Who Is Nico Minoru In Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man? Her Marvel History, Explained

Spoilers for “Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man” to follow.

Who is Peter Parker’s best friend? Harry Osborn? Ned Leeds? Johnny Storm? According to the new animated series “Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man,” it’s — Nico Minoru? If you’re a casual Marvel fan, you might be thinking: who? Now, Nico is an established Marvel character, but not one who is usually connected to Spider-Man. So why use her? And what can her role in the series so far answer about that?

“Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man” is not set in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, or at least not the so-called “Sacred Timeline.” As executive producer Brad Winderbaum has explained, putting the show in the MCU continuity would’ve been too restrictive. 

That said, the show is still using the MCU as a foundation. Peter (Hudson Thames) and Aunt May (Kari Wahlgren) are drawn to resemble Tom Holland and Marisa Tomei, their actors in the MCU Spider-Man films. Charlie Cox and Vincent D’Onofrio are also set to make guest appearances as Daredevil and Wilson Fisk ahead of their onscreen reunion in “Daredevil: Born Again.”

So far, the show is leaning into an alternate timeline conceit where butterflies flapped their wings differently, and so Peter Parker’s life took different turns. The ending of episode 1, “Amazing Fantasy,” ends by replicating Peter’s introduction back in “Captain America: Civil War,” except this time, Norman Osborn (Colman Domingo) is waiting to meet him instead of Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.), the mentor of Holland’s Peter Parker.

Early in “Amazing Fantasy,” Midtown High School (where Peter went to school in the MCU) is demolished in a fight between Doctor Strange and a symbiote. So, Peter goes to a different school instead. Presumably, he didn’t meet Ned (Jacob Batolan), so Nico (Grace Song) is his best friend instead. Friendships are often contingent on who you’re around most often, and as a teenager, that’s who you’re in school with.

In its opening two episodes, Nico is one half of a classic geek and Goth duo with Peter; she’s dressed in black, her hair has dyed blue streaks, etc. Like in the comics, she’s also bisexual — she teases Peter if he doesn’t ask out his crush Pearl (Cathy Ang), she will. But so far, Nico has not shown her comic self’s magical side.