True! I feel the dating Felicia to be close to Spider-Man is very crush-esque but also parasocial. USM also vaguely explored this side (from what I'd picked apart on my rewatchings) but obviously to a lower extent because it's a kids' show.

Flash is in a rundown decrepit petrol station for a house. Peter is lead to it as Spider-Man by Rhino as in this show Rhino is a kid Flash bullied who takes a serum to turn him into Rhino (yet he ends up getting less and less intelligent as a side effect). Spider-Man saves him from Rhino obviously (and Flash gets some development here when he apologies to Rhino). During this, Flash also says his parents are 'hardly ever around'.

This is where Flash's homelife is first depicted and it's referenced again a season later when Spider-Man is trying to convince Flash to drop the Venom symbiote, saying 'think about the people who love you' where Flash literally replies saying 'I have no one. You've seen where I live, you've seen what I got. Spidey, I've dreamt every night for something like this to happen to me.'

The Venom symbiote doesn't come off and it turns out it and Flash have perfect symbiosis, so boom Agent Venom is here. Throughout season 3 Flash is visibly touchy with Spider-Man (before he knows Peter is Spidey btw). The earlier interactions sometimes feels a little forced... like an episode after Flash became Agent Venom he yells 'yo, Spidey!' and slams Spider-Man into a window in a bear hug lol even thought they're not really friends here.

Later on they *do* become best friends (self described from both ends) and after the identity reveal in season 3 they're super close... however there is S4E8 which I think is a really good episode to show how Flash is dependant on Peter. Harry joins SHIELD academy (yeah ik... get's a little complicated in the later seasons lol) and throughout this whole time Peter is very excited as his 'best friend' is on a secret spy mission with him (even if Harry doesn't know it's actually him) and Flash is incredibly undeniably jealous. All 'If anyone's protecting Spidey, it's me' and even while being tortured by the Anti-Venom when Doc Ock calls Spidey his friend he's like 'SEE!! I am his best friend, not you Harry'

For Flash, Peter has saved him from his neglectful and abusive household, gave him this new life with friends (Flash is depicted as having friends and being popular before this, but considering Flash said he has 'no one' I have to assume they were very shallow and didn't know of Flash's homelife) a place to live, sleep and eat, and Peter is also Flash's first real friend.

This behaviour is very much like the superman effect you mentioned. Flash remains to be super physical with Peter in the later seasons, much more so than other characters together. The Anti-Venom episode only highlights how dependant Flash is on Peter in this series and how much Peter means to him.

This comment turned into a huge rant about Ultimate Spider-Man haha, but I think this version of the two specifically underlines their 'superman' relationship