Marvel’s Spider-Boy Comic Takes “the Weirdest and Wildest Swings” With Spider-Man’s Sidekick

Who is Spider-Boy? It’s the question fans have been asking since Spider-Man’s long-lost sidekick swung into the pages of Dan Slott and Mark Bagley’s Spider-Man #7 (2022). “End of the Spider-Verse” pit Peter Parker and his Spider-allies against the ancient Wasp totem Shathra, who used the Totem Dagger to erase Spiders from across the Spider-Verse out of existence in her quest to dominate the Web of Life and Destiny. That includes the Jessica Drew Spider-Woman, the Kaine Parker Scarlet Spider — and the last Spider severed from the Great Web, a young boy named Bailey Briggs. 

When Araña rewove the fabric of reality, restoring the erased Spiders, the psychic Madame Web confirmed that Spider-Boy belongs to the mainstream Earth-616… but no one remembers him. Slott and artist Humberto Ramos fleshed out the character in the “Nobody Knows Who You Are” story in Edge of Spider-Verse #3 (2023), where the tween superhero realized that everyone — even his partners in crime-fighting, Peter Parker and Miles Morales — magically forgot Spider-Boy.

Starting in November, Marvel’s Spider-Boy will unmask the mystery of Bailey Briggs in his first solo series from Slott and artist Paco Medina (X-Men: Before the Fall – Sinister Four). 

“Spider-Man isn’t supposed to have a sidekick. That’s just wrong onso many levels. And that is exactly why we are going to have so much funwith this,” Slott told Marvel.com. “Both this character—and this newtitle—are going to break all the rules. Bailey Briggs is going to haveover-the-top adventures in the Spider-Man corner of the Marvel Universe.He’ll be facing off against a mix of both all-new villains andfan-favorite Spidey bad guys. The one thing we can promise you, wheneveryou pick up a copy of Spider-Boy, we are going to take the weirdest andwildest swings with every single story! Our goal is to get every readerto ask two questions: ‘What in the hell did I just read?!’ and ‘When isthe NEXT one coming out?!’”

The publisher has revealed two new Spider-Boy #1 variant coversahead of the book’s November debut, which features a standard cover byco-creator Ramos. The first, from David Aja (Daredevil, X-Corp), highlightsthe unique way Spider-Boy traverses the city — with spider-like parkourpowered by his unstable molecules shoes invented by Reed Richards ofthe Fantastic Four — and the second depicts Spider-Boy in the signaturestyle of artist John Tyler Christopher (Old Man Quill).

Marvel Comics describes the new ongoing series: “Spinning directly out of Spider-Man,the new series will dive headfirstinto Spider-Boy’s untold past byintroducing his arch-nemesis andfurther exploring his connections tothe Spider-Man mythos. JoinSpider-Boy as he battles to restore hisdestiny and retake his placeamongst the great heroes of the MarvelUniverse!”

In other Spider-Verse news: Spider-Man is back in black and on the hunt for Kraven in The Amazing Spider-Man; Hallows’ Eve plans to spring Chasm, a.k.a. Spider-clone Ben Reilly, out of Madelyne Pryor’s Limbo Embassy prison in Amazing Spider-Man Annual 2023 #1; and the Carnage symbiote is on a mission to kill all Venoms across the multiverse in Death of the Venomverse #1.

Marvel’s Spider-Boy #1 is on sale November 1st.