Spider-Boy

Template:Short description Template:About Template:Infobox comics character Spider-Boy (Bailey Bartholomew Briggs) is a superhero appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. Created by writer Dan Slott and artist Humberto Ramos, the character first appeared in Spider-Man vol. 4 #7 (April 2023). He is a child superhero with spider-like abilities. He was erased from existence and forgotten by everyone who knew him before being brought back. The character is also an ally of the superhero Peter Parker / Spider-Man.

Development

Concept and creation

Spider-Boy creator Dan Slott stated, "So, the idea came from when we were writing. I said to my editor, "Wouldn't it be funny if there was one more guy? And now, no one remembers him." And we started talking about who that [could] be, what kind of character they would be. I was pitching really hard for it to be Spider-Boy. Why? This all-new character would be the youngest spider character we'd ever done because both Miles and Peter, when they got bit, were teenagers. I thought it would be really fun to see the adventures of a preteen Spider-Man character, someone Spider-Man won't want running around. It's child endangerment [laughs]. If you're Spider-Man, you're all about responsibility, and what kind of responsible hero would you be if you let this nine or ten-year-old kid run around and fight crime? So that's kind of where that came from." Slott later said Spider-Boy was created to be an entertaining Spider-Man supporting character, but became popular enough to get his own comic series.

Publication history

Spider-Boy debuted in Spider-Man vol. 4 #7 (April 2023), created by Dan Slott and Humberto Ramos. He later appeared in the 2023 Edge of Spider-Verse series, and in the 2023 Spider-Boy series, his first solo comic book series. The first issue was released on November 1, 2023. The second issue was released on December 20, 2023. The third issue was released on January 31, 2024. He appeared in the 2023 Superior Spider-Man series, and in the 2023 Marvel Unlimited exclusive Infinity Comic series. The fourth issue of Spider-Boy was released on February 21, 2024.

Fictional character biography

Bailey Briggs was originally a normal boy before being kidnapped by Madame Monstrosity. He and fellow prisoner Eli Hartman are respectively fused with a spider and an elephant and rhinoceros, with Eli being dubbed "Hellifino".

In "End of the Spider-Verse", following the defeat of Shathra and Morlun, Bailey is among their victims who are resurrected. After realizing that nobody remembers his existence, he leaves and ends up living at a F.E.A.S.T. building after saving a young girl named Christina Wu from Mister Negative's Inner Demons.

Spider-Man later has Spider-Boy meet with Daredevil to train and gain more control over his powers. In the process, he reminisces about his previous encounters with Killionaire and Big Wheel before going out to fight the bowling bandit Gutterball.

As Spider-Man and Spider-Boy fight Gutterball, Madame Monstrosity sees a newspaper talking about the latter and decides to recapture him, sending her elephant/rhinoceros henchman Hellifino to do so. Spider-Boy tries to get through to him, knowing that he was previously his friend Eli. This causes Hellifino to reconsider his actions and let Spider-Boy go, telling Madame Monstrosity that he escaped. Later, during a Thanksgiving parade, Spider-Boy takes Christina up a building where they meet Squirrel Girl and battle Balloon Man.

At the F.E.A.S.T. building, Bailey and Christina Wu help set up for Christmas before battling Taskmaster. They stop him, but he manages to obtain the Super-Adaptoid's left hand for Killionaire's use. On Christmas Day, Christina gives Bailey a picture of him and his mother.

Spider-Boy later battles Toy Soldier, a sentient action figure that Killionaire created by reverse-engineering the Super-Adaptoid and can replicate the powers of the Avengers. However, Spider-Boy convinces him to turn against Killionaire and become a hero after he proves to be worthy of wielding Mjolnir. Sometime later, Spider-Boy and Thor battle the Asgardian spider Klöpp before learning that it is Ulik's pet and reuniting the two.

During the "Gang War" storyline, Spider-Boy saves a police officer from the Inner Demons by using his paralyzing venom on him. Then he works to defend the F.E.A.S.T. building from Vermin and his clones. Spider-Boy is among the heroes who assist Spider-Man, Miles Morales, Spider-Woman, She-Hulk, and Daredevil in fighting Madame Masque.

