All of Spider-Man’s Sidekicks, Ranked

Spider-Man is the face of Marvel, and he practically has been since he swung onto the scene in Amazing Fantasy #15. Peter Parker started as a teenager trying to find his way and pay the bills after his Uncle Ben’s death, but grew into one of the most respected and beloved heroes in the entire Marvel Multiverse. Everyone looks up to Spider-Man and turns to him when the going gets tough. From the entire Spider-Verse to the Mutant Messiah, Hope Summers, Spider-Man has left an impression on everyone by showing them what it means to be a hero. It only makes sense, then, that Spider-Man would mentor another young hero. And yet, Spider-Man famously does not have a sidekick.

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Even though he’d be perfect for it, fans and editorial alike seem to hate the idea of Spider-Man imparting his wisdom to a sidekick. Well, for the most part, at least. Spider-Man has actually had a couple of sidekicks, although some of them were definitely unwilling on his part. Today, we’re going to look at the few attempts that writers and characters have tried to give Spider-Man a sidekick, even when he flat-out said no. By the end, maybe we’ll have our answer on why Spider-Man works alone. But with that said, let’s swing right into it.

4) Gibbon

To emphasize how hard Spider-Man has avoided sidekicks all of these years, our last place option is Gibbon. This mutant was cursed with physicality of, and later, due to Kraven the Hunter, the appearance of a walking ape, which made him a laughing stock for pretty much everyone. He admired the Wall-Crawler for his acrobatic skills and auditioned to be his sidekick, which Spider-Man promptly laughed off. Gibbon became a very, very minor villain, seeking revenge for the scorn, but he never amounted to much of anything. Gibbon was the first to try to be Spidey’s sidekick, and given how sparse this list is, even he earns a spot.

3) Frog-Man

Frog-Man is the son of the short-careered villain Leap-Frog. He sought to exorcise his dad’s villainous past by using the same super-spring technology for good, becoming the bumbling but earnestly heroic Frog-Man. He’s yet another attempted sidekick, with Peter rejecting him at every turn, but encouraging the young man to pursue his own career in heroism. Whenever they work together, Frog-Man tries to call himself Spidey’s sidekick, which Peter always denies, but he still tries. Frog-Man isn’t a sidekick, and he’s barely a hero, but he does fight crime, which still puts him above Gibbon.

2) Alpha

Now we finally arrive at Spider-Man’s first true sidekick, Alpha. Andrew Maguire, named for Spider-Man’s first two big-screen actors, was a painfully average student who attended Midtown High. He accidentally gained powers over hyper-kinetic energy when Peter gave a presentation at Horizon Labs, mirroring how Peter developed his own powers. Spider-Man took the extremely powerful Alpha under his webbed wing, teaching him everything he knew about being a hero. Unfortunately, Alpha only took to the lessons about great power, not responsibility.

His brash attitude and lack of regard for civilians or damage eventually pushed him to villain territory, and Spider-Man had to depower him. Frankly, this is probably at least half because Alpha proved to be very unpopular with the fans. Still, regardless of the outcome, Alpha was the first sidekick that Spider-Man ever had. At least, the first one that we remember him having, as our first place entrant shows that everything isn’t as simple as it seems.

1) Spider-Boy

Spider-Boy, moreso than everyone else on this list, is the genuine article. Not only is he Spider-Man’s sidekick, but he even stayed a hero to boot! Spider-Boy’s actually been around a whole lot longer than anyone remembers. He was a young boy experimented on by Madame Monstrosity, turning him into a spider-human hybrid. He was taken under Spider-Man’s wings and taught to control his powers, becoming his sidekick and going on all kinds of adventures with Peter and Miles Morales, until the day he sacrificed everything.

In a fight with an unknown Spider-Totem corrupted by Shanthra, Spider-Boy was stabbed by the Totem Dagger, erasing him from existence and deleting all memory of him. He eventually found his way back and even managed to restore everyone’s memories of him, reestablishing himself as Spider-Man’s one and only sidekick. Peter isn’t always comfortable with the little guy hanging around, but he’s still Spider-Boy’s mentor, and just like we all knew he would be, he’s a fantastic one at that.

So there we have the very short list of Spider-Man’s sidekicks, approved of and otherwise. Which Spider-sidekick is your favorite? Leave a comment in the comment section below and join the conversation on the ComicBook Forums!