Who Is ‘Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man’s Pearl Pangan in Marvel Comics?

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Editor’s Note: The following contains minor spoilers for ‘Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man’s premiere.There are a few things to expect whenever a Spider-Man story hits film or television. Spidey will struggle to balance his normal life — or what passes for “normal” — alongside his ever-present mantra “with great power comes great responsibility.” This balance will be threatened by one of the many, many villains he’s fought in the past. But along the way, he’ll wind up romancing a girl who comes to love both halves of his life. Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man is no different, as Peter Parker (Hudson Thames) has his eyes on someone special. But instead of Mary Jane Watson, Gwen Stacy, or the Black Cat, this time the web-head is crushing on Pearl Pangan (Cathy Ang). Pearl is a relatively new addition to Marvel Comics, but she happens to be a superheroine in her own right.

Pearl Pangan Became Wave Due to an Experiment Gone Wrong

Like most Marvel heroes, Pearl Pangan never intended to save the world from multiple threats. In fact, she had a promising athletic career ahead of her due to her swimming skills in high school; she even planned to join the Olympics. However, a series of events led Pearl to sign up with AlonTech, who seemingly wanted to utilize her swimming expertise for groundbreaking experiments. In reality, AlonTech was seeking to use her as part of a nefarious experiment — until the Philippines-based heroes known as Triumph Division stormed the lab. During the conflict, Pearl was drenched in water containing mystical energies which allowed her to control water itself and breathe underwater. She joined Triumph Division and took the name “Wave,” utilizing a pair of twin blades and cutting-edge armor as part of her superhero costume. Eventually, she’d join another superhero team with more than a few familiar faces.

As Wave, Pearl Pangan Joined the Agents of Atlas

Wave’s first full appearance would be during the War of the Realms storyline, which featured the Dark Elf Malekith summoning the forces of the Nine Realms to invade Earth. She was recruited by Jimmy Woo, and with other Asian superheroes, helped form a new incarnation of the Agents of Atlas to battle Sindr, the fiery queen of Muspelheim. In addition to Wave, the new Agents of Atlas included Amadeus Cho, aka Brawn; Aero, who had elemental powers like Wave but could manipulate air; Lin Lei, the Sword Master; K-pop star and ice generator Luna Snow; the kumiho White Fox; Shang-Chi, the Master of Kung-Fu; and Cindy Moon, aka Silk. After defeating Sindr, the Agents continued to work together to battle threats, including the symbiote god Knull’s invasion during the King in Black storyline.

Most of the Agents of Atlas’ roster have appeared in other Marvel projects, including Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man. Jimmy Woo showed up in Ant-Man and the Wasp and WandaVision, while Shang-Chi headlined his own movie in Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings. Silk not only shares Spider-Man’s abilities but was bitten by the same radioactive spider (and was even slated to star in her own series before it was cancelled). Cho appears in Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man‘s second episode “The Parker Luck” as one of Peter Parker’s fellow interns, while promo material shows Harry Osborn (Zeno Robinson) taking a picture with Luna Snow.

What Role Does Pearl Pangan in ‘Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man’?

When Pearl shows up in Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man‘s premiere episode “Amazing Fantasy,” she’s just a regular girl; apart from a mention of swim practice, there are no nods to her superheroic history as Wave. However, she does have a history with Peter Parker as she used to babysit him — a fact that his friend Nico Minoru (Grace Song) endlessly teases him about. But when Peter finally gathers the courage to ask Pearl out, he learns that she already has a boyfriend: Lonnie Lincoln (Eugene Byrd), best known to Spider-Man fans as the super-strong crime lord Tombstone. Showrunner Jeff Trammell actually highlighted that shifting Peter’s supporting cast opened up plenty of storytelling potential for Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man in an interview with IndieWire:

 ”I think a big thing for this show is so much of Peter’s supporting cast changes, and that opens up a lot of avenues for storytelling in the community,…So being able to add a character like Nico Minoru, who he would never interact with in the comics, or Lonnie Lincoln this early on, makes them such a big part of his journey. I think it really colors who Peter is and the choices he makes in a fun way and who Spider-Man becomes.”

This fresh take has not only resulted in a unique Spider-Man story, but another success for Marvel Animation as Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man is receiving critical acclaim similar to X-Men ’97. Whatever role Pearl Pangan plays in that remains to be seen, but shaking up Spidey’s love story has been for the best.

The first two episodes of Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man are available to stream on Disney+, with new episodes premiering Wednesdays in the U.S.

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“}]] Peter Parker’s latest crush is a superheroine in her own right.  Read More