This article contains spoilers for Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man.By the end of the final episode of Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man, Peter Parker has saved the day. Hes rescued his friend Nico Minoru, stopped a gang war between the 110th Street Gang and the Scorpions, and even prevented an interdimensional invasion of Venom symbiotes.But the most shocking moment doesnt involve Peter at all. With Peter safe and sound at home, Aunt May goes on an errandan errand that leads her to the local prison. There, she checks in on an inmate curious about Peter. The episode lets us think for a minute that its about to reveal its take on Uncle Ben Parker, whose fate has been hinted at but not fully revealed in the series. But instead, we see Richard Parker, Peters father.The reveal should make longtime comic book fans roll their eyes and sigh. For as many things as Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man has done right, its hard to believe that this show will be able to make Richard Parker interesting when no one, in any medium, has ever been able to pull it off.Not-So-Amazing MysteriesWhen we first meet Peter Parker in 1962s Amazing Fantasy #15, neither the character nor the narrator even mention his parents. He simply lives with his Uncle Ben and Aunt Mayno more explanation needed.That changed with 1968s Amazing Spider-Man Annual #5, written by Stan Lee and penciled by his brother Larry Lieber. At Long Last the Parents of Peter Parker! declares the cover, a cool Jim Steranko-style design that promises more than the actual issue delivers. Amazing Spider-Man #5 begins with Peter helping Aunt May move a safe, which he accidentally damages with his super-strength. From the damaged box comes a newspaper clipping announcing the death of Richard and Mary Parker in a plane crash in Algeria. Worse, the newspaper describes the couple as traitors to America.Upset by the news, Peter dons his Spidey costume and investigates. With the help of the Fantastic Four, Spider-Man travels to Algeria, where he discovers that his father served in an international criminal organization operated by Captain Americas arch-enemy, the Red Skull. Spidey refuses to believe it and continues to push further, interrogating someone familiar with the operation. Through this contact, Peter learns the truthhis father was an American agent working deep undercover in the Red Skulls organization. Although most of the evidence gets destroyed in an explosion, Peter gets enough to clear his fathers name and returns to the States.Like most stories in early annuals, its easy to dismiss the secret agent reveal. And for decades, thats exactly what writers did.Secret Agents ParkerThat changed with Amazing Spider-Man #365 from 1992, written by David Michelinie and Jerry Bingham, which revealed that Richard and Mary were still alive, having been held in a Soviet prison since their apparent death. Of course, since this is Spider-Man in the 1990s, the story ended with the duo turning out to be clones, but the two years of storylines confirmed what many already suspected: Richard and Mary made for a poor fit in Peters universe.Through backstory, we learn that Richard and Mary were James Bond-style spies, going on globetrotting adventures on behalf of SHIELD. The duo faced off against some of Marvels biggest bad guys, including the Red Skull and Baron Zemo, and set up a lineage that included their daughter Theresa Parker, now an agent of SHIELD.By themselves, these spy stories are fine. The Marvel Universe is full of such derring-do. But they dont make sense next to Spider-Man, at least not in his lineage. Peter Parker works best as a regular, unassuming guy. Super-smart, sure, but otherwise unremarkable. Thats what makes it so special when he chooses to use his great power for good. Making his parents secret agents undoes that banality a bit, transforming him into a scion of heroes.Join our mailing listGet the best of Den of Geek delivered right to your inbox!Fortunately, writers have rarely returned to the secret agent well for Richard and Mary, preferring to show them as regular people in flashbacks (which does include the disastrous sex romp Trouble, written by Mark Millar and starring teenaged Richard and Mary with Ben and May as supporting characters, but lets not talk about that).The sole exception to this rule was The Amazing Spider-Man movies. Desperate to create a shared universe to rival the MCU, Sony overstuffed the two films with teases, including a Sinister Six nod and Felicity Jones as Felicia Harding aka the Black Cat. Both movies also starred Campbell Scott and Embeth Davidtz as Richard and Mary, here portrayed as scientists whose experiments in arachnids led not just to the radioactive spider that gave Peter his powers, but also a range of medical benefits. A jealous Norman Osborn (Chris Cooper) has the duo killed, but their work lives on in the many OsCorp experiments.Once again, The Amazing Spider-Man movies commit the key error with Richard and Mary. They make Peter into part of a vast super conspiracy, someone fated to power instead of having the power thrust upon him. And, just like in the comics, Richard and Mary have fallen away from the movies, not even meriting a mention when Andrew Garfield reprised his take on Peter for Spider-Man: No Way Home.Straying from the Friendly NeighborhoodSo far, Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man has veered away from established Marvel canon in good ways. Giving Pete new pals Nico and Lonnie helped shake up the status quo, and his relationship with Norman provided a necessary corrective to the emphasis on Tony Stark in the life of MCU Peter.We dont know enough about the series version of Richard Parker to say if the show will follow down the same misbegotten path as the comics. He might just be a regular guy with a prison sentence, not some SHIELD agent deep undercover. But if history is any indication, the Richard Parker reveal means a whole host of secrets for Peter Parker, and potentially dull stories for fans in season 2.Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man season one is streaming now on Disney+.