It's movie night at the F.E.A.S.T. Center. Aunt May states that her movie choice is Fast Car Family Five, which is a favorite of Peter Parker. Spider-Boy and Christina Wu head to Lucky Lane's Bowling Alley to go bowling. Then he later goes on patrol where he finds Spider-Man and Miles Morales fighting the Vulturions. Spider-Boy later encounters Boy-Spider, a clone of him created by Madame Monstrosity who is more spider than human. After fleeing, Boy-Spider is calmed down by Monstrosity's servant Tabby, who is revealed to be Bailey's mother Tabitha Briggs.

While out of webs, Spider-Boy encounters Spider-Woman while dodging some drones. While Spider-Woman does not remember the day when she helped Spider-Boy defeat Red Heron, she was surprised that Spider-Boy remembered Gerry. Both of them discover that the drones were being controlled by Screwball. who combines them into one giant robot. Spider-Woman defeats the giant robot and uses one of the drones to track down Screwball. When Screwball tries to flee, Spider-Woman and Spider-Boy subdue Screwball and leave her for the police.

As Bailey tries to have lunch at PS 41 Greenwich Village, he gets surprised by a teacher and knocks him down causing Bailey to flee while apologizing. While going over the previous PS locations, his spider-senses on the pen he's holding reveals to him that Christina will be targeted by Madame Monstrosity and Hellifino. Despite his efforts, Madame Monstrosity and Hellifino succeed in kidnapping Christina and fusing her with a pigeon.

While fighting Madame Monstrosity to rescue Christina, Spider-Boy learns that Tabitha is his mother and that she does not remember him. He is later kidnapped by Monstrosity, who plans to further experiment on him to improve her Humanimals. However, Christina manages to contact Miles Morales, Squirrel Girl, Captain America, Thor, and Toy Soldier to rescue them. Madame Monstrosity transforms into a chimera and attacks the heroes before being taken away by the High Evolutionary, who plans to experiment on her.

After Madame Monstrosity is defeated, her husband Jeremy Stillwell, her former henchmen Squeakerton and Mr. Cricket, Spider-Man, and Toy Soldier, modify the transformation chamber to successfully undo the Humanimal transformations. However, Boy-Spider, Jeremy, and Hellifino are unable to be restored, so they choose to live on the Farm with Tabitha. After heading to the F.E.A.S.T. building and getting a picture of him with his mother, Spider-Boy is ambushed by Puzzle Man who puts Spider-Boy through a maze. After Spider-Boy solves a crossword puzzle and Puzzle Man accidentally erases another part of the picture, Spider-Boy transforms and goes after him. With help from the readers, Spider-Boy catches up to Puzzle Man and breaks his pencil. As Spider-Boy wonders if he did something to cause everyone to not remember him as he sees the Simms Tower, Madame Web, Silk, and Lady Araña are working on how to deal with their new Spider-Friend. Spider-Boy shows up to tell Lady Araña that he brought him back wrong and that he needs her help to fix it.

Lady Araña, Silk, and Madame Web attempt to restore the universe's memories of Spider-Boy, but accidentally cast a spell that sends him through the Web of Life and Destiny. As Bailey travels the universe, visiting Earth-67, Earth-51778, Earth-51914, Earth-982, and Earth-92131 in the process, Lady Araña and Silk begin to remember his existence which led to him accidentally getting sucked into the Web of Life and Destiny. Spider-Man is informed of what happened and donates "threads" to rescue Spider-Boy. This also restores the universe's memories of him, with Madame Web stating that there will be a price for this.

Afterwards, Bailey returns to school and begins learning everything that happened while he was missing. Tabitha also joins the F.E.A.S.T. staff and learns of Bailey's secret identity, but allows him to continue being a superhero. Meanwhile, Bullseye and an unnamed female ninja take interest in him and obtain Daredevil's Golden Fang Trophy. In response, Spider-Boy and Daredevil pursue Bullseye to Madripoor. Arriving in Madripoor, Spider-Boy and Daredevil had to obtain a Golden Fang Trophy by defeating the sumo wrestler Enormo and his student Hulkette. Then they head to the location where the Challenge of the Jade Dragon tournament is where their appearance surprises Bullseye and Spider-Girl.

