Exclusive: Fan-Favorite Animated Star Leaps From Screen to Page in Marvel’s Spidey and His Amazing Friends #1 for Comic Giveaway Day — And It’s Only the Beginning

Marvel is turning the chaos dial up in its kid-friendly Spidey corner. After four seasons of Marvel's Spidey and His Amazing Friends, the show is back later this summer with season 5 and a new troublemaker I did not have on my bingo card: Symbie, an adorable, Venom- flavored agent of mayhem who already has a theme song and a comics push lined up.

Meet Symbie: cute, stretchy, unstoppable

Symbie looks cuddly, acts chaotic, and can morph his body into pretty much whatever he needs in the moment. Think shape-shifting play-dough with zero chill. That power set plus a bottomless energy tank means Spidey, Ghost- Spider, and Spin spend an entire animated short sprinting after him across the city and straight into his not-so-secret base. The short is literally called Spidey Meets Symbie, and yes, he comes with his own earworm of a theme from Patrick Stump, who also wrote the show’s main theme and the character themes for the core heroes.

Season 5 rolls out Rescue Webs

Symbie officially joins the party in season 5 as part of the Rescue Webs storyline, a Spider-Man-meets-firetrucks mash-up that sounds exactly like the kind of crossover a preschooler would invent and, honestly, I respect it. The show has always been about bringing in recognizable Marvel faces in a bright, bite-sized way; Symbie adds a different kind of chaos the team hasn’t had to juggle yet.

The comics side is busy too (and a little quirky)

Symbie is not just on TV. He is also headlining a one-shot comic called It’s Symbie #1 on Free Comic Book Day, which lands on Saturday, May 2. The cover already throws him into a face-off with Jeff the Land Shark, which feels like putting two internet darlings in a Thunderdome made of merch potential.

Then in July, Marvel is putting out another It’s Symbie #1 — yes, same title — that gathers his earlier digital Infinity Comic appearances. That includes the Symbie Infinity Comic by Jacob Chabot and entries from the Marvel Mutts Infinity Comic series by MacKenzie Cadenhead and Enid Balam, plus his first appearance in traditional comics from Amazing Spider-Man #11 by Joe Kelly and Pepe Larraz. The naming overlap is a little confusing, but the gist is: Free Comic Book Day gets you a Symbie sampler, and July brings the fuller collection with his origin trail.

• Animated short: Spidey Meets Symbie — Symbie sprints through the city, gets a theme song by Patrick Stump, and makes life hard for Spidey, Ghost-Spider, and Spin.
• TV: Marvel's Spidey and His Amazing Friends season 5 arrives later this summer, with the Rescue Webs storyline (Spider-Man x firetrucks) and Symbie stirring the pot.
• Comics (Free Comic Book Day): It’s Symbie #1 on Saturday, May 2 — cover teases a showdown with Jeff the Land Shark.
• Comics (July): Another It’s Symbie #1 collecting the Symbie Infinity Comic (by Jacob Chabot), Marvel Mutts Infinity Comic material (by MacKenzie Cadenhead and Enid Balam), and his first standard-comic appearance from Amazing Spider-Man #11 (by Joe Kelly and Pepe Larraz).

Bottom line: Marvel clearly wants Symbie everywhere at once — on TV, in shorts, in comics — which fits the character’s whole hyperactive vibe. If you’ve got a kid who loves the show (or you just appreciate a well-deployed little chaos gremlin), keep an eye on May 2 and the summer drop for season 5.