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 on so many levels. And that is exactly why we are going to have so much fun with this," Slott told Marvel.com. "Both this character—and this new title—are going to break all the rules. Bailey Briggs is going to have over-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 and fan-favorite Spidey bad guys. The one thing we can promise you, whenever you pick up a copy of Spider-Boy, we are going to take the weirdest and wildest swings with every single story! Our goal is to get every reader to ask two questions: 'What in the hell did I just read?!' and 'When is the NEXT one coming out?!'"

The publisher has revealed two new Spider-Boy #1 variant covers ahead of the book's November debut, which features a standard cover by co-creator Ramos. The first, from David Aja (Daredevil, X-Corp), highlights the unique way Spider-Boy traverses the city — with spider-like parkour powered by his unstable molecules shoes invented by Reed Richards of the Fantastic Four — and the second depicts Spider-Boy in the signature style 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 headfirst into Spider-Boy's untold past by introducing his arch-nemesis and further exploring his connections to the Spider-Man mythos. Join Spider-Boy as he battles to restore his destiny and retake his place amongst the great heroes of the Marvel Universe!"

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.