Powers and abilities

Spider-Boy possesses superpowers similar to those of Spider-Man. He can transform into a spider hybrid at will, gaining paralyzing venom, enhanced vision, and the ability to communicate with spiders. Additionally, he has a variety of the Spider-Sense that manifests as psychometry.

Supporting characters

Enemies

Spider-Boy has his own rogues gallery:

Name / alter ego	Creator(s)	First appearance	Description
Madame Monstrosity	Dan Slott Paco Medina	Amazing Spider-Man Vol. 6 #31 (August 2022)	Melodia Stillwell experiments on human beings to turn them into human/animal hybrids called Humanimals. She is the mother of Farley Stillwell, Harlan Stillwell, and Shannon Stillwell.
Gutterball		Spider-Boy Vol. 2 #1 (November 2023)	A bowling-themed supervillain with a bowling ball for a head.
Balloon Man			Emilio Helio possesses gaseous powers after an accident that changed his respiratory system. This enables him to control gases including the helium in balloons.
Killionaire		Spider-Boy Vol. 2 #3	A rich social media influencer.
Red Heron	Steve Foxe Carola Borelli	Spider-Woman Vol. 8 #5	A heron-masked villain who Spider-Woman helped Spider-Boy defeat.
Puzzle Man	Dan Slott Jason Loo	Spider-Boy Vol. 2 #8	Krys Crossman is a Daily Bugle worker who specializes in puzzles and breaks the fourth wall to challenge the readers to some puzzles.

Other versions

An alternate future timeline variant of Spider-Boy appears during the Venom War event.

Reception

Critical response

Casey Donahue of Screen Rant named Bailey Briggs one of the best new heroes of 2023. D. R. Bickham of Comic Book Resources called Bailey Briggs one of the most interesting incarnations of Spider-Man, writing, "While his youth, quirkiness, and awkward similarities to his mentor make him immediately endearing to fans, another contributing factor to Spider-Boy's newfound popularity and staying power lies in his unique rogues gallery." George Marston of Newsarama referred to Bailey Briggs as a one of Marvel's newest breakout characters.

Impact

In 2023, the introduction of Bailey Briggs as Spider-Boy in Spider-Man vol. 4 #7 was credited as one of the main reasons the comic book sold out. Matt Devoe of ComicBook.com ranked the comic book 1st in their "Top 10 Comic Books Rising in Value in the Last Week Include Midnight Sons and Tons of Spider-Verse" list. His appearance in Edge of Spider-Verse #3 was also credited as one of the key reasons the comic book sold out.

Literary reception

Volumes

Spider-Boy (2023)

Diamond Comic Distributors reported that Spider-Boy #1 was the 3rd top advance-reordered comic book by retailers between November 20 to November 6, 2023. ComicHub reported that Spider-Boy #1 was the best-selling comic in November 2023. The ComicHub Top 200 Comics sales chart reflects sales data collected from the ComicHub system at comic shops across the globe that sell American comics. This report was created based on information from more than 125 stores that used the ComicHub system during the reporting period.

Sayantan Gayen of Comic Book Resources called Spider-Boy #1 a "positive debut issue," asserting that it offers the freshest take on an old formula from Marvel in recent history. He praised the potential for the character, noting that Bailey's future looks bright if the creators invest the necessary love to help him grow. Matthew Aguilar of ComicBook.com gave Spider-Boy #1 a score of 4 out of 5 stars, praising the emotional depth of Bailey's origin story and the poignant reunion that unfolds, calling it a "heartfelt" experience. He noted that the villains in the series have an appealing absurdity, which adds to its charm, with artist Paco Medina and colorist Erick Arciniega effectively embracing this whimsical style in their artwork and character designs. Aguilar also highlighted the entertaining second story, "Balloonacy," by Ty Templeton and Dee Cunniffe, appreciating the inclusion of Squirrel Girl and Tippy-Toe. He remarked that when Spider-Boy takes center stage, the series evokes a unique quality that feels special, leaving him eager to see where the story goes next.