season pulled in faces from all across the Marvel Universe. Among the main cast, the show reinvented Nico Minoru (Grace Song) of "The Runaways" as the goth best friend of Peter Parker (Hudson Thames).

I grew up on the 1990s "Spider-Man" cartoon, which often featured Mighty Marvel Team-Ups between Spidey and other superheroes: X-Men, Captain America, etc. "Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man" is doing the same. Doctor Strange (Robin Atkin Downes) shows up in the premiere and the finale. Daredevil (Charlie Cox) shows up in episode 6 to spar with Spider-Man, and his apprentice Finesse (Anjali Kunapaneni) is posing as one of Peter's fellow Oscorp interns.

Iron Man (Mick Wingert) doesn't meet Peter, but he makes a cameo helping to catch Doc Ock (Hugh Dancy) in episode 8. The show even has Spider-Man face off with some unexpected villains, like the Unicorn (Sarah Natochenny), who is usually a foe of Iron Man.

Yet, there are limits to how deep the show can dig. Similar to how Tom Holland's Spider-Man can't show up on Disney+, "Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man" has some restrictions about which characters it can use. Series creator Jeff Trammell confirmed in an appearance on The Breakroom that fans shouldn't expect to see the Fantastic Four, nor the obscure villain Big Wheel.

Spider-Man and the Fantastic Four have a long history together. The Four actually appear in the second ever Spider-Man story, "The Amazing Spider-Man" #1. (Spidey's debut, and tragic origin story with his Uncle Ben, was printed in "Amazing Fantasy" #15.)

Peter Parker is in need of money, but he can't exploit his powers because he can't cash any checks made out to "Spider-Man." J. Jonah Jameson's smear campaign against Spider-Man means no talent agency will touch him, either. So, Spider-Man tries to use his powers to join the Fantastic Four; he "auditions" by breaking into the Baxter Building and giving them a firsthand taste of his power. Unfortunately, as a non-profit, the FF have no room in the budget for a fifth.

The FF, especially Johnny Storm/the Human Torch, remained recurring characters during the Stan Lee/Steve Ditko run on "Amazing Spider-Man." Peter also battled the Fantastic Four's iron-masked archnemesis Doctor Doom in "The Amazing Spider-Man" #5, well before he faced off against many of his own classic foes like the Green Goblin, Mysterio, Electro, or Kraven the Hunter.

And yet, FF can't show up in the new Spider-Man's neighborhood. Trammell says, though, that this limit "makes total sense." The Fantastic Four are about to make their MCU debut in this year's "The Fantastic Four: First Steps," so of course Marvel Studios would want him to hold back on using those characters.

However, there is a sign of the Four's connection to Spider-Man in the show. During Jonathan Hickman's run on "Fantastic Four," Spider-Man finally got his wish and joined the FF because Johnny Storm was presumed dead. The FF launched a new "Future Foundation" and switched to black-and-white suits, Spidey included. The Future Foundation suit appears in "Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man," reimagined as an Oscorp-designed suit. Peter wears it before it gets trashed by the deadly villain Scorpion, and he switches to his classic red-and-blue Spider-Man costume.

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It looks like, tragically, we won't be seeing the greatest Spider-Man villain of all-time show up in this friendly neighborhood. That's right: Big Wheel won't be making an appearance. Trammell confirmed this character is also considered off-limits, though "[he doesn't] know why."

Introduced by Marv Wolfman and Ross Andru in "The Amazing Spider-Man" #182, Jackson Wheele is a businessman who hired the thief Rocket Racer to steal some incriminating documents. When Racer tried to blackmail him, Wheele decided to fight fire with fire. He hired super-villainous inventor the Tinkerer to build a giant wheel-shaped tank for him, and fought Spider-Man and Rocket Racer with it as "Big Wheel."

Big Wheel remains one of the go-to examples of ridiculous super-villains. Yet, somehow, he made it into the 1990s "Spider-Man" cartoon, which reimagined him as a criminal mastermind. (Well, he believed himself to be one, at least.) Big Wheel's only appearance guest-starred Rocket Racer, so it's likely he was included by mere association.

So, why no Big Wheel? Does Sony Pictures have plans for him? Somehow, I doubt a Big Wheel picture would jumpstart their basically-dead Spider-Man Cinematic Universe (no Spider-Man included).

"Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man" is streaming on Disney+, and season 2 is currently in the works.