Popverse's top stories

• Prime Video's Spider-Noir trailer is here, featuring a web-head with a drinking problem and... Electro?
• Daredevil: Born Again stars Charlie Cox, Krysten Ritter, and Wilson Bethel go from Hell's Kitchen to the Windy City for C2E2 2026!
• Marvel cuts its new Hulk ongoing comic after just 10 issues, but creators say that was the plan and there's already a sequel underway

If you're a Marvel household with a couple of rugrats running around, chances are you've had Marvel's Spidey and His Amazing Friends on at one point or another. Aimed at a preschool audience, the animated Disney Jr. series tends to revolve around the most G-rated plotlines and characters in Peter Parker's web... so I can imagine a few of you were surprised to see what appeared to be the typically R-leaning Venom joining the show, as glimpsed in the image above. But here's the thing, parents, that isn't Venom at all. It's someone a lot friendlier - and a lot younger. 

Let's take a step back for a second. Though it's been circulating all over online Spider-Man spaces at this point, that image first appeared on The Wrap in an article about the show published January 9. And though the blobby li'l guy bears a striking resemblance to old Eddie Brock, main character of Sony's gory Venom trilogy, it's actually a safe-for-all-ages character called Symbie.

First appearing in a very fast blink-and-you'll-miss-him cameo in Marvel Comics' Timeslide #1 back in December 2024, Symbie is a symbiote experiment created by writer Joe Kelly and Pepe Larraz. While still classified as a symbiote, Symbie needs no host and has a shape-shifting set of powers, unlike his fellow alien goop people. Kelly and Larraz would feature the character more in the current Amazing Spider-Man run, starting as recently as September 2025's #11 as part of the intergalactic crew Peter Parker has run into in space.

I know, I know: from September through January is not much time at all between a comic book debut and an onscreen adaptation, but at least you and your own little symbiotes can now enjoy Marvel's most molasses-y together. Just don't expect Marvel's other more R-Rated characters to show up on Spidey and HIs Amazing Friends anytime soon. Although hey - I don't know the deal Jon Bernthal made with the House of Ideas. Maybe he'll do an all-ages Punisher guest spot before we know it.

Marvel's Spidey and His Amazing Friends is streaming on Disney+ now.

Marvel's most reliable superhero has proven he can do a whole lot more than just 'whatever a spider can.' Swing into Spidey's history with Popverse's...

• Best Spider-Man comic books 
• Spider-Man movie watch order
• Spider-Man's actors, ranked
• and the Spider-verse explained!

Just watch out for that radioactive blood.