Every Way Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man’s Finale Sets Up Season 2

“If This Be My Destiny…” went back to the very beginning of the premiere, “Amazing Fantasy.” One of the big changes to Spider-Man’s origin this time is how Peter is bitten by the super-spider: It doesn’t happen in a lab accident, but instead when the spider crawls out of a portal opened by Doctor Strange (Robin Atkin Downes), who is fighting a symbiote alien.

The finale adds more context to that event. Norman Osborn (Colman Domingo) and Oscorp were opening, essentially, a Stargate to allow humanity to travel the cosmos. Doctor Strange shows up and warns Norman of dangerous consequences, but he doesn’t listen. Cue the symbiote popping out. While Spider-Man repairs the portal to send the alien back, Strange distracts it, bringing it to the events of the premiere with his time-manipulating Eye of Agamotto.

So, yes, the spider that bit Peter came from Oscorp … which means there’s a predestination paradox at work, because Oscorp created that spider from a sample of Peter’s genetically altered blood. In episode 9, “Hero or Menace,” Norman said he planned to create a whole Spider-Man army with Peter’s blood sample. It looks like he may equip them with black suits, because he discovers a piece of the symbiote left behind in the rubble.

Now, no one says the name “Venom” in the episode, but it’s not a huge leap to believe that’s who the symbiote is, or will become. It’s easy to imagine how the story could play out: Oscorp experiments with the symbiote, Peter finds out somehow and confronts them, the symbiote bonds with him, and you know the rest.

Peter and Norman’s relationship is also uncertain right now. Peter said Norman’s actions with the portal have given him some trust issues with Oscorp, but they’re not outright enemies yet, either. If Norman again tampers with science with disastrous consequences, that could push them apart.

The next question is, if the show does plan to introduce Venom, who will it eventually join with after Peter rejects the symbiote? Will “Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man” introduce Eddie Brock next season? Or perhaps Mac Gargan, who is reeling from Spider-Man defeating him and who once traded his Scorpion identity for Venom in the comics? Harry Osborn has also become Venom a few times, most recently in Insomniac Studios’ “Spider-Man 2” video game. Speaking of